Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff – Page 38

ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
National Conference of State Legislatures: On the Move- State Strategies for 21st Century Transportation Solutions

“This report explores a wide array of innovative surface transportation reform laws, policies and programs that policymakers are considering or pursuing to take the nation’s transportation system well into the…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
California Budget Project: What Would Proposition 38 Mean for California

Proposition 38, which will appear on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, would temporarily increase personal income tax rates for nearly all California taxpayers and allocate the new revenues to…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
California Budget Project: What Would Proposition 30 Mean for California

“Proposition 30, which will appear on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, would increase personal income tax rates on very-high-income Californians for seven years and raise the state’s sales tax…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
Michigan League for Human Services: Got Skin in the Game?

It is often said that families who receive government assistance do not have any “skin in the game,” meaning that they use government-funded programs but do not contribute to the…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
North Carolina Justice Center: Improving the Sales Tax – A Critical Step to a Modern Revenue System

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The state sales tax in North Carolina represents nearly 30 percent of the state’s total revenue each year. In 2011, the states sales tax generated $5.9 billion in…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
Kansas Action for Children: Kansas Tax Reform in 2012: What does it mean for children and families?

“One of the defining issues of the 2012 Kansas legislative session was tax policy. Ultimately, the package of tax changes enacted by lawmakers will negatively impact Kansas children and families…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
North Carolina Justice Center: WHO PAYS TAXES?- The Poor, the Rich, and Everyone In Between

“KEY FINDINGS Every household pays taxes. Even the poorest fifth of American households paid an average of one-sixth (16 percent) of their total income in federal, state, and local taxes…
ITEP Work in Action December 17, 2012
Louisiana Budget Project: Louisiana’s Earned Income Tax Credit: A Smart Investment in Working Families and Children

“With poverty on the rise in Louisiana, especially among children, policymakers should expand the state’s version of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)—a tried-and-true tax benefit for families that work,…
report December 13, 2012
Previewing Tax Reform in the States: National Trends and State-specific Prospects for 2013

Following an election that left half the states with veto-proof legislative majorities, 39 states with one-party rule and more than a dozen with governors who put tax reform high on their agendas, 2013 promises to be a big year for changes to state tax laws.
brief December 1, 2012
Tax Principles: Building Blocks of A Sound Tax System

The fundamental purpose of taxation is to raise the revenue necessary to fund public services. While there are many ways to achieve this goal, a widely agreed-upon set of principles should be used to evaluate tax systems. This policy brief provides a basic overview of five commonly cited principles of sound tax policy: equity, adequacy, simplicity, exportability, and neutrality.
report October 1, 2012
Five Steps Toward a Better Tax Expenditure Debate

Almost without exception, state lawmakers do not closely scrutinize special tax credits, exemptions, and other “tax expenditures” on a regular basis. A recent report by the Pew Center on the States found, for example, that half the states have done nothing even remotely rigorous in the last five years to determine if even a single one of their economic development tax incentives is working.
report September 13, 2012
State Tax Codes As Poverty Fighting Tools

The tax systems of virtually every state are pushing poor families deeper into poverty. But state tax systems also have the potential to play a role in fighting poverty. The four low-income tax credits discussed in this report are among the most cost-effective anti-poverty strategies available to lawmakers: the Earned Income Tax Credit, property tax circuit breakers, targeted low-income tax credits, and child-related tax credits. This report identifies the states in which each of these credits is offered, and provides specific recommendations tailored to policymakers in each state as they work to combat poverty.
report August 27, 2012
Most of Indiana Tax Rate Cut Would Flow to Upper-Income Taxpayers

Alternative Could Provide Larger Tax Cuts for Most Hoosiers Indiana gubernatorial candidate, and current U.S. Representative, Mike Pence recently unveiled his plan to cut the state’s flat personal income tax…
brief August 1, 2012
Corporate Income Tax Apportionment and the “Single Sales Factor”

One of the thorniest problems in administering state corporate income taxes is how to distribute the profits of multi-state corporations among the states in which they operate. Ultimately, each corporation’s profits should be taxed in their entirety, but some corporations pay no tax at all on a portion of their profits. This problem has emerged, in part, due to recent state efforts to manipulate the “apportionment rules” that distribute such profits. This policy brief explains how apportionment rules work and assesses the effectiveness of special apportionment rules such as “single sales factor” as economic development tools.
brief August 1, 2012
State Estate and Inheritance Taxes

For much of the last century, estate and inheritance taxes have played an important role in helping states to adequately fund public services in a way that exempts middle- and low income taxpayers.
report July 15, 2012
Four Tax Ideas for Jobs-Focused Governors

As the nation’s governors gather in Williamsburg, Virginia this week, their focus is on their Chairman’s initiative, Growing State Economies. Too often, however, a governor’s knee-jerk response to a lagging economy is to start cutting taxes, even though state tax cuts offer a demonstrably low economic bang-for-the-buck, for a number of reasons.
brief July 1, 2012
The Progressive Income Tax: An Essential Element of Fair and Sustainable State Tax Systems

A few vocal critics have pointed to state personal income taxes as the source of a variety of fiscal and economic problems- arguing that it has enabled wasteful spending, fueled the volatility of revenue collections, or even stifled job-creation. Accordingly, some of these critics have called for the outright repeal of the income tax, while others have suggested making it significantly less progressive. Such proposals, if acted upon, would make it all but impossible for state tax systems to produce revenue in a fair and sustainable fashion.
brief July 1, 2012
Sales Tax Holidays: A Boondoggle

Sales taxes are among the most important–and most unfair–taxes levied by state governments. Sales taxes accounted for a third of state taxes in 2011, but sales taxes are regressive, falling far more heavily on low- and middle- income taxpayers than on the wealthy. In recent years, lawmakers thinking they might lessen the impact of these taxes have enacted “sales tax holidays” that provide temporary sales tax breaks for purchases of clothing, computers, and other items. This policy brief looks at sales tax holidays as a tax reduction device.
report May 24, 2012
Tax Bill Signed by Governor Brownback Makes Kansas an Outlier

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback recently signed into law Senate Substitute for HB 2117, a tax bill that dramatically changes the Kansas income tax structure. The legislation will cut taxes by…
report May 17, 2012
Latest Kansas Tax Bill Carries $680 Million Price Tag and Raises Taxes on Those Least Able to Pay

A joint House-Senate conference committ ee is poised to approve a revised version of the tax bill recently sent to the Governor by the House of Representatives. An Institute on…
report May 10, 2012
Three Strategies for Making Enacted Kansas Tax Plan Less Unfair and Less Costly

Yesterday, the Kansas House of Representatives passed, and sent to Governor Sam Brownback, a tax plan, Senate Substitute for House Bill 2117, that had been previously ratified by the state…
report May 8, 2012
Kansas Tax Bill Would Cost $600 Million a Year While Hiking Taxes on Low-Income Families

Kansas legislators are set to vote on a tax bill recently approved by a joint House-Senate conference committee. An ITEP analysis of the agreed-upon tax bill shows that it would…
report April 25, 2012
How Federal Tax Reform Can Help or Hurt State and Local Governments

Federal tax reform can affect state and local taxes in several ways. The federal government can create, repeal or change tax expenditures in a way that is passed on to…
report April 24, 2012
Regarding Proposals to Increase Taxes on Upper-Income Rhode Islanders

My testimony focuses in general on the slate of bills in front of the committee today that would raise taxes on wealthy Rhode Islanders. These bills present Rhode Island policymakers…
report April 1, 2012
Repealing Estate Tax Will Not Create An Economic Boom

Since Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam proposed reducing the state’s estate tax in February, Tennessee lawmakers have shown increasing interest in this idea. Recently, a House subcommittee one-upped the governor by…

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