Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP's Research Priorities

Marketplace: D.C. Makes the Case for Taxing More Services

June 24, 2014

"If you don't tax services in the long run, you don't have a sales tax. End of story," says Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. He says states should tax more services, ideally at a lower rate. But broadening the tax base isn't easy, he says.

Los Angeles Times: Hypocrite Watch: Texas Gov. Rick Perry Says He May Move to Calif.

June 19, 2014

But Texas has sales and property taxes that make its overall burden of taxation on low-wage families much heavier than the national average, while the state also taxes the middle class at rates as high or higher than in California. For instance, non-elderly Californians with family income in the middle 20 percent of the income distribution pay combined state and local taxes amounting to 8.2 percent of their income, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy; by contrast, their counterparts in Texas pay 8.6 percent.

The Times Daily: The Solution to Prison Woes Lies in the Tax Code

June 19, 2014

A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy of state taxes found that the share of state and local taxes paid by Alabamians based on income is considerably higher for those earning in the lowest 20 percent (10.2 percent) and the second lowest 20 percent (10.4 percent). By comparison, the top 1 percent of income earners paid only 3.8 percent of their income in state and local taxes.

St. Paul Pioneer Press: Medtronic’s Covidien Deal Spurs Debate about Corporate Taxes

June 17, 2014

By Christopher Snowbeck, June 17, 2014 Is Medtronic’s massive international corporate merger a billion-dollar tax dodge, an indictment of the U.S. tax code or a business-savvy work-around that could spur investment and growth in the Twin Cities? The answer depends on whom you ask. … As of last year, Medtronic had about $20.5 billion in […]

Politico: Tar Heel State Tackles Teacher Pay

June 17, 2014

In North Carolina, teacher pay is so low that educators are turning out for job fairs hosted by other states with the promise of higher salaries [http://bit.ly/1lJQ1e2] elsewhere. And the Tar Heel State ranks near the bottom -- at 46th in the country -- when it comes to teachers' salaries. Meg Wiehe, director of state tax policy at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Morning Education those issues are at the heart of two proposals coming out of the state legislature. To pay for teacher pay increases, the state senate proposed asking teachers to give up their tenure…

Politico: North Carolina’s Two Odd Tax Proposals

June 17, 2014

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy's Jenice Robinson previews what's happening in the state on the tax front. "The North Carolina Legislature is back in session this week, and two odd proposals are on the table," Robinson writes in an email. "North Carolina teachers are among the lowest paid in the nation, and they haven't had a salary increase since 2008. The state legislature, after enacting major tax cuts that lose hundreds of millions in revenue, is trying to figure out how to fund teacher pay increases. The Senate has proposed asking state residents to voluntarily return their state…

Times Daily: The root of the problem is in code

June 13, 2014

Posted: Thursday, June 12, 2014 10:00 pm Additional money will be needed to solve the prison problems. Other state services have suffered budget cuts, as well, because not enough tax dollars are available under Alabama’s antiquated and inequitable tax code. That can be changed. Officials are fond of touting the state’s low taxes as an […]

Puget Sound Business Journal: Replace sales tax hike with business tax to pay for transit

June 13, 2014

Seattle Councilmembers Nick Licata and Kshama Sawant Jun 12, 2014, 10:59am PDT Washington state has the nation’s most regressive tax structure, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s (a progressive D.C.-based think tank) latest edition of “ Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States.” Washington state’s sales […]

The Progressive Pulse: House leadership takes a different path than Senate and Governor when it comes to paying for its budget

June 13, 2014

Posted by : Tazra Mitchell Wednesday, June 11, 2014 It is worth lifting up the question that few people are asking: what if the tax plan ends up costing more than originally estimated? As we reported last month, estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) suggest that the revenue projections for next […]

Heartlander: As States Mull Sales Tax Holidays, Analysts Bemoan the Policy

June 10, 2014

Heather Kays from River Edge, New Jersey. Meg Wiehe, policy director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said 16 to 20 states hold similar tax holidays as a way to increase sales, and none of the anticipated economic goals are achieved. “The policy intent was that there’s a time of year that families […]

Moyers & Company: Taxes – Who Pays How Much in Eight Charts

June 9, 2014

June 6, 2014 by Joshua Holland Many states’ income taxes are less progressive than the federal system, property taxes tend to be somewhat regressive and sales and “sin” taxes are very regressive. A 2013 study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that those kinds of consumption taxes averaged a “7 percent rate […]

Reason Blog: Hurricane Season Sales Tax Holidays – Save Now, Pay Later

June 9, 2014

Gov. Scott and other politicians enjoy touting the benefits of these sales tax vacations because they are popular with voters. They say it helps the poor, and the retail rush boosts the economy. But are those claims true? The short answer from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy is “no.” Read the entire article

South Florida Times: State Policies Affect the Middle Class

June 5, 2014

By David Madland and Keith Miller, June 5, 2014 The past 30 years has not been kind to Florida’s middle class which now ranks among the weakest in the nation. While the state enjoyed significant economic growth over this period, few of the benefits ever trickled down to the families who were not among the […]

AP: State Governments May Be Expanding the Wealth Gap

June 5, 2014

"What's happening at the state level is increasingly important, and, to many eyes, it appears to be moving things in one direction -- towards greater inequality," said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington-based tax research group.

Huffington Post: Koch Brothers Group Holds Complete Opposite of Moral Mondays Protest

June 3, 2014

North Carolina families with annual incomes below $84,000 will on average see higher taxes when the bill's impact is combined with the legislature's elimination of the state's Earned Income Tax Credit and increased sales taxes, according to data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the North Carolina Justice Center.

St. Cloud Times: State Finally Rescinds Tax Regressivity

June 3, 2014

However, from 2000 to 2010, tax regressivity in Minnesota nearly doubled based on data from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Toledo Blade: Bad budget business

June 3, 2014

The progressive advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio worked with the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan organization in Washington, to analyze the Senate bill. They conclude that most of the tax relief in the measure would go to the top 5 percent of Ohioans — those who earned at least $151,000 last year. […]

Salon: Behind the 1 Percent’s Brazen New Scheme to Raise Your Taxes and Cut Their Own

June 2, 2014

By Paul Rosenberg, June 2, 2014 You might think that tax cuts that pay for themselves had disappeared from rational discourse ages ago. If so, you’d be sadly mistaken. Instead, “rationality” has been redefined to make such tax cuts “true by definition,” at least in one economic model that’s playing an influential role in state-level […]

Boston Globe: Tax the Roads, Not Fuel

June 2, 2014

By Jeff Jacoby, June 2, 2014 For decades, gasoline taxes have been the largest source of funds for building and fixing America’s highways. What happens if those funds dry up? Gasoline sales have been trending downward in recent years, thanks in part to more fuel-efficient cars, which travel farther and farther between fill-ups. That trend […]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Ten Good Reason to Vote against the Transportation Sales Tax

June 2, 2014

By the Editorial Board, May 31, 2014 It has been said of this editorial page that we’ve never met a tax increase we didn’t like. That’s not entirely true, but it’s close. We tend to favor fair taxes used in the common good for vital public services. But now we’ve studied the three-quarter-cent state sales […]

The Christian Science Monitor: Hurricane Season Is Here, and Preparation Is Tax-Free

June 2, 2014

By Renu Zaretsky, June 2, 2014 Hurricane season began yesterday, and millionaires or not, Floridians can purchase hurricane supplies sales-tax free until June 8. Eligible items include ice packs, flashlights, portable radios, portable generators, Tiki torches, and certain batteries (AAs are tax-free, AAAs are not). Sales tax holidays grew more popular as states carried budget surpluses: They were seen as a way […]

Vice: What Replaces the Gas Tax Once Electric Cars Replace Gas

May 30, 2014

By Ben Richmond, May 28, 2014 As we move to replace gasoline, the states are looking at how they’re going to replace revenue collected via the gas tax. They’re caught in a balancing act, between penalizing people driving electric vehicles and maintaining their roads and bridges. You can be forgiven for thinking that cars becoming […]

Bloomberg BNA: Extras on Excise, Running out of Gas

May 30, 2014

By Rebecca Helmes, May 28, 2014 New Hampshire drivers will soon pay more per gallon in gas tax, and in return their Interstate 93 widening project will be funded, along with other highway projects. On the heels of several states’ gas tax increases in 2013, the Granite State is the first this year to enact […]

Progressive Pulse: How the Senate Pays for Its 2015 Budget Proposal

May 30, 2014

By Tazra Mitchell, May 30, 2014 On Wednesday evening, the North Carolina Senate unveiled its $21.16 billion budget proposal for the 2015 fiscal year that begins in June 2014 and ends in July 2015. The Senate leadership decided to put the budget on a fast track to approval, bypassing the appropriations subcommittee process and scheduling […]

Ohio Watchdog: Is Sales Tax Holiday Good or Bad for Ohio

May 30, 2014

By Maggie Thurber, May 30, 2014 Ohio is once again considering an August sales tax holiday for schools supplies and equipment, but two tax groups think it’s a bad deal for taxpayers. House Bill 450 would provide a three-day “holiday” each August. Sales and use taxes would not be charged on back-to-school clothing, school supplies, personal […]