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Massachusetts Voters Score Win for Tax Fairness with ‘Fair Share Amendment’
November 9, 2022 • By Marco Guzman
In a significant victory for tax fairness, Massachusetts voters approved Question 1—commonly known as the Fair Share Amendment—Tuesday night with 52 percent of the vote. The new constitutional amendment creates a 4 percent surcharge on income over $1 million, and the revenue will specifically fund education and transportation projects in the Bay State.
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Wealth Inequality in Oregon Is Extreme
November 3, 2022
How extreme is wealth inequality in Oregon? So extreme that, together, three billionaires residing in the state have about twice the wealth as that of the entire bottom half of Oregonians. Read more.
Washington Post: Tax-cut Guru Still Says He’s Right About Trump, Truss and Trickle-down
November 2, 2022
The mess in England doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Arthur Laffer, the chief cheerleader for supply-side economics since the days of Ronald Reagan, wants to make that clear. Read more.
Route Fifty: In One State, a Fight Over How Tax Hikes are Passed at the Ballot Box
November 1, 2022
In Arizona, Republican legislators are asking residents to make it tougher for voters to pass ballot measures that would raise taxes. Supporters say the proposal, which will be decided in next week’s election, is intended to rein in ballot initiatives that threaten the state’s economy and that are often backed by groups from outside of […]
Palm Beach Post: As Gas Tax Holiday Ends, Did Florida Drivers Save?
November 1, 2022
Florida reinstituted its per-gallon tax on gasoline sales today after a monthlong reprieve in October implemented by Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers. The savings from the 25.3-cent break on each gallon of gasoline last month appears to have been less obviously impactful to drivers, thanks to another sharp rise in oil prices at the start of October. […]
Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission: Options to Make Virginia’s Individual Income Tax More Progressive
October 24, 2022
Though Virginia has substantially reduced taxes for low and lower-middle income filers, it could further reduce the tax burden for these filers and make the income tax even more progressive. Read more.
New York Times: She’s Inheriting Millions of Euros. She Wants Her Wealth Taxed Away.
October 21, 2022
By the time her extraordinarily wealthy grandmother died last month, Marlene Engelhorn already knew who she wanted to be the ultimate beneficiary of the enormous inheritance coming her way: the tax man. Read more.
Convergence: People-Side Economics: Steps to Tax Justice and a Green Economy
October 16, 2022
Gloom shrouds the news on the economy. Workers get blamed for inflation and the common solutions on offer bring more pain. But when we center the interests of workers and communities, we get a different picture of the causes and cures for our economic woes. Read more.
Insider: These Are the Wealthiest US States, According to a New Report — and a Wealth Tax on the Country’s Richest Would Raise $415 Billion
October 13, 2022
Wealth inequality has been on the rise over the last few decades, and some states have residents sitting on a whole lot of cash. A new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy finds that 30% of American wealth is held by households that have over $30 million in their coffers. That 0.25% of […]
Report: Ten States Hold 71 Percent of America’s Extreme Wealth
October 13, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Tackling wealth inequality through the tax code can boost economic opportunity Washington, DC: Wealth inequality is rampant in every state and particularly concentrated in a handful of states, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). This extreme wealth hinders economic opportunities for all but the […]
The Progressive: The Government Is Actually Doing a Good Job
October 8, 2022
You wouldn’t know it from watching the news, but American children are doing better than they were at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least when it comes to having their basic needs met. That’s according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Even as the country suffered through a pandemic, global […]
October 7, 2022 • By Brakeyshia Samms
How the Inflation Reduction Act’s Tax Reforms Can Help Close the Racial Wealth Gap Centuries of discrimination have prevented people of color from building wealth, leaving them economically disadvantaged compared to their white peers. Taxes have played a role in creating and sustaining it, and they can also play a role in narrowing that gap.
Bloomberg: How Legal Weed Has Changed the US
October 7, 2022
Turn an illicit product into a highly taxed and regulated one and you have a classic business experiment. Do it with a little-studied psychoactive substance that has both medical promise and addictive potential and you have a public health trial, too. That’s what the US has done with cannabis, otherwise known as marijuana, pot or […]
Financial Times: Wall Street Finds a Tax Silver Lining in Down Market
October 7, 2022
Wall Street banks have found a silver lining in this year’s market rout: making money by helping wealthy clients sell some investments at a loss to lighten their tax bills. Read more.
Houston Chronicle: Middle-Class Texans Lap Up the Low Taxes Lie
October 7, 2022
Texas is a low-tax state only if you make a lot of money. If you don’t, then you’re better off in California. The biggest lie Texas politicians have ever told — and both parties have perpetuated it — is the lack of an income tax is an absence of taxation. But Texas doesn’t collect much […]
Mother Jones: How One Man Helped Make America a Global Tax Haven
September 30, 2022
During the mid-1990s, trust and estate lawyer Jonathan Blattmachr had an innovative idea that would come to revolutionize the American trust industry. Blattmachr is a veteran of the wealth management field, cutting his teeth at the famous white shoe law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, wealth managers to the Rockefellers and other dynastically wealthy […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: Missing the Mark for North Carolina
September 28, 2022
Inflation isn’t just a pocketbook problem, it’s a budget problem as well. Governments feel the pinch of gas prices climbing higher, food becoming more expensive, and increased competition from private sector employers as well as most of the impacts of inflation that affect consumers and businesses. Unfortunately, the 2022-23 budget allows inflation to undermine the […]
ITEP Policy Briefs: More and More States Are Helping Low-Income Families with New and Expanded Tax Credits
September 15, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
13 states plus D.C. created or expanded state CTCs or EITCs this year, helping create more equitable state tax systems WASHINGTON, D.C.: In 2022’s state legislative sessions, lawmakers across the country advanced tax policies that will bolster the economic security of millions of low- and moderate-income working families through new and enhanced Child Tax Credits […]
Center for Public Integrity: How State Taxes Make Inequality Worse
September 14, 2022
All but a handful of states make poor residents contribute a greater share of their income to taxes than wealthy people do. Economists call that upside-down approach “regressive.” Nationwide, the share the lowest-income earners pay to state and local taxes is 54% higher than what the top earners pay, according to the Institute on Taxation and […]
New Report Shows Romney Child Tax Credit Proposal Falls Short for Low- and Moderate-Income Families
September 9, 2022 • By ITEP Staff
Plan Would Leave 1 in 4 Children Worse Off Compared to Current Law and Help Half as Many Low-Income Children as the 2021 Expansion of the Credit Washington, D.C. — With pressure mounting on lawmakers to find a way forward for expanding the Child Tax Credit, Sen. Mitt Romney’s CTC proposal is being pushed as […]
Yahoo: Handful of States Debate Whether to Tax Forgiven Student Loans
September 3, 2022
A handful of states could still end up taxing President Biden’s recently announced student loan forgiveness of up to $20,000. Read more.
Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: 2022 Special Legislative Session: Understanding Impacts of the Tax and Education Bill
September 1, 2022
State surpluses and strong revenue growth are leaving many states with a big opportunity this year. Idaho is no exception and is faced with options to advance policies that directly improve people’s lives in education, health care, housing, child care, transportation, and other budget areas. A 2022 Special Legislative Session bill that reduces taxes and […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: New Tax Relief Plan Will Disproportionately Benefit Wealthy Seniors
August 30, 2022
This year, lawmakers included a tax change in the state’s budget that will significantly expand tax benefits for pension recipients in Maine. Beginning in 2023, pension recipients will be allowed to exempt up to $25,000 in pension income from state income taxes, and that amount will increase to $35,000 for tax years 2025 and after. […]
Minnesota Reformer: Scott Jensen’s Proposal to Eliminate Income Tax Would Benefit Minnesota’s Wealthiest
August 29, 2022
Republican nominee for governor Scott Jensen wants to eliminate the state income tax, which would create a $15 billion hole in the state budget every year. Read more.
Missouri Budget Project: Special Session Tax Proposal Leaves Out 1/3 of Missouri Taxpayers, Weighted to Benefit Wealthiest
August 28, 2022
Governor Parson’s recently released tax proposal would leave out about one-third of Missourians, including many of those who pay the highest proportion of their income in state & local taxes, and set the state up for a Kansas-like budget bomb that would require significant cuts to schools, public safety, healthcare, and other critical needs. Read […]
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