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Trump’s Tax Law Clobbers State Budgets. Now’s the Time to Prepare.
August 13, 2025 • By Amy Hanauer
The Trump megabill hands the richest 1% a trillion-dollar windfall while gutting funding for health care, education, and disaster relief — leaving communities to pick up the pieces. State and local leaders must step up, tax the wealthiest fairly, and safeguard the essentials that keep America healthy, educated, and safe.
Mississippi’s Path to Income Tax Elimination Hinders Racial and Economic Equity
August 7, 2025 • By Vanessa Woods
Mississippi policymakers this year took a big step to worsen the state’s racial income and wealth divides by passing a radical plan to eventually eliminate the state’s income tax.
How Maryland’s Tax Reforms Advance Racial and Economic Equity
August 7, 2025 • By Vanessa Woods
Maryland is taking aim at income and racial disparities through a revised personal income tax. By raising taxes on high earners and cutting them for most households across racial and ethnic lines, the state is proving that progressive tax policy can drive both equity and revenue.
Trump’s Firing of BLS Commissioner is Part of Larger Erosion of Federal Data Infrastructure
August 7, 2025 • By Emma Sifre
Last week, President Trump fired the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics in apparent retaliation for weak jobs numbers. The move drew sharp criticism for spooking investors and weakening trust in official data. But it also reflects a deeper problem: the ongoing erosion of the federal data infrastructure.
As states prepare for the revenue loss and disruption resulting from the federal tax bill, tax policy is being considered in legislatures across the country.
The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is an important tool to fight child poverty and help families make ends meet. When designed well, it can also make tax systems less regressive. As of 2020, only six states had CTCs. Today, 15 states have CTCs, with many credits exceeding $1,000 per qualifying child.
Excessive CEO Pay Makes Inequality Worse. Shareholders and the Public Deserve to Know About Compensation Disparities
July 30, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
Huge executive pay packages are a prime driver of income inequality. Shareholders and the public deserve to know about how CEOs are compensated, but new SEC leadership seems to think otherwise.
State Tax Action in 2025: Amid Uncertainty, Tax Cuts and New Revenue
July 28, 2025 • By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus, Marco Guzman
Federal policy choices on tariffs, taxes, and spending cuts will be deeply felt by all states, which will have less money available to fund key priorities. This year some states raised revenue to ensure that their coffers were well-funded, some proceeded with warranted caution, and many others passed large regressive tax cuts that pile on to the massive tax cuts the wealthiest just received under the federal megabill.
Refundable tax credits were a big part of state tax policy conversations this year. In 2025, nine states improved or created Child Tax Credits or Earned Income Tax Credits.
State Rundown 7/24: States Begin Preparing for Federal Megabill Fallout
July 24, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
All eyes in statehouses in recent weeks have been on federal budget negotiations, and now that the “megabill” has passed, they are focused in on their own budgets in search of ways to cope with the enormous consequences coming their way. All states will see fewer federal dollars flowing through their coffers, higher needs due […]
Americans Want to Know Which Corporations Aren’t Paying Taxes, but House Republicans Want to Keep this Information Secret
July 23, 2025 • By Matthew Gardner
The appropriations plan released by House Republicans this weekend threatens to withhold funding for an obscure but vital financial oversight board because that board now requires corporations to disclose basic information about their income tax payments (or lack thereof).
Nobody should be too excited and think this means our country is headed toward lower deficits - especially when the administration recently signed one of the most expensive budget reconciliation bills in history.
How Much Would Every Family in Every State Get if the Megabill’s Tax Cuts Given to the Rich Had Instead Been Evenly Divided?
July 14, 2025 • By Michael Ettlinger
If instead of giving $117 billion to the richest 1 percent, that money had been evenly divided among all Americans, we'd each get $343 - or nearly $1,400 for a family of four.
This country’s biggest historical challenge has been delivering this progress to all Americans, but Republicans have cut it back for everyone, retreating from many 20th century achievements in ways that will slam doors, rather than opening them, for the next generation.
10 Crazy Comparisons Showing How Much Trump and Congress Just Cut Taxes for the Rich
July 10, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
$117 billion is a big number, so we thought it could use a little context.
State Rundown 7/8: State Tax Cuts Continue Despite Federal Megabill Passing
July 8, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
The last states are wrapping up legislative sessions, and some are crossing the finish line with major income tax cuts.
Top 1% to Receive $1 Trillion Tax Cut from Trump Megabill Over the Next Decade
July 3, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Trump megabill will give the top 1 percent tax cuts totaling $1.02 trillion over the next decade. For comparison, the bill’s cuts to the Medicaid health care program will total $930 billion over the same period.
The endlessly debated cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) has emerged in the GOP megabill largely unscathed—despite the efforts of Republican lawmakers from “blue” states. Those lawmakers are correct that the cap reduces the bill’s tax cuts for their wealthy constituents more than for those in other states. The megabill, however, is so loaded up with other provisions that result in a dramatic tax cut for the richest 1 percent in every state.
Megabill Takes Cap Off Unprecedented Private School Voucher Tax Credit, Potentially Raising Cost by Tens of Billions Relative to Earlier Version
July 2, 2025 • By Carl Davis
It is clear that this tax credit has the potential to come with an enormous cost if private school groups are successful in convincing their supporters to participate. In these times of very high debt and deficits, this is reason for all of us to be uneasy.
As federal aid ends and economic uncertainty grows, local governments face tough budget choices. Now is the time for localities to protect vulnerable residents and build stronger, more equitable fiscal foundations.
Trump Megabill Will Give $117 Billion in Tax Cuts to the Top 1% in 2026. How Much In Your State?
June 30, 2025 • By Michael Ettlinger
The predominant feature of the tax and spending bill working its way through Congress is a massive tax cut for the richest 1 percent — a $114 billion benefit to the wealthiest people in the country in 2026 alone.
How Much Do the Top 1% in Each State Get from the Trump Megabill?
June 30, 2025 • By Carl Davis
The Senate tax bill under debate right now would bring very large tax cuts to very high-income people. In total, the richest 1 percent would receive $114 billion in tax cuts next year alone. That would amount to nearly $61,000 for each of these affluent households.
With Fiscal Uncertainty Looming, Louisiana Senate Did the Right Thing on Tax Bills
June 27, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. This is exactly what Louisiana Senators did when they rejected two tax-cut bills that would have created a billion-dollar shortfall in the coming fiscal years.
Many states are reaching their end-of-June budget deadlines, and major tax policy changes look to have big implications as states are forced, per federal policy, to do more with less.
Senate Republicans Rig the Rules to Make Their Tax Bill Look Responsible. It’s Not.
June 24, 2025 • By Jon Whiten, Steve Wamhoff
No matter how much Senate leadership bends the rules to make their tax cuts look better on paper, the cost and impact on the deficit remains the same under a current policy baseline. It’s a move meant to mask the true cost and push a reckless bill through.
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