Blog - State Policy
State Rundown 3/6: In the Shadow of Chaotic Federal Policymaking States Seek to Tax the Top, Cut Taxes
March 6, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Proposals from governors in both New Jersey and Wisconsin include provisions to tax high-income earners. Meanwhile, several major tax proposals are advancing in the great plains, with Iowa considering a major cut to unemployment taxes, North Dakota advancing new benefits for private schools, and Wyoming cutting property taxes. The District of Columbia is facing a more than a $1 billion revenue shortfall over the next three years, compared to previous estimates, and a mild recession due in large part to the layoffs of federal workers.
In last night’s address to Congress, President Trump spent more time insulting Americans, lying, and bragging than he did talking about taxes. But regardless of what President Trump and Elon Musk talk about most loudly and angrily, there is one clear policy that they and the corporations and billionaires that support them will try hardest […]
Mississippi Considers Deep Tax Cuts Amidst Budget and Economic Uncertainty
February 26, 2025 • By Neva Butkus
At a time when states across the country are forecasting deficits or anticipating slowing revenue growth, Mississippi lawmakers are debating deeply regressive and expensive tax cuts that would overwhelmingly benefit their state’s richest residents.
State Rundown 2/26: House Budget Plan Could Further Strain State Budgets
February 26, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
States would be wise to keep a close eye on happenings in Washington, D.C. Republicans in the House of Representatives recently passed their budget resolution, which could spell trouble for state budgets. The plan tees up major cuts to Medicaid, SNAP, and college tuition assistance—all likely to allow for tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy. If approved, trillions of dollars would be cut from programs supported by federal dollars and states and localities could bear the brunt of those shifting costs. Many states are already facing delicate fiscal outlooks and those considering cutting taxes further should seriously reconsider.…
Learn from Prop 13 History to Avoid Repeating Past Mistakes
February 26, 2025 • By Rita Jefferson
Worries about housing costs and property tax bills are leading people to check the history books for solutions, but there’s a danger that they’ll repeat past mistakes. If anti-tax lawmakers carelessly weaken property taxes as they did in the 1970s, as they did with California’s Proposition 13, they will undercut public finances, making municipalities, school districts, and other special districts worse off.
State Rundown 2/20: Tools to Address Corporate Tax Avoidance and Property Tax Affordability
February 20, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
A new ITEP report finds that states could raise $19 billion a year with one policy change targeting corporate tax avoidance. That policy, worldwide combined reporting, strengthens state corporate taxation by giving states a full view of multinational corporate profits, essentially eliminating the tax savings that companies currently see by pretending their profits were earned in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, and other international tax havens.
In the face of immense uncertainty around looming federal tax and budget decisions, many of which could threaten state budgets, state lawmakers have an opportunity to show up for their constituents by raising and protecting the revenue needed to fund shared priorities. Lawmakers have a choice: advance tax policies that improve equity and help communities thrive, or push tax policies that disproportionately benefit the wealthy, drain funding for critical public services, and make it harder for most families to get ahead.
State Rundown 2/12: State Tax Policy Heats Up as Winter Storms Sweep Much of the Country
February 12, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
Tax policy proposals are a hot topic of conversation across the country. Both North and South Dakota are considering property taxes cuts, while proposed cuts in Florida, Mississippi, and Texas are percolating. Meanwhile, fiscal conditions are tight in states like Alaska, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and West Virginia. None are on the cusp of passing new revenue, but years of recent tax cuts and inflation have caught up to states and many lawmakers have revenue gaps to close.
Turning IRS Agents to Deportation Will Reduce Public Revenues
February 11, 2025 • By Carl Davis, Jon Whiten
The Trump Administration’s plan to turn IRS agents into deportation agents will result in lower tax collections in addition to the harm done to the families and communities directly affected by deportations.
Tax changes have been proposed or are nearing the finish line in many states. Kentucky is poised to enact an income tax cut as a bill heads to the governor’s desk. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget proposal called to accelerate existing corporate tax cuts while closing corporate tax loopholes by enacting combined reporting. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine proposed a new credit for children of working parents. And Virginia Democrats countered Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed tax cuts with a plan of their own that includes an increase to the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and a one-time, nonrefundable tax…
Policymakers Could Consider Using Tax and Transfer Policy to Reduce the Racial Retirement Wealth Gap
February 3, 2025 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Carl Davis
As we show in our recent study, this is, in part, due to longstanding discrimination shaping racial differences in economic wellbeing in the U.S. Moreover, aspects of federal and state tax policies have helped create the vast racial retirement wealth gap in place today. For this reason, we evaluate how tax and transfer policy reforms could help shrink racial retirement wealth inequality. To inform lawmakers as they approach the 2025 debates, below we offer several guiding principles.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s Tax Plan Boosts Revenue, Increases Fairness
January 30, 2025 • By Miles Trinidad
Maryland’s Gov. Wes Moore put forward a tax reform plan that would make the tax system fairer, simpler, and better able to meet the state’s needs. The proposed changes to the income tax ask more of those at the top and provide an average tax cut for those earning less.
More details on this year’s batch of major tax proposals are emerging from statehouses - and some revenue cuts look like they could be steep. A governor-backed and House-passed plan in Mississippi would phase out the personal income tax, while a recent tax cut proposal out of Idaho is anchored by a $253 million dollar income tax cut.
Maryland’s Tax Reform Likely Won’t Cause Millionaire Migration
January 30, 2025 • By Nick Johnson
The moment Gov. Wes Moore announced his proposal to reform Maryland’s tax system, in part, by raising income tax rates on high-income households, opponents began predicting that wealthy people would respond by leaving. Experience from other states says that’s not the case.
State Rundown 1/22: Tax Policy, Affordability, and Where It Misses the Mark
January 22, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
As state legislative sessions ramp up many lawmakers discuss their prioritization of affordability of necessities like food and housing as they craft their legislative agendas. Arkansas, Mississippi and Utah are looking to reduce or fully exempt groceries from their state sales taxes. Meanwhile, multiple proposals to reduce property taxes are making their way around state […]
State Rundown 1/15: Tax Debates Heat Up Despite Winter Weather
January 15, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
While frigid temperatures expected across a large swath of the country, major tax proposals are heating up in the states. Governors are giving their State of the State addresses and state lawmakers have begun to convene for 2025. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced plans to expand the state’s Child Tax Credit earlier this year and has since announced nearly $1 billion in income tax cuts. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore unveiled a new tax proposal aimed at helping close the state’s looming revenue shortfall. The plan would increase taxes on the wealthy and cut taxes for many low- and middle-income…
Policymakers Unwisely Propose Cutting Property Taxes in Favor of Sales Taxes
January 14, 2025 • By Rita Jefferson
Lawmakers across the country are taking aim at property taxes with a new strategy: raising sales taxes instead. Doing so would create a regressive tax shift that puts unfair burdens on renters and reduces the strength of local government revenues.
It’s a new year, and state legislatures across the country are resolved to write new tax policy. Tax debates are heating up nearly everywhere in the early days of 2025, but states’ fiscal situations vary dramatically. New York is considering expanding the state’s Child Tax Credit following Gov. Hochul’s proposed expansion. On the other side […]
Undocumented Immigrants Pay More Than Their Fair Share of Taxes
January 6, 2025 • By Marco Guzman
Undocumented immigrants help fund teacher salaries, road and bridge repairs and other local quality-of-life improvements. They also pay into vital programs that make up our social safety net (including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance) even though they will likely never see any benefits from these programs — because, in most circumstances, they are legally prohibited from accessing them.
The anti-tax playbook has been on full display in recent weeks as state policymakers run their offenses against public services and shared priorities. As the playbook dictates, if you have a little breathing room in your budget, propose cuts to the one major tax (personal income tax) that tends to ask more of those who […]
As we close out 2024, we want to lift up the tax charts we published this year that received the most engagement from readers. Covering federal, state, and local tax work, here are our top charts of 2024.
State Rundown 12/3: Some States Cast Away Fiscal Responsibility as They Plan for 2025
December 3, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
The 2025 legislative season will be here before we know it, and state lawmakers have begun unveiling their priorities and proposals. Unfortunately, despite stagnating revenue growth, many lawmakers continue to push for deep, regressive tax cuts - often before the full impact of previous tax cuts is felt.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the legislature back to the capitol the day after the national election to take up his plan to overhaul the state’s tax system during a 20-day special session. Our analysis shows the tax overhaul would worsen the inequity already rampant in Louisiana’s tax system while potentially shortchanging essential services for families across the state.
Average Louisianans Will Pay for Gov. Landry’s Tax Break for the Rich
November 26, 2024 • By Neva Butkus
Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will not make Louisiana more competitive. Rather, they will blow a hole in the state budget while asking low- and middle-income working families to make up the difference. Gov. Landry and the Louisiana legislature would make much better use of their time looking for ways to make Louisiana’s tax structure fairer and more capable of adequately funding important priorities.
State Rundown 11/20: Some Budgets and Tax Proposals Fail to Defy Gravity, Fall Short
November 20, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
This week, there are high-profile budget and tax debates at both the state and local levels. The Louisiana legislature continues to debate Gov. Jeff Landry’s deeply regressive tax package in a special session focused on replacing corporate and personal income tax revenue with additional sales taxes, but some efforts to find offsets for the cuts […]
Blog Categories
Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy
ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
Subscribe to ITEP Emails
Tax research and policy news in your inbox.
Promote Fair Tax Policy
Your gift to ITEP promotes tax justice. With your help, we do research that supports taxing millionaires and billionaires, taxing big corporations and raising revenue for the things our people, our communities and our planet need.
Together, we can create a country with more economic justice, more racial justice, more climate justice… and more tax justice.