Just Taxes Blog by ITEP

Category: Who Pays?


  • Dylan Grundman O
    Dylan Grundman O'Neill
    Senior Policy Analyst
    April 17, 2024

    The Case for More Progressive State and Local Tax Systems, in Charts

    In a new chart book, Fairness Matters, we further explore our Who Pays? data with new graphics that reinforce the findings in the main report and demonstrate how state-level tax decisions shape economic divides for better and worse.
  • Jon Whiten
    Jon Whiten
    Deputy Director
    March 4, 2024

    Moving the Needle Toward Tax Fairness in the States

    While many state lawmakers have spent the past few years debating deep and damaging tax cuts that disproportionately help the rich, more forward-thinking lawmakers have improved tax equity by raising new revenue from the well-off and creating or expanding refundable tax credits for low- and moderate-income families.
  • Jon Whiten
    Jon Whiten
    Deputy Director
    February 20, 2024

    The ‘Low-Tax’ Lie: States Hyped for Low Taxes Usually Only Low-Tax for the Rich

    It’s hard to go a week without seeing a politician or a news article hype up a state as the place that everyone is moving to – or should move to – because of low taxes. However, there’s a big problem with these proclamations: they aren’t true.  
  • Carl Davis
    Carl Davis
    Research Director
    January 19, 2024

    How the Fairness of State Tax Codes Affects Public Education

    The findings of Who Pays? go a long way toward explaining why so many states are failing to raise the amount of revenue needed to provide full and robust support for our public schools.
  • Carl Davis
    Carl Davis
    Research Director
    January 9, 2024

    In Most States, the Tax Code Makes Inequality Worse

    The vast majority of state and local tax systems are upside-down, with the wealthy paying a far lesser share of their income in taxes than low- and middle-income families. Yet a few states have made strides to buck that trend and have tax codes that are somewhat progressive and therefore do not worsen inequality.
  • Carl Davis
    Carl Davis
    Research Director
    March 6, 2019

    How State Tax Systems Worsen the Economic Divide – in Charts

    The nation is currently engaging in serious discourse about how to expand economic opportunity and remedy income inequality via the federal tax code. State tax systems are also important and have a dismal effect on the growing economic divide. In a new report, Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes, we further parse our Who Pays? data.
  • ITEP Staff
    February 11, 2019

    A Tale of Two States: How State Tax Systems Perpetuate Income Inequality

    To explain how state tax systems make income inequality worse, we compared tax systems in New Jersey and Texas which, before taxes, have similar levels of income inequality. This comparison provides an example of how policymakers’ decisions affect the economic wellbeing of their constituents.

  • January 30, 2019

    Data for the Win: Advocating for Equitable State and Local Tax Policy (Webinar)

    Watch the video recording below for discussion on how ITEP’s distributional data can be part of an advocacy and communications strategy for securing state tax policies that raise enough revenue to fund various priorities. Outline includes a brief overview of findings from the sixth edition of Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States as well as insight from state advocates who use Who Pays? and other tax policy analyses research to pursue their legislative agendas.
  • Aidan Davis
    Aidan Davis
    State Policy Director
    October 17, 2018

    New Report Finds that Upside-down State and Local Tax Systems Persist, Contributing to Inequality in Most States

    State and local tax systems in 45 states worsen income inequality by making incomes more unequal after taxes. The worst among these are identified in ITEP’s Terrible 10. Washington, Texas, Florida, South Dakota, Nevada, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Oklahoma, and Wyoming hold the dubious honor of having the most regressive state and local tax systems in the nation. These states ask far more of their lower- and middle-income residents than of their wealthiest taxpayers.
  • Carl Davis
    Carl Davis
    Research Director
    October 17, 2018

    Low-Tax States Are Often High-Tax for the Poor

    ITEP analysis reveals that many states traditionally considered to be “low-tax states” are actually high-tax for their poorest residents. The “low tax” label is typically assigned to states that either lack a personal income tax or that collect a comparatively low amount of tax revenue overall. But a focus on these measures can cause lawmakers to overlook the fact that state tax systems impact different taxpayers in very different ways, and that low-income taxpayers often do not experience these states as being even remotely “low tax.”

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