Blog
144 posts
In 2025, Voters Said Yes to Public Resources and Community Investments
November 6, 2025 • By Rita Jefferson
Important tax measures were on the ballot this week, and the outcomes are clear: many voters support new state and local spending to support critical services in their communities.
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.
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.
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.
State legislatures are enjoying a relatively quiet period right now, though it is merely a temporary calm before the storm of the federal tax and budget debate begins raging again.
North Carolina Tax Proposal Prioritizes Millionaires Over Everyone Else
June 11, 2025 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Miles Trinidad
North Carolina Senators are proposing to yet again ignore the core needs of the majority of North Carolinians in favor of more income tax cuts for the wealthy few. The Senate's budget would take the personal income tax rate to 1.99 percent as soon as 2031 if certain revenue triggers are met, once again delivering billions of dollars in tax cuts mostly to the rich. And the cost of those tax cuts for North Carolina will be steep cuts to the state’s future, including public education and community colleges.
State Rundown 6/5: States Wrap Sessions, Some Prepare for Fiscal Uncertainty
June 5, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
States use the final hours of their legislative sessions to address deficits and preserve revenue in preparation for the times ahead.
State Rundown 5/21: Big and Not-So Beautiful Tax Cut Bills Abound in States
May 21, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
As a sprawling, regressive tax bill continues to take shape at the federal level, many states are moving forward with major tax cut proposals of their own.
State Rundown 4/24: States Push Tax Cuts Despite Fiscal Uncertainty
April 24, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
While some states are preparing for uncertainty – slowing revenue growth, chaos from unpredictable tariffs, cuts to federal programs, etc. – others continue to move forward with plans for deep tax cuts. For instance, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation accelerating the cut to the personal income tax rate, which is currently phasing down. […]
State Rundown 4/16: No Vacation from Spring Tax Breaks as Bills Advance
April 16, 2025 • By ITEP Staff
While students and families are enjoying spring break vacations, legislative sessions are still in full swing. And some are poised for a spring tax break season as proposals advance with major implications for the sustainability of state budgets.
IRS Cooperation with ICE Will Damage Public Trust, Putting Tax Revenues in Jeopardy
April 10, 2025 • By Marco Guzman
Attempts by the Department of Homeland Security to secure private information from the IRS on people who file taxes with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is a violation of federal privacy laws that protect taxpayers. It is also a change that could seriously damage public trust in the IRS, which could jeopardize billions of dollars in tax payments by hardworking immigrant families.
This week, we celebrate 50 years of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the impact it's had on millions of workers and families. In 2023 alone, the latest year of available data, the federal EITC alongside the refundable portion of the Child Tax Credit lifted 6.4 million people and 3.4 million children out of poverty.
March Madness kicks off today and the pressure is on as many states’ legislative sessions are nearing the final buzzer. Some state lawmakers are seemingly competing for the title of most regressive state tax policies while others are looking to lift up best practices for more equitable outcomes. The Mississippi legislature landed on a […]
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.
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…
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.
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.
On Election Day, Voters Across the Country Chose to Invest in Their States & Communities
November 19, 2024 • By Kamolika Das
On election day, voters across the country — in states red and blue and communities rural and urban — approved a wide range of state and local ballot measures on taxation and public investment. The success of these measures clearly shows that voters are willing to invest in public priorities that feel tangible and close to home.
2024 Local Tax Ballot Measures: Voters in Dozens of Communities Will Shape Local Policy
October 17, 2024 • By Rita Jefferson
Next month, voters across the country will weigh in on many local ballot measures that will have a profound effect on the adequacy of our local tax systems and whether cities and communities can fund public needs. These are in addition to statewide ballot questions, many of which have local implications this year.
Many cities, counties, and townships across the country are in a difficult, or at least unstable, budgetary position. Localities are responding to these financial pressures in a variety of ways with some charging ahead with enacting innovative reforms like short-term rental and vacancy taxes, and others setting up local tax commissions to study the problem.
While Massachusetts legislators recently dropped a real estate transfer tax from their major housing bill, the District of Columbia council sent a budget to the mayor that includes a mansion tax that would increase the tax rate on properties valued over $2.5 million. Meanwhile, lawmakers in New Jersey and South Carolina continue to, respectively, raise and reduce needed revenues.
State Rundown 6/26: Summer Special Sessions Are In, Anti-tax Ballot Initiatives Out
June 26, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Many families are heading out on summer vacations, but legislators across the country are heading back to statehouses for special sessions...
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.