State tax and budget debates can turn on a dime sometimes, as in Utah this past week, where lawmakers unanimously repealed a tax package they had just approved in a special session last month. Delaware lawmakers are hoping to avoid the similarly abrupt end to their last effort to improve their Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by crafting a bill that Gov. John Carney will have no reason to unexpectedly veto as he did two years ago. But at other times, these debates just can’t change fast enough, as in New Hampshire and Virginia, where leaders are searching for revenue to address long-standing transportation needs, and in Hawaii, Nebraska, and North Carolina, where education funding issues remain painfully unresolved.

This week as Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s messages of resisting oppression and fighting for progress, state policymakers can look to some bright spots where tax and budget debates are bending toward justice. Among those highlights, Hawaii leaders are considering improvements to minimum wage policy, early childhood education, and affordable housing; Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is seeking to reduce sales taxes applied to food and restore the state’s grocery tax credit; and advocates in Connecticut and Maryland are pushing for meaningful progressive tax reforms.

State tax and budget debates have arrived in a big way, with proposals from every part of the country and everywhere on the spectrum from good to bad tax policy. Just look to ARIZONA for a microcosm of nationwide debates, where education advocates have a plan to raise progressive taxes for school needs, Gov. Doug […]

Happy New Year readers! The Rundown is back to our usual weekly schedule as state legislative sessions and governors’ budgets and State of the State Addresses begin in earnest. Here’s to clear-eyed 20-20 vision guiding state tax and budget decisions in 2020! So far this year, the harm of Colorado’s TABOR policy and Alaska’s lack of an income tax are coming into focus in big ways. Utah advocates are hoping the benefit of hindsight will help convince voters to overturn a recently enacted tax overhaul. Lawmakers in states including Iowa, Maryland, and Virginia can clearly see a need for revenues, but are looking at mostly regressive options so far. And eagle-eyed lawmakers are looking to the tax policy horizon for innovative ways to tax foreign corporations doing business in Michigan and ways to fund infrastructure needs in the era of electric vehicles in Utah.

With the new year and many state legislative sessions just around the corner, most state tax and budget debates are just getting started. Arkansas will be among the states working to improve their roads and other infrastructure. Massachusetts will have to deal with revenue losses due to a misguided tax-cut trigger put in place in prior years. Maryland and South Dakota will be two of many states facing teacher pay shortages and other education funding needs. And debates over the legalization and taxation of cannabis will likely continue in California, Kentucky, New Jersey, and beyond. Utah lawmakers, on the other hand, are just now putting their 2019 tax debates to bed, having touched on many of the major tax themes of the year, both good and bad: enacting and expanding Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs) and other refundable tax credits, expanding the sales tax base and cutting the personal and corporate income tax rates, and more. We at ITEP will be back to our regular weekly Rundown schedule in the new year!

In the last few weeks, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has served up his budget proposal, which advocates are eager to dig into and hoping to contribute to with a delectable Earned Income Tax Credit proposal of their own. Utah lawmakers have been cooking up tax ideas as well, but haven’t yet decided when to come to the table to debate them. And Maryland leaders finalized their menu of needed education reforms, now moving on to assigning responsibilities for funding them. With respect to dividing up the pie, our “What We’re Reading” section below includes reporting on evidence that corporate tax subsidies contribute to inequality at both the federal and state levels. We at ITEP are very thankful for your readership, support, and encouragement!

Many of yesterday’s Election Day votes came down to questions of whether or not to improve on upside-down and often inadequate state and local tax systems. The status quo was maintained in Colorado, where voters failed to approve a proposition to allow the state to invest tax revenue in education and other needs, and in Texas, where a constitutional amendment was approved to prohibit the state from creating an income tax. But voters supported important reforms in other states by approving needed funding for schools in Idaho, opting to legalize and tax recreational cannabis in California. And for more on why and how we can make tax policy more fair, find the link below to today’s live-streamed Tax the Rich conference!