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Like certain recent controversially concluded television shows, tax and budget debates can end in many ways and often receive mixed reviews. Illinois leaders, for example, ended on a cliffhanger by approving a historic constitutional amendment to create a graduated income tax in the state, whose ultimate conclusion will be crowdsourced by voters next November. Arizona’s fiscal finale fell flat with many observers due to corner-cutting on needed investments and a heavy focus on tax cuts. Texas legislators went for crowd-pleasing property tax cuts and school funding increases but left a gigantic “but how will we pay for this” plot hole…
Unlike Trump-GOP Tax Law, There Are Tax Plans That Would Actually Deliver on Promise to Help Working People
May 24, 2019 • By Alan Essig
Using the tax code to boost the economic security of low- and moderate-income families is a proven strategy. These bold proposals would go much further than any policy currently on the books, and their approach directly contrasts with longstanding supply-side theories that call for continual tax cuts to those who are already economically faring far better than everyone else.
State Rundown 5/22: (Some) State Lawmakers Can (Partly) Relax This Weekend
May 22, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Lawmakers and advocates can enjoy their barbeques with only one eye on their work email this weekend in states that have essentially finished their budget debates such as Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, though both Alaska and Minnesota require special sessions to wrap things up. Getting to those barbeques may be a bumpy ride in Louisiana, Michigan, and other states still working to modernize outdated and inadequate gas taxes.
Proposals for Refundable Tax Credits Are Light Years from Tax Policies Enacted in Recent Years
May 22, 2019 • By Steve Wamhoff
A new ITEP report examines five big proposals that have been announced this year to create or expand tax credits to address inequality and help low- and middle-income households.
Gas Taxes Have Gone Up in Most States, but Decades-Long Procrastinators Remain
May 21, 2019 • By Carl Davis
The upcoming Memorial Day weekend marks the start of the traditional summer driving season. In most states, summer road-trippers are paying more gas tax than they did a few years ago and are benefiting from smoother and safer roads as a result. In total, 30 states have raised or reformed their gas taxes in the last six years.
Policymakers and the public widely agree that economic inequality is the social policy problem of our age. It threatens the livelihoods of millions of children and adults, and it even threatens our democracy. Although some say Americans could fix it themselves by simply rolling up their sleeves, as a sub-headline in a March U.S. News and World Report column implied, the reality is different.
State Rundown 5/16: Tensions Remain High Over Budgets and School Finances in Several States
May 16, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Tax and budget negotiations remain at standstills in Louisiana and Minnesota, as school funding debates and teacher protests again captured headlines in several states. Oregon lawmakers, for example, finally passed a mixed-bag tax package that won’t improve tax equity but will raise much-needed revenue for education. Meanwhile their counterparts in Nebraska continue to debate highly […]
State Rundown 5/9: Illinois Moves Closer to a Progressive Income Tax
May 9, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Lawmakers in Illinois and Ohio have advanced major tax proposals but cannot rest just yet, as they must still get past the other legislative chamber. Their counterparts in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Oregon, meanwhile, are all at impasses over education funding, as those in Texas left their school funding disagreement unresolved at least until they reconvene...in 2021. And in an era of many states pre-empting smaller jurisdictions by revoking local decision-making powers, leaders in Colorado and Delaware made moves in the opposite direction, entrusting cities and school districts with more local control.
Proponents of Trump Tax Law Cite ITEP with Obvious Lack of Context
May 6, 2019 • By Steve Wamhoff
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, today has an op-ed defending Trump-GOP tax law. “One of the most-covered falsehoods being spread about tax reform,” as he calls the law, “is that it’s a middle-class tax hike.” He cites ITEP’s estimates to back up his point that most people in every income group have lower taxes because of the law. As Sen. Grassley and his staff know full well, this leaves out the important point of our findings.
Teachers in North Carolina and South Carolina are walking out and rallying this week for increased education funding, teacher and staff pay, and other improvements to benefit students—if you’re unsure why be sure to check out research on the teacher shortage and pay gap under “What We’re Reading” below. Meanwhile, budget debates have recently wrapped up in Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington. And major tax debates are kicking into high gear in both Louisiana and Nebraska.
State Rundown 4/26: Capital Gains Taxes Make Gains and Regressive Proposals Regress
April 26, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Progressive capital gains tax proposals made news this week in Connecticut and Massachusetts, while Nebraskans came out in force to oppose a regressive tax shift, and North Carolina teachers prepare to rally over their legislature’s proclivity to cut taxes on wealthy households while underfunding schools.
From the first comprehensive look at corporate filings under the 2017 tax law to bold policy options from analysts and researchers to dramatically reduce poverty, here’s a summary of reports that ITEP released this month.
In early April, a diverse but mostly black crowd took to the streets in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington D.C. to protest T-Mobile’s decision to order Metro PCS to cease playing gogo music. This tale is a shining example of why economic investment—especially taxpayer-incentivized investment—in underserved communities is fraught with controversy. Who ultimately benefits after developers pour millions of dollars into these communities? And, as this controversy reveals, are the usually black and brown denizens of these neighborhoods and businesses that may have catered to them no longer welcome once economic development reaches a critical mass?
Tax and budget debates are now mostly complete in Alabama, Arkansas, and Colorado, but just starting or just getting interesting in several other states. Delaware and Massachusetts lawmakers, for example, are looking at progressive income tax increases on wealthy households, and New Hampshire may use a progressive tax on capital gains to simultaneously improve its upside-down tax code and invest in education. Nebraska and Texas, on the other hand, are also looking to improve school funding but plan to do so on the backs of low- and middle-income families through regressive sales tax increases. Fiscal debates are heating up in…
States Could Lift Millions of Children Out of Poverty by Enacting State-Level Child Tax Credits
April 17, 2019 • By Aidan Davis
In a new 50-state analysis, ITEP and the Center on Poverty & Social Policy at Columbia University teamed up to explain how state-level Child Tax Credits (CTCs) could lift between 2.1 and 4.5 million children out of poverty. The report outlines options that would help families who received little to no benefit from the expansion of the federal CTC included in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
For Tax Day, ITEP has released several new reports that tell a broad story about our nation’s federal, state and local tax systems, providing important details about taxes we all pay and research on the tax-paying habits of Fortune 500 corporations. And of course, we have a trove of other tax policy resources.
$4.3 Billion in Rebates, Zero-Tax Bill for 60 Profitable Corps Directly Related to Loopholes
April 12, 2019 • By Matthew Gardner
Meet the new corporate tax system, same as the old corporate tax system. That’s the inescapable conclusion of a new ITEP report assessing the taxpaying behavior of America’s most profitable corporations. The report, Corporate Tax Avoidance Remains Rampant Under New Law, released earlier this week, finds that 60 Fortune 500 corporations disclose paying zero in federal income taxes in 2018 despite enjoying large profits.
The IRS Could Calculate Taxes for the Vast Majority of Taxpayers—But a Bipartisan Measure Would Ban It
April 12, 2019 • By Jessica Schieder
A proposal re-introduced this week by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), The Tax Filing Simplification Act of 2019, goes a long way toward making tax filing a much more straight-forward process by broadening the IRS’s mandate.
The Montana Senate this week stopped a bill to restructure the state's temporary tribal tax exemption program, making tribal governments the only sovereignties on which Montana levies a tax and making it more difficult for leaders to buy back illegally seized land. Still, the success of the bill in the House is troubling.
State Rundown 4/11: An Estate Tax Win, Opioid Progress, and Teacher Uprising Updates
April 11, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Hawaii made progress in pushing back against the increasing concentration of wealth and power by beefing up its estate tax. Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island all took steps toward taxing opioid producers to raise funds to address the ongoing opioid crisis. Oregon lawmakers continue to try to address their chronic school underfunding with a $2 billion annual investment, in contrast to some of their counterparts in North Carolina who are responding to similar issues with the opposite approach, proposing to slash taxes in the face of their school funding issues – just as research highlighted in our What We’re…
The Working Families Tax Relief Act Would Boost Incomes and Economic Security for Workers and Children
April 10, 2019 • By Steve Wamhoff
Sens. Sherrod Brown, Michael Bennet, Richard Durbin, and Ron Wyden (along with the backing of most of the Democratic caucus in the Senate) today rolled out a new proposal to expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Called the Working Families Tax Relief Act (WFTRA), the proposal would provide a substantial benefit, especially to low-income working families.
State Rundown 4/4: Ohio Gas Tax and Maryland Minimum Wage Get Needed Updates
April 4, 2019 • By ITEP Staff
Transportation funding was a hot topic this week, as OHIO lawmakers responsibly voted to update their gas tax and offset some of its impact on lower-income families with an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) boost, while NEW YORK enacted the nation’s first “congestion pricing” charge, and LOUISIANA and VIRGINIA leaders looked at gas tax updates as well—a trend ITEP’s Carl Davis explored in depth today here. Broad tax packages are also being hashed out in LOUISIANA, NEBRASKA, OREGON, and TEXAS. And MARYLAND became the sixth state with a $15 minimum wage on the horizon.
A chorus is building and calling on our elected officials to tax the rich. And pundits and policymakers are seriously debating proposals calling for higher income taxes and a wealth tax instead of attempting to shut down the conversation by labeling such proposals as class warfare.
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, announced that he would soon release a proposal to eliminate massive tax breaks enjoyed by the wealthy on their capital gains income. If successful, the proposal would ensure that income from wealth is taxed just like income from work.
What to Watch for When the IRS Releases Its SALT Workaround Regulations
April 1, 2019 • By Carl Davis
The Treasury Department and IRS last summer proposed regulations that would make it more difficult for taxpayers to avoid the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT). Now, likely days away from the unveiling of the final version of IRS regulations on SALT cap workarounds, Carl Davis recaps the finer points ITEP will be watching for when the regulations become public.
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