ITEP Work in Action
California Budget & Policy Center: California’s Undocumented Residents Make Significant Tax Contributions
October 29, 2024
California’s undocumented residents contribute nearly $8.5 billion in taxes, playing a crucial role in supporting public services while remaining excluded from essential programs. Read more.
California Budget & Policy Center: California’s Tax & Revenue System Isn’t Fair for All
March 10, 2022
Californians need quality public health and schools, access to affordable housing and clean water, and safe roads and neighborhoods along with many more services to live and thrive – no matter one’s zip code. Accordingly, the state’s tax and revenue system must raise adequate revenue to cover the services provided by state and local governments and make […]
California Budget & Policy Center: Promoting Racial Equity Through California’s Tax and Revenue Policies
April 15, 2021
Legacies of historical racist policies and ongoing discrimination in areas such as education, employment, and housing have barred many Californians of color from economic opportunities. As a result, Californians of color — particularly Black, Latinx, and American Indian Californians — are less likely to have high incomes and to have built enough wealth to be […]
California Budget & Policy Center: California Should Do More to Raise Awareness of the California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC)
April 18, 2017
The California Earned Income Tax Credit (CalEITC), established in 2015, is a refundable state tax credit that helps low-earning workers and their families make ends meet and build toward economic security.[1] Yet, fewer than 1 in 5 visitors to county human services offices who were likely eligible for this new tax credit had heard of […]
California Budget & Policy Center: This Tax Day, Celebrating a Tax Credit That Broadens Prosperity
April 14, 2017
With Tax Day — the deadline for filing personal income taxes — coming up next Tuesday, it’s a good time to reflect on the purpose of our tax system. As we pointed out in Who Pays Taxes in California?, tax policy is not only a means to an end, allowing us to collectively generate the […]
California Budget & Policy Center: Should California Maintain Higher Taxes on the Wealthiest to Fund Education, Health Care, and Other Services?
January 9, 2017
“Proposition 30, approved by voters in 2012, provided critical revenues to California at a time when the state faced daunting budgetary challenges. Prop. 30’s tax rate increases are scheduled to fully expire at the end of 2018. Prop. 55, which will appear on the November 8, 2016 statewide ballot, would extend for 12 years the […]
California Budget & Policy Center: What Has Proposition 30 Meant for California?
January 9, 2017
Proposition 30, approved by voters in 2012, provided critical revenues to California at a time when the state faced daunting fi scal challenges. These revenues increased school funding and allowed for reinvestment in other public services after years of cuts. Prop. 30’s tax rate increases are scheduled to expire over the next several years. Although […]
California Budget and Policy Center: How Would Current State EITC Proposals Benefit California’s Workers and Their Families?
April 14, 2015
Momentum for creating a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in California is building. As we discussed in a recent report, a state EITC would foster economic security among low- and moderate-income workers by building on the federal credit of the same name. Several EITC proposals are currently being discussed in the Capitol, and to […]
California Budget Project: How a State EITC Could Reduce Economic Hardship in California
March 12, 2015
“A state EITC would allow low- and middle-income working families to keep more of their earnings and help rebalance California’s system of state and local taxes, which currently asks low-income families to pay a larger share of their income in taxes than high-income families.” Read the full report here.
California Budget Project: A State EITC- Making California’s Tax System Work Better for Working Families
December 4, 2014
A new CBP report discusses the benefits of establishing a California Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the key policy considerations in creating this state credit. Read the full report.
Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics: Ten Dollars or Thirteen Dollars?
July 7, 2014
In this report we compare the effects of $10 (AB10) and $13 (SB935) minimum wage levels in California. We show that AB10 restores some of the ground lost by low-paid workers in recent years, but it maintains the inflation-adjusted minimum wage at about the same level as in 1988. The Leno bill, SB935, goes much […]
California Budget Project: Who Pays Taxes in California?
April 10, 2014
A new CBP report — released in advance of Tax Day — examines state and local taxes in California and shows that low-income households are currently contributing a disproportionate share of their incomes. Read the Full Report
California Budget Project: Who Pays Taxes In California?
April 12, 2013
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted that “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” State and local taxes support our public schools, colleges, and universities; streets and highways; public hospitals that form the backbone of the state’s trauma care system; parks and beaches; the public health infrastructure that ensures that our […]
California Budget Project: California’s Tax System
January 14, 2013
Read the Original Full Power Point Presentation
California Budget Project: Uncharted Waters: Navigating the Social and Economic Context of California’s Budget
January 14, 2013
Read the Original Full Powerpoint
California Budget Project: COTCE Proposals Would Increase Budget Gaps, Tax Low- and Middle-Income Californians
January 14, 2013
The core of the COTCE proposals would reduce the state’s reliance on the personal income tax by reducing the number of rates and the maximum tax rate, eliminate the corporate income tax and the state’s share of the sales and use tax, and replace the revenues lost by imposing a new business net receipts tax […]
California Budget Project: Fatally Flawed: What Would the Commission on the 21st Century Economy’s Recommendations Mean for California?
January 14, 2013
Read the Original Power Point Presentation
California Budget Project: What Would Be the Impact of Reinstating the 10 and 11 Percent Personal Income Tax Rates?
January 14, 2013
One option for helping to bridge the state’s budget gap would be to reinstate the 10 percent and 11 percent tax rates for high-income Californians. Adding a 10 percent tax rate for married taxpayers with taxable incomes above $277,132 ($138,566 single) and an 11 percent rate for married taxpayers with taxable incomes exceeding $554,265 ($277,132 […]
California Budget Project: Who Pays Taxes in California?
January 14, 2013
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted that, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” State and local taxes support our public schools, streets and highways, public hospitals that form the backbone of the state’s trauma care system, parks and beaches, the public health infrastructure that ensures that our food is safe […]
California Budget Project: Who Pays Taxes in California?
January 14, 2013
Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once noted that, “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.” State and local taxes support our public schools, streets and highways, public hospitals that form the backbone of the state’s trauma care system, parks and beaches, the public health infrastructure that ensures that our food is safe […]
California Budget Project: Measuring Up: The Social and Economic Context of the Governor’s Proposed 2012-13 Budget
December 17, 2012
Read the Full Report (PDF)
California Budget Project: What Makes a Tax System Fair
December 17, 2012
While everyone believes a tax system ought to be fair, there is disagreement as to what constitutes a fair or equitable tax system. This Budget Backgrounder describes what economists generally believe makes a tax system fair, examines how fair California’s tax system is, and discusses why fairness matters. Read the Full Report (PDF)
California Budget Project: What Would Proposition 38 Mean for California
December 17, 2012
Proposition 38, which will appear on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, would temporarily increase personal income tax rates for nearly all California taxpayers and allocate the new revenues to K-12 education, early childhood education, and repayment of state general obligation (GO) bond debt. Proposition 38 would raise an estimated $10 billion in 2013-14 – […]
California Budget Project: What Would Proposition 30 Mean for California
December 17, 2012
“Proposition 30, which will appear on the November 6, 2012 statewide ballot, would increase personal income tax rates on very-high-income Californians for seven years and raise the state’s sales tax rate by one-quarter cent for four years. The Legislative Analyst’s Offi ce (LAO) estimates that the measure would raise an average of approximately $6 billion […]
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