Citations
ITEP's Citations Research Priorities
Testimony: ITEP’s Brakeyshia Samms Explains How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Could Help Evanston, Illinois
February 2, 2026 • By Brakeyshia Samms
The prepared testimony below was delivered by ITEP Senior Analyst Brakeyshia Samms to the Illinois Committee on Housing and Community on January 20, 2026.
Injustice Watch: Property-Tax Foreclosure Reform Gets Put Off by Illinois Legislators
June 6, 2025
“It boggles the mind that the state legislature would just keep kicking the can down the road, and you have a crisis on your hands,” said Rita Jefferson, an analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit that advocates for more equitable tax policies.
Illinois Fund Our Futures Coalition: Funding Our Futures: The Equitable Revenue Policies Illinois Families Need to Thrive
April 18, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Read the report here.
Scholars Strategy Network: Tax Policy as a Potential Tool for Reducing Infant Mortality
April 17, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
Increased tax revenues and increased tax progressivity need to be further explored as policy solutions in Illinois. More specifically, the adoption of worldwide combined reporting and a state-level child tax credit, could help prevent infant deaths in our state.
ITEP’s Kamolika Das Testifies on Pennsylvania’s Upside-Down Tax Code
March 4, 2024 • By Kamolika Das
Below is written testimony delivered by ITEP Local Policy Director Kamolika Das before the Pennsylvania House Finance Subcommittee on Tax Modernization & Reform on March 1, 2024. Good afternoon and thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Kamolika Das, I live in South Philly, and I’m the Local Tax Policy Director at […]
WVTF Radio: A gas tax holiday may not lead to savings for Virginia drivers
March 30, 2022
About a third of the savings will go to the oil industry, according to research into how this worked when Indiana and Illinois had a gas tax holiday. But that doesn’t mean Virginians will see the rest of the savings. Carl Davis at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says a quarter of the […]
WTTW: Proposals Could Expand Eligibility for Earned Income Tax Credit
March 29, 2021
“[Illinois] just piggybacks off of that by saying if you got the federal credit you get 18% of that for state purposes,” said Lisa Christensen Gee, the director of special initiatives at the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy. The credit offsets state income tax liability, and if an individual has more credit than the […]
Chicago Sun-Times: A New Push to Expand the State’s Earned Income Credit Could Include Immigrants
March 21, 2021
Economic Security for Illinois, working with the Institute in Taxation and Economic Policy, estimates that as many as 500,000 households would benefit from the expansion, including 110,000 immigrant households. Read more
The Daily Northwestern: Advocates Against Income Inequality Reassess After the Fair Tax Act’s Failure
January 20, 2021
The Fair Tax Amendment would have introduced a progressive income tax to Illinois. The state currently mandates a flat income tax of 4.95 percent. Illinois ranks eighth in the country for tax inequality, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Throughout the state, the lowest-income 20 percent contribute over 14.4 percent of total […]
Stateline: Budget Holes Loom After Voters Reject Some Tax Hikes
November 12, 2020
But Meg Wiehe, deputy executive director of the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that is an oversimplification. She said wild speculation in opposition ads about what Illinois might do with the extra money, as well as ads that used the “nose under the tent” metaphor to imply that the income tax hike […]
Chicago Tribune: Commentary: How Illinois’ Small Businesses Will Benefit from a Graduated-rate Income Tax
October 30, 2020
Recent studies have shown that for decades, the current flat tax structure has only worsened income inequality throughout the state, stunting much-needed revenue and consumer spending. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that over the last 20 years, Black and Hispanic households in Illinois that make less than $250,000 per year paid $4 billion […]
WGLT: What To Know About Illinois’ Graduated Tax Amendment
October 14, 2020
Proponents of the amendment, including Pritzker, cite a breakdown which shows the bottom 20 percent of Illinois earners pay 14.4 percent of their total income to state and local taxes, while the top 1 percent of earners pay 7.4 percent of their income in taxes. That’s according to a report by the left-leaning Washington D.C.-based […]
Chicago Sun-Times: Illinois needs the Fair Tax for racial equity
October 2, 2020
An analysis by the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows that, between 1999 and 2019, the state’s current flat rate income tax dramatically increased the racial wealth gap, transferring billions of dollars in tax liability from wealthy, mostly white taxpayers to African American and Latino families. The details reveal a stunning portrait of […]
Jacobin Magazine: Abraham Lincoln Taxed the Rich. This Election Day, Illinois Can, Too.
October 2, 2020
Illinois now boasts one of the most unfair tax systems in the country. According to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the state’s flat tax “amounts to a tax subsidy for the wealthiest Illinoisans that compounds income inequality and racial wealth gaps.” Read more
New York Times: Morning Newsletter
September 18, 2020
Many states have tax systems that are regressive: They take a greater share of income from the poor than the rich. And because a disproportionate share of the richest taxpayers are white, these state tax systems also widen racial wealth gaps. In Illinois, for example, the lowest-earning fifth of the population pays 14.4 percent of […]
Black Enterprise: Study Shows Illinois Tax System Harder on Black, LatinX Taxpayers
September 18, 2020
A study released Thursday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) showed Illinois’ flat tax system disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic taxpayers. According to the study, the state’s flat tax system has resulted in Black and Latinx taxpayers paying $4 billion more in income taxes than they would have under a fair tax […]
Bloomberg: Stimulus Strategizing as Election Nears
September 18, 2020
Flat Tax Pitfalls: Illinois’ flat income tax perpetuates inequities that force minority communities to pay a large chunk of their earnings to the state, while permitting upper-income taxpayers to retain their wealth, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Yesterday’s analysis comes two months before voters will decide whether the […]
Yahoo! Finance: Salt Cap Isn’t Scaring Away Blue State Millionaires
September 15, 2020
The $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions imposed as part of the 2017 Republican tax law is not causing high-income taxpayers to flee high-tax blue states, according to Carl Davis, research director at the progressive Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. In a blog post last week, Davis said that new IRS data […]
Chicago Tribune: Agencies scramble to help Lake County undocumented immigrants impacted by coronavirus crisis
April 18, 2020
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Illinois is one of six states that derive the most revenue from taxes paid by undocumented immigrants. California, Florida, New York, Texas and New Jersey, are also on the list. Read more
Chicago Resilient Families Task Force: EITC Expansion and Modernization
February 28, 2020 • By ITEP Staff
Expanding and modernizing the Earned Income Tax Credit will put more money back in the pockets of the people who need it most. Recent polling suggests such policies would be popular, with 70% of respondents supporting a modernized EITC statewide and 80% supporting such an effort in Chicago. Read more
The Chicago Tribune: Recreational marijuana sales in Illinois generated more than $10 million in tax revenue in January
February 25, 2020
Many dispensaries continue to sell recreational marijuana only on certain days of the week or for restricted hours. Though greater volumes of product continue to filter into the market from Illinois growers, the statewide shortage is expected to last for a year or more. Facilities that grow weed are expanding, and dozens of dispensaries are […]
Wall Street Journal: Rising California Gasoline Prices Highlight Growing Divide in U.S.
October 23, 2019
A dozen states raised gas taxes earlier this year, including Illinois, Ohio, California, Maryland and Michigan, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a state and federal tax-policy think tank. Read more
New York Times: State and Local Taxes Are Worsening Inequality
July 21, 2019
Low-income households in Illinois pay about 14 cents in state and local taxes from every dollar of income, while the state’s most affluent households pay about 7 cents per dollar. That gap between the poor and the wealthy in Illinois is one of the largest in any state, but the poor pay taxes at higher […]
The Wall Street Journal: From Gas Taxes to Vaping Rules, New State Laws Take Effect Across U.S.
July 2, 2019
Drivers in a number of states will now pay higher taxes on gas as part of a broader push to fund infrastructure improvements. In Illinois, the gas tax has doubled to 38 cents from 19 cents, making it the largest increase for any of these states, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, […]
Crains Chicago: It’s Time to Tax Retirement Income, Illinois
March 11, 2019
On federal returns, income tax is paid on retirement resources that have not been previously taxed—defined-benefit pensions, 401(k)s, and traditional individual retirement accounts. Higher-income seniors also pay taxes on Social Security benefits. Among the states, policy varies. According to the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, 11 states tax some portion of Social Security benefits, […]
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