Citations

A recap of Maine’s 2026 legislative session covers the state’s new millionaire tax, decoupling of last summer’s regressive federal tax provisions, and the expansion of the property tax fairness credit. Read more.  

Maine’s tax code currently asks more of families with middle income than it does of the wealthiest residents. The proposed progressive revenue reforms will raise stable, recurring funding while strengthening the broader economy. Read more.

President Trump has generally pursued a set of policies that weaken the economies of the United States and Maine. The President’s second year shows no signs of reversing course, and a potential oil supply shock could drive prices even higher. Read more.

Policy gimmicks in HR 1 disguise its true nature as a huge tax giveaway to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations — Maine should not compromise the future well-being of its residents to give tax breaks to the rich. Read more.

The State doesn’t have adequate funding for health care, housing, and many other pressing needs. The fairest way to fix this is by asking the wealthiest people and big businesses to pay more in income taxes. Read more.

Though some of the details of the OBBBA were altered in the Senate from its original House-passed version, the overall impact remained largely the same: tax cuts for the rich, little change for the middle class, and punishing cuts for the poor.

Maine’s Dependent Exemption Tax Credit (DETC) is a vital investment in the state’s future. As Maine’s version of the child tax credit, it helps families with children or dependent adults afford essentials like food, rent, and childcare, especially in rural areas.

Proposed Medicaid cuts could affect over 400,000 Mainers, especially children, older adults, and families with low income, reducing access to essential health care and economic stability. Read more.  

Taxes help pay for things that benefit everyone, like good schools, clean air and water, and safe roads. Businesses also need these things to succeed, along with a healthy, housed, and educated workforce, modern infrastructure, and affordable energy. Fair taxes mean everyone pitches in according to their means, so those who have less pay less, and those who have more pay more. Unfortunately, the vast majority of states still have upside-down tax structures, meaning that families with wealth pay a smaller portion of their income in taxes than families with low income. That’s not fair.

Mainers work hard to support themselves and their communities. They pay taxes to fund the services communities need to thrive, like education, health care, and infrastructure. But it is increasingly clear that big corporations aren’t holding up their end of the bargain by contributing their fair share. They deploy complicated tax loopholes and accounting schemes to avoid paying what they owe, using their money and power to ensure laws in place don’t expose the tricks they’re playing.

Good afternoon, Senator Fonfara, Representative Horn, and members of the Committee, and thank you for this opportunity to testify. My name is Marco Guzman and I'm a senior policy analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP, and we’re a nonprofit research organization that focuses on state, local, and federal tax policy issues. 

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 […]

House and Senate Republicans are demanding income tax cuts be part of the budget, and Democrats in the legislature were right to make sure they didn’t have the tools to threaten a state shutdown to get them. As the legislature prepares to pass a current services budget to avoid a stalemate in June that could […]

This year, lawmakers included a tax change in the state’s budget that will significantly expand tax benefits for pension recipients in Maine. Beginning in 2023, pension recipients will be allowed to exempt up to $25,000 in pension income from state income taxes, and that amount will increase to $35,000 for tax years 2025 and after. […]

Generally, the sales tax is regressive. The poorest one-fifth of families pay a share of their income in Maine sales taxes that is nearly nine times larger than the top 1 percent. Poorer households pay larger shares of their income in sales taxes than wealthy households in part because wealthier households save a larger percent […]

Starting in 2020 and for the first time in decades, the Mainers who earn the least will no longer pay a larger share of their income to state and local taxes than those who earn the most, according to a policy brief published today by the Maine Center for Economic Policy.

For years under Gov. Paul LePage, budget-busting tax cuts robbed our state of the revenue we need to build a stronger, fairer economy. Tax cuts delivered windfalls to the wealthiest households in our state, making it harder for our schools and communities to make ends meet. Read more

Where State of Working Maine 2018 investigated the nature of work in the modern economy and made recommendations to reaffirm our values of fairness and respect in the workplace, the Prosperity Budget examines the opportunity to leverage state budget and tax policy to build a stronger economy where every Mainer has an equal opportunity to […]

Building an inclusive economy requires tax policy that meets two conditions. The first is that those with the most are asked to pay more, or at the very least pay as great a share of their income in taxes as everyone else. The second is that enough shared resources are raised through the tax code to invest adequately in foundations of a strong economy including good schools, access to health care, and safe and modern infrastructure.