ITEP Work in Action
Every Texan: Texas Taxes Are Upside-Down. Big Tax Cuts Don’t Help.
March 18, 2025
Texas’ tax system is upside-down. When it comes to funding our public services, schools, and state and local governments, Texans with lower incomes are expected to pay more than their fair share. Read more.
Every Texan: Current Border Militarization Operations Are a Wasteful Attempt at Deterrence
January 31, 2025
There is little return to show on past border militarization investments. Beginning in 2021, the Governor launched a multi-year campaign called Operation Lone Star that, in part, allowed his Trusteed Programs office to distribute billions of dollars in grants to once resource-starved border communities. SB 1 prepares to double down on this failed investment with […]
Every Texan: Proposition 3 Will Maintain Texas’ Extreme Wealth Inequality
October 21, 2023
We all benefit when everyday Texans, regardless of where we live or what we look like, have a fair opportunity to prosper. Contrarily, a state tax system designed to favor the ultra-wealthy undermines all of us. In Texas, the wealth gap is so extreme that 66 billionaires living in the state own more wealth than 70% […]
Washington Examiner: Think tank: Texas Isn’t a Low-tax State if You’re Poor
October 23, 2018
Carl Davis for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: [ M]any states traditionally considered to be “low-tax states” are actually high-tax for their poorest residents. The “low tax” label is typically assigned to states that either lack a personal income tax or that collect a comparatively low amount of tax revenue overall. But a focus on these measures can cause lawmakers to overlook the fact that state tax systems impact different taxpayers in very different ways, and that low-income taxpayers in particular often do not experience these states as being even remotely “low tax.”
CPPP: The Staggering Unfairness of Our State Tax System
October 19, 2018
Here’s one way to think about it: Families at the top of the income ladder receive 20 percent of all personal income in Texas, but pay only 8.5 percent of all state and local taxes. Families at the bottom of the scale receive only three percent of all income, but pay 5.7 percent of all taxes.
Center for Public Policy Priorities: The National Dream Act: What’s at stake for Texas?
December 18, 2017
Researchers estimate that approximately 177,000 young Texas immigrants are potentially eligible for DACA, and they currently contribute a total of $241 million to local and state taxes annually through sales and excise taxes, property taxes and income tax. Without the national Dream Act, Texas can expect to lose at least $79 million in state and […]
Dallas Fed: Texas Taxes: Who Bears the Burden?
September 26, 2017
...Overall, the state’s tax system is less equal across income quintiles than the national average. A key reason is the state’s reliance on the sales tax, which as a share of income is 8.6 percent for those in the bottom quintile but only 2.2 percent in the top quintile...
Center for Public Policy Priorities: The Best Choice for a Prosperous Texas: A Texas-Style Personal Income Tax
January 15, 2013
The quality of life in Texas depends on our producing a well-educated workforce that can meet the demands of a global economy. A strong and vibrant public education for all Texas children is an essential precondition for a prepared workforce and a prosperous, competitive economy. In fact, providing public education is one of the constitutionally […]
Center for Public Policy Priorities: Who Pays Texas Taxes?
January 14, 2013
The Comptroller has just released her biennial study of the fairness of the Texas tax system, Texas Exemptions and Tax Incidence,1 which demonstrates conclusively that low-and moderate-income Texas families bear a disproportionate share of state and local taxes. Read the Original Full Report
Center for Public Policy Priorities: Who Pays Texas Taxes
January 14, 2013
Our quality of life in Texas depends on our public structures-including public education, child health services, and transportation infrastructure–maintained by Texas tax dollars, A good tax system would not only provide adequate revenue to maintain these structures, but would also match the share of taxes paid with the share of income earned by each Texas […]
Institute on Taxation
and Economic Policy
ITEP is a non-profit, non-partisan tax policy organization. We conduct rigorous analyses of tax and economic proposals and provide data-driven recommendations to shape equitable and sustainable tax systems.
Subscribe to ITEP Emails
Tax research and policy news in your inbox.
Promote Fair Tax Policy
Your gift to ITEP promotes tax justice. With your help, we do research that supports taxing millionaires and billionaires, taxing big corporations and raising revenue for the things our people, our communities and our planet need.
Together, we can create a country with more economic justice, more racial justice, more climate justice… and more tax justice.