Citations
ITEP's Citations Research Priorities
Oklahoma Policy Institute: On Immigration Rhetoric, Consider the Facts
June 13, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
These undocumented Oklahomans currently contribute about $85 million in state and local taxes per year, according to our best estimates. They pay sales tax directly when they purchase goods and services, just like the rest of us, and they pay property taxes through owning a home or paying rent. Although they are not technically eligible […]
Oklahoma Policy Institute: To Improve Public Safety and Insurance rates, Allow Undocumented Oklahomans to Drive Legally
June 8, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Oklahoma’s approximately 95,000 undocumented immigrants are a force in Oklahoma’s economy, accounting for about 1 in 30 members of the workforce and contributing roughly $85 million in state and local taxes annually. But despite their positive economic contributions, undocumented residents face arrest and/or deportation for doing something that many Oklahomans do every day: driving. Read […]
Washington Post: Behind Oklahoma’s Teacher Strike: Years of Tax Cuts and an Energy Slump
April 12, 2018
Some states that have also recently pushed through big income tax cuts, including North Carolina and Ohio, did so while also broadening their tax base, according to Meg Wiehe of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. But until this year, Oklahoma did very little to balance rate reductions with increases in the tax base. Oklahoma raised […]
Vox: How Tax Cuts for the Rich Led to the Oklahoma Teachers Strike
April 9, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Before the strike last week, the state legislature tried to avert the work stoppage by passing a $447 million tax increase that effectively gives teachers an average annual pay bump of $6,000. That concession from the state legislature didn’t meet the teachers’ full demands, but it was a huge win considering the state legislature hadn’t approved a tax increase since 1990.
Tulsa World: Legislative Action Preventing Federal Income Tax Change from Blowing a $375 Million Hole in State Budget
January 28, 2018
December’s federal income tax reform bill would have decreased Oklahoma’s state income tax revenue by $375 million had legislators not “decoupled” from the federal standard deduction last year, analysts say. “Had we not decoupled, the state would have been bringing in $375 million less this year,” said David Blatt of the Oklahoma Policy Institute, citing […]
Charleston Post-Courier: An Abuse of Charitable Giving?
January 14, 2018
Under the new law, some wealthy South Carolinians may actually make a 37 percent profit, risk-free, by making charitable contributions to Exceptional SC, a nonprofit fund created by the state Legislature to administer scholarships to students with disabilities attending private schools. That’s according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. South Carolina has […]
The Fiscal Times: More States Are Turning to Toll Roads
January 9, 2018
Nineteen states have waited a decade or more since last increasing their gas tax rates. Another 13 states have gone at least two decades, and three states — Alaska, Oklahoma and Mississippi — have not increased their gas tax rates since the 1980s, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive think tank […]
NPR: This Tax Loophole for Wealthy Donors Just Got Bigger
December 29, 2017
One of the changes, according to the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, which advocates for a “fair and sustainable” tax system, allows far more wealthy donors in 10 states to turn a profit through “donations” to private school scholarships. Yes, you read that right. If your income is high enough, you can actually make […]
The Oklahoman: Tax Holiday Debate Splits Those on the Left
August 31, 2017
The liberal Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has been among those urging repeal of sales tax holidays. In Georgia, the liberal Georgia Budget and Policy Institute promoted repeal. In an interview with Governing magazine, Wesley Tharpe, research director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, appeared dismissive of the savings the holiday provided low-income […]
Newsday: Rural America Keeps Rejecting Big Wind
July 19, 2017
Since last October, NextEra Energy, the world’s biggest producer of wind energy, has filed lawsuits in federal and state courts against five rural governments, including the town of Hinton, Oklahoma, population: 3,000. NextEra is funding its courthouse mugging of small-town America with your tax dollars. A recent report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]
Scripps News Service: Money Diverted from Public Schools?
June 26, 2017
All the programs basically work this way: Individuals and businesses make cash or stock donations to scholarship granting organizations. The organizations award scholarships to qualifying families with K-12 students, primarily children in failing public schools or whose families’ income meets the state’s poverty threshold. Students can then attend a private or religious school of their […]
Oklahoma Policy Institute: Itemized Deduction Reform is a Promising State Budget Solution
May 2, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
When Oklahomans filed their state income taxes in 2016, more than 70 percent of households used the standard deduction, which was $6,300 for individuals and $12,600 for married couples filing jointly. The remaining households itemized their deductions, adding up deductions for mortgage interest, charitable contributions, business expenses, and several other deductions allowed under federal and state tax laws. […]
American Prospect: How States Turn K-12 Scholarships Into Money-Laundering Schemes
March 3, 2017
This article was originally published in The American Prospect. By Carl Davis Politicians have long had a knack for framing policy proposals, however controversial, in terms that make them more palatable to voters. This is why unpopular tax cuts for the wealthy are often sold as plans to “invest” in America or to stimulate “growth.” […]
The Express Star: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul
February 22, 2017
That same paper showed that the ANNUAL lost state revenue because of cuts to the top personal income tax rate enacted since 2005 is $1.022 billion PER YEAR, according to an analysis conducted for Oklahoma Policy Institute by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-partisan national research organization. So it seems like […]
Chattanooga Times Free-Press: Tennessee House GOP pursues anything-but-gas-tax-increase plans for road funding
January 26, 2017
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, five states have not implemented an increase in their gas tax rates since the 1980s or earlier: Alaska, Oklahoma, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. That’s longer than any of the 45 other states. Read more
Bloomberg BNA: Congress, Courts, Oil Among Pressures on State Budgets
January 23, 2017
“A further problem facing oil states such as Oklahoma, Louisiana, North Dakota and West Virginia is deep cuts they made to severance and other taxes “when times were good,” Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Bloomberg BNA.” Read more
NPR: Gas Taxes May Go Up Around The Country As States Seek To Plug Budget Holes
January 12, 2017
“Raising fuel taxes helped the state in the 1980s, and lawmakers might try it again. Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says Oklahoma lawmakers have good reason to raise taxes at the pump. “The state has one of the oldest gas tax rates in the country,” he says. “It’s […]
Oklahoma Policy Institute: Private school tax subsidy blurs the line between charitable gift and money laundering
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Carl Davis is Research Director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that works on federal, state, and local tax policy issues. Photo by ccPixs.com / CC BY 2.0 Photo by ccPixs.com / CC BY 3.0 When is a charitable contribution not a “donation” at all? If a […]
Oklahoma Policy Institute: The tax shift rears its head
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Last week the Oklahoma Senate Finance Committee approved SB 977, a bill that would suspend 23 tax credits for the next two years as a way to partially address the state’s massive budget shortfall. While the bill targets numerous credits, a large majority of the impact would come from ending three important tax credits […]
The Oklahoman: Even gasoline tax may get a look to help deal with Oklahoma budget crunch
January 3, 2017
“Other state legislatures are likely to have similar discussions. Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, tells USA Today that it appears more than a dozen states “will seriously debate gas tax changes next year.” Read more
Tahlequah Daily: Restoring Earned Income Credit will aid low-income folks
December 23, 2016
“As Walke pointed out, those who qualify must funnel a higher percentage of their yearly wages to income taxes than their well-heeled neighbors. They also pay sales taxes, and in many cases, property taxes. The Oklahoma Policy Institute calculated the numbers, and it said SB 1604 means a single mother with two kids, with a […]
Tahlequah Daily Press: Earned Income Tax Credit legislation to be filed by NW OKC lawmaker
December 9, 2016
“Because of SB 1604, a single mother with two children and working full-time at $10 an hour will experience a tax increase of $231, and a married couple with three children and earning $20,800 a year will realize a tax hike of $313, the Oklahoma Policy Institute calculated. The average loss will be $91 per […]
Oklahoma Watch: Five Things to Remember About the Penny Tax Proposal
November 3, 2016
“The tax would fall hardest on the poor, who spend a larger portion of their income on retail purchases. It would cost the bottom 20 percent of households an average of $90 a year. Middle-income households would pay about $262 a year. And the top 1 percent would pay $1,691, according to a data analysis […]
The Oklahoman: Flawed alternatives offered by criticis of Oklahoma criminal fees
September 15, 2016
“This is why, when the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy analyzed tax systems in all 50 states in 2015, the group found Oklahoma families with annual income of less than $18,000 still paid about 10.5 percent of earnings in state and local taxes.” Read more
USA Today: These states will hike gas taxes ahead of record 4th of July travel
June 30, 2016
“Despite the fluctuations, most states have also gone years without changing their rates, according to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Sixteen states have gone at least two decades without a gas-tax increase, according to the study. Five of those states have seen an increase since at least the 1980s: Alaska, […]
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