ITEP Work in Action
Wisconsin Budget Project: Tax Shifts Would Cut Taxes for Richest, Raise Taxes on Others
April 29, 2015
Expanding the sales tax to pay for income and property tax cuts would harm taxpayers with low incomes – and give large tax cuts to the highest earners. A recent policy report that recommends such a “tax shift” overlooks those facts. Read the full report
Policy Matters Ohio: Problems with Ohio EITC: It’s not refundable, it has a cap, and it’s too low
April 29, 2015
Gov. Kasich’s Mid-Biennium Review proposal to expand the credit from 5 percent to 15 percent is a step in the right direction, but more must be done to ensure the credit benefits Ohio’s poorest working families. Read the full report
Policy Matter Ohio: Cutting taxes doesn’t help Ohio economy
April 29, 2015
After the General Assembly raised the top income-tax rate to 7.5 percent in 1992 the state generated more than 100,000 jobs in each of the following three years. Compare that with the 25,600 jobs Ohio gained during 2013, the 40,300 in 2012, and the 77,600 in 2011. Tax levels are not the main thing driving […]
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Failure to Address Gas Tax Costs New Jersey Over Half a Billion Dollars a Year
April 29, 2015
New Jersey is losing out on over $500 million each year by not tying increases in transportation construction costs to increases in gas tax rates, a new national report finds. This $504.7 million currently left on the table could nearly double the annual funding for vital transportation projects across the state. Read the full report
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Income Taxes Don’t Impede Economic Growth
April 29, 2015
As Gov. Chris Christie prepares to unveil the specifics of his proposed 10-percent income tax cut at next week’s budget address, he’s working under a key tenet of conservative economics: that high tax rates harm economic growth. There’s just one problem, according to a new national report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy […]
New Jersey Policy Perspective: State Treasurer Confesses: Our Job is To Protect Millionaires
April 29, 2015
In case it remained a mystery to anyone, the administration’s plan for economic growth was made clear by Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff at a New Jersey Business and Industry Association breakfast last Tuesday. To paraphrase the treasurer, the state’s job is to protect its approximately 15,000 millionaires by cutting their taxes. Read the full report
Economic Progress Institute: Few Winners and Many Losers in RI Tax Reform
April 29, 2015
The budget passed by the House Finance committee made three significant tax policy changes that will impact the income of tens of thousands of Rhode Islanders. The estate tax, earned income tax credit, and property tax relief program were all dramatically altered in the budget. Read the full report.
Hawaii Appleseed Center: Tax Cuts for the Wealthiest
April 23, 2015
When the top marginal tax rates and cap on itemized deductions expire in 2015, Hawaii’s wealthiest residents will see a windfall. Meanwhile, our working families are not scheduled to get any relief. Read the full report here.
Vermont Legislative Joint Fiscal Office: ITEP and Pew Reports on Vermont’s Income Distribution and Tax System
April 21, 2015
This report is a slide deck that review’s ITEP’s Who Pays report and its findings on the Vermont state tax system. Read the full report here.
Integrity Florida: Subsidizing Corporate Tax Dodgers
April 21, 2015
Thanks to the data provided by CTJ/ITEP, Integrity Florida found that all of the profitable Fortune 500 corporations headquartered in Florida paid state governments in the U.S. on average a lower corporate profits tax rate than Florida’s 5.5 percent rate between 2011 and 2013. Most of these corporations have received taxpayer-funded subsidy deals and government […]
The Commonwealth Institute: Math that Works for All of Us
April 21, 2015
All told, undocumented Virginians currently pay $240.4 million a year in taxes to Virginia and its localities. That’s a 6.5 percent effective tax rate for the typical undocumented immigrant household. By comparison, the highest-income 1 percent of Virginia households pay an effective tax rate of just 5.1 percent. But the amount of taxes that could […]
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 […]
Budget and Tax Center: Tax Credits for Working Families Deliver Broad Benefits to the State
April 14, 2015
The North Carolina EITC was a vital facet of the state’s tax system, building off of the federal tax credit—one of the nation’s most powerful anti-poverty tools for children. The benefi ts of the state EITC extended to the broader economy by promoting work and helping families afford things that make it possible to work, […]
California Budget and Policy Center: Who Pays Taxes In California?
April 14, 2015
A fair tax system is one that asks individuals and families to contribute to public services based on their ability to pay. However, California’s system of state and local taxes asks disproportionately more from lower-earning families. After taking into account Californians’ ability to deduct state and local taxes for federal income tax purposes (discussed below), […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Making Ohio’s EITC work for workers
April 10, 2015
Ohio has the 18th most unfair tax system in the nation, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The federal EITC was, in part, designed to eliminate some of the disproportionate impact of payroll taxes on low- and middle-income working families. Likewise, the state credit should address the disproportionate impact of sales and […]
Open Sky Policy Institute: Gas tax and transportation in Nebraska
April 6, 2015
In 2011, the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy (ITEP) published “Building a Better Gas Tax” in which they recommended that states looking to modernize their gas tax increase gas tax rates, restructure state gas taxes so that their rates rise automatically with inflation and create or enhance targeted tax credits for low-income families to […]
Oklahoma Policy Institute: Halt the Tax Cut
March 31, 2015
The cut to the top income tax rate will provide minimal benefit to all but the wealthiest Oklahomans. The average middle-income household will see its taxes lowered $31 a year, or $2.60 per month. Forty percent of households will get no benefit at all. Yet the cut will add some $50 million to the budget […]
Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy: A Complex End-of Session Proposal: Notes on House Bill 311
March 27, 2015
A new proposal in the Idaho Legislature would dramatically shift the way taxes are collected and generate a new revenue source for roads and bridges. The proposal has several components which in combination mean that taxpayers across the bottom 80% of the income distribution will pay more, on average.
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: Inaction on Gas Tax Will Drop Rate to Historically Low Levels
March 26, 2015
Good roads are critical to public safety and to Kentucky’s economy, especially in a state so dependent on manufacturing and distribution industries. Funding from the gas tax and other sources also supports over 40,000 jobs. It’s important that the General Assembly recognize the need for a sustainable revenue stream to keep Kentucky’s infrastructure safe and […]
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: All Roads Lead to Nowhere
March 25, 2015
Big tax cuts that largely benefit corporations and wealthy Mississippians are unaffordable and will erode our ability to support schools, universities, roads and bridges and public safety. Big tax cuts will undermine our future by making it harder for the state to invest in the things that make Mississippi’s working families more productive like a […]
Public Assets Institute: Vermont Has the Capacity to Avoid 2016 Budget Cuts
March 24, 2015
Vermont’s income tax is among the lowest in the country: 2.7 percent of the state’s total personal income. Eliminating tax breaks and lowering income tax rates would balance the fiscal 2016 budget without cuts and still leave Vermont’s effective income tax rate lower than those of 24 other states. Read the full report here.
Connecticut Voices for Children: Funding Our Future: Child and Family Friendly Revenue Options
March 18, 2015
An analysis by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) of Washington, D.C. found that adjusting top rates to the levels in the table below would impact only two percent of state taxpayers, generate $300 million in state revenue, enable taxpayers with increased state taxes to deduct $114 million from federal tax returns, leaving […]
The Economic Progress Institute: Making Work Pay for Working Families: Increasing the State’s Earned Income Tax Credit
March 18, 2015
Workers who receive the EITC pay federal payroll taxes, sales and property taxes, and more. In fact, Rhode Island has the 5th highest taxes on low-income households in the nation. The lowest-income taxpayers pay nearly twice as much of their income towards taxes as the wealthiest Rhode Islanders.
Public Assets Institute: How to Close the Budget Gap–Fiscal 2016 and Beyond
March 16, 2015
“Vermont is one of six states in the country that uses federal taxable income rather than adjusted gross income as the base for the state income tax. Because this base is lower, the state must set its top marginal rate higher than necessary to raise the needed revenues. Additionally, tax breaks that primarily benefit upper-income […]
Open Sky Policy Institute: Frequently asked questions about LB 280′s impact on taxpayers
March 16, 2015
“All Nebraskans would experience lower property taxes under this proposal, and many residents would pay less in taxes overall. LB 280 makes our tax code more progressive, ensuring that low- and middle-income Nebraskans pay less in overall taxes than our highest-income individuals. While the effects will vary depending on each taxpayer’s income, property value, and […]
Advocates and policymakers at the state and federal levels rely on ITEP’s analytic capabilities to inform their debates on proposed tax policy changes. In any given year, ITEP fields requests for analyses of policies in 25 or more states. ITEP also works with national partners to provide analyses of federal tax policy proposals. This section highlights reports that use ITEP analyses to make a compelling case for progressive tax reforms.
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.