ITEP Work in Action
Missouri Budget Project: Earned Income Tax Credit: A Targeted Tax Change with Significant Impact
July 31, 2014
The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a federal tax credit for low- and moderate-income working people. It encourages and rewards work as well as offsets federal payroll and income taxes. Read the Full Report (PDF)
New Mexico Voices for Children: New Mexico’s Capital Gains Deduction: A Capital Loss for New Mexicans
July 31, 2014
Legislation enacted in 2003 that allows New Mexicans with capital gains income to deduct half of that income from their state taxes has failed as an economic development tool. Further, it makes the state’s overall tax system lean more heavily on low-income families and exemplifies the need for a more robust accounting of tax giveaways. […]
New Mexico Voices for Children: Citizen’s Guide to New Mexico’s Tax System
July 31, 2014
Citizen’s Guide to the New Mexico State BudgetThis guide focuses on the operating budget—the annual spending for ongoing programs and services that affect the lives of every New Mexico resident. Read the Full Report (PDF)
Maryland Center on Economic Policy: Recent EITC Expansion in MD will Make Taxes More Fair, Reduce Inequality
July 31, 2014
Working Marylanders with the lowest earnings will pay slightly less of their income in taxes — 9.9 percent compared to 10.1 percent now – once the expansion of the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit is fully phased in, according to a new study. That’s a small change, and the top 1 percent of income earners […]
Voice for Illinois for Children: Congress Must Act to Stop Corporate Inversions
July 30, 2014
A number of high-profile U.S. corporations have, or are reportedly considering, corporate “inversions,” where they move their “headquarters” overseas to avoid paying U.S. corporate income taxes. Unless Congress acts, federal and state governments are set to lose, at minimum, tens of billions in revenue to support urgent priorities such as schools, roads and bridges, and […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Cuts and Breaks
July 7, 2014
Most of the $400 million-plus in tax cuts for Fiscal Year 2015 will go the affluent. The Mid-Biennium Review also continues with an unfortunate Ohio tradition of permitting or enlarging tax benefits to special, narrow groups of taxpayers. Read the Full Report
Iowa Policy Project: Immigrants in Iowa
July 7, 2014
Undocumented immigrants pay an estimated $64 million in state and local taxes, according to a new Iowa Policy Project report. The authors suggest immigration reform that expands work authorization or access to citizenship would increase the already significant contribution to Iowa by all immigrants — documented or not. Read the Full Report
Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics: Ten Dollars or Thirteen Dollars?
July 7, 2014
In this report we compare the effects of $10 (AB10) and $13 (SB935) minimum wage levels in California. We show that AB10 restores some of the ground lost by low-paid workers in recent years, but it maintains the inflation-adjusted minimum wage at about the same level as in 1988. The Leno bill, SB935, goes much […]
Georgia Budget & Policy Institute: Fix Education, Other Vital Services With Viable State Revenue Options
June 27, 2014
Georgia continues to wrestle with the fallout of relying on a revenue system that can’t raise enough money to meet the needs of a modern, growing state. Hospitals are closing, traffic is gridlocked and local school districts are cutting calendar days and increasing class sizes. Public investments in education, transportation and other vital services are […]
New Jersey Policy Perspective: Highest-Income New Jerseyans Would Still Pay Lowest Share of Income to Taxes After Proposed Changes
June 27, 2014
Read the Full Report
Maine Policy Review: The Distributional Effects of Recent Changes to Maine’s Tax System
June 11, 2014
Both classical economic theory and recent empirical research support the notion that taxes should be progressive: that the wealthiest citizens should pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the middle class, and the middle class should pay a larger share of their income in taxes than the poor. Like every other state […]
Arise Citizens’ Policy Project: Out of Step – Alabama’s Unusual State Tax System
June 11, 2014
Taxes are the tools that Americans use to pay for education, public health, transportation and other elements of the common good. Just as states differ in the scale of services offered, they also differ on the ways to pay for those services. Some states lean on property taxes to fund public services, while others rely […]
Washington Budget & Policy Center: Flawed Economic Model Hurts Washington State
June 11, 2014
An economic model frequently cited by some Washington state lawmakers to justify their opposition to tax increases distorts the impact of tax proposals on state economies, according to a new study from the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The report makes it clear the Beacon Hill Institute’s State Tax Analysis Modeling Program […]
Michigan League for Public Policy: Road fix must protect low-income families
June 9, 2014
“It’s clear that Michigan must come up with a solution to repair its broken roads. A funding solution that requires a higher sales tax, however, will be especially difficult for lower-income working families who already pay a greater share of their income in state and local taxes. Read the Full Report
Wisconsin Budget Project: Recent Tax Cuts Deliver Little to People Who Earn the Least
June 3, 2014
Three major tax cut packages passed by the Wisconsin legislature in the last year have delivered relatively little benefit to the lowest earners, who are struggling to make ends meet. In dollar amounts, the largest tax cuts went to the Wisconsin taxpayers who earned the most. If state lawmakers want to cut taxes for Wisconsin […]
North Carolina Justice Center: First in Flight from the EITC – Low-Income Working Families Bid Farewell to NC’s Earned Income Tax Credit
May 22, 2014
Unless lawmakers reverse course, close to one million working families in North Carolina will claim the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for the last time this tax season, bringing pain to individual families and local economies. One year ago, North Carolina lawmakers put an end to the tax credit and subsequently pursued deep tax […]
NC Policy Watch: North Carolina can make tax system more fair by reinstating its state Earned Income Tax Credit
May 22, 2014
It comes as no surprise to working families that North Carolina’s tax system is fundamentally unfair. Families who make less than $47,000 a year pay, on average, nearly 2 times more of their income in state and local taxes than those making more than $345,000. But taxpayers don’t have to accept this fundamental unfairness. One […]
Voices for Illinois Children: Double the EITC to Make Illinois Taxes Fairer (Among Other Great Things)
May 22, 2014
The more money you make in Illinois, the lower share of it you pay in state and local taxes. If that sounds unfair, that’s because it is. In fact, low- and middle-income workers pay, on average, two to three times the percentage of their income in state and local taxes that the wealthiest Illinoisans pay. […]
Kentucky Center for Economic Policy: State EITC Would Make a Regressive Tax System Fairer
May 22, 2014
Previous posts have described how a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) would help working low-income Kentuckians make ends meet and reach every corner of the state. A state EITC would also make the tax system fairer, as shown in a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Kentucky’s tax system […]
Louisiana Budget Project: Increasing EITC improves tax fairness, reduces poverty, invests in children
May 22, 2014
Efforts to modestly raise the minimum wage in Louisiana failed this legislative session — even though the wage isn’t high enough to keep a full-time worker with a child out of poverty. But some opponents of giving the lowest-paid workers a raise have suggested another pro-work, anti-poverty policy as an alternative: increasing the value of […]
Maine Center for Economic Policy: Statement at Hearing on L.D. 1664, An Act To Encourage Charitable Contributions to Nonprofit Organizations
May 22, 2014
Honorable Senator Haskell, Representative Goode, members of the Joint Standing Committee on Taxation, I am Garrett Martin, Executive Director of the Maine Center for Economic Policy (MECEP). I am here today to speak in opposition to LD 1664. Since 2011, Maine’s tax code has gotten less, not more, fair. Reductions to the top income tax […]
Connecticut Voices for Children: Making Children Visible in Connecticut’s Tax Code
May 21, 2014
This issue brief from the Fiscal Policy Center at Connecticut Voices for Children identifies a feature of the Connecticut tax system that effectively penalizes households with children, relative to households without kids. Across the country, nearly all states that have enacted an income tax have also enacted some form of tax exemption, deduction or credit […]
Connecticut Voices for Children: Pro-Family Tax Reform in Connecticut: A Roadmap for Improvement
May 16, 2014
This report from the Fiscal Policy Center at Connecticut Voices for Children compares Connecticut’s tax system to those of other states and finds: Connecticut is nearly alone among states in not making broad-based tax adjustments for families with dependent children. More than half of states with an income tax (24 of 41 states) offset the […]
The Missouri Budget Project: Senate-Approved Tax Scheme Would Cost Nearly $800 Million SB 509 Would Require Cuts to Critical Services
May 12, 2014
The Missouri Senate approved Senate Bill 509 this week. The measure would require sharp cuts to state services, undermining Missouri’s economy by starving it of the resources it needs to offer quality education from preschool to college, a state of the art infrastructure, and safe, healthy and stable communities. Moreover, the minor tax reduction for […]
Michigan League for Public Policy: Testimony to the Senate Finance Committee on SB 402
May 12, 2014
The Michigan League for Public Policy opposes Senate Bill 402. Across‐the‐board cuts in the state’s personal income tax will not create jobs or grow the economy in Michigan. They could, however, affect long-term prosperity by locking in cuts in funding for public schools, colleges and universities, and local communities—the very services and public structures that […]
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.
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