ITEP Work in Action
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: First Comprehensive Tax Legislation Would Not Protect Low- and Middle-Income Taxpayers from Tax Increases
June 14, 2013
80 percent of taxpayers would see slightly higher taxes under the first comprehensive tax legislation introduced this legislative session, while the top 1 percent of earners would get a tax cut. The proposal threatens to erode resources for schools, health care and other services North Carolina needs to be economically competitive. The proposal (Senate Bill […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: North Carolina’s Earned Income Tax Credit – A Modest but Vital Boost to Low-Paid Workers across the State
June 14, 2013
As policymakers consider changes to the state’s tax code, it is critical to maintain proven policy tools that reverse the upside-down nature of the system. The state EITC provides workers earning low wages with a credit to offset their total state and local tax contributions. The state EITC continues to be a critical support for […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: State EITC is the best tool to reduce an increased tax load on low-income taxpayers
June 14, 2013
The State Earned Income Tax Credit is the best way to make sure that low-income North Carolinians are not paying more than their fair share of taxes, while also helping low-income families stay out of poverty and create a better future for their children. Unless lawmakers reverse course, close to one million working families in […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: A Pathway to Poverty – 3 Reasons Why Tennessee is a Bad Role Model for North Carolina’s Economic Future
June 14, 2013
In the current debate over tax reform, legislative leaders frequently hold up Tennessee as a role model for improving North Carolina’s economic competitiveness and ensuring future prosperity. But a look beneath the surface reveals that the Volunteer State has the wrong kind of economy to emulate—Tennessee models a pathway to poverty, not a pathway to […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: Key Concerns with House Bill 998
June 14, 2013
House Bill 998 proposes to cut tax rates with the goal of shifting to a consumption-based tax system. The legislation will result in a tax shift away from wealthy taxpayers and profitable corporations and towards middle- and low-income taxpayers while taking in less money for critical public services. Read the Full Report
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: North Carolina’s Tax Shift Saga Continues
June 14, 2013
North Carolina’s House leadership has thrown its hat into the tax shift ring with a plan that would increase the tax load on middle- and low income tax-payers while providing the wealthy and profitable corporations a tax cut. The House plan would convert North Carolina’s personal income tax to a flat rate, while making North […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: Analyzing the Impact of Tax Changes – Economic Incidence Analysis a more accurate measure of how taxpayers will fare
June 14, 2013
Policymakers need accurate information in order to make informed policy choices. And the general public, too, should know what is at stake when their elected officials propose tax changes. That is why it’s so important to have data on how the proposed tax changes in North Carolina will impact actual taxpayers in the state. The […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: HB 998 is a tax shift: Millionaires will benefit while low-and middle income will pay
June 14, 2013
RALEIGH (June 7, 2013) — The House today gave tentative approval to a tax plan that will shift the tax load to low- and middle-income taxpayers, give the wealthiest taxpayers a tax cut and put our public investments at risk. During today’s floor debate of HB 998, the House tax reform bill, there seemed to […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: House’s Flat Income Tax a Windfall for the Wealthy
June 14, 2013
The tax plan under consideration by the North Carolina House of Representatives would create a single income tax rate – known as a flat tax – that will shift taxes from the wealthy onto others. Proponents claim that doing away with the three rates North Carolina currently has, which rise along with income, is fair […]
North Carolina Budget & Tax Center: Gambling Away Our Future
June 14, 2013
New Senate Tax Plan risks North Carolina’s long-term growth to give tax cuts to the wealthy and profitable corporations THIS WEEK THE SENATE INTRODUCED ANOTHER TAX PROPOSAL. The new proposal, like all the others, is about massive tax cuts for the wealthy and profitable corporations, not tax reform. The Senate plan would cost more than […]
The Commonwealth Institute: What Would a Cut to the Top Individual Income Tax Rate Mean for Virginians?
May 17, 2013
A proposal to eliminate Virginia’s top individual income tax rate would overwhelmingly benefit the state’s wealthiest residents, who already spend far less of their household budgets on state and local taxes than any other group. Nearly 40 percent of Virginia taxpayers would see no reduction in their taxes under the plan and most of the […]
Fiscal Policy Institute: New York State Economic and Fiscal Outlook 2013-2014
May 16, 2013
In addition to this Budget Overview section, this briefing also includes a section on the Economic Context for deliberations regarding the state’s 2013-2014 budget and a section on Tax Policy, a major focus of the Fiscal Policy Institute’s work. Read the Full Report (PDF)
Montana Budget & Policy Center: Capital Gains Tax Credit – Valuing Wealth Over Work in Montana
May 16, 2013
In 2003, the Montana Legislature passed a capital gains tax credit that benefits a very narrow portion of our population at the great expense of our collective ability to adequately invest in public programs, from education to health care. Currently, Montana is one of just nine states offering a significant tax break for capital gains […]
Connecticut Voices for Children: Who Pays Taxes in Connecticut?
May 16, 2013
This brief finds that Connecticut’s wealthiest residents pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than middle-income and low-income residents. Read the Full Report
Connecticut Voices for Children: Lower Than New York’s for Everyone but the Poor
May 16, 2013
One sometimes hears that recent state income tax increases on the rich could cause them to leave Connecticut for New York and points south. Academic research has shown that taxes are simply not a significant factor in families’ moving decisions. Nonetheless, some believe they are, and so it is important for policymakers to understand how […]
Economic Progress Institute: It is time to turn up volume on silent spending
May 16, 2013
To ensure Rhode Island uses its available resources in the most effective way possible, it’s time to subject tax breaks, that cost the State over $1.7 billion a year, to the same scrutiny given to money spent through the state budget. Read the Full Report
Economic Progress Institute: Enhancing the Economic Security of Low-Income Working Rhode Islanders by Increasing the State’s Earned Income Tax Credit Refund
May 16, 2013
The Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) is widely recognized as an effective, short-term tool for lifting low-income working families out of poverty by encouraging work and supplementing low wages. Rhode Island should enhance the effectiveness of its state EITC by increasing the refund available to low-wage workers. This would put money in the pockets of […]
Wisconsin Budget Project: “Middle Class Tax Cut” Will Mostly Wind up in the Pockets of the Highest Earners
May 16, 2013
Governor Walker has proposed an income tax cut that would benefit the highest earners the most, and would result in insignificant tax cuts for low-income Wisconsinites. Read the Full Report
Public Finance Review: Voter Ideology, Economic Factors, and State and Local Tax Progressivity
May 2, 2013
This study examines the relationship between voter ideology and the distribution of tax burdens across income groups using state and local data, aggregated at the state level, for 1995, 2002, and 2007. I find that average voter liberalism is positively related to subnational tax progressivity. However, the effects are economically insignificant. A state’s ethnic demographic […]
The Nonprofit Quaterly: Nonprofits and State Tax Systems – The Big Picture
May 2, 2013
On Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill, charities have been involved in an all-consuming debate over the future of the federal charitable tax deduction. But can nonprofits effectively participate in the national debate over taxes and expenditures if they don’t know what is happening at the state level? There are fifty states with budgets that are paid […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: The Misguided “Small Business Tax Cut”
April 30, 2013
The desire to help small business owners is understandable, as they are an important component of our economy and communities. However, the granting of preferential tax treatment for people reporting “business income,” as some lawmakers are considering under a banner of “helping small business,” is a terribly misguided idea. Read the Full Report
Oklahoma Policy Institute: Speak out against irresponsible tax cuts
April 26, 2013
An income tax cut deal has been reached between Governor Fallin and Legislative leadership. The proposal is moving through the Legislature as HB 2032. This fact sheet explains what’s in the latest deal and how it will affect Oklahomans. Read the Full Report
Policy Matters Ohio: Income-tax cut would favor affluent Ohioans- Middle-income residents on average would get $51 a year
April 22, 2013
Since the 21-percent reduction in state income taxes approved in 2005, Ohio’s economy has underperformed the nation. There is little reason to believe that another round of income-tax cuts will produce a different result.Read the Full Report
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Strategies to Address the State Tax Volatility Problem
April 19, 2013
State revenues plummet in recessions, just when states can least afford the loss. Some proposals to address this flaw in state tax systems would change the systems’ structure — for instance, by replacing state personal income taxes with sales taxes — but wouldn’t solve the problem and would exacerbate others in state tax systems. States […]
Minnesota Budget Project: Tax Increases Don’t Prompt High-Income Households to Move Out of State
April 16, 2013
As Minnesotans debate an income tax increase on the highest-income households, they should do so knowing that a large and growing body of economic research makes it clear that such factors as job opportunities, housing costs, climate and being close to family are much more often behind moves from state to state – not changes […]
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.