Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

ITEP Work in Action

Oregon Center for Public Policy: Will Poor, Working Families Be Roadkill?

January 14, 2013

The Jobs and Transportation Act’s Regressive Tax and Fee Increases Will Set Back Low-Income Working Families With Children Unless the Legislature Enacts a Modest EITC Expansion Read the Full Report (PDF)

North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: The House Budget: Deteriorating Revenue Picture Forces Tough Decisions

January 14, 2013

Members of the House of Representatives faced a daunting task when they began to craft their proposed two-year budget. In the weeks after the Senate voted on its budget, the revenue forecast for fiscal year 2009-10 (FY09-10) dropped by $1.35 billion. The House’s options for balancing the budget dropped further when Governor Beverly Perdue tapped […]

North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: The Estimated Impact of the Senate’s Proposed Modernization Plan

January 14, 2013

The Senate Finance Committee’s proposed tax modernization plan would require an additional 0.3% of income ($32 average annually) from the lowestincome earners, 0.1% of income ($32 average annually) from middle-income taxpayers and 0.1% of income ($958 average annually) from the highest 1% of income-earners. The plan would improve stability and long-term revenue adequacy, but additional […]

Louisiana Budget Project: Eliminating State Income Tax: Good for Whom?

January 14, 2013

Several bills introduced in the current regular legislative session would eliminate Louisiana’s state income tax, without mandating any replacement revenues. Adoption of any of these measures would be detrimental to the state’s future. Ending the state income tax would cause a reduction in many services provided by the state or to mitigate significant destabilization of […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Fiddling While Rome Burns: Connecticut’s Multi-Million Dollar, Money Losing Subsidy to the Entertainment Industry

January 14, 2013

While intended to spark a home-grown entertainment industry in Connecticut, Connecticut Voices’ analysis of recently-released data from the Commission on Culture and Tourism shows that the tax credits have largely been subsidizing out-of-state personnel and businesses. Data in a spreadsheet provided to a General Assembly subcommittee looking at tax credits showed that only 11% of […]

North Carolina Budget and Tax Center: The Dead Tax Plan: Just How Regressive Would it Have Been?

January 14, 2013

The proposed $1 billion compromise tax plan released the week of July 20th featured a 1-cent sales tax increase and 2% personal income tax surcharge. This plan, if enacted, would have required three times more, as a share of income, of the state’s lowest-income families than of the state’s top 1% of income-earners. Read the […]

Kansas Action for Children: The Kansas Budget Gap: How Did it Happen and Who Gets Hurt?

January 14, 2013

As is the case in any state, Kansas revenue and budget circumstances vary from year to year depending on a number of factors, including the health of the economy, the cost of providing state services and unforeseen expenses due to natural disasters or litigation. However, the budget shortfalls seen in Kansas recently are the result […]

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Keeping Score: More Pennsylvania Businesses are Losers Under the Single Sales Factor

January 14, 2013

Budget negotiators are considering adopting the Single Sales Factor (SSF)1, a targeted tax break promoted by a small group of Pennsylvania corporations. The SSF would cost the Pennsylvania Treasury around $100 million, when the state has a billion dollar deficit, and is facing large cuts in libraries, hospitals and services for children and vulnerable people. […]

New Mexico Voices for Children: Revenue Generators

January 14, 2013

The current debate over immigration – and particularly over immigrants without legal residency status – often centers on whether or not this group of people contributes to the economy or diminishes it. A 2006 Fiscal Policy Project report, “Undocumented Immigrants in New Mexico: State Tax Contributions and Fiscal Concerns,” concluded that undocumented immigrants contribute more […]

Maine Center for Economic Policy: TABOR II: A Danger to Maine’s Economy, Communities, and People

January 14, 2013

After soundly rejecting TABOR I in 2006, this November Maine voters will face another TABOR initiative. Despite claims by proponents that TABOR I’s many flaws have been corrected, TABOR II contains all of the central elements that made the original proposal so dangerous for Maine’s economy, communities, and people. In fact, in important respects, TABOR […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Connecticut’s Unified Gift and Estate Tax: A Key Source of Revenue That Makes Connecticut’s Tax System More Fair

January 14, 2013

The Governor has proposed eliminating the unified gift and estate tax. As part of her most recent package of proposed budget changes to balance the State Fiscal Year 2010-2011 (SFY 10-11) budgets, the Governor has proposed eliminating the “inheritance tax” effective January 2010. 1 This repeal not only would reduce General Fund revenues by $85 […]

Rhode Island Poverty Institute: Tax Incentive Disclosure and Accountability

January 14, 2013

“During the 2008 General Assembly session, legislation was enacted to require greater disclosure and accountability of tax credits received by corporations. The legislation required that information about six tax credits be released in three phases. Phase One, just released for the second year in a row by the Rhode Island Department of Revenue, lists the […]

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Sales Taxation of Admission to Cultural Events Across the U.S.

January 14, 2013

The 2009-10 Pennsylvania state budget agreement announced in principle by the lawmakers includes a proposal to eliminate the sales tax exemption currently in place for admissions to cultural events (live theater, concerts, opera, ballet, museums and other similar activities).1 Removing this exemption is projected to raise approximately $100 million per year in new tax revenue. […]

California Budget Project: COTCE Proposals Would Increase Budget Gaps, Tax Low- and Middle-Income Californians

January 14, 2013

The core of the COTCE proposals would reduce the state’s reliance on the personal income tax by reducing the number of rates and the maximum tax rate, eliminate the corporate income tax and the state’s share of the sales and use tax, and replace the revenues lost by imposing a new business net receipts tax […]

California Budget Project: Fatally Flawed: What Would the Commission on the 21st Century Economy’s Recommendations Mean for California?

January 14, 2013

Read the Original Power Point Presentation

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: Expanding the District’s Sales Tax Can Raise Revenue, While Increasing Tax Fairness

January 14, 2013

In response to the most recent revenue shortfall, the DC Council voted in July 2009 to raise the District’s sales tax rate from 5.75 percent to 6 percent. Raising revenue is important to ensure that DC can continue to provide education, transportation, and other critical services during this economic downturn. As policymakers approach future revenue […]

Oregon Center for Public Policy: A Step Toward Balance: Measures 66 and 67 Move Oregon Closer to a Tax System Based on Ability to Pay

January 14, 2013

Today, low-income Oregonians pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than wealthy Oregonians. In fact, the highest-income Oregonians pay the lowest share of their income in state and local taxes. In addition to raising needed revenue, Measures 66 and 67 begin to address this imbalance. Facing a revenue crisis brought […]

Policy Matters Ohio: Tapping Top Earners to Meet Ohio’s Needs

January 14, 2013

In order to balance the Ohio state budget, Gov. Ted Strickland has proposed temporarily restoring the last year of a five-year, 21 percent income-tax cut approved in 2005. This October 2009 report examines the effects of implementing the governor’s proposal together with two other measures that would raise income-tax rates on the most affluent: Restoring […]

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: Tell It Like It Is: Combined Reporting Improves DC’s Tax System By Making Corporations Disclose Their Profits and Pay Their Fair Share

January 14, 2013

Mayor Fenty and the DC Council recently approved an important reform to the District’s corporate income tax which will prevent large corporations from avoiding taxes. The law, known as “combined reporting,” is recognized by economists and tax experts as the most comprehensive way for states to stop corporations from abusing tax shelters. A majority of […]

Alabama Arise: The State of Working Alabama 2009

January 14, 2013

For many Alabamians, a decade of relative economic prosperity has been a decade of lost potential, bringing little in the way of increased earnings or economic stability. Now, with the nation striving to emerge from a severe recession, the main question on the minds of many of the state’s workers is a simple one: How […]

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: The Middle Class Squeeze: DC’s Tax System Falls Most Heavily on Moderate-Income Families

January 14, 2013

Families in the District with incomes of $20,000 to $60,000 pay one-tenth of their incomes in DC property, sales, and income taxes, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy. This is much higher than the share of income the city’s richest families pay in DC taxes. The study found […]

Oregon Center for Public Policy: Undocumented Workers are Taxpayers, Too

January 14, 2013

Recent public discussion emerging from Oregon’s gubernatorial race focuses on, and at times exaggerates, the costs to Oregon of providing certain public services to undocumented immigrant workers and their families. Relatively little has been mentioned about the contributions undocumented workers make to Oregon. Read the Original Full Report

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: The Impact of Hawaii’s Income Tax on Low-Income Families

January 14, 2013

In the next few days, Hawaii’s legislature will consider the conference agreement on changes to Hawaii’s income tax, HB957. This agreement, which appears to have the support of legislative leadership and the governor, increases the standard deductions and expands the tax brackets beginning in tax year 2007. [1] The bill fails to remedy a well-documented […]

Missouri Budget Project: Undocumented Workers: Impact on Missouri’s Economy

January 14, 2013

Immigration policies, per se, are outside the purview of the Missouri Budget Project. However, it is the MBP’s mission to provide information about fiscal issues that contributes to informed debate about education, health care, and other policies that affect the common good of Missourians. The Missouri Budget Project believes that sound decisions are based on […]

The Bell Policy Center: State and Local Taxes Paid in Colorado by Undocumented Immigrants

January 14, 2013

All together, undocumented immigrant tax payments are equal to 70 to 86 percent of the state and local governments’ costs for providing federally mandated services. Read the Original Full Report

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.