Citations

The prepared testimony below was delivered by ITEP Senior Analyst Sarah Austin to the Washington House Finance Committee on January 27, 2026. For more on the tax break in question, check out our October 2025 brief.  Chair Berg, Vice Chair Street, and members of the House Finance Committee, My name is Sarah Austin, I’m a […]

The proposed ballot question to cut the Massachusetts state income tax would not just force deep cuts to investment in public programs and infrastructure. Its benefits are also highly skewed towards households with the highest incomes. Read more.  

States are facing considerable fiscal pressures from the fallout of recent federal policies, including the harmful Republican megabill enacted in July 2025. Read more.

Between Gov. Brian P. Kemp’s first full fiscal year (FY) budget as governor and his eighth and final budget for FY 2027, state spending has increased by nearly $11 billion to $38.5 billion. Governor Kemp’s AFY 2026 and FY 2027 budget proposals recognize that Georgia can use its historic level of resources to fill long-awaited […]

Lack of access to affordable, high-quality child care is a barrier to labor force participation for working parents in North Carolina and affects our state’s economy. Read more.

State of the Dream 2026: From Regression to Signs of a Black Recession is the product of a collaborative effort drawing on the expertise of Joint Center staff, fellows, and trusted external partners. Contributors include colleagues from United for a Fair Economy, the Center for Economic Policy Research, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and the Onyx […]

Without sustainable and equitable revenue sources, incoming governor Mikie Sherrill is inheriting a state budget full of fiscal threats. Read more.

Washington ranks next to last for fairness and equality in our tax system — meaning those who make the least pay much larger shares of their income than those with the most resources. Washington families whose income is in the bottom 20% pay 13.8% of their total income in taxes, while those whose income is […]

Kentucky’s legislative leaders have made reducing the state’s individual income tax rate their top priority in recent years. Lawmakers have repeatedly acted on that, reducing the rate several times and costing the state billions annually that could have been invested in kids and families. Read more.

In many ways, 2025 has been a year like no other. Federal actions affecting the state have been fast and furious: freezing grants, eliminating housing supports, withholding or slashing food benefits and heating assistance, decimating healthcare access both by cutting Medicaid and ending enhanced insurance premium tax credits. All of this adds up to hundreds of […]

The New Year will bring little certainty to everyday North Carolinians.  State legislators have failed to use the policy tools available to them to address rising costs for the basics, from food to child-care to housing. Read more.

Policy gimmicks in HR 1 disguise its true nature as a huge tax giveaway to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations — Maine should not compromise the future well-being of its residents to give tax breaks to the rich. Read more.

The income groups paying the highest tax rates in Texas are disproportionately Hispanic and Black, whereas the lowest-taxed group (the wealthiest 5%) is predominantly white. Read more.