Select Media Mentions
The Bond Buyer: No Easy Fix for Highway Trust Fund
August 14, 2014
By Jim Watts Congress delayed but did not fix a $100 billion hole in federal transportation spending with the enactment last Friday of legislation providing $10.8 billion to extend solvency of the rapidly shrinking Highway Trust Fund by 10 months. … The gasoline tax is quickly losing steam and purchasing power, according to the Institute […]
Bloomberg BNA: Processor Giant Intel Corp. Enters $100 Billion Incentive Agreement to Invest in Oregon
August 14, 2014
By Michael Kerman Processor and semiconductor giant Intel Corp. entered a Strategic Investment Program Agreement Aug. 11 with Washington County, Oregon’s second-largest county, located just outside Portland, the Portland Business Journal reports. The agreement is loaded with property tax incentives to ensure that Intel continues to invest in manufacturing and developing technologies in the state. […]
NYT: The Muddled Road to Overhauling Corporate Taxes
August 14, 2014
By Patricia Cohen Every loophole has its lover. That’s why, despite the furor that has erupted over American companies adopting foreign headquarters to reduce their taxes, it is proving so difficult to fix a corporate tax system that most everyone agrees is badly broken. … According to a study of scores of Fortune 500 companies […]
Washington Post: Do Sales-Tax Holidays Boost Back-to-School Shopping?
August 11, 2014
By Sarah Halzack It’s back-to-school shopping season, meaning parents everywhere are dragging their kids to the store to stock up on notebooks and supplies or to nab the perfect first-day-of-school outfit. Sixteen states, including Maryland and Virginia, have offered or will offer some sort of sales tax holiday in July or August, a policy that […]
Toronto Star: What’s Behind Obama’s War on Corporate Deserters
August 8, 2014
By David Olive American corporate CEOs who don’t object to paying the dues granting them the privilege of country club memberships — possibly because their employer covers that perk, which often is a tax-deductible expense — are increasingly taking radical objection to paying their fair share of dues for the privilege of profiting from doing […]
Politifact: Nan Rich Makes Claims about State’s Economy, Taxes
August 6, 2014
In response to questions, Rich said Florida’s tax structure was too regressive. Rich cited a 2013 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which partners with Citizens for Tax Justice, a group that advocates for middle- and low-income families. The report concluded that all states have regressive tax systems. It means that state […]
Charleston Daily Mail: Remembering the Sales Tax Holiday
August 6, 2014
By Jared Hunt With students set to return to school this month, many parents are once again going through their annual ritual of back-to-school shopping. It might not be an enjoyable experience, if Huntington Bank’s latest “Backpack Index” price gauge — which estimated some parents could pay up to 20 percent more for supplies this […]
Killeen Daily Herald: Sales Tax Holiday Starts Friday
August 6, 2014
By Alex Wukman … Kelly Davis, Midwest director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the three-day tax holiday provides no relief for low- and moderate-income taxpayers throughout the remainder of the year and unfairly favors higher-income earners. “Unlike higher-income taxpayers, low- and middle-income families can’t always shift their shopping to take advantage […]
Main Street: Sales Tax Holidays: Bargain or Rip off?
August 1, 2014
By Hal Bundrick The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds another fly in the sales tax holiday ointment. “One popular rationale for sales tax holidays is that they increase local consumer spending and boost local retail, but this has not been demonstrated,” ITEP says. “Rather, increased sales during sales tax holidays have been […]
Lessburg Today: Virgina’s Back-to-School Tax Holiday
August 1, 2014
By Kelly Davis Your article about sales tax holidays “Virginia’s Back-To-School Tax Holiday Returns This Weekend” suggests that sales tax holidays are a great deal for shoppers, when, in fact, sales tax holidays aren’t really worth celebrating. These holidays are poorly targeted, costly and represent a lost opportunity to get tax fairness right. A […]
Associated Press: Oklahoma Tax Holiday Is Little Relief
August 1, 2014
By Tim Tally Figures provided by the commission indicate that in 2008, the first year the sales tax holiday was in effect, shoppers saved $6.4 million in sales taxes on clothing and footwear. Last year, shoppers saved more than $7.2 million, and this year the commission estimates shoppers will save almost $7.3 million in sales […]
Streetsblog: Unlike Toll Reform, A Sale Tax Is a Really Regressive Way to Fund Transit
August 1, 2014
By Stephen Miller But a sales tax is one of the most regressive revenue-raisers out there. Of the types of taxes states typically levy — on property, income, and sales — “sales and excise taxes are the most regressive, with poor families paying eight times more of their income in these taxes than wealthy families, and […]
Streetsblog: Will Missouri Voters Go Along with the Highway Lobby’s Money Grab?
August 1, 2014
By Angie Schmitt That means, if Amendment 7 passes, the state’s poorest residents — whether they drive or not — will pay a larger share of their income than the state’s affluent residents. A study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the poorest 20 percent of Missouri residents spend 5.9 percent of their income […]
Daily World: Sales Tax Holiday Offers Chance to Save
August 1, 2014
By Mike Hasten “The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has called Louisiana’s tax holiday “more hype than help.””
St. Augustine Record: Tax Holiday, It’s How You Handle It
August 1, 2014
By the Editorial Board Florida touts these holidays — in which the 6 percent tax is temporarily lifted — as breaks for the average family, and says that Floridians will save $40 million this weekend alone. That may not be the whole story. We don’t argue the state numbers, but the truth is that the […]
South Carolina Morning News: Refusal to budge on low gas tax a big mistake
July 24, 2014
“South Carolina’s gas tax has been at 16.8 cents since 1989, one of the lowest rates in the nation. Haley has said she would veto any bill raising the gas tax, but the state has actually been lowering the tax for years. What the DOT could buy with 16.8 cents in 1989 is far less […]
Politifact: Nan Rich says Florida has 3rd most-regressive tax structure
July 23, 2014
“Rich told PolitiFact Florida in an interview, “don’t hold me to ‘third regressive.’ …. I did not say ‘third’ definitively. … We are one of the most regressive.” Rich cited a 2013 report by The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which partners with Citizens for Tax Justice, a group that advocates for fair taxation of […]
CNBC: Where and when to snag sales tax breaks across the US
July 22, 2014
“But while sale tax holidays are popular with consumers, critics argue that they do nothing to stir economic growth, and they simply shift spending on already planned purchases. One of these organizations is the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan group that said sales tax holidays will cost states at least $300 million […]
Fond du Lac Reporter: We must get serious about highway funding
July 21, 2014
Let’s look at the numbers. According to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, from 2011 (the latest available), the average driver travels 11,318 miles each year and the average vehicle gets 21.4 miles-per-gallon, consuming 530 gallons of fuel per year. That means the average consumer pays $97.52 per car per year in federal fuel […]
Toledo Blade: Comfort the comfortable
July 21, 2014
“According to an analysis done for the progressive advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio by the nonpartisan Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, fully half of this year’s $400 million tax cut will go to the top 5 percent of Ohio taxpayers. Ohio’s 1 percent — those with average annual incomes of more than $1 million […]
Bangor Daily News: Again, Congress Has Short Fix for Roads
July 18, 2014
“While Congress seemingly has found consensus on a short-term fix, the House and Senate once again have put off the real work of governing — finding a solution that keeps the highway fund solvent long-term…. “Even if revenue from the gas tax remained constant, its buying power to pay for asphalt, labor and other construction […]
Pioneer Press: Fridley-based Medtronic refutes allegations of tax avoidance
July 17, 2014
“Medtronic officials are pushing back against widely published suggestions that the company’s proposed acquisition of Ireland-based Covidien is motivated primarily by a desire to avoid U.S. taxes… “Tax experts and financial analysts have speculated that the inversion deal would let Medtronic invest its overseas cash in the U.S. while potentially avoiding billions in taxes. The […]
Washington Times: Democratic superdonor Tom Steyer’s use of tax shelters draws Romney comparisons
July 16, 2014
“While at Farallon, however, Mr. Steyer used loopholes in U.S. tax regulations to produce maximum returns for his elite clientele. That included using tax havens in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Mauritius, ‘where there are no regulations at all, no call for transparency, and have little to no income tax rates,’ said […]
Providence Journal: Immigrant says now is the time for advocacy
July 16, 2014
“The new definition of America, [journalist Jose Antonio Vargas] said, must acknowledge the reality that today’s immigrants, like those before, are here to stay. They contribute to the economy. Vargas said undocumented workers in the United States paid $11.2 billion in state and local taxes in 2010.“‘Here in Rhode Island,’ he said, ‘they pay $28 million in […]
Bloomberg: Governors Warn That Road Repairs Stalled by Congress
July 14, 2014
“U.S. governors say they won’t be able to plan or build all the major highway and bridge projects the country needs as long as Congress delays action on a long-term funding plan…. “As Congress delays a long-term solution, states are acting. Seven, including New Hampshire and Wyoming, have raised or adjusted fuel levies since February […]
Members of the media rely on ITEP for analysis and insight about how tax policies affect people. If you’re a reporter looking to talk to one of our experts, contact Jon Whiten at [email protected].
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.