Select Media Mentions
New Haven Advocate: Despite New Law, Poor Still F-ed, Rich Still Whining
December 21, 2012
NB: CTJ Modified the original story’s title, which can be found in the original article at the URL below. Original Post by Win Vitkowsky August 2, 2011 Connecticut’s wealthiest 1 percent still get a sweet deal on taxes, while the poorest 20 percent get screwed, according to a report released last month by CT Voices […]
Forbes: Massachusetts State No. 17 With 2011 Sales Tax Holiday
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 2, 2011 by Ashlea Ebeling Down to the wire — again. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed legislation Aug. 1 making Massachusetts the 17th state to officially announce a back-to-school season sales tax holiday for 2011. Massachusetts’ taxpayers don’t have much time to make their shopping lists. The holiday, where just about anything […]
La Crosse Tribune: Matthew Gardner: Anti-tax govs just getting started
December 21, 2012
Original Post July 31, 2011 COMMENTARY Twelve new governors who ran on anti-tax platforms have now signed their first fiscal year budgets. All of them will tell you they were elected with a mandate to get their state’s fiscal house in order, rein in government spending and cut taxes. Some of them will even tell […]
Durham (NC) Herald-Sun: A break from tax holidays
December 21, 2012
August 5, 2011 EDITORIAL Let’s take a holiday from the sales tax holiday. That was a daring thing for any politician to say — voters do so love their tax loopholes — but on the lips of a Republican, it was practically radical. Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake, was among the state legislators who not […]
Fiscal Times: Corporate Taxes: Wake up, Small Business!
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 5, 2011 by Karen Hube Many executives of big public companies have shared their ideas about corporate tax reform in hearings before policy makers lately. Just last week, the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Kimberly Clark, CVS and PMC-Sierra said they are willing to give up corporate tax breaks in exchange for lower tax […]
National Post (Canada): Are the rich paying more than their share in the U.S.?
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 5, 2011 by Kelly McParland All good situation comedies produce spin-offs, so it should come as no surprise that the wildly popular laugh-a-thon know as the U.S. debt debate has led to a comic sideshow, now playing under the working title “Who pays more taxes?” The argument is tied to the increasingly […]
Daily World (LA): Analyst says tax holiday not prudent
December 21, 2012
August 5, 2011 BATON ROUGE — State officials say the sales tax holiday today and Saturday only costs the state $3.7 million, but the director of the Louisiana Budget Project says that money has to come from somewhere. Louisiana’s sales tax holiday Friday and Saturday is one of the most generous in the nation, said […]
USA Today: Critics say states should discontinue tax holidays
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 6, 2011 by Jayne O’Donnell The back-to-school sales tax holidays that start Friday in many states may be popular with politicians and retailers, but critics say revenue-starved states should abandon them. Seventeen states plan to give shoppers a break on sales taxes for school-related purchases this season. Massachusetts and Arkansas added a […]
Virginian-Pilot: Back-to-school shoppers hit stores for tax holiday
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 6, 2011 by Carolyn Shapiro Rich Tourville stopped Friday morning at JCPenney at Greenbrier Mall to pick up a birthday present and back-to-school clothes for his son, who will turn 5 on Sunday. The Chesapeake dad didn’t realize he would save the 5 percent Virginia sales tax on those items. The state’s […]
Baltimore CityBizList: Tax Flight Debate Is One-Sided, Professor Says
December 21, 2012
by Len Lazarick August 12, 2011 Professor Roy Meyers, the government budgeting expert at UMBC, says the focus of our ongoing stories and comment strings “on the flight/plight of the millionaires is a bit one-sided.” Meyers is afraid that the discussion of Maryland’s tax structure will go down the sorry path of the national debate, […]
AOL Daily Finance: The True Cost of State Sales Tax Holidays
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 12, 2011 by Sheryl Nance-Nash ‘Tis the sales-tax-holiday season, when states give the gift of tax-free shopping for clothing, computers and other back-to-school supplies. It seems like a good thing: Take a little pressure off the pockets of cash-strapped parents, make retailers smile and make politicians look good for supporting tax relief. […]
Nashua (NH) Telegraph: Leading Latinos: Hudson cardiologist struggles with injustice
December 21, 2012
August 16, 2011 by Simon Rios EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a five-day series of stories profiling leaders in Nashua’s Latino community. Only a small percentage of Americans ever attain medical degrees, and even fewer hold unorthodox opinions on the origin of heart attacks. But Alejandro Urrutia, a native of Mexico and resident […]
Fox Business: Sales Tax Holidays: Not All that Meets the Eye
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 17, 2011 by Kathryn Glass There are very few situations in life that are truly a win-win, but the idea of a week of shopping sans sales tax seems like a scenario with little downside. On the surface, it is difficult to devise a disadvantage for a tax break on back-to-school shopping. […]
Huffington Post: Texas Tax System Heavily Burdens Poor Residents
December 21, 2012
Also featured in Huffpost Hill Digest on August 19, 2011 Original Post August 19, 2011 by Laura Bassett During his presidential campaign announcement speech last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry lamented the “injustice” that nearly half of all Americans — the poorest half — “don’t even pay any income tax.” But in Texas, the tax […]
Kansas City Star: Momentum grows to swap income tax for sales tax in states
December 21, 2012
By DAVE HELLING Talk about a tax break. While all the attention this summer was focused on the federal debt and tax policy in Washington, some lawmakers and activists closer to home were quietly moving toward achieving a long-term goal: eliminating income taxes in Missouri and Kansas. “The time has come,” said Jonathan Williams, director […]
AlterNet: Rich Lifestyles of the GOP’s Starve-the-Poor Presidential Candidates
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 1, 2011 by Rania Khalek With the campaign season for Republican presidential primaries in full bloom, the candidates are falling all over each other in a fierce competition to tout their conservative bona fides. Even as housing foreclosures reach all-time highs, and unemployment in some states climbs into the double digits, Republican […]
Chicagoist: Illinois Can’t Afford Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday
December 21, 2012
by Chuck Sudo August 7, 2011 How deadbeat of a state is Illinois? So much so that the state won’t be offering a sales tax holiday for back-to-school sales this year because we need the money to pay bills. Suspending the sales tax holiday may not be a bad thing. They’re evidently great for retail […]
Chicago Sun Times: Cash-strapped Illinois rejects back-to-school tax holiday
December 21, 2012
August 7, 2011 Gannett news service Unlike last year, there will be no “back-to-school” sales tax holiday in Illinois this year. State Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago), who was chief sponsor of the state’s holiday last year, says Illinois “just cannot afford it this year.” New York was the first state to enact a back-to-school sales […]
Christian Science Monitor: Jon Huntsman vs. Rick Perry: Shoot-out at the GOP corral
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 21, 2011 by Brad Knickerbocker Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry represent very different views of how a Republican can beat Barack Obama in 2012. To jazz up his campaign, Huntsman laid into tea party favorite Perry Sunday. In the end, whoever wins the GOP presidential nominating contest will have to take on […]
OpEd News: Why the Rich Should Pay Higher Taxes
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 22, 2011 by PAUL BUCHHEIT Most wealthy Americans will recoil at the suggestion that they should pay higher taxes, likely responding with the tired mantra that the top earners already pay most of the income tax. But, two points can be made in response to this: (1) Federal income tax is only […]
Washington Post: The Trouble with the Fair Tax
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 24, 2011 By Dylan Matthews Greg Sargent has been doing some great reporting on Rick Perry’s walk-back on his past support for repealing the 16th amendment, which enables the federal governments to levy income taxes, and enacted the “Fair Tax” proposal for a national sales tax. The fair tax plan has been […]
Los Angeles Times: An undeserved attack on the ‘undeserving poor’
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 31, 2011 by Michael HiltzikCriticism of low earners who pay no federal income tax is in fact a not-so-veiled assault on government aid for those in need. Amid the crowd-rousing shorthand employed by some American politicians, surely one of the hardiest chestnuts is the notion of the “undeserving poor.” You know the […]
Think Progress: Perry Brags About Texas’ Tax System That Charges The Poor Four Times As Much As The Rich
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 16, 2011 by Pat Garofalo Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) was on the campaign trail in Newton, Iowa today, reviving his stump speech promise to make government “as inconsequential in your life as I can.” At one point, Perry bragged about the Texas tax system and its light burden on “job creators”: […]
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Effort to kill Missouri income tax has begun in earnest
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 26, 2011 by Virginia Young JEFFERSON CITY • Wrestling with your state income tax return? Missouri legislators are weighing a plan that would do away with that chore. But before you celebrate, be aware that it’s not a tax cut. While state individual and corporate income taxes would be eliminated, the lost […]
Huffington Post: Poverty Is Rising, But State Tax Systems Burden The Poor, While Rich Get Off Easy
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 27, 2011 by Tyler Kingkade WASHINGTON — Newly released U.S. Census data reveal that poverty levels have skyrocketed, but in most states, the tax systems disproportionally burden the poor. Most states also impose tax structures similar to what current Republican presidential candidates are advocating, and experts warn these should serve as cautionary […]
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