Citations

At a time when Maine families are falling out of the middle-class, when experienced workers need new skills to secure good paying jobs in a modern economy, and when state infrastructure is in need of improvement and expansion, the state budget presents an opportunity to solve shared problems and return our quality of life to […]

It is our pleasure to present to you the Sycamore Institute’s first Tennessee State Budget Primer. We hope this report – the information, the graphics, and the discussion – will demonstrate our commitment to putting reliable data and research in the hands of our state leaders, policymakers, and the general public. Below you will find […]

The combination of property tax savings and sales tax increases will affect each household differently. Raising sales tax by 1/2 cent will raise about $107 million dollars.  And decreasing property tax will cost about $40 million dollars.  But how much will your household pay to support the change?  You can figure that out by answering two questions.

Silent spending, in the form of numerous kinds of tax breaks, costs Florida billions of dollars in lost revenue a year. Unlike money spent through the state budget process, this “shadow budget” is not routinely examined to see if it is meeting worthwhile goals or promoting a stronger economy.  This is money that is spent […]

Florida is known worldwide as a vacation destination, but those of us who live here know that the way Florida takes in and spends money affects every aspect of our lives.  From now until 2030, people age 60 and older will account for most of Florida’s population growth, representing 56.9 percent of the gains. Adequate […]

From the promise to build a wall paid for by tariffs on Mexican imports and uncertainty about what will happen to DACA (which allows undocumented immigrants whose parents brought them to the U.S. as children to apply for a renewable reprieve from deportation), to a 120-day ban on refugee admissions and an indefinite ban for […]

The potential for harsher federal immigration policies under the new presidential administration poses special concern for young Georgians whose parents brought them to the United States as children. A new federal crackdown threatens to wreak havoc in the lives of tens of thousands of young Georgians who now enjoy some limited legal protections that allow […]

Potential harsher federal immigration policies under the new presidential administration pose special concern for young Georgians whose parents brought them to the United States as children. A new federal crackdown threatens havoc for tens of thousands of young Georgians who now enjoy some limited legal protections which allow them to work, go to school and […]

The Idaho Legislature is considering a proposal that would cut top income tax and corporate tax rates. The bill will also eliminate the income tax on the first $750 of taxable household income. This proposal would substantially reduce Idaho’s general fund revenue. Estimates of the impact range from $51 million to $56 million. A majority […]

As a group, those who claim the EITC and WFTC pay a large share of their incomes in taxes. In fact, in addition to the federal payroll taxes they pay, New Mexico’s lowest-income households pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than the households in every other income group. Those […]

  This is the fourth in a series of schmudget blog posts about property taxes in Washington state and the role they play in funding basic K-12 education. Any reform to the Washington state property tax code to help pay for schools must also take steps to make the tax code more equitable. In conjunction […]

Below are some facts regarding, LB 337, the governor’s income tax cut plan: The example middle-class Nebraska taxpayer used to roll out the plan would not receive a tax cut under LB 337. Once the standard deduction is applied, this taxpayer, who earns $29,831, would not pay the top tax rate on any income, and therefore would […]

Tax modeling from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a national organization with a sophisticated model of the state tax system, shows that Ohio’s current EITC reaches only about 8 percent of the state’s neediest working families and 11 percent of middle income workers. A 20 percent, refundable, non-capped, EITC would extend the […]