
January 12, 2017
“Raising fuel taxes helped the state in the 1980s, and lawmakers might try it again. Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says Oklahoma lawmakers have good reason to raise taxes at the pump. “The state has one of the oldest gas tax rates in the country,” he says. “It’s […]
January 12, 2017
“The state also supplements the federal Earned Income Tax Credit for joint filers with income less than $50,000. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, these adjustments resulted in the lowest 20 percent of Massachusetts filers paying an effective state income tax rate of 0.8 percent in 2015. The next quintile pays an […]
January 12, 2017
“The LLC exemption — which eliminated taxes on pass-through business income and relieved the tax burden for more than 330,000 Kansas business owners — was passed and signed almost half a decade ago. The exemption has cost our state hundreds of millions of dollars since then (the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says it […]
January 11, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Legislators have just kicked off the 2017 legislative session, and ideas for big changes are buzzing around the Capitol. AACF will be on the ground advocating for bills that are best for kids and families in our state. In order to make Arkansas a better place for all of us, AACF hopes that this year: […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
When all types of state and local taxes are combined—income, sales and property—families with incomes in the bottom fifth pay nearly three times what families in the top 1 percent do—$12.50 for every $100 of income compared to $4.58 for the highest income families and $8.20 for middle income families. Sales taxes make up the […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Economic Progress Institute publishes the Rhode Island Standard of Need (RISN) to answer two fundamental questions: What is the cost of meeting basic needs for families and individuals in Rhode Island? How do state and federal work and income supports help households meet the cost of basic needs? The RISN calculates a no-frills […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Just this week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a comprehensive report on the state and local tax contributions of undocumented immigrants. In the public debate about immigration policy, there are often gross inaccuracies about undocumented immigrants that are presented as facts. This important report provides state-by-state and national estimates on undocumented immigrants’ […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Legislators are currently working to find the revenues necessary to fund the appropriations bill that passed the House and Senate this week. They are finding it difficult to agree on a proposal that raises genuine, recurring revenues in a way that does not make our already inequitable tax system more unfair. One constitutional way to […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Carl Davis is Research Director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization that works on federal, state, and local tax policy issues. Photo by ccPixs.com / CC BY 2.0 Photo by ccPixs.com / CC BY 3.0 When is a charitable contribution not a “donation” at all? If a […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Last week the Oklahoma Senate Finance Committee approved SB 977, a bill that would suspend 23 tax credits for the next two years as a way to partially address the state’s massive budget shortfall. While the bill targets numerous credits, a large majority of the impact would come from ending three important tax credits […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Maryland’s success today is due to our past public investment in good schools, a strong transportation system and other building blocks of a prosperous economy. As another “tax day” rolls around, it’s worth remembering that the income taxes we pay help make these investments possible. Cutting state income taxes or corporate taxes would undermine […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
A comprehensive preview of the upcoming two-year Kentucky state budget confirms both a massive funding gap facing the state for the next two years and a need for reinvestment in many areas post-recession. Authored by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy (KCEP), the report notes that expected growth in state revenue the first year […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Budget of the Commonwealth is a financial plan, enacted every two years by Kentucky’s General Assembly, that maps out our state’s investments in education, health, transportation, public safety, human services and other areas that build a strong state economy. As such, the budget is a statement of Kentucky’s priorities: How we invest reflects […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Since 1906, Kentucky has relied on the inheritance tax to help pay for the good schools, infrastructure and other investments that strengthen the Commonwealth. A repeal of the inheritance tax would be a $51 million tax cut tilted to the very wealthy that would weaken those investments and make economic progress harder in the […]
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Iowa Fiscal Partnership is pleased to distribute a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: The ITEP Guide to Fair State and Local Taxes. We hope you will find this useful in understanding and evaluating state and local tax policy. Many of the general tax principles and issues presented in the […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Ensuring Indiana has funding needed to adequately repair its roads and bridges over the next several years is a top priority among lawmakers this legislative session. Among the proposed infrastructure improvement plans is HB 1001, which would raise the state’s gasoline tax by 4 cents per gallon, the tax on diesel fuel by 7 […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Representative Lou Lang introduced a fair tax rate structure (House Bill 689), which would provide over 99% of income taxpayers with a tax cut while raising $1.9 billion to prevent more harmful budget cuts. Read more here
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
“Following hundreds of millions of dollars in budget cuts in Fiscal Year 2016, Connecticut policymakers tackled the nearly $1 billion budget deficit in Fiscal Year 2017 (FY 17) by adopting a two-pronged austerity approach. First, policymakers refused to consider any new revenues, taking a cuts-only method that struck $233.6 million from programs that support children […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
“Proposition 30, approved by voters in 2012, provided critical revenues to California at a time when the state faced daunting budgetary challenges. Prop. 30’s tax rate increases are scheduled to fully expire at the end of 2018. Prop. 55, which will appear on the November 8, 2016 statewide ballot, would extend for 12 years the […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Proposition 30, approved by voters in 2012, provided critical revenues to California at a time when the state faced daunting fi scal challenges. These revenues increased school funding and allowed for reinvestment in other public services after years of cuts. Prop. 30’s tax rate increases are scheduled to expire over the next several years. Although […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The LLC Loophole is unfair, expensive, and failed to create jobs. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the LLC loophole costs Kansas nearly $290 million per year. It was originally touted as the plan’s signature feature, but now legislators and business leaders of all political stripes publicly acknowledge that it failed to […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
“The governor wants to get through the first year by spending down some of the rainy day fund and using part of reamining surplus funds. As far as short term solutions, it could be a lot worse. But big problems with the Governor’s plan show up in year two and beyond. The plan leaves a […]
January 9, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
The Governor’s Task Force on Transportation Infrastructure Investment is an 18-member Task Force established by Governor Edwards to recommend community-driven solutions for Louisiana’s transportation infrastructure investment needs. The Task Force submitted its formal recommendations to the Governor in December 2016. Read the full report here
January 9, 2017
“Congratulations citizens of Washington state [“School-funding task force unlikely to have proposed fixes when Legislature convenes,” NWThursday, Jan. 5]. It is official: According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the state of Washington is now ranked No. 1 for having the most regressive tax system of all 50 states.” Read more
January 9, 2017
“Also, the increase in income tax for large families would mostly negatively impact lower-income families, who according to an Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report are already paying a higher percentage of their income for state and local taxes than the upper 20 percent.” Read more