Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

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6,242 posts

Kansas Action for Children: The Kansas Budget Gap: How Did it Happen and Who Gets Hurt?

• By ITEP Staff

As is the case in any state, Kansas revenue and budget circumstances vary from year to year depending on a number of factors, including the health of the economy, the cost of providing state services and unforeseen expenses due to natural disasters or litigation. However, the budget shortfalls seen in Kansas recently are the result […]

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Keeping Score: More Pennsylvania Businesses are Losers Under the Single Sales Factor

• By ITEP Staff

Budget negotiators are considering adopting the Single Sales Factor (SSF)1, a targeted tax break promoted by a small group of Pennsylvania corporations. The SSF would cost the Pennsylvania Treasury around $100 million, when the state has a billion dollar deficit, and is facing large cuts in libraries, hospitals and services for children and vulnerable people. […]

New Mexico Voices for Children: Revenue Generators

• By ITEP Staff

The current debate over immigration – and particularly over immigrants without legal residency status – often centers on whether or not this group of people contributes to the economy or diminishes it. A 2006 Fiscal Policy Project report, “Undocumented Immigrants in New Mexico: State Tax Contributions and Fiscal Concerns,” concluded that undocumented immigrants contribute more […]

Maine Center for Economic Policy: TABOR II: A Danger to Maine’s Economy, Communities, and People

• By ITEP Staff

After soundly rejecting TABOR I in 2006, this November Maine voters will face another TABOR initiative. Despite claims by proponents that TABOR I’s many flaws have been corrected, TABOR II contains all of the central elements that made the original proposal so dangerous for Maine’s economy, communities, and people. In fact, in important respects, TABOR […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Connecticut’s Unified Gift and Estate Tax: A Key Source of Revenue That Makes Connecticut’s Tax System More Fair

• By ITEP Staff

The Governor has proposed eliminating the unified gift and estate tax. As part of her most recent package of proposed budget changes to balance the State Fiscal Year 2010-2011 (SFY 10-11) budgets, the Governor has proposed eliminating the “inheritance tax” effective January 2010. 1 This repeal not only would reduce General Fund revenues by $85 […]

Rhode Island Poverty Institute: Tax Incentive Disclosure and Accountability

• By ITEP Staff

“During the 2008 General Assembly session, legislation was enacted to require greater disclosure and accountability of tax credits received by corporations. The legislation required that information about six tax credits be released in three phases. Phase One, just released for the second year in a row by the Rhode Island Department of Revenue, lists the […]

Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Sales Taxation of Admission to Cultural Events Across the U.S.

• By ITEP Staff

The 2009-10 Pennsylvania state budget agreement announced in principle by the lawmakers includes a proposal to eliminate the sales tax exemption currently in place for admissions to cultural events (live theater, concerts, opera, ballet, museums and other similar activities).1 Removing this exemption is projected to raise approximately $100 million per year in new tax revenue. […]

California Budget Project: COTCE Proposals Would Increase Budget Gaps, Tax Low- and Middle-Income Californians

• By ITEP Staff

The core of the COTCE proposals would reduce the state’s reliance on the personal income tax by reducing the number of rates and the maximum tax rate, eliminate the corporate income tax and the state’s share of the sales and use tax, and replace the revenues lost by imposing a new business net receipts tax […]

California Budget Project: Fatally Flawed: What Would the Commission on the 21st Century Economy’s Recommendations Mean for California?

• By ITEP Staff

Read the Original Power Point Presentation

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: Expanding the District’s Sales Tax Can Raise Revenue, While Increasing Tax Fairness

• By ITEP Staff

In response to the most recent revenue shortfall, the DC Council voted in July 2009 to raise the District’s sales tax rate from 5.75 percent to 6 percent. Raising revenue is important to ensure that DC can continue to provide education, transportation, and other critical services during this economic downturn. As policymakers approach future revenue […]

Oregon Center for Public Policy: A Step Toward Balance: Measures 66 and 67 Move Oregon Closer to a Tax System Based on Ability to Pay

• By ITEP Staff

Today, low-income Oregonians pay a larger share of their income in state and local taxes than wealthy Oregonians. In fact, the highest-income Oregonians pay the lowest share of their income in state and local taxes. In addition to raising needed revenue, Measures 66 and 67 begin to address this imbalance. Facing a revenue crisis brought […]

Policy Matters Ohio: Tapping Top Earners to Meet Ohio’s Needs

• By ITEP Staff

In order to balance the Ohio state budget, Gov. Ted Strickland has proposed temporarily restoring the last year of a five-year, 21 percent income-tax cut approved in 2005. This October 2009 report examines the effects of implementing the governor’s proposal together with two other measures that would raise income-tax rates on the most affluent: Restoring […]

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: Tell It Like It Is: Combined Reporting Improves DC’s Tax System By Making Corporations Disclose Their Profits and Pay Their Fair Share

• By ITEP Staff

Mayor Fenty and the DC Council recently approved an important reform to the District’s corporate income tax which will prevent large corporations from avoiding taxes. The law, known as “combined reporting,” is recognized by economists and tax experts as the most comprehensive way for states to stop corporations from abusing tax shelters. A majority of […]

Alabama Arise: The State of Working Alabama 2009

• By ITEP Staff

For many Alabamians, a decade of relative economic prosperity has been a decade of lost potential, bringing little in the way of increased earnings or economic stability. Now, with the nation striving to emerge from a severe recession, the main question on the minds of many of the state’s workers is a simple one: How […]

DC Fiscal Policy Institute: The Middle Class Squeeze: DC’s Tax System Falls Most Heavily on Moderate-Income Families

• By ITEP Staff

Families in the District with incomes of $20,000 to $60,000 pay one-tenth of their incomes in DC property, sales, and income taxes, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy. This is much higher than the share of income the city’s richest families pay in DC taxes. The study found […]

Oregon Center for Public Policy: Undocumented Workers are Taxpayers, Too

• By ITEP Staff

Recent public discussion emerging from Oregon’s gubernatorial race focuses on, and at times exaggerates, the costs to Oregon of providing certain public services to undocumented immigrant workers and their families. Relatively little has been mentioned about the contributions undocumented workers make to Oregon. Read the Original Full Report

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: The Impact of Hawaii’s Income Tax on Low-Income Families

• By ITEP Staff

In the next few days, Hawaii’s legislature will consider the conference agreement on changes to Hawaii’s income tax, HB957. This agreement, which appears to have the support of legislative leadership and the governor, increases the standard deductions and expands the tax brackets beginning in tax year 2007. [1] The bill fails to remedy a well-documented […]

Missouri Budget Project: Undocumented Workers: Impact on Missouri’s Economy

• By ITEP Staff

Immigration policies, per se, are outside the purview of the Missouri Budget Project. However, it is the MBP’s mission to provide information about fiscal issues that contributes to informed debate about education, health care, and other policies that affect the common good of Missourians. The Missouri Budget Project believes that sound decisions are based on […]

The Bell Policy Center: State and Local Taxes Paid in Colorado by Undocumented Immigrants

• By ITEP Staff

All together, undocumented immigrant tax payments are equal to 70 to 86 percent of the state and local governments’ costs for providing federally mandated services. Read the Original Full Report

Tennesseans for Fair Taxation: The Real Budget Deficit: A Call to Invest in Tennessee, its Communities, and its People

• By ITEP Staff

Instead of being the leader we should be, Tennessee trails the nation, and the region, in these key public investments. The consequences are evident. We’re 45th in high school graduation rates, 4th in violent crimes per capita, and fi rst in bankruptcies. When we hear these dismal rankings though, it is important not to fault […]

New Jersey Policy Perspective: If It Ain’t Broke: New Jersey’s Income Tax Makes Dollars and Sense

• By ITEP Staff

Most people probably would agree that we need taxes at some level to pay for the things we want government to do. We could disagree on what to tax, how much and who—not to mention how best to use the money raised through taxes. But there is enough common ground for a reasoned discussion of […]

Mississippi Economic Policy Center: Putting the Pieces Together: A Taxpayer’s Guide to the Mississippi Budget

• By ITEP Staff

Budget decisions directly influence the quality of education that our children receive, the condition of the roads that we travel, the safety of our communities and the level of trust we can place in professionals such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses. Of course, each of these services – education, roadmaintenance and public safety – […]

Washington State Budget and Policy Center: Balancing Adequacy and Equity in Washington State’s Property Tax

• By ITEP Staff

Public education, fire protection, emergency medical services, parks, criminal justice, hospitals: all highpriority public services that are funded by the property tax. Washington can ensure adequate funding for these programs the public demands and address the inequities in the system. Read the Original Full Report

Center for Public Policy Priorities: Who Pays Texas Taxes?

• By ITEP Staff

The Comptroller has just released her biennial study of the fairness of the Texas tax system, Texas Exemptions and Tax Incidence,1 which demonstrates conclusively that low-and moderate-income Texas families bear a disproportionate share of state and local taxes. Read the Original Full Report

Iowa Policy Project: Undocumented Immigrants in Iowa: Estimated Tax Contributions and Fiscal Impact

• By ITEP Staff

This report examines undocumented immigrants in Iowa and their state tax contributions. Undocumented immigration remains a controversial issue in the United States, especially as the failure of federal immigration legislation has contributed to what the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) describes as “an unprecedented level of activity” in state legislative bodies as states seek […]