Florida
Orlando Sentinel: Is Wall Street Journal right? Is Florida “well-managed?” It depends
May 22, 2020
New York’s tax burdens are relatively even. The effective rate for New York’s poorest is 11.4 percent, compared to 11.3 for the top one percent and 12.4 for the middle. The comparisons are by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which last updated them in 2018. So it’s obvious why the Journal resents New […]
State Rundown 5/20: State Revenue Crisis Getting Clearer…and Scarier
• By ITEP Staff
State policymakers are navigating incredibly uncertain waters these days as they attempt to get a firmer grasp on the scale of their revenue crises, identify painful budget cuts they may have to make in response, and look for ways to raise tax revenues coming from the households and corporations still bringing in large incomes and profits amid the pandemic—all while hoping that additional federal aid and greater flexibility in how they can use federal CARES…
Orlando Sentinel: Make corporations – not teachers – pay up
May 19, 2020
In fact, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that Florida families that make less than $50,000 spend 8-12% of their annual income on local and state taxes while families that make $200,000 or more spend between 2% and 4.5%. Read more
Intended Consequences: Deliberate Disinvestment Caused Florida’s Unemployment Disaster
• By Stephanie Clegg
Florida politicians deliberately rigged the unemployment system after the Great Recession to avoid raising taxes on businesses. Now, in a pandemic, some out-of-work residents are left waiting more than six weeks for unemployment benefits while more than 280,000 others have been inexplicably denied. What’s happening in Florida underscores deeper challenges with systems that should help those in need, but instead are designed to fail them.
Economic Catastrophe in States Looms as Federal Relief Lags
• By Amy Hanauer
A bipartisan group of governors and senators from Louisiana to Maryland to Ohio have called for at least $500 billion in state and local fiscal relief. They also need specific help with testing, protective equipment, unemployment costs, Medicaid costs, social services, education and infrastructure. States can’t be on their own as they address the double whammy of plunging revenue and skyrocketing needs.
State Rundown 4/22: Earth Day Lessons from Pangea to Pandemic
• By ITEP Staff
In different ways, Earth Day and the COVID-19 pandemic convey a similar lesson: people around the world face shared struggles and disparate impacts, which they must work together to overcome through both emergency action and systemic change. In keeping with that lesson, state fiscal policy news this week was strikingly similar around the country, as states take account of the major threat posed by the pandemic to their budgets and attempt to grapple with its…
It’s Time to Rethink Those Tax Cuts
• By Aidan Davis
The full effect of the coronavirus pandemic on state revenue streams remains largely unknown. One key policy option is to reevaluate recent misguided tax cuts—particularly those that have not yet taken full effect and will add to growing revenue shortfalls in the coming years.
Chicago Tribune: Agencies scramble to help Lake County undocumented immigrants impacted by coronavirus crisis
April 18, 2020
According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Illinois is one of six states that derive the most revenue from taxes paid by undocumented immigrants. California, Florida, New York, Texas and New Jersey, are also on the list. Read more
State Rundown 4/15: Tax Day Delayed but Other Important Work Accelerated
• By ITEP Staff
April 15 is traditionally the day federal and state income taxes are due, but like so much else, Tax Day is on hold for the time being. Meanwhile the pandemic’s disastrous and uneven effects on communities and shared institutions are decidedly not suspended. But nor are the efforts of individuals, advocates, and policymakers to develop solutions to respond to the immediate crisis while also building better systems going forward. ITEP’s recommendations for state tax policy…
State Options to Shore up Revenues and Improve Tax Codes amid Pandemic
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill, Meg Wiehe
The COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinarily challenging time, as we see harm and struggle affecting the vast majority of our families, businesses, public services, and economic sectors. No one will be unaffected by the crisis, and everyone has a stake in the recovery and faces tough decisions. In the world of state fiscal policy, where revenue shortfalls are likely to be far bigger than can be filled by the initial $150 billion in federal aid…
State Rundown 4/9: Pandemic’s Fiscal Effects Slowly Coming into Focus
• By ITEP Staff
The COVID-19 pandemic continued this week to wreak havoc on lives and communities around the world. The fiscal fallout of the virus in the states is growing as well, and beginning this week to come into sharper focus. This week’s Rundown brings together what we know of that slowly clarifying picture and how states are responding so far.
Federal Relief Bill Doesn’t Go Far Enough: Q&A with Meg Wiehe
• By ITEP Staff, Meg Wiehe, Stephanie Clegg
The final version of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act enacted last week included rebate provisions that will reach most low-, moderate- and middle-income adults and children, but not everyone. Meg Wiehe sits down for a Q&A to discuss who benefits from the rebate provision, who is excluded and how states can respond to support communities.
Sales Taxes and Social Distancing: State and Local Governments May Face Their Steepest Sales Tax Decline Ever
• By Carl Davis, ITEP Staff, Meg Wiehe
One pressing question is what will an economic downturn in which consumers are anxious, facing job loss, or simply spending their time sheltering in place and not spending money in typical ways, mean for states’ ability to raise revenue?
Bloomberg:Billion-Dollar Blows to U.S. States Crater Spending Plans
April 1, 2020
At least 38 states and territories have issued some version of a stay-at-home order, shuttering parts of the economy as residents stay inside and restaurants and stores close. The result may be the steepest drop in sales taxes ever, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. States like Florida, […]
State Rundown 3/26: Pandemic’s Health and Fiscal Fallout Continues to Grow
• By ITEP Staff
This week’s Rundown brings you the most useful reading and resources about how states are affected by and responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. These include: landing pages for the most up-to-date lists of state policy responses; ITEP’s own materials on state policy options and the federal response bills; insights on how a race-forward approach can improve these efforts at all levels; updates on state fiscal troubles and legislative postponements; and the developing picture of which…
State Rundown 3/19: Spring Is Here but States Brace for Long Winter
• By ITEP Staff
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt more and more aspects of life and cause greater and greater harms to public health and the economy, information is changing by the hour. State policymakers, if they are even able to convene, are wholly focused on how to respond to the crisis. The pandemic is certain to pose a series of fiscal challenges for states and their economies, and this week’s Rundown focuses on the most helpful…
State Rundown 3/11: Georgia Bucks Trend of Cautious Policymaking Amid Crises
• By ITEP Staff
With all eyes on the potential effects of the oil price war and COVID-19 coronavirus on lives, communities, and economies, Georgia House lawmakers this week crammed through a regressive and costly tax cut for the rich with essentially no debate, information, or transparency. Most states are proceeding much more responsibly, assessing the ramifications for their service provision needs and revenues to fund those needs.
ITEP Testimony Regarding Connecticut Senate Bill 16, An Act Concerning the Adult Use of Cannabis
• By Carl Davis
This testimony explains the advantages of the cannabis tax structure proposed in Connecticut’s Senate Bill 16 and offers additional background information as well as ideas for potential changes to the bill.
State Rundown 2/27: Leaps Forward Needed for Tax Justice
• By ITEP Staff
This weekend’s Leap Day should be a welcome extra day for state lawmakers, advocates, and observers who care about tax and budget policy, as there is an overflow of proposals and information to digest. Most importantly, as emphasized in our “What We’re Reading” section, there are never enough days in a month to do justice to the importance of Black History Month and Black Futures Month. In state-specific debates, Oregon and Washington leaders are hoping…
State Rundown 2/13: What’s Trendy in State Tax Debates This Year
• By ITEP Staff
We wrote earlier this week about Trends We’re Watching in 2020, and this week’s Rundown includes news on several of those trends. Maine lawmakers are considering a refundable credit for caregivers. Efforts to tax high-income households made news in Maryland, Oregon, and Washington. Grocery taxes are receiving scrutiny in Alabama, Idaho, and Tennessee. Tax cuts or shifts are being discussed in Arizona, Nebraska, and West Virginia. And Arizona, Maryland, and Nevada continue to seek funding…
Trends We’re Watching in 2020
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers have plenty to keep them busy on the tax policy front in 2020. Encouraging trends we’re watching this year include opportunities to enact and enhance refundable tax credits and increase the tax contributions of high-income households, each of which would improve tax equity and help to reduce income inequality.
Florida Policy Institute: Earned Income Tax Credit Crucial for Working Families
• By ITEP Staff
State EITCs are better targeted to people with low income than blanket tax exemptions, so they help to reduce the disproportionate impact of sales and excise taxes. According to new data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a state EITC at 30 percent of the federal credit would reduce the share of income […]
State Rundown 1/22: “Only Light Can Do That”
• By ITEP Staff
This week as Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s messages of resisting oppression and fighting for progress, state policymakers can look to some bright spots where tax and budget debates are bending toward justice. Among those highlights, Hawaii leaders are considering improvements to minimum wage policy, early childhood education, and affordable housing; Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly is seeking to reduce sales taxes applied to food and restore the state’s grocery tax credit; and advocates in…
State Rundown 1/8: States Need Clear Tax and Budget Policy Vision in 2020
• By ITEP Staff
Happy New Year readers! The Rundown is back to our usual weekly schedule as state legislative sessions and governors’ budgets and State of the State Addresses begin in earnest. Here’s to clear-eyed 20-20 vision guiding state tax and budget decisions in 2020! So far this year, the harm of Colorado’s TABOR policy and Alaska’s lack of an income tax are coming into focus in big ways. Utah advocates are hoping the benefit of hindsight will…
States Should Decouple from Costly Federal Opportunity Zones and Reject Look-Alike Programs
• By ITEP Staff
Post enactment of TCJA, lawmakers in most states needed to decide how to respond to the creation of this new program. Given the shortcomings of the federal Opportunity Zones program and its added potential costs to states, the most prudent course of action is three-pronged: States should move quickly to decouple; states should reject look-alike programs; and lawmakers should make investments directly into economically distressed areas.
