Hawaii
Pacific Business News: Hawaii Community Foundation Launches Fund to Support Immigrants
April 3, 2015
The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy found that in 2010, unauthorized immigrants in Hawaii paid more than $60.3 million in state and local taxes. If granted legal status, they would pay $79.6 million in state and local taxes. Read more
How Long Has it Been Since Your State Raised Its Gas Tax?
• By Carl Davis
An updated version of this report has been published with data through July 1, 2017. Read the report in PDF form. Many states’ transportation budgets are in disarray, in part because they are trying to cover the rising cost of asphalt, machinery, and other construction materials with a gasoline tax rate that is rarely increased.1 […]
West Hawaii Today: How Progressive Is Our Tax System
January 26, 2015
On Jan. 15, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a report ranking the states in terms of how progressive their tax systems are. A “progressive” tax system is one that asks wealthier taxpayers to pay more of their income than poorer taxpayers. Most states rely upon some form of net income tax […]
Honolulu Star Advertiser: Isles Second Highest in Taxes on the Poor
January 20, 2015
Hawaii has the second-highest taxes on the poor and the 15th most unfair state and local tax systems in the country, according to a recent report from a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy issued its 2015 report “Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems” this week. The report […]
Pacific Business News: Hawaii second-worst state in taxing the poor, study says
January 15, 2015
“Hawaii is the second-worst state in terms of taxing its lowest-income residents, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. The study, titled “Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States,” found that Hawaii households […]
Honolulu Civil Beat: Low-Income Hawaii Residents Have Nearly Twice the Tax Rate as the Rich
January 15, 2015
“Hawaii taxes low-income people at nearly twice the rate as the richest people in the state, according to a new analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. That makes Hawaii the second-worst state for taxing the poor, the analysis concluded.” Read more
The Garden Island: State tax system takes toll on low-income
January 15, 2015
“But there are some costs of living in the Aloha State that don’t always seem fair, and one of those costs is the focus of a new study released Wednesday by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and the Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice. It found that Hawaii’s lowest income residents […]
ABC (Michigan Affiliate WZZM): Gas Tax 101
December 3, 2014
Carl Davis, a senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C., said Michigan is one of only four states, with Indiana, Illinois and Hawaii, that fully apply their general sales tax to fuel sales. Of the 41.4 cents in state taxes Michigan motorists pay on a gallon of fuel, only […]
State Tax Codes As Poverty Fighting Tools
• By Meg Wiehe
Read the Report in PDF Form The Census Bureau released data in September showing that the share of Americans living in poverty remains high. In 2013, the national poverty rate was 14.5 percent, a slight drop from last years’ rate of 15 percent and the first decline since 2006.1 However, the poverty rate remains 2.0 […]
Options for Progressive Sales Tax Relief
• By Meg Wiehe
See the 2016 Updated Brief Here Read the Policy Brief in PDF Form Sales taxes are one of the most important revenue sources for state and local governments—and are also one of the most unfair taxes. In recent years, policymakers nationwide have struggled to find ways of making sales taxes more equitable while preserving this […]
State Estate and Inheritance Taxes
• By Meg Wiehe
For much of the last century, estate and inheritance taxes have played an important role in helping states to adequately fund public services in a way that improves the progressivity of state tax systems. While many of the taxes levied by state and local governments fall most heavily on low-income families, only the very wealthy pay estate and inheritance taxes. Recent changes in the federal estate tax, however, culminating in the "fiscal cliff " deal…
Pay-Per-Mile Tax is Only a Partial Fix
• By Carl Davis
The gasoline tax is the single largest source of funding for transportation infrastructure in the United States, but the tax is on an unsustainable course. Sluggish gas tax revenue growth has put strain on transportation budgets at the federal and state levels, and has led to countless debates around the country about how best to pay for America's infrastructure.
Detroit Free Press: Why Michiganders Pay Among the Highest Gas Tax to Drive on Crummy Roads
May 23, 2014
By Paul Egan, May 23, 2014 High fuel taxes and low spending on roads. It’s a nasty combination, but Michigan motorists can rightfully complain they pay some of the highest fuel taxes to drive on some of the lousiest roads. According to national data, Michigan has the sixth-highest state taxes on gasoline but one of […]
The Garden Island: Licensed to drive
February 3, 2014
(Original Post) Bill would allow undocumented residents to acquire driver’s license Posted: Monday, February 3, 2014 2:00 am Tom LaVenture – The Garden Island LIHUE — Proposed legislation would amend state requirements to allow undocumented residents to qualify for a driver’s license in the interest of public safety, identification and insurance coverage. The “Safe and […]
Honolulu Civil Beat: It’s Time to Revamp Hawaii’s GET
January 17, 2014
(Original Post) By Victor Geminiani 01/16/2014 Hawaii taxes our residents in poverty more heavily than all but three other states in the nation. Most of this regressivity is caused by our heavy reliance on the General Excise Tax (GET), which generates half of all revenues collected by the state. Sales and excise taxes are the […]
Hawai’i Appleseed Center: Creating a Fairer State Tax System and Economy for All Families
• By ITEP Staff
Our state’s lower-income families are faced with almost insurmountable structural challenges to escaping poverty. They face the highest cost of living and highest cost of shelter in the nation, with three-quarters of extremely low-income people spending over half of their income on shelter. At the same time, our wages are the lowest in the nation […]
Personal Income Tax Reform: Improving the Fairness of Taxes in the District of Columbia
• By Carl Davis
DC's tax system is markedly regressive. This is driven largely by the regressive impact of the city's sales, excise, and property taxes. The personal income tax is the only effective tool that DC has available for offsetting this regressivity. In the comments below I discuss four options for fine-tuning DC's income tax to lessen its impact on moderate- and middle-income taxpayers. I also describe four options for funding those tax cuts with policies that would…
A Federal Gas Tax for the Future
• By Carl Davis
Gas tax revenues are on an unsustainable course. Over the last five years, Congress has transferred more than $53 billion from the general fund to the transportation fund in order to compensate for lagging gas tax revenues. By 2015, the transportation fund will be insolvent unless an additional $15 billion transfer is made. Larger transfers will be needed in subsequent years.
Washington Post: The state that taxes the poor the most is… a blue one
September 23, 2013
(Original Post) By Niraj Chokshi, Published: September 21 at 10:00 am The state that easily handed President Obama a victory last November while passing voter-approved referendums legalizing same-sex marriage and marijuana consumption also happens to have the nation’s highest tax burden on the poor. Poor families in Washington state pay 16.9 percent of their total […]
State Tax Codes As Poverty Fighting Tools
• By Meg Wiehe
New Census Bureau data released this month show that the share of Americans living in poverty remains high, despite other signs of economic recovery. The national 2012 poverty rate of 15 percent is essentially unchanged since 2010 , but still 2.5 percentage points higher than pre-recession levels. This means that in 2012, 46.5 million, or about 1 in 6 Americans, lived in poverty.1 The poverty rate in most states also held steady with five states…
Tax Expenditure Reports: A Vital Tool with Room for Improvement
• By Carl Davis
State and local tax codes include a huge array of special tax breaks designed to accomplish almost every goal imaginable: from encouraging homeownership and scientific research, to building radioactive fallout shelters and caring for "exceptional" trees. Despite being embedded in the tax code, these programs are typically enacted with tax policy issues like fairness, efficiency, and sustainability only as secondary considerations. Accordingly, these programs have long been called "tax expenditures." They are essentially government spending…
Honolulu Magazine: Dependence Day
July 3, 2013
(Original Post) The IRS scandal reached even Hawaii. But why worry when the IRS asks for a list of everyone who ever attended your events? Honolulu Magazine’s editor A. Kam Napier. The scandals have been piling up pretty deep this year, and its been strange to see Hawaii appear in two of them. The whole […]
MSN News: Two-thirds of Americans oppose gas tax hikes
April 24, 2013
(Original Post) According to Gallup, Americans may object to increasing gas prices while the economy is still unstable. By Douglas Newcomb As state legislatures across the U.S. debate whether to raise gas taxes to repair crumbling roads, a new Gallup poll finds that two-thirds of Americans would vote against gas tax hikes in their home […]
Laffer’s New Job Growth Factoid is All Rhetoric and No Substance
• By Carl Davis
A new talking point printed on the opinion page of The Wall Street Journal is proving irresistible to state lawmakers looking for an excuse to reduce or eliminate their states' income taxes: A new analysis by economist Art Laffer for the American Legislative Exchange Council finds that, from 2002 to 2012, 62% of the three million net new jobs in America were created in the nine states without an income tax, though these states account…
Honolulu Star Advertiser: Staring Down Poverty
February 26, 2013
(Original Post) The recession has hit many hard, throwing more Hawaii families and individuals on the edge of poverty, if not completely onto the streets.
