Massachusetts
Rewarding Work Through State Earned Income Tax Credits
September 17, 2015 • By Aidan Davis, Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe
Despite some economic gains in recent years, the number of Americans living in poverty has held steady over the past four years. At the same time, wages for working families have remained stagnant and more than half of the jobs created by the economic recovery since 2010 were low-paying, mostly in the food services, retail, and employment services industries. Our country's growing class of low-wage workers often faces a dual challenge as they struggle to make ends meet. First, wages are too low and growing too slowly - despite recent productivity gains - to keep up with the rising cost…
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: Funding Improvements for Schools, Roads, and Public Transit with Tax Reforms that Improve Fairness
September 14, 2015
We can expand opportunity for our people and strengthen our economy by making smart investments to improve our schools; make our colleges and universities affordable; and build a transportation system that gets families, students, workers and customers to the places they need to be. There are fair and effective ways that we could pay for […]
TV Newsroom: Tax-Free Weekend Offers Great Savings
August 17, 2015
“The bottom line is that whatever policy goal you want to achieve through a sales tax holiday, there are probably better ways to achieve those goals”, said Matthew Gardner, executive director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.”
The Herald News: Sen. Michael Rodrigues: Why I Oppose the Massachusetts Sales Tax Holiday
July 29, 2015
It is that time of year again on Beacon Hill, when the Legislature debates and ultimately passes a sales tax holiday for a weekend in August. Let’s be clear, the tax holiday enables elected officials to break for summer recess on a high note, with something to tout to their constituents. The Institute on Taxation […]
NBC: Sales Tax Holidays Complex, Controversial, But Popular With Shoppers
July 28, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax holiday […]
CNBC: Tax-Free Shopping Ahead for These States
July 24, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, however, contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax […]
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
July 22, 2015 • By Lisa Christensen Gee
Lawmakers in many states have enacted "sales tax holidays" (at least 17 states will hold them in 2015), to provide a temporary break on paying the tax on purchases of clothing, computers and other items. While these holidays may seem to lessen the regressive impacts of the sales tax, their benefits are minimal. This policy brief examines the many problems associated with sales tax holidays and concludes that they have more political than policy benefits.
Huffington Post: How Some States Are Trying To Fix Their Crumbling Infrastructure
July 6, 2015
Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said efforts to raise state taxes to pay for roads and bridges exploded this year. In 2013 and 2014, four states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming) increased their gas taxes, while Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island indexed the gas tax to either […]
Read this report in PDF form Introduction For years, academics and transportation experts have been discussing the possibility of taxing drivers for each mile they travel on the nation’s roads. This “vehicle miles traveled tax” (VMT tax) could either supplement or replace the existing gas tax as the primary method of funding transportation infrastructure. To […]
Littleton Independent: Momentum Grows for Earned Income Credit
June 19, 2015
More than one in seven Massachusetts families benefits from the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the impact is even greater in many urban communities. The current state Earned Income Tax Credit in Massachusetts is worth 15 percent of the federal credit, up to $921 for income-eligible taxpayers with three or more children. Among the states […]
The federal Highway Trust Fund (HTF) is the single most important mechanism for funding maintenance and improvements to the nation's transportation infrastructure. Absent Congressional action, however, the HTF will face insolvency at the end of July. Unfortunately, despite the critical importance of infrastructure to the U.S. economy, the condition of the HTF has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that imminent insolvency has become entirely normal.
Undocumented Immigrants’ State & Local Tax Contributions (2015)
April 15, 2015 • By Matthew Gardner, Meg Wiehe
This report was updated February 2016 Read as a PDF. (Includes Full Appendix of State-by-State Data) Report Landing Page In the public debates over federal immigration reform, sufficient and accurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants is often lacking. The reality is the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States pay billions […]
Vermont Public Radio: Business Leaders Mount Campaign Against Plan to Limit Tax Deductions
April 15, 2015
Carl Davis is a senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., based research group that analyzes federal, state and local tax policies. Davis, who lives in Vermont, says there’s no reason to think Vermont would suffer any competitive disadvantage if it goes through with the plan. “Massachusetts, Connecticut and […]
Boston Globe: Baker’s Position on Taxes Is Great for the Wealthy, and Not Many Others
April 3, 2015
In fact, many in Massachusetts have been taxed more than enough. Those in the lowest 20 percent of personal income pay more than twice as high a share to state and local taxes than those in the top 1 percent, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. Add in the state’s growing reliance […]
Bloomberg: Will State Legislatures Pass Gas Tax Hikes This Year?
February 11, 2015
However, the kind of funding structure that Maryland put in place has been called good policy by organizations like the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a non-profit, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C., because the inflation adjustment allows the revenue’s buying power to keep up with transportation expenses over time. Flat-rate taxes do […]
The Boston Globe: Obama Is Taking on Inequality. How Does Massachusetts Fair?
January 24, 2015
In Massachusetts, lower-income people actually pay more of their money in taxes. If you are a middle-class family in Massachusetts, more than 9 percent of your income goes to state and local taxes, according to the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy. If you’re among the very wealthiest, it’s more like 5 percent. Read more
WWLP (Mass.): Wealthiest Taxpayers Paying Smallest Percentage of Income
January 21, 2015
A new study is showing that both in Massachusetts and nationwide, the highest income residents pay a smaller percentage of their income in taxes, compared to lower and middle income taxpayers. The study done by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy looked at four taxes: income, real estate, excise or car tax, and sales tax. […]
The Louisville Courier-Journal: Kentucky facing consequence of gas tax tied to price
January 16, 2015
“Most states — 32 — levy a fixed-rate per-gallon tax no matter what the price of gas, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a tax watchdog group. But 15 states, including Kentucky, gauge it to the price per gallon, which makes it function more like a sales tax. Florida and Massachusetts levy […]
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: Automatic Income Tax Rate Cuts – Frequently Asked Questions
December 4, 2014
A thriving state economy – one that delivers broadly shared prosperity to workers, families and businesses – depends on key public investments in schools and colleges, subways and highways, public safety and more. We pay for these essential investments with our tax dollars. A series of tax cuts dating from the late 1990s and early […]
Governing: Massachusetts Rolls Back Automatic Gas Tax Hike
November 6, 2014
And Massachusetts has plenty of company. The federal gas tax of 18.4 cents has been in place since 1993. Twenty-four states haven’t touched their gas tax rates in more than a decade, according to left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. For 16 of those states, the last change was more than 20 years ago. […]
Bloomberg BNA: Will Massachusetts’ Rejection of Inflation-Adjusted Gas Tax Have Federal Implications?
November 6, 2014
States have varying gas tax rate structures, which can be boiled down to one of two general forms: a fixed-rate tax or a variable-rate tax. Flat-rate gas taxes, like those in now Massachusetts and New Hampshire, collect a certain number of cents per gallon of gas purchased. Meanwhile, variable-rate taxes are calculated one of several […]
Stateline: Voters to Weigh Tax Caps, Increases
November 3, 2014
Massachusetts voters will get to decide whether to repeal a provision that automatically raises the state gasoline tax with inflation. According to the nonpartisanInstitute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 14 states have a “variable rate” gas tax, while 32 states have fixed taxes (the others didn’t supply data). Read more
Governing: Will Mass. Repeal Gas Tax Hike?
October 10, 2014
Matthew Gardner, executive director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, notes that many states in recent years have gone down the same road as Massachusetts by linking fuel taxes to inflation or prices. “It’s been a very welcome trend in the last few years toward indexing the gas tax for some measure […]
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 […]
USA Today: Shrinking Revenue Spurs Gas Tax Alternative
August 14, 2014
By Elaine S. Povich It was the potholes that convinced real estate broker Lester Friedman that there’s got to be a better way to pay for road construction and repairs. Friedman, who lives in Bend, Oregon, drives about 8,000 miles a year in his 1999 Chevrolet Suburban, ferrying clients throughout central Oregon. He sees roads […]
