June 15, 2015
Why did the recession have such a damaging effect on the state budget? Because, almost uniquely in the country, most of our state’s revenue comes from various kinds of sales tax. This causes real problems. The non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy says Washington’s tax system is the most unfair in the entire country. […]
June 15, 2015
Poor families in Kansas would pay even more in taxes under a bill the state House passed Friday. Matt Gardner, the executive director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said the new legislation would “double down” on those changes. “A tax hike of this size is going to have a worrisome impact […]
June 12, 2015
The text states that the contributions of this sector would increase by $ 845 million if the migrant relief proposed by US President Barack Obama is finally approved, and in 2.2 billion with a broader immigration reform, according to a recent study by the Intitute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Read more
June 12, 2015
Brownback’s well-paid tax consultant, the legendary economist Laffer, promised Kansans that the cuts would pay for themselves in supercharged economic growth. At the time, a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed that Laffer had things backward: over the previous decade, economic output per person had grown significantly faster in the nine […]
June 9, 2015
On average, the poorest one in five Texas residents pays 12.5 percent of their annual income in taxes to the state and to local governments, among the highest rates in the country, according to the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Since the poor spend more of their income making basic purchases, sales taxes […]
June 9, 2015
“If you ask its advocates why it’s a good idea, one of the first things they’ll say is it’s a simpler way to tax,” said Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning nonprofit organization in Washington. “I think that’s largely an illusion. “Any move to a flat tax […]
June 9, 2015
Some states, however, have decided not to wait for the federal government to make the change. So far, 10 states have taken their own limited steps to expand the number of retailers that must collect sales taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. New York was first, enacting legislation in 2008 requiring […]
June 9, 2015
“If you ask its advocates why it’s a good idea, one of the first things they’ll say is it’s a simpler way to tax,” said Matt Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning non-profit organization in Washington. “I think that’s largely an illusion.” “Any move to a flat tax […]
June 5, 2015
Most gentrification narratives go vaguely like this: hipsters come to a neighborhood and open up fancy businesses and build fancy stuff and the original residents get pushed out. But often there is little focus on how exactly the original residents get pushed out. Some policy institutes like The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy consider most property […]
June 3, 2015
Brownback proposed the state eliminate income taxes for 388,000 poor residents and raise taxes for business owners. Sounds good. But the nonpartisan Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy found that the plan actually would raise taxes on the poorest 40 percent of Kansans. That’s because Brownback also proposes raising the sales tax to 6.65, from […]
June 3, 2015
Matt Gardner is director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and he explained it this way: “If you think it’s wrong for companies to be able to shift their profits freely from state to state, on paper, without actually moving employees, without actually moving production, then this reform is a no-brainer,” he told […]
June 2, 2015
The non-partisan Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy found that the plan leaves behind the poorest 40 percent of Kansans. “The data does not support Governor Brownback’s claims,” said Annie McKay, executive director of the Kansas Center for Economic Growth. “In fact, data indicates the governor’s proposal not only fails to fix inequalities of his […]
June 2, 2015
Kate Brewster, executive director of Economic Progress Institute, also had a warning for the committee. She cautioned that while many have stories of seniors who move out of state because of taxes, a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C., estimates that less than 1 percent of those in 65 […]
June 2, 2015
Indeed, Washington has the nation’s most regressive tax structure, according to a study published in January by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The study found that the state’s top 1% contributes 2.4 percent of family income in state and local taxes while the poorest 20 percent contribute 16.8 percent, making Washington the “highest-tax […]
June 2, 2015
North Carolina’s sales tax is unfair because it “requires the least from those with the most,” said Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director at the national Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which leans to the left. And because it exempts services and falls less heavily on the rich, the sales tax by itself will […]
May 29, 2015
North Carolina’s sales tax law has loopholes large enough to drive a truck through — or sail a boat, pilot an airplane or guide a train. Or pull a wood chipper through, provided it is intended for use out of state. Each of those items gets preferential treatment under the law, underlining difficulties with a […]
May 29, 2015
Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says Kansas’ tax cuts are “definitely the number-one reason the state faces a big budget gap.” And in Wisconsin, she adds, it is that, as the national recession ended and state revenues ticked up, Walker “enacted some permanent tax cuts” […]
May 28, 2015
When considering income taxes overall, information from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates that the poorest 20 percent of Kansans pay 11.1 percent of their income in taxes while the wealthiest 1 percent of Kansans pay only 3.6 percent. We have an unfair tax system. More than 300,000 businesses in Kansas are paying […]
May 28, 2015
However, Carl Davis, a senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit nonpartisan Washington think tank, said that while tax holidays help retailers, they don’t accomplish much else. “I think the major takeaway with sales tax holidays is they’re high profile and they get a lot of favorable attention for politicians, […]
May 28, 2015
Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, said that while making tax delinquents’ names public may work, a larger question is whether that technique is being used because state tax collection departments are underfunded and under-staffed, making regular collections more difficult. “A better strategy would be […]
May 21, 2015
But with the summer driving season about to start this weekend, the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) has jumped into the debate with some new data and commentary about the gas tax. It points out that, taking inflation into account, the federal gas tax has lost close to 40 percent of its […]
May 21, 2015
Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, called the estimation “pretty rock solid” and said the Center on Budget Policies and Priorities used a sensible starting point. “To be able to do anything differently, you would have to know exactly how many people were going to die in 2016,” Gardner […]
May 21, 2015
The supposed “historic” tax cut of 2013 actually resulted in a tax code under which the average taxpayer in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution now pays more in state and local taxes, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The “cut” in the gas tax actually eliminated a larger automatic […]
May 20, 2015
The left-wing Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy agrees with the conclusion and observes that when targeted tax breaks do reduce revenue, “that means reductions in the public services that businesses use every day.” In other words, the Hotel Niagara’s windfall tax benefit may mean more potholes on the road, slightly slowing traffic and damaging […]
May 18, 2015
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. Read more
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