Select Media Mentions
The Nation: How Cities’ Funding Woes Are Driving Racial and Economic Injustice–And What We Can Do About It
May 1, 2015
Many towns have resorted to privatizing formerly public responsibilities such as trash collection, sewage, roads and parks, and introducing new fees to force residents to foot the bill directly. These fees and taxes are often extremely regressive, because as everyone is forced to pay a flat rate, poor people end up paying a higher percentage […]
Alternet: Tax Cuts for the Rich Made Kansas Broke–So Now States Move to Raise Taxes on the Poor
April 28, 2015
In its 2015 edition of “Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States,” the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy counts Kansas among the 10 states with the “most regressive state and local tax systems.” Taxes eat up 11.1 percent of income for the poorest 20 percent of Kansas residents. […]
Stateline: States Try More Tax Breaks for Seniors
April 28, 2015
Despite the trend, Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which surveyed senior tax breaks, said all of the efforts to have “blanket state tax preferences for elderly taxpayers is … a very ill-advised policy.” She also pointed out that states which shield retirement income — Social Security […]
Shelby (NC) Star: Tax Season Brought Some Sticker Shock
April 28, 2015
Meanwhile, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reports that in all 50 states, the wealthy tend to pay a lower percentage of their incomes in taxes than low- and middle-income taxpayers. The institute says states are relying largely on sales taxes, which hit poor and middle-income families especially hard because they spend a bigger […]
Norther Voices Online: Undocumented Immigrants Contribute $12B in Taxes
April 28, 2015
The study was conducted by very respected Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. The study concluded after thorough analysis that average effective state and local tax rate by undocumented immigrants in 2012 was estimated at 8 percent, higher than the 5.4 percent effective tax rate by the top 1 percent of taxpayers. Read […]
Michigan AP: Michigan Households Would Pay Hundreds More in Taxes under Prop 1
April 28, 2015
The average tax hike for the middle fifth of Michigan households — those making $40,000 to $64,000 a year — would be $267, or $22 a month, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for the Michigan League for Public Policy, an advocacy group in Lansing focused on poverty. […]
Wonkette: You Won’t Believe How Kansas is Paying for Rich People’s Tax Cuts
April 28, 2015
Among the fifth of the Kansas population with the lowest incomes, the average person pays 11.1 percent of what they make in state and local taxes, including sales taxes. Among the wealthiest one in every 100 Kansans, the average tax bill is just 3.6 percent of annual income, according to a recent report from the […]
The Hill: Sanders Warns All 50 Governors about Effects of GOP Budget
April 28, 2015
Sanders told Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) that approximately 1.6 million people would lose health coverage next year. About 141,000 jobs could be eliminated by 2017, and 3.5 million people could be at risk of losing nutrition assistance because of food stamps cuts, Sanders said. The data was based on analyses of the GOP budgets […]
Omaha World-Herald: Static gas tax rate curbs Nebraska’s buying power
April 27, 2015
“It’s an inevitable fact that if gas tax rates are not updated from time to time, the tax is not going to keep pace with construction costs,” said Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a think tank in Washington. However, due to the difficulty of mustering the votes to raise a […]
Between the Lines: Deep Tax Cuts for Corporations and the Rich Create Unfair Tax System for Poor and Working Families
April 23, 2015
A new report by the group Citizens for Tax Justice, titled, “Who Pays Taxes in America in 2015?” underscores the unfair nature of the U.S. tax system, where the wealthiest sector contribute a decreasing share of the nation’s revenue. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation […]
The Charlotte Observer: Raleigh’s “Help” Does More Harm
April 23, 2015
This at a time when a January report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy showed state and local taxes take up 9.2 percent of total income for North Carolina’s poorest families. It nibbles 5.3 percent of our richest families’ income. Of course, there’s so much tax policy infighting among GOP lawmakers that it’s […]
Verdict: The Republicans’ Cynical Tax Game–Undercut the IRS, Blame the IRS, Repeat
April 23, 2015
For example, according to estimates from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the top one percent of U.S. taxpayers in 2015 will earn 22.2 percent of all income, and they will pay 23.8 percent of all taxes. The next 4 percent of taxpayers will receive 14.4 percent of all income and pay 15.2 percent […]
Fox News Latino: Undocumented Immigrants Paid Nearly $12B in Taxes
April 23, 2015
A new study shows that undocumented immigrants paid an average state and local tax rate of 8 percent in 2012, higher than the 5.4 percent paid by the top 1 percent of taxpayers The study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that undocumented immigrants paid some $11.8 billion in state and local […]
Sun-Sentinel: Immigration Reform Could Boost Tax Revenue
April 22, 2015
Undocumented immigrants in the Sunshine State paid nearly $468 million in sales and excise taxes a year and $137 million in annual property taxes, according to the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The institute analyzed 2012 data from the Migration Policy Institute, the Fiscal Policy Institute, the Pew Research Center and Congressional Budget […]
Market Watch: Undocumented Immigrants Pay Billions in Taxes
April 21, 2015
If you think undocumented immigrants don’t pay taxes, a new report may cause you to think again. Far from not paying taxes — as is alleged by critics — undocumented immigrants paid about $11.8 billion in state and local taxes in 2012, according to a report released late last week by the Institute on Taxation […]
Stateline: States Look at Axing ‘Double Deduction’ Tax Break
April 21, 2015
No one is sure how and where the tax break originated. It’s not like many other kinds of deductions, which were prompted by particular public policy goals, such as the home mortgage interest deduction that was instituted to encourage home ownership. “I think it’s a strange and pointless deduction,” said Carl Davis, a senior analyst […]
Flathead Beacon: Senate Hears About Tax-Cut Plan by GOP Representatives
April 21, 2015
Heather O’Loughlin, research director at the Montana Budget and Policy Center, opposed the bill. Across-the-board tax cuts would favor the wealthy and have little impact on people earning low and middle-level incomes, she said. The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, a non-partisan organization that works on federal, state and local tax policy, ran the […]
MLive Media Group: You ask, we answer: Proposal 1, regressive taxes and electric vehicle fees
April 21, 2015
Sales taxes, which would increase under Proposal 1, are considered “regressive” because they can disproportionally affect low-income workers, who tend to spend a larger portion of their earnings on taxable goods than wealthier residents. The Institute for Tax and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research group, currently ranks Michigan in the middle of the pack for […]
Lansing State Journal: Tax proposal will cost some $500 per household
April 21, 2015
The average tax hike for the middle fifth of Michigan households — those making $40,000 to $64,000 a year — would be $267, or $22 a month, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy for the Michigan League for Public Policy, an advocacy group in Lansing focused on poverty. […]
The Spokesman-Review: Last Idaho Gas Tax Hike? 1995
April 21, 2015
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy notes Idaho is one of 22 states that have gone more than a decade without raising its gas tax. Idaho, which last raised the tax in 1995, isn’t even in the top ten in length of time since raising the tax. Alaska has gone almost 50 years, and […]
KHON2: Hawaii resident’s tax burden one of the worst in the US
April 21, 2015
The Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy, or ITEP, found in its latest report that many taxes — including payroll taxes, sales taxes, and some state and local taxes — are regressive, which means they take more money out of the pockets of Americans in the lower- and middle-income brackets than from wealthier families. Click […]
Honolulu Civil Beat: Is This Really Fair Taxation?
April 21, 2015
The bill’s preamble language, which is supposed to give the reader some idea of what is motivating the law change proposal, states: According to the study “Who Pays: A Distribution Analysis of Tax Systems in All 50 States, Fifth Edition” (Institute of Taxation & Economic Policy, January 2015), Hawaii households with income in the lowest […]
Governing: This Week in Public Finance
April 21, 2015
A new study has found that granting undocumented immigrants’ legal status in the United States could increase state and local tax collections by a total of more than $2 billion a year. The April 16 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy noted that the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the […]
El Universal: Immigrants’ Tax Contributions Would Increase Under Obama’s Executive Actions
April 21, 2015
A new study titled, Undocumented Immigrants’ State and Local Tax Contributions, conducted by the U.S. Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) shows that undocumented immigrants’ tax contributions would increase significantly under the Obama Administration’s executive actions and even more substantially under comprehensive immigration reform granting all undocumented immigrants lawful permanent residence. The 11.4 million undocumented […]
Washington Post: Kansas Lawmakers Want the Poor to Pay for Tax Cuts for the Rich
April 21, 2015
The Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy’s Meg Wiehe notes that in many states, average incomes have only increased among the richest groups in recent years. As a result, a system of taxation that depends more on the economic fortunes of the poor and the middle class might not produce increasing revenue in the future to meet the needs of growing […]
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