Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Select Media Mentions

New York Times: States Consider Increasing Taxes on the Poor, Raising Them on the Rich

February 13, 2015

While the bottom fifth of earners pay more than 10 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the top 1 percent pays closer to 5 percent, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates. Percentage of income is, of course, only one way to measure the tax burden — in sheer dollar terms, […]

International Business Times: Closing Tax Gap Would Reap $200B a Year

February 13, 2015

Last month, the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the poorest 20 percent of households pay on average more than twice the effective state and local tax rate (10.9 percent) as the richest 1 percent of taxpayers (5.4 percent). The report out Friday from Good Jobs First and the Keystone Research Center finds […]

Providence Journal: Taxing the Poor

February 12, 2015

“While the federal income tax system is generally progressive, state and local taxes hit lower-income Americans hard. The nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has been on a mission to emphasize the fact, and to draw state-by-state comparisons. In its latest annual report, it condemned all systems across the board, concluding that “virtually every […]

The Inlander: Taxes-Idaho v. Washington

February 12, 2015

But don’t look so smug, Washington progressives: Washington may take in more tax revenue to fund more programs than Idaho, but its tax system hits the poor far harder. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that Washington had the most unfair tax system in the nation, with the the bottom 20 percent of […]

The Arkron Beacon Journal: Kasich the Tax Shifter

February 12, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy performed an analysis of the governor’s tax plan for Policy Matters Ohio. Released on Tuesday, the evaluation reveals how the overall impact would shift the tax system further in favor of wealthier Ohioans, or the top 5 percent. The top 1 percent would enjoy relief of an average […]

NPR All Things Considered: Failing Bridges Take a Toll

February 11, 2015

“Asphalt costs are higher, machinery costs are higher. Construction workers’ wages are usually higher,” says Carl Davis of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. “So the revenues that we’re chipping in aren’t keeping pace with the costs that we have.” Davis says the federal government can borrow money to fund transportation projects. […]

Washington Post: Can These Red States Raise the Gas Tax?

February 11, 2015

Some states can’t wait around to see what the federal government will do. In order to fix their roads, many are seriously considering raising a tax that in some states hasn’t been touched in over two decades. Which states are those? On Tuesday, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a liberal think tank, updated […]

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 Columbus Dispatch: 60% of Ohioans Would Receive Tax Increase Under Kasich Plan

February 11, 2015

Some of that gap is attributed to the governor’s plan to impose a $1-a-pack increase on the state cigarette tax. But even removing that from the table, taxpayers in the bottom 40 percent – $37,000 a year or less — still would see no tax benefits as a whole from Kasich’s proposal, according to an […]

Reuters: U.S. Companies May Not Be Fleeing Due to High Tax Rate

February 10, 2015

In a project for Reuters, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a tax policy think tank in Washington, looked at the six companies’ data somewhat differently, stripping out certain accounting adjustments, and found an average effective tax rate of 22.2 percent over the period. Read more

KELO TV: Paying More for Being Poor

February 10, 2015

Being poor in South Dakota is harder than in most other states in the U.S.. A recent study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that South Dakota’s tax structure, along with other factors, make it one of the most difficult states to live in for low-income families. The city of Sioux Falls […]

The Kennebec Journal: LePage Following Republican Governors’ National Strategy

February 5, 2015

Meg Wiehe, state policy director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning organization that evaluates tax reform initiatives, questions whether journalists are making accurate appraisals of Republican policy in Maine and other states. “It’s frustrating to me because they’re not looking hard enough,” she said. “I just don’t think that it’s true […]

24/7 Wall Street: 10 States with the Worst Tax Averages for Americans

February 5, 2015

When looking at taxes paid as a share of the income earned, all states have a regressive tax system, which means poorer residents are taxed more than the wealthiest ones. The difference in effective tax rates between income groups, however, varies widely between states. According to “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems […]

Washington Post: It’s Time to Stop Letting Sports Team Owners Blackmail Taxpayers for New Stadiums

February 5, 2015

“It’s a silly tax break,” said Matt Gardner, director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “It’s ludicrous that the federal government would be subsidizing state and local borrowing to give investors tax breaks to make it easier for them to build sports stadiums.” Read more

The Spokesman Review: Economy Finally Recovering–for the 1 %

February 4, 2015

Washington’s tax fairness problem is old news – every year, new analyses emerge that rank Washington near the bottom on measures of fairness. That’s based on the state’s reliance on the sales tax, which hits the poor the hardest. A report issued this month by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy ranked Washington at […]

Palm Beach New Times: Florida Has the 2nd Least Fair Tax System in the Nation

February 4, 2015

A big selling point to convincing people to move to the Sunshine State has always been that Florida has no state income tax. And that’s true. But the reality is that Florida ranks at the very bottom when it comes to the fairest taxes in the U.S. This means that the poorest of those living […]

The Bellingham Herald: When It Comes to Unfair Tax Systems, We’re No. 1

February 4, 2015

The unfair nature of our tax system made national news earlier this month when the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released its state-by-state profile in which it compares features of state tax systems. Its analysis shows that while taxes in just about every state are skewed – on average the bottom 20 percent […]

CNN Money: Offshore Corporate Cash Piles at Risk from Obama Tax Plan

February 2, 2015

Meanwhile, Matt Gardner, executive director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, says the proposed tax rates are too low. “It’s helpful that the [U.S.] administration has identified a way to tax the profits that multinationals are stashing offshore. This is an important part of tax reform. But I think these rates are too […]

Nooga.com: Study Says Tennessee Poor Hit Harder with Taxes than the Rich

February 2, 2015

The report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy—a nonpartisan research group with ties to the liberal-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice—ranks Tennessee’s tax system as the seventh most unfair in the U.S. Under a regressive tax structure, family incomes are less equal after state and local taxes are paid than before. Read more

Progress Illinois: Illinois Ranks Poorly on Wellbeing Indicators

February 2, 2015

Additionally, researchers highlighted the fact that Illinois has the fifth most regressive tax system in the nation, according to a separate study recently issued by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. The analysis showed that the poorest Illinois residents currently pay almost three times more in taxes as a percent of their income compared to the richest people in the […]

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio’s Tax System Burdens Middle Class and Poor

February 2, 2015

In Ohio the top 1 percent of non-elderly residents by income, who earned at least $356,000 in 2012, pay 7 percent of their income in state and local taxes on average. The lowest fifth, who make less than $18,000, pay 11.7 percent on average. Those in the middle, making between $34,000 and $56,000, pay 10.6 […]

Atlanta Black Star: Brutally Unfair Tax Structure Forces the Poor to Pay Twice As Much As the Rich

January 30, 2015

The culprit is the state and local taxes Americans pay on top of the federal taxes. While the federal taxes are relatively progressive, meaning they take a higher percentage from the wealthy than they do the poor and therefore try to address poverty and inequality, the federal efforts are swamped by state and local taxes […]

Forbes: Regressive Taxes Are Neither New Nor Good

January 30, 2015

The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released its annual “Who Pays” report. The report should be read by everyone in the state and local tax policy business. Once again, ITEP has found that state and local tax systems are decidedly regressive. In fact, ITEP concluded that the effective tax rate of the 20% […]

Politico: Gas Tax Talk Isn’t Just for the Feds

January 30, 2015

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill may struggle to even utter the words “gas tax hike” sometimes, but that’s not stopping action on the state level. At least a dozen states are seriously considering raising their gas taxes this year, according to Carl Davis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. That comes after eight states […]

Bangor Daily News: Roads in Maine–Well, Everywhere–Need More Than a 9-Month Fix

January 30, 2015

The result? The Highway Trust Fund — which pays for both road and transit improvements — faces a $161 billion shortfall by 2024, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimates that 78 percent of the shortfall is due to Congress’ inaction on the gas tax; 22 percent is […]

Members of the media rely on ITEP for analysis and insight about how tax policies affect people. If you’re a reporter looking to talk to one of our experts, contact Jon Whiten at [email protected].