Michigan
State Rundown Special Edition: Fiscal Year Wrap-Up
• By ITEP Staff
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: states don't have to wait for federal lawmakers to make moves toward progressive tax policy. And so far, 2019 has been a good year for equitable and sustainable tax policy in the states. With July 1 marking the start of a new fiscal year for most states, this special edition of the Rundown looks at how discussions in 2019 have been dominated by plans to raise…
The Wall Street Journal: From Gas Taxes to Vaping Rules, New State Laws Take Effect Across U.S.
July 2, 2019
Drivers in a number of states will now pay higher taxes on gas as part of a broader push to fund infrastructure improvements. In Illinois, the gas tax has doubled to 38 cents from 19 cents, making it the largest increase for any of these states, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, […]
State Rundown 6/27: States Look at Raising Incomes at the Bottom, Taxes at the Top
• By ITEP Staff
Low-income working families got good news and bad news this week, as Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) enhancements passed in California and advanced in Oregon, while minimum wage increases failed in Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, the momentum for taxing wealth and the very rich continued to grow, as more one-percenters called for enacting progressive taxes, and Inequality.org held a star-studded conference on why and how to do so.
Travelers in 12 States Will Pay More in Gas Taxes Beginning Monday
• By Carl Davis
Drivers in 12 states who hit the road during this summer driving season will be paying more in gas tax beginning Monday, July 1. While the federal gas tax has remained stagnant for nearly 26 years, many states have stepped up and increased their taxes so they can raise revenue to fund infrastructure and other projects. California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont all will raise their gas…
Gas Taxes Rise in a Dozen States, Including an Historic Increase in Illinois
• By Carl Davis
On July 1, 12 states will boost their gasoline taxes and 11 will boost their diesel taxes. The reasons for these increases vary, but they’re generally intended to fund maintenance and improvement of our nation’s transportation infrastructure–a job at which Congress has not excelled in recent years.
Most States Have Raised Gas Taxes in Recent Years
• By Carl Davis
Ohio now enjoys the distinction of being the 30th state to raise or reform its gas tax this decade, and the third state to do so this year, under a bill signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine. While state tax policy can be a contentious topic, there has been a remarkable level of agreement on the gasoline tax. Increasingly, state lawmakers are deciding that outdated gas taxes need to be raised and reformed to…
Most Americans Live in States with Variable-Rate Gas Taxes
• By Carl Davis
The flawed design of federal and state gasoline taxes has made it exceedingly difficult to raise adequate funds to maintain the nation’s transportation infrastructure. Twenty-eight states and the federal government levy fixed-rate gas taxes where the tax rate does not change even when the cost of infrastructure materials rises or when drivers purchase more fuel-efficient vehicles and pay less in gas tax. The federal government’s 18.4-cent gas tax, for example, has not increased in over…
State Rundown 6/19: Juneteenth Highlights Role of State Policy in Racial Equity Fight
• By ITEP Staff
As Americans observe Juneteenth today–the day two years after the Emancipation Proclamation on which news of the end of the Civil War and slavery reached some of the last slaves in Texas—most people’s attention should be on celebrating victories, remembering losses, gathering strength to continue the fight for racial justice, and the accompanying Congressional reparations hearings. In comparison, state tax debates over matters such as reluctance to invest in infrastructure in Michigan and Missouri, approval of income tax cuts in Wisconsin, and a budget standoff in New Jersey may seem…
State Rundown 6/5: Illinois Gets Busy
• By ITEP Staff
Illinois made big news in several tax and budget areas recently, including sending a graduated income tax amendment to voters in 2020, as well as legalizing and taxing cannabis and updating gas and cigarette taxes for infrastructure improvements. Connecticut made smaller waves with sales tax reforms, a plastic bag tax, and a progressive mansion tax. Property tax credits were proposed in both Maine and New Jersey. And Nevada extended a business tax to give teachers…
Tax Credit Wins and Continued Debates in the States
• By Aidan Davis
Income inequality continues to be an undercurrent in public discourse about our economy and how working families are faring. It drove the national debate over the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which, mounds of data reveal has exacerbated the problem. Some elected federal officials have responded to this step backward with calls for higher […]
State Rundown 5/22: (Some) State Lawmakers Can (Partly) Relax This Weekend
• By ITEP Staff
Lawmakers and advocates can enjoy their barbeques with only one eye on their work email this weekend in states that have essentially finished their budget debates such as Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, though both Alaska and Minnesota require special sessions to wrap things up. Getting to those barbeques may be a bumpy ride in Louisiana, Michigan, and other states still working to modernize outdated and inadequate gas taxes.
These States Abandoned Old Gas Tax Structures in Favor of More Sustainable Variable-Rate Gas Taxes
• By ITEP Staff
Because of these reforms, more than 193 million people (or 59 percent of the U.S. population) now live in places where the state gas tax rate automatically varies over time.
State Rundown 5/16: Tensions Remain High Over Budgets and School Finances in Several States
• By ITEP Staff
Tax and budget negotiations remain at standstills in Louisiana and Minnesota, as school funding debates and teacher protests again captured headlines in several states. Oregon lawmakers, for example, finally passed a mixed-bag tax package that won’t improve tax equity but will raise much-needed revenue for education. Meanwhile their counterparts in Nebraska continue to debate highly […]
State Rundown 5/9: Illinois Moves Closer to a Progressive Income Tax
• By ITEP Staff
Lawmakers in Illinois and Ohio have advanced major tax proposals but cannot rest just yet, as they must still get past the other legislative chamber. Their counterparts in Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Oregon, meanwhile, are all at impasses over education funding, as those in Texas left their school funding disagreement unresolved at least until they reconvene...in 2021. And in an era of many states pre-empting smaller jurisdictions by revoking local decision-making powers, leaders in Colorado…
State Rundown 4/26: Capital Gains Taxes Make Gains and Regressive Proposals Regress
• By ITEP Staff
Progressive capital gains tax proposals made news this week in Connecticut and Massachusetts, while Nebraskans came out in force to oppose a regressive tax shift, and North Carolina teachers prepare to rally over their legislature’s proclivity to cut taxes on wealthy households while underfunding schools.
Detroit Metro Times: Five Top Michigan Corporations Paid $0 in Taxes
April 17, 2019
ou may have paid federal taxes, but four Fortune 500 companies in Michigan did not. In fact, they received hundreds of millions of dollars in refunds collectively. DTE Energy, Penske Automotive Group, Whirlpool, and General Motors are among 60 corporations nationally that paid $0 in federal taxes in 2018 despite billions in profits. That’s partly […]
The Case for Extending State-Level Child Tax Credits to Those Left Out: A 50-State Analysis
• By Aidan Davis, Meg Wiehe
As of 2017, 11.5 million children in the United States were living in poverty. A national, fully-refundable Child Tax Credit (CTC) would effectively address persistently high child poverty rates at the national and state levels. The federal CTC in its current form falls short of achieving this goal due to its earnings requirement and lack of full refundability. Fortunately, states have options to make state-level improvements in the absence of federal policy change. A state-level…
Michigan League for Public Policy: The Cost-of-Living Refund
• By ITEP Staff
The Cost-of-Living Refund is an enhanced and modernized version of our state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Michigan’s current EITC—at just 6% of the federal credit—provides a huge help to working families struggling to make ends meet by boosting after-tax incomes, pulling Michigan families above the poverty line, and delivering long-lasting benefits to children in […]
State Rundown 3/6: March Tax Debates Contain Sanity Amid Usual Madness
• By ITEP Staff
State policymakers around the nation this week served up a handful of harmful and upside-down tax proposals, but these were refreshingly outnumbered by sound tax and budget policy proposals in several other states. NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy made tax fairness an explicit priority in his budget address, the NEW MEXICO House passed progressive reforms to improve the state’s schools and tax code, states such as VERMONT are looking to raise funds from legalized cannabis…
Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes
• By ITEP Staff
There is significant room for improvement in state and local tax codes. State tax codes are filled with top-heavy exemptions and deductions and often fail to tax higher incomes at higher rates. States and localities have come to rely too heavily on regressive sales taxes that fail to reflect the modern economy. And overall tax collections are often inadequate in the short-run and unsustainable in the long-run. These types of shortcomings provide compelling reason to…
State Rundown 2/27: Temperatures and Tax Fights Continue to Polarize
• By ITEP Staff
As another polar vortex heads for large swaths of the country, state tax debates this week were highly polarized in another way. Lawmakers and advocates in MICHIGAN, OHIO, OREGON, UTAH, and elsewhere fought to enact or improve state Earned Income Tax Credits to give a boost to low- and middle-income working families. But the opposite extreme was heavily represented as well, as others pushed for regressive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, including in…
State Rundown 2/20: February and Regressive Tax Cuts, The “Meanest Moons of Winter”
• By ITEP Staff
Tom Robbins called February “the meanest moon of winter, all the more cruel because it will masquerade as spring, occasionally for hours at a time, only to rip off its mask with a sadistic laugh and spit icicles into every gullible face, behavior that grows quickly old.” Observers of state fiscal debates might think he was writing about similarly tiresome regressive tax cut proposals, which recently succeeded in Arkansas and advanced in North Dakota despite…
State Rundown 2/14: We ♥ Taxes!
• By ITEP Staff
Happy Valentine’s Day to all lovers of quality research, sound fiscal policy, and progressive tax reforms! This week, some leaders in ARKANSAS displayed their infatuation with the rich by advancing regressive tax cuts, but others in the state are trying to show some love to low- and middle-income families instead. WISCONSIN lawmakers are devoted to tax reductions for the middle class but have not yet decided how to express those feelings. NEBRASKA legislators are playing…
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: Cannabis Tax Implementation and Reform
• By Carl Davis
Few areas of state tax policy have evolved as rapidly as cannabis taxation over the last few years. The first legal, taxable sale of recreational cannabis in modern U.S. history did not occur until 2014. Now, just five years later, a new ITEP report estimates that recreational cannabis is generating more than $1 billion annually in excise tax revenues and $300 million more in general sales tax dollars.
Trends We’re Watching in 2019: The Use of Targeted Tax Breaks to Help Address Poverty and Inequality
• By Aidan Davis
Continuing to build upon the momentum of previous years, states are taking steps to create and improve targeted tax breaks meant to lift their most in-need state residents up and out of poverty. Most notably, a range of states are exploring ways to restore, enhance or create state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC). EITCs are an effective tool to help struggling families with low wages make ends meet and provide necessities for their children. The…
