Minnesota
State Itemized Deductions: Surveying the Landscape, Exploring Reforms
• By Carl Davis
State itemized deductions are generally patterned after federal law, though nearly every state makes significant changes to the menu of deductions available or the extent to which those deductions are allowed. This report summarizes the key details of each state’s itemized deduction policies and discusses various options for reforming those deductions with a focus on lessening their regressive impact and reducing their cost to state budgets.
State Rundown 1/30: Flip-Flops and Steady Marches in State Tax Debates
• By ITEP Staff
State tax and budget debates can turn on a dime sometimes, as in Utah this past week, where lawmakers unanimously repealed a tax package they had just approved in a special session last month. Delaware lawmakers are hoping to avoid the similarly abrupt end to their last effort to improve their Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by crafting a bill that Gov. John Carney will have no reason to unexpectedly veto as he did two years ago. But at other times, these debates just can’t change fast…
Workday Minnesota: Dozens of Big Businesses Avoided Corporate Taxes in 2018
January 2, 2020
Roque said corporate tax cuts and loopholes have been enacted by Congresses and presidents of both major parties for the past two decades. Champions of the new tax code argued that lowering corporate rates would lead to increased investments and higher wages, and would increase federal revenues by removing tax shelters. Outside of a few […]
State Rundown 12/18: Utah’s Tax Fight Wraps Up As Other States’ Ramp Up
• By ITEP Staff
With the new year and many state legislative sessions just around the corner, most state tax and budget debates are just getting started. Arkansas will be among the states working to improve their roads and other infrastructure. Massachusetts will have to deal with revenue losses due to a misguided tax-cut trigger put in place in prior years. Maryland and South Dakota will be two of many states facing teacher pay shortages and other education funding…
State Rundown 9/26: Shady State Business Tax Subsidies Coming to Light
• By ITEP Staff
Lawmakers in Michigan and New Hampshire made progress toward enacting their state budgets, though Michigan may yet end up in a government shutdown. Leaders in Wyoming advanced a proposal to create a limited tax on large corporations to raise some revenue and add a progressive element to their state’s tax code. Georgia agencies are forced to recommend their own funding cuts amid state income tax cuts. And business tax subsidies are looking particularly bad in…
State Tax Codes as Poverty Fighting Tools: 2019 Update on Four Key Policies in All 50 States
• By Aidan Davis
This report presents a comprehensive overview of anti-poverty tax policies, surveys tax policy decisions made in the states in 2019 and offers recommendations that every state should consider to help families rise out of poverty. States can jump start their anti-poverty efforts by enacting one or more of four proven and effective tax strategies to reduce the share of taxes paid by low- and moderate-income families: state Earned Income Tax Credits, property tax circuit breakers,…
Boosting Incomes and Improving Tax Equity with State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2019
• By Aidan Davis
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a policy designed to bolster the incomes of low-wage workers and offset some of the taxes they pay, providing the opportunity for families struggling to afford the high cost of living to step up and out of poverty toward meaningful economic security. The federal EITC has kept millions of Americans out of poverty since its enactment in the mid-1970s. Over the past several decades, the effectiveness of the…
Where Does Your State Fall on the ITEP Tax Inequality Index?
• By ITEP Staff
The vast majority of state and local tax systems exacerbate the economic divide by taxing low- and middle-income families at higher rates than the wealthy. This map distills an exhaustive analysis of state and local tax codes into one key number, the ITEP Tax Inequality Index, to show the degree to which each state’s tax […]
State Rundown 7/26: The Dog Days of Tax
• By ITEP Staff
OHIO legislators passed a budget with unfortunate income tax cuts for high-income households. Other states turned their attention to unconventional ideas during their legislative off-seasons, for better and for worse. And there are many gems to be found in our “What We’re Reading” section below, including new research on the racial inequities that continue to pervade our communities and schools.
Many States Move Toward Higher Taxes on the Rich; Lower Taxes on Poor People
• By Meg Wiehe
Several states this year proposed or enacted tax policies that would require high-income households and/or businesses to pay more in taxes. After years of policymaking that slashed taxes for wealthy households and deprived states of revenue to adequately fund public services, this is a necessary and welcome reversal.
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…
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…
Taxing the Rich Works
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
States are putting evidence into practice with multiple efforts to improve services and tax codes through more progressive taxes on the wealthy. Clear evidence has spread widely this year, informing a national conversation about progressive taxation and leading lawmakers in multiple states to eschew supply-side superstition and act on real evidence instead. Taxing the rich works, and in this Just Taxes blog we review state-level efforts to put these proven findings into effect.
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 5/29: In Taxes and Television, Endings Can Be Hard
• By ITEP Staff
Like certain recent controversially concluded television shows, tax and budget debates can end in many ways and often receive mixed reviews. Illinois leaders, for example, ended on a cliffhanger by approving a historic constitutional amendment to create a graduated income tax in the state, whose ultimate conclusion will be crowdsourced by voters next November. Arizona’s fiscal finale fell flat with many observers due to corner-cutting on needed investments and a heavy focus on tax cuts.…
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.
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 5/1: Teacher Uprisings Continue on May Day
• By ITEP Staff
Teachers in North Carolina and South Carolina are walking out and rallying this week for increased education funding, teacher and staff pay, and other improvements to benefit students—if you’re unsure why be sure to check out research on the teacher shortage and pay gap under “What We’re Reading” below. Meanwhile, budget debates have recently wrapped up in Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Washington. And major tax debates are kicking into high gear in both…
MinnPost: Legislative Tax Plans: Equitable, Inspirational or Destructive?
April 30, 2019
Minnesota’s current tax system is considered one of the nation’s most progressive. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan think tank that assesses state and federal tax policies, ranks the state the fourth most-equitable in the way it taxes lower-income residents. It’s the provider tax and that proposed gas tax hike — two inherently regressive taxes — that drag down the overall progressivity of the plans.
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.
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…
Minnesota Public Radio: Are Minnesotans Happy with President Trump’s Tax Cuts?
April 15, 2019
Carl Davis, ITEP’s research director, participated in this half-hour segment on how the public feels about the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts. Listen here or get more info here: https://www.mprnews.org/listen?name=/minnesota/podcasts/kerri-miller/2019/04/15tax_day_20190415_64.mp3
State Rundown 3/27: Spring Bringing Smart State Tax Policy So Far
• By ITEP Staff
Though a long winter and a rough start to spring weather have wreaked havoc in much of the country, lawmakers are off to a good start in the world of state fiscal policy so far. In the last week, a progressive revenue package was passed in the nick of time in NEW MEXICO, a service-sapping tax cut was vetoed in KANSAS, and a regressive and unsustainable tax shift was soundly defeated in NORTH DAKOTA. Meanwhile, gas tax updates…
State Rundown 3/14: Tax Fairness Proposed in Illinois
• By ITEP Staff
More than three billion dollars could be raised under a major progressive tax plan proposed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker this week, the point being to simultaneously improve the state’s upside-down tax code and address its notorious budget gap issues. One state, Utah, may already be looking at a special session to revisit the sales tax reform debate that ended this week without resolution, in contrast to Alabama and Arkansas, where leaders finally resolved years-long…
