Minnesota
State Rundown 3/2: State Tax News When You Need It
• By ITEP Staff
ITEP is happy to announce the launch of our new State Tax Watch page, where you can find out about the most up-to-date tax proposals and permanent legislative changes happening across the country...
State Rundown 2/16: Spending Priorities Emerge as the Votes Are Counted
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers have been busy working out deals and negotiating how best to use excess revenues, and as the votes are beginning to come in, spending priorities are becoming clearer...
Federal EITC Enhancements Help More Than One in Three Young Workers
• By Aidan Davis
More than one in three young adults would benefit from workers without children being eligible to receive the federal EITC. This policy change would bolster young adults’ economic security.
State Rundown 1/26: States Offering Preview of Tax Themes and Trends for 2022
• By ITEP Staff
Governors and legislators are beginning to settle on and advance tax bills that could drastically shape the future of their states and several trends and themes are beginning to emerge...
Investing in a Joint Future: Harnessing State Tax Codes
• By Aidan Davis
Rather than resorting to tax cuts, which can eventually create revenue shortfalls, lawmakers should determine whether they have adequately invested in people and communities. There are better ways to leverage tax systems to help those who need it most.
Boosting Incomes and Improving Tax Equity with State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2021
• By Aidan Davis
The EITC benefits low-income people of all races and ethnicities. But it is particularly impactful in historically excluded Black and Hispanic communities where discrimination in the labor market, inequitable educational systems, and countless other inequities have relegated a disproportionate share of people to low-wage jobs.
State Income Taxes and Racial Equity: Narrowing Racial Income and Wealth Gaps with State Personal Income Taxes
• By Carl Davis, Jessica Schieder, Marco Guzman
10 state personal income tax reforms that offer the most promising routes toward narrowing racial income and wealth gaps through the tax code.
State Rundown 9/15: It’s a Little Too Quiet…
• By ITEP Staff
Though we can’t fault anyone for being distracted by the major stories of the day, we at ITEP remain committed to keeping you up to date on what’s happening in the tax world around you...
Extending Federal EITC Enhancements Would Bolster the Effects of State-Level Credits
• By Aidan Davis
The EITC expansion targets workers without children in the home. In 2022 it would provide a $12.4 billion boost, benefiting 19.5 million workers who on average would receive an income boost of $730 dollars.
State Rundown 7/7: The New Fiscal Year Starts off With a Bang, And Not Just Fireworks
• By ITEP Staff
States were busy over the past week despite the Fourth of July holiday. Many are gearing up for upcoming tax and budget clashes that could shape their futures for some time...
State-Level EITC Victories in 2021
• By Aidan Davis
A growing group of state lawmakers are recognizing the extent to which low- and middle-income Americans are struggling and the ways in which their state and local tax systems can do more to ensure the economic security of their residents over the long run. To that end, lawmakers across the country have made strides in enacting, increasing, or expanding tax credits that benefit low- and middle-income families. Here is a summary of those changes and…
State Rundown 6/24: Late June State Fiscal Debates Unusually Active
• By ITEP Staff
Delayed legislative sessions and protracted federal aid debates have made for a busier June than normal for state fiscal debates. Arizona, New Hampshire, and North Carolina legislators, for example, are still pushing for expensive and regressive tax cuts in their states while they remain in session...
State Rundown 6/16: Progressive Tax Policy Keeps Racking Up Wins
• By ITEP Staff
Taxing rich households and large corporations to fund vital investments in education and other shared priorities has long been a winner in the eyes of the American public, and more recently has also enjoyed a string of victories in state legislatures and at the ballot box. That win streak continued this week as Arizona’s voter-approved tax surcharge on the rich and Seattle, Washington’s payroll tax on high-profit, high-salary businesses both survived court challenges, and Massachusetts…
State and Local Lessons on Tax Day 2021
• By ITEP Staff
Take a minute on this Tax Day to reflect on all that you survived, accomplished, and contributed to the collective good this past year, and be proud. There is always more work to be done to build the communities we desire, and paying your share is what allows that work to continue.
State Tax Codes & Racial Inequities: An Illinois Case Study
• By Lisa Christensen Gee
Earlier this year, ITEP released a report providing an overview of the impacts of state and local tax policies on race equity. Against a backdrop of vast racial disparities in income and wealth resulting from historical and current injustices both in public policy and in broader society, the report highlights that how states raise revenue to invest in disparity-reducing investments like education, health, and childcare has important implications for race equity.
Nearly 20 Million Will Benefit if Congress Makes the EITC Enhancement Permanent
• By Aidan Davis
Overall, the EITC enhancement would provide a $12.4 billion boost in 2022 if made permanent, benefiting 19.5 million workers. It would have a particularly meaningful impact on the bottom 20 percent of eligible households who would receive more than three-fourths of the total benefit. Forty-one percent of households in the bottom 20 percent of earners would benefit, receiving an average income boost of 6.3 percent, or $740 dollars.
State Rundown 4/29: How You Like Them Washington Apples?
• By ITEP Staff
North Carolina lawmakers may have approved a massive tax subsidy giveaway to Apple, but we won’t let that news spoil our barrel this week. Nor will we be discouraged by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s threats to upset the apple cart full of positive progressive tax reforms state lawmakers recently came together to approve...Why all the optimism? Because the apple of our eye this week is Washington State, where advocates and lawmakers succeeded in a decade-long…
An EITC to Lift Up Young Workers
• By Devin Douglass
Young workers are confronting a harsh economic reality filled with student loan debt and far too few good-paying jobs. The pandemic reinforced this group’s long history of not receiving proper benefits, such as health insurance, from their employers. They also are often overlooked when it comes to policies that promote economic wellbeing. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), for example, is a glowing success story. It lifted 5.8 million people out of poverty in…
State Rundown 4/7: Tax Justice Advocates Applaud New York Budget Deal
• By ITEP Staff
New York lawmakers stole the spotlight this week as they were able to agree on—and convince reluctant Gov. Andrew Cuomo to support—strong progressive tax increases on the highest-income households and corporations in the state to fund shared priorities like K-12 education and pandemic recovery efforts. Minnesota leaders are attempting a similar performance off Broadway with progressive reforms of their own, while Kansas legislators are getting poor reviews for cutting a number of taxes and worsening…
A New Look at Taxes and Race at the State and Local Levels
• By Carl Davis, ITEP Staff, Meg Wiehe
A new ITEP report reveals how different taxes have very different impacts on racial equity and unveils data for two states showcasing the consequences of their contrasting tax policy choices. In short, we find that income taxes can help narrow the racial income and wealth divides while sales taxes generally make those divides worse.
Taxes and Racial Equity: An Overview of State and Local Policy Impacts
• By ITEP Staff
Historic and current injustices, both in public policy and in broader society, have resulted in vast disparities in income and wealth across race and ethnicity. Employment discrimination has denied good job opportunities to people of color. An uneven system of public education funding advantages wealthier white people and produces unequal educational outcomes. Racist policies such as redlining and discrimination in lending practices have denied countless Black families the opportunity to become homeowners or business owners,…
New Research: Tax Policy Choices Can Narrow or Worsen the Racial Income Gap
• By ITEP Staff
Media contact A new report released today by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy spotlights a stark challenge confronting state and local lawmakers. Tax policy has the potential to narrow the racial income and wealth gaps, but an overreliance on inequitable revenue sources in some states indefensibly makes those gaps worse. The research builds […]
MinnPost: Is Minnesota’s Tax System Unfair?
March 15, 2021
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s regular assessment of state taxes concludes that just five states and the District of Columbia have positive scores on progressivity: California, Delaware, New Jersey, Vermont and Minnesota. The progressive systems rely less on consumption taxes and more on income taxes, with rates that increase with wealth. They also […]
EITC Enhancements for States to Consider in 2021
• By Aidan Davis
While the federal EITC provides a great deal of support for families with children, its impact is limited for those without children or who are not raising children in their homes. Childless workers under 25 and over 64 have for far too long received no benefit from the federal credit. And workers aged 25 to 64 have received very little value from the existing credit (the maximum credit is much smaller and the income limits…
State Rundown 2/4: Some Lawmakers, Governors Rising to Occasion with Progressive Tax Proposals
• By ITEP Staff
States face shifting landscapes as they attempt to deal with both emergent and longstanding issues in their tax codes and budget structures. This is particularly evident in Oklahoma, where lawmakers must adjust to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that literally redraws state boundaries by recognizing the rights of indigenous communities, but is true in every state, and lawmakers in many of them are rising to the challenge. Read below and see our blog posted today…
