Mississippi
Sun Herald: Sales Tax Holiday Weekend Arrives July 31
July 27, 2015
“The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, D.C., believes sales tax holidays are poorly targeted, providing tax breaks to the wealthiest taxpayers and offering less assistance to the elderly or families without children who don’t have back-to-school needs. The Institute also said many low-income taxpayers spend most or all of their money on […]
CNBC: Tax-Free Shopping Ahead for These States
July 24, 2015
Research by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, however, contends that increased sales during the tax holidays “have been shown to be primarily the result of consumers’ shifting the timing of their planned purchases.” That organization estimates sales tax holidays will cost states $300 million in 2015. “A two- to three-day sales tax […]
Daily Leader: Sales Tax Holiday Presents Dilemma
July 20, 2015
“Sales tax holidays are advertised as a way to give people a break from paying the sales tax, typically during the “back to school” shopping season. Superficially this sounds good, however, many tax and economic experts and officials believe the benefits are minimal. They say public officials cash in more on the good publicity than […]
Huffington Post: How Some States Are Trying To Fix Their Crumbling Infrastructure
July 6, 2015
Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said efforts to raise state taxes to pay for roads and bridges exploded this year. In 2013 and 2014, four states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Wyoming) increased their gas taxes, while Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island indexed the gas tax to either […]
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: All Roads Lead to Nowhere
March 25, 2015
Big tax cuts that largely benefit corporations and wealthy Mississippians are unaffordable and will erode our ability to support schools, universities, roads and bridges and public safety. Big tax cuts will undermine our future by making it harder for the state to invest in the things that make Mississippi’s working families more productive like a […]
State governments provide a wide array of tax breaks for their elderly residents. Almost every state that levies an income tax now allows some form of income tax exemption or credit for citizens over age 65 that is unavailable to non-elderly taxpayers. And most states provide special property tax breaks to the elderly. Unfortunately, too many of these breaks are poorly-targeted, unsustainable, and unfair. This policy brief surveys federal and state approaches to reducing taxes for older adults and suggests options for designing less costly and better targeted tax breaks for elderly taxpayers.
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: House and Senate Tax Plans Do Little for Struggling Working Families
March 6, 2015
The personal income tax cuts from both the [state] House and Senate plans benefit wealthier families more than lower and middle-income earners. Further, the high cost of these plans may require raising revenue through increases in the property tax or sales tax, both of which hit lower and middle-income earners hard. This combination would result […]
Associated Press Mississippi: Differing Tax Cut Plans Advance in Mississippi House
February 27, 2015
Opponents warn Gunn’s plan means Mississippi’s remaining taxes would fall more heavily on the poor, as a proportion of income. Projections from the liberal-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy show the lowest-earning 20 percent of taxpayers, making $16,000 or less, would save an average of $13 a year. Those in the top 1 percent […]
An updated version of this report has been published with data through July 1, 2017. Read the report in PDF form. Many states’ transportation budgets are in disarray, in part because they are trying to cover the rising cost of asphalt, machinery, and other construction materials with a gasoline tax rate that is rarely increased.1 […]
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: A State Earned Income Tax Credit: A Boost for Mississippi Families
January 29, 2015
Mississippi families are struggling to make ends meet despite working hard and playing by the rules. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) gives many of these families the boost they need to be more financially secure. Mississippi can also enact a refundable state EITC to leverage the federal credit’s track record of encouraging work, […]
Jackson Clarion Ledger: Poor’s Tax Burden High
January 20, 2015
With Gov. Phil Bryant’s push for a tax cut this legislative session as context, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has released a report that says the tax rate as a percentage of income for poor Mississippians is twice that for the state’s wealthy. The study by Washington, D.C.-based ITEP found lower-income Mississippians pay […]
Forbes: Mississippi’s Good Idea to Help the Poor
December 12, 2014
The Bryant proposal isn’t perfect. A refundable credit would be better. As the folks at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy have noted, Bryant’s plan would provide relief to about 9 percent of low-income taxpayers. But a refundable credit would reach 45%. Moreover, the credit would kick in only if state tax revenues increase […]
Bloomberg BNA: Survey Says Higher Income Households Should Pay More
September 30, 2014
Using data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), WalletHub then compared what Americans think is fair to the structure of state and local tax systems. ITEP estimates the total state and local tax burden of households at seven different points in the income distributions of each state (e.g., bottom 20 percent or […]
The Des Moines Register: Road Construction Running out of Gas?
May 27, 2014
By Editorial Board, May 25, 2014 Iowans on the road this Memorial Day weekend will likely encounter some traffic delays. It’s that time of the year when work gets underway on the state’s highways and bridges. The Iowa Department of Transportation is already looking down the road to $2.7 billion in major highway construction projects […]
Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier: Gas tax
April 2, 2014
(Original Post) A new fact sheet from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates Iowa is one of seven states where the gas tax rates are “stuck in neutral.” According to the institute’s analysis, 21 states have gone a decade or more without increasing their gas tax rates and 16 states have gone two […]
Globe Gazette: Iowa’s Among Gas Tax Rates Stuck in Neutral
April 2, 2014
(Original Post) A new fact sheet from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy indicates Iowa is one of seven states where the gas tax rates are “stuck in neutral.” According to the institute’s analysis, 21 states have gone a decade or more without increasing their gas tax rates and 16 states have gone two […]
Salon: The “Texas Miracle” fraud
March 10, 2014
(Original Post) FRIDAY, MAR 7, 2014 01:56 PM EST Yes, Texas has seen a lot of growth — but should conservatives really be bragging about it? ALEX PAREENE Remember “The Texas Miracle”? It was the story of how Rick Perry was going to be president because his state, Texas, was doing so much better than […]
Shreveport Times: Taxes – Where is Louisiana?
November 18, 2013
Nov. 15, 2013 Written by Tommy Williams Special to The Times Right now, inflation is not meeting expectations — and that may be a good thing. Critics of the prevailing monetary policy and low interest rates have predicted inflation will rise. Martin Feldstein, president of the National Bureau for Economic Research, explained in 2012 that […]
Washington Post: The state that taxes the poor the most is… a blue one
September 23, 2013
(Original Post) By Niraj Chokshi, Published: September 21 at 10:00 am The state that easily handed President Obama a victory last November while passing voter-approved referendums legalizing same-sex marriage and marijuana consumption also happens to have the nation’s highest tax burden on the poor. Poor families in Washington state pay 16.9 percent of their total […]
Columbia Journalism Review: Invasion of the Job Snatcher
September 9, 2013
(Original Post) As the Missouri media takes up arms against Rick Perry, some facts and context get lost in the fray By Deron Lee FAIRWAY, KS — Texas and Missouri no longer square off as Big 12 opponents, but governors Rick Perry and Jay Nixon—with some help from Missouri’s media—have ignited a new interstate rivalry. […]
The Advocate: Sales tax holiday begins Friday
July 31, 2013
[email protected] July 31, 2013 State sales tax will take a holiday this weekend, giving consumers a chance to save on the purchases of clothes, appliances, electronics and other goods. Lifting the 4 percent state sales tax is a tradition that dates to the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, when legislators wanted to help storm […]
Jackson Clarion Ledger: A Mississippi sales-tax holiday primer
July 26, 2013
(Original Post) If you’re looking to save money on many kinds of clothing and footwear – but not school supplies – then the next two days are for you. Friday and Saturday will mark this year’s installment of Mississippi’s sales tax holiday, in which the state’s 7 percent sales tax will be generally waived on […]
Jackson Clarion Ledger: Drastically differing views on this weekend’s sales tax holiday
July 26, 2013
(Original Post) Mississippi’s annual “sales tax holiday” for clothing and footwear begins Friday, aimed primarily at helping parents with back-to-school purchases. I’ve received two correspondences on the holiday, one from a group saying it’s great, another saying it’s not. The Mississippi chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses says it’s “a big help to […]
McClatchy-Tribune: States expand sales tax holidays beyond back-to-school items
July 22, 2013
Many states with back-to-school sales tax “holidays” are expanding them to cover almost any purchase, in addition to the usual kids’ clothing, shoes, books and school supplies. As schools and students replace ink and paper with pixels, some states are expanding their holidays to cover sales taxes on low-cost computers and tablets. These electronics […]
Hattiesburg American: Fact, fiction of immigration reform remains problematic
July 18, 2013
(Original Post) Jul. 17, 2013 12:53 PM Written by Sid Salter For more centrist Republicans, the 2012 election cycle was enough to jump start a new discussion of compromise from hard right-wing dogma on immigration reform both at the national and state level. Yet what was a promising start for the 2013 version of immigration […]
