Mississippi
Stateline: States Expand Sales Tax Holidays Beyond Back-to-School Items
July 10, 2013
(Original Post) By Elaine S. Povich, Staff Writer A crowd of about 100 line up outside of the Apple Store in the Saddle Creek shopping center in Germantown, Tenn., to get a head start on last year’s tax free weekend. (AP) Many states with back-to-school sales tax “holidays” are expanding them to cover almost […]
Gulf Coast News Today: We are conservative, Republican, religious
July 8, 2013
Steve Flowers Inside the Statehouse A recent survey rated Alabama as the most conservative state in the Union. More than half of our residents describe themselves as politically conservative. The poll was done by the vaunted Princeton, New Jersey Gallup polling firm. Four of our sister states, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas, also […]
The Barre Montpelier Times Argus: Kids count
June 28, 2013
June 28,2013 Once again Vermont finished high in the ranking of children’s well-being released earlier this week by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The foundation’s Kids Count survey of the states measures children’s well-being in 16 categories relating to economic well-being, health, education and family and community. These include categories such as the number […]
Alabama 13: Taxing the Dinner Table
May 10, 2013
Posted: May 09, 2013 6:25 PM EDT Updated: May 09, 2013 11:10 PM EDT By Jon Paepcke BIRMINGHAM, AL – With every bar code swipe, the numbers add up in Alabama. Did you know that for every dollar you spend on groceries four cents goes to the state? It’s true. Did you also know we […]
The Lansing State Journal: Cutting earned income credit hits families
April 12, 2013
Apr. 12, 2013 12:45 PM Written by Gilda Jacobs is president and CEO of the Michigan League for Public Policy. Tax day is right around the corner — and if you are a hardworking family in a low-paying job, you may be in for a big surprise. That’s because in 2011 the Michigan Legislature slashed […]
Kalamazoo Gazette: Michigan tax increases hitting more Kalamazoo-area families this April
March 26, 2013
(Original Post) By Yvonne Zipp | [email protected] on March 25, 2013 at 5:10 PM, updated March 26, 2013 at 8:57 AM KALAMAZOO, MI – As Kalamazoo-area residents fill out their Michigan income tax returns ahead of the April 15 filing deadline, many are getting an unwelcome surprise: The amount they owe has gone up. A […]
CBS 42: Ala. among ‘Terrible 10’ most regressive tax states
January 30, 2013
(Original Post) BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Low and middle-income Alabamians pay more than twice as much of their incomes in state and local taxes as the state’s richest households pay, according to a report released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, D.C. Alabama’s upside-down tax system […]
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: Investing for Growth, Enhancing Our Prospects: Tax Reform in Mississippi
January 15, 2013
In any given year, the state of Mississippi and its residents accomplish a lot. Through the collective investment of our tax dollars, we maintain over 10,000 miles of roads, help educate more than 800,000 children and adults from kindergarten to university and support more than 7,000 law enforcement officers in our local communities. With tax […]
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: Putting the Pieces Together: A Taxpayer’s Guide to the Mississippi Budget
January 14, 2013
Budget decisions directly influence the quality of education that our children receive, the condition of the roads that we travel, the safety of our communities and the level of trust we can place in professionals such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses. Of course, each of these services – education, roadmaintenance and public safety – […]
Mississippi Economic Policy Center: Thank Taxes- Tax Day 2011
January 14, 2013
Everyone who gets a paycheck pays payroll taxes. Everyone who buys anything at a local store or fills up their car with gas pays taxes. Individuals and businesses alike, benefit from the public structures paid for by taxes. The figure below shows the estimated share of state and local taxes as a percentage of income […]
Richmond Times-Dispatch: States Taxing the Rich: A Very Bad or Good Idea
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) NEAL PEIRCE © WASHINGTON POST WRITERS GROUPPublished: September 20, 2009 WASHINGTON In a dramatic break from tax trends of recent decades, eight states have voted this year to push up the percentages of income that their wealthiest citizens must pay. Connecticut is the latest to take this step, following Delaware, Hawaii, […]
The Commercial Appeal: A terrible decision
January 8, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) By Staff Reports Friday, November 20, 2009 Tennessee lawmakers who controlled the debate over state tax reform in 2002 can proudly point to Tennessee’s No. 3 ranking on the list of states with the lowest state and local taxes. Per person, Tennesseans paid an average of $3,005 in 2007, according to […]
Williston Observer: Taxes and the wisdom of our forebears
January 7, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) July 16, 2009 BY BRIAN MILLER One hundred years ago, on July 17, 1909, Sen. William E. Borah, R-Idaho wrote the words, “The income tax is the fairest and most equitable of the taxes. It is the one tax which approaches us in the hour of prosperity and departs in the […]
Clarion Ledger: Time for new revenue? Tax advocates seek to ‘balance’ budget cuts
January 4, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) Ed SivakClarion-Ledger Contributing Columnist With each passing round of information updating the state’s fiscal outlook, the goal of building a Mississippi with quality schools, state-of-the-art transportation and safe communities appears to be more out of reach than it was before the recession. By 2012, Gov. Haley Barbour projects that the budget […]
Tri-Parish Times: Will Jindal go for more sin taxes?
January 4, 2013
(PDF of Original Post) By TOM ASWELL During the 1988 presidential race, Vice President George H.W. Bush proclaimed, “Read my lips: no new taxes!” That famous line helped him defeat Michael Dukakis but when he was forced to back-track on that promise, it was his eventual undoing. Bill Clinton’s own pithy campaign slogan “It’s the […]
The Birmingham News: Our View: Most Alabamians don’t get to celebrate having the nation’s lowest state and local taxes
December 21, 2012
(PDF of Original Post) By Birmingham News editorial boardNovember 08, 2009, 6:00AM Imagine that Nick Saban’s Alabama Crimson Tide wins the national championship this year, but only the special-team players — and not the majority of the team — get to celebrate. If you can imagine that, you get a better sense of what it […]
The Birmingham News: Our View: The time is right for the Legislature to grant sales tax relief to Alabama families struggling to make ends meet
December 21, 2012
(PDF of Original Post) By Birmingham News editorial boardFebruary 10, 2010, 5:30AM When the nation’s economy catches a cold, Alabama gets pneumonia, the saying goes. And when the nation’s economy catches pneumonia, as it has during the Great Recession? Let’s just say Alabama’s economy is gravely ill and struggling. In recent months, the state’s unemployment […]
The Birmingham News: Our View: Lawmakers should make Alabama’s tax system more fair and do away with the 4 percent state sales tax on food
December 21, 2012
(PDF of Original Post) By Birmingham News editorial board March 31, 2010, 5:45AM How does two weeks’ worth of free groceries sound? That’s what the great majority of Alabamians stand to gain if the Legislature removes the state’s 4 percent sales tax from food and over-the-counter drugs. Alabama Arise, a group that lobbies for the […]
The Birmingham News: Our View: The nation’s lowest-tax state reaps the nation’s highest amount from its poorest taxpayers
December 21, 2012
(PDF of Original Post) Alabama stands atop two national rankings. Auburn fans should be upset. But so should fans of the Crimson Tide. Obviously, we’re not talking BCS and AP pre-season college football rankings. Instead, we’re talking about two seemingly contradictory rankings of the state’s tax system that expose just how screwy it is. Alabamians […]
Montgomery Advertiser: Editorial: Are state’s taxes low? Not for all
December 21, 2012
(PDF of Original Post) August 15, 2010 Which statement is true? 1. Compared to the rest of the nation, Alabamians pay a low rate of state and local taxes. 2. Compared to the rest of the nation, Alabamians pay a high rate of state and local taxes. Actually, both statements can be true, or they […]
Ledger-Enquirer: Lobby for the poor won’t make any politician richer
December 21, 2012
(PDF of Original Post) Alabamians are being inundated, and almost certainly disgusted, by the tawdry details of a federal trial involving big money that lobbyists for gambling interests allegedly paid lawmakers for votes to legalize casino-style electronic bingo. Meanwhile, a far humbler lobbying effort of a very different kind quietly continues in Alabama, with hardly […]
Oregonian: TAXING THE RICH It’s not class warfare, it’s just common sense
December 21, 2012
(Original Post) The Sunday Oregonian (Portland, Oregon) September 20, 2009 SundaySunrise Edition TAXING THE RICH It’s not class warfare, it’s just common sense NEAL PEIRCE In a dramatic break from tax trends of recent decades, eight states have voted this year to push up the percentages of income that their wealthiest citizens must pay. Connecticut […]
Clarion Ledger: Corporations already evading Miss. state income tax
December 19, 2012
5:51 PM, Dec. 15, 2011 Written by Bill Minor Among the outlandish bills sponsored by Republican lawmakers I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago was one that would have repealed (yes, repealed) the state income tax on corporations. It didn’t pass. Now don’t be surprised if the bill resurfaces when the GOP takes over […]
Montgomery Advertiser: Rally calls for end to state tax on groceries
December 17, 2012
by Brian Lynn March 15, 2012 Speakers at a State House rally Thursday said repealing the state’s sales tax on groceries and a federal income tax deduction would create tax equity and address looming budget shortfalls. “Asking the richest Alabamians to pay the same share as the rest of us is common sense,” said Kimble […]
Birmingham News: Alabama’s tax system is unfair and immoral, but lawmakers have yet to ease the burden on most families
December 17, 2012
(Original Post) Once upon a time six years ago, the Legislature, prodded by a governor and shamed by a tax study, actually took a baby step toward tax fairness. Lawmakers raised the nation’s lowest income tax threshold — the point at which people begin paying state income tax — from an embarrassingly low $4,600 a […]
