Montana
State Rundown 8/26: Progressive Revenue Ideas Featured in Many States’ Fiscal Debates
• By ITEP Staff
Voters could significantly change the tax landscape through ballot measures this November regarding oil taxes in Alaska and a high-income surcharge for education funding in Arizona. Legislators are doing their part to bring progressive tax ideas to the fore as well, including a possible wealth tax in California, a millionaires tax in New Jersey, and a pied-a-terre proposal in New York. And Nebraska lawmakers reached a property tax and business tax subsidy compromise before closing…
State Rundown 8/12: States Find Themselves in New Unemployment Pickle
• By ITEP Staff
Even in statehouses, many eyes remained on Congress and President Trump this week as state lawmakers advocated for needed federal fiscal relief and debated whether they can afford to join in on the president’s executive order requiring states to partially fund a new version of enhanced unemployment benefits that have otherwise expired.
State Rundown 7/22: The Heat Is On
• By ITEP Staff
Temperatures and tensions are high right now across the country as Congress debates its next pandemic response and states continue to sweat through difficult decisions. Nevada lawmakers, for example, just wrapped up a special session during which they came within one vote of a proposed tax increase but ultimately chose to balance their shortfall through only funding cuts. But advocates in many states, including California, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island are trying to…
State Rundown 7/1: Happy New Year?
• By ITEP Staff
As ITEP analyst Kamolika Das wrote today, July 1 is typically the beginning of state fiscal years and “a point when one can take a step back and reflect on the wins and disappointments of the past state legislative sessions.” Not so in 2020, she writes, as uncertainty surrounding the virus, state revenues, and potential federal action give state lawmakers no such time to relax and reflect. Although most recent state actions, such as those…
State Rundown 6/26: States Take Varying Fiscal Approaches While Awaiting Federal Action
• By ITEP Staff
State policymakers this week took a variety of approaches to their fiscal situations amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Tennessee lawmakers chose to balance their budget through $1.5 billion in cuts to public services, but not before adding to those cuts by going forward with planned tax cuts. California legislators also passed a budget but relied on a number of temporary measures and delays to do so. Their counterparts in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island opted…
State Rundown 6/11: Fiscal Debates Continue Amid Turmoil
• By ITEP Staff
As calls to defund the police demonstrate, state and local decisions about funding priorities and how those funds are raised are deeply embedded in racial justice issues. Tax justice is also a key component in advancing racial justice. Racial wealth disparities are the result of countless historic inequities and tax policy choices are certainly among […]
State Rundown 2/27: Leaps Forward Needed for Tax Justice
• By ITEP Staff
This weekend’s Leap Day should be a welcome extra day for state lawmakers, advocates, and observers who care about tax and budget policy, as there is an overflow of proposals and information to digest. Most importantly, as emphasized in our “What We’re Reading” section, there are never enough days in a month to do justice to the importance of Black History Month and Black Futures Month. In state-specific debates, Oregon and Washington leaders are hoping…
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 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…
Which States Allow Deductions for Federal Income Taxes Paid?
• By ITEP Staff
Six states allow an unusual income tax deduction for federal income taxes paid. These deductions are detrimental to state income tax systems on many fronts, as they offer large benefits to high-income earners and undercut the adequacy and stability of state income tax systems.
Newsweek: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Reminds America Undocumented Immigrants Pay Taxes: ‘They Pay Your Kids’ Schooling’
July 31, 2019
While it is difficult to say exactly how much undocumented immigrants contribute in taxes today, a 2013 report from the Institute On Taxation and Economic Policy highlighted how “the 11.2 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States” at the time were “already paying a significant share of their income in state and local taxes.” […]
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…
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.
Gasoline vs. Diesel Taxes in Your State: Which is Taxed More?
• By ITEP Staff
Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia tax these two fuel types at the same rate or very similar rates, as of April 2019, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute.
How Heavily Does Your State Rely on Sales Taxes?
• By ITEP Staff
Consumption taxes (including general sales taxes, excise taxes on specific products, and gross receipts taxes) are an important revenue source for state and local governments. While five states lack state-level general sales taxes (Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon), every state levies taxes on some types of consumption.
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…
ICYMI: A Brief Summary of Our April Blogs and Reports
• By ITEP Staff
From the first comprehensive look at corporate filings under the 2017 tax law to bold policy options from analysts and researchers to dramatically reduce poverty, here’s a summary of reports that ITEP released this month.
State Rundown 4/18: It’s Peak Season for State Fiscal Debates
• By ITEP Staff
Tax and budget debates are now mostly complete in Alabama, Arkansas, and Colorado, but just starting or just getting interesting in several other states. Delaware and Massachusetts lawmakers, for example, are looking at progressive income tax increases on wealthy households, and New Hampshire may use a progressive tax on capital gains to simultaneously improve its upside-down tax code and invest in education. Nebraska and Texas, on the other hand, are also looking to improve school…
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…
You Can’t Tax Stolen Land
• By Misha Hill
The Montana Senate this week stopped a bill to restructure the state's temporary tribal tax exemption program, making tribal governments the only sovereignties on which Montana levies a tax and making it more difficult for leaders to buy back illegally seized land. Still, the success of the bill in the House is troubling.
State Rundown 4/11: An Estate Tax Win, Opioid Progress, and Teacher Uprising Updates
• By ITEP Staff
Hawaii made progress in pushing back against the increasing concentration of wealth and power by beefing up its estate tax. Delaware, New Jersey, and Rhode Island all took steps toward taxing opioid producers to raise funds to address the ongoing opioid crisis. Oregon lawmakers continue to try to address their chronic school underfunding with a $2 billion annual investment, in contrast to some of their counterparts in North Carolina who are responding to similar issues…
