• news release  March 11, 2019

    White House Budget Fails to Acknowledge Role of Tax Cuts in the Deficit while Calling for Draconian Spending Cuts

    As expected, the president’s budget would enshrine top-heavy tax cuts into law and finance them by slashing domestic programs. It is time for a course correction.

  • blog  March 11, 2019

    North Dakota Senate Should Put the Freeze on House Tax-Cut Plan

    Lawmakers in Bismarck were treated last weekend to the largest single day of snowfall the city has ever seen. As state senators begin weighing a bill recently passed by the House that would replace the state’s income taxes with oil revenue, they might want to reflect on how similar oil revenue is to the snow: although both are in extreme abundance right now, both are volatile and unpredictable and will melt away sooner than later. Lawmakers should also consider how eliminating the state’s income taxes might warm the hearts of wealthier North Dakotans but would leave most North Dakota families out in the cold.

  • news release  March 7, 2019

    Gov. Pritzker’s Tax Proposal Is a Huge Step Toward Fairer Taxes

    Gov. Pritzker’s Fair Tax proposal reflects a necessary and strong commitment to reforming Illinois’s tax system in a fair way that will help the state raise the revenue it needs to stabilize its finances and improve quality of life for all its residents. The state’s financial crisis spans several years and getting the state back on firm fiscal footing requires bold solutions and—yes—tax increases.

  • blog  March 6, 2019

    State Rundown 3/6: March Tax Debates Contain Sanity Amid Usual Madness

    State policymakers around the nation this week served up a handful of harmful and upside-down tax proposals, but these were refreshingly outnumbered by sound tax and budget policy proposals in several other states. NEW JERSEY Gov. Phil Murphy made tax fairness an explicit priority in his budget address, the NEW MEXICO House passed progressive reforms to improve the state’s schools and tax code, states such as VERMONT are looking to raise funds from legalized cannabis and put it to good use, and many states, including ALABAMA, ARKANSAS, OHIO, and WISCONSIN, are seriously considering much-needed gas tax updates to improve their infrastructure.

  • blog  March 6, 2019

    How State Tax Systems Worsen the Economic Divide - in Charts

    The nation is currently engaging in serious discourse about how to expand economic opportunity and remedy income inequality via the federal tax code. State tax systems are also important and have a dismal effect on the growing economic divide. In a new report, Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes, we further parse our Who Pays? data.

  • report  March 6, 2019   

    Fairness Matters: A Chart Book on Who Pays State and Local Taxes

    There is significant room for improvement in state and local tax codes. State tax codes are filled with top-heavy exemptions and deductions and often fail to tax higher incomes at higher rates. States and localities have come to rely too heavily on regressive sales taxes that fail to reflect the modern economy. And overall tax collections are often inadequate in the short-run and unsustainable in the long-run. These types of shortcomings provide compelling reason to pursue state and local tax reforms to make these systems more equitable, adequate, and sustainable.

  • news release  February 28, 2019

    Education Department Tax Credit Proposal Would Undermine Public Schools

    The Education Department today announced a proposed new federal tax credit for so-called school choice. The $5 billion proposal would give those who donate to private school voucher programs a tax credit. Following is a statement by Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

  • blog  February 27, 2019

    State Rundown 2/27: Temperatures and Tax Fights Continue to Polarize

    As another polar vortex heads for large swaths of the country, state tax debates this week were highly polarized in another way. Lawmakers and advocates in MICHIGAN, OHIO, OREGON, UTAH, and elsewhere fought to enact or improve state Earned Income Tax Credits to give a boost to low- and middle-income working families. But the opposite extreme was heavily represented as well, as others pushed for regressive tax cuts for wealthy individuals and corporations, including in KANSAS, NEBRASKA, NORTH DAKOTA, OHIO, UTAH, and WEST VIRGINIA. Even our “What We’re Reading” section has informative reading on how education funding policy continues to contribute to the polarization of opportunities for white families compared to families of color.

  • brief  February 26, 2019

    How Long Has It Been Since Your State Raised Its Gas Tax?

    Many state governments are struggling to repair and expand their transportation infrastructure because they are attempting to cover the rising cost of asphalt, machinery, and other construction materials with fixed-rate gasoline taxes that are rarely increased.

  • blog  February 26, 2019

    Overdue Gas Tax Hikes are Back on the Agenda in Statehouses

    State tax policy can be a contentious topic, but one issue on which lawmakers largely agree is that higher gas tax rates are necessary to keep our nation’s infrastructure operating safely and efficiently. Lawmakers in 27 states have approved gas tax increases since 2013.