Pennsylvania
State Rundown 8/2: Legislative Tax Debates Wind Down as Ballot Initiative Efforts Ramp Up
August 2, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Budget deliberations continue in earnest this week in Alaska, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. In South Dakota and Utah, the focus is on gearing up for ballot initiative efforts to raise needed revenue, though be sure to read about legislators nullifying voter-approved initiatives in Maine and elsewhere in our "what we're reading" section.
Trump Tax Proposals Would Provide Richest One Percent in Pennsylvania with 50.2 Percent of the State’s Tax Cuts
July 20, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Earlier this year, the Trump administration released some broadly outlined proposals to overhaul the federal tax code. Households in Pennsylvania would not benefit equally from these proposals. The richest one percent of the state’s taxpayers are projected to make an average income of $1,780,400 in 2018.
State Rundown 7/19: Handful of States Still Have Their Hands Full with Tax and Budget Debates
July 19, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Tax and budget debates drag on in several states this week, as lawmakers continue to work in Alaska, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. And a showdown is brewing in Kentucky between a regressive tax shift effort and a progressive tax reform plan. Be sure to also check out our "What We're Reading" section for a historical perspective on federal tax reform, a podcast on lessons learned from Kansas and California, and more!
State Rundown 7/11: Some Legislatures Get Long Holiday Weekends, Others Work Overtime
July 11, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Illinois and New Jersey made national news earlier this month after resolving their contentious budget stalemates. But they weren’t the only states working through (and in some cases after) the holiday weekend to resolve budget issues.
State Rundown 6/28: States Scramble to Finish Budgets Before July Deadlines
June 28, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week, several states attempt to wrap up their budget debates before new fiscal years (and holiday vacations) begin in July. Lawmakers reached at least short-term agreement on budgets in Alaska, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, but such resolution remains elusive in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.
Investors and Corporations Would Profit from a Federal Private School Voucher Tax Credit
May 17, 2017 • By Carl Davis
A new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and AASA, the School Superintendents Association, details how tax subsidies that funnel money toward private schools are being used as profitable tax shelters by high-income taxpayers. By exploiting interactions between federal and state tax law, high-income taxpayers in nine states are currently able […]
Public Loss Private Gain: How School Voucher Tax Shelters Undermine Public Education
May 17, 2017 • By Carl Davis, Sasha Pudelski
One of the most important functions of government is to maintain a high-quality public education system. In many states, however, this objective is being undermined by tax policies that redirect public dollars for K-12 education toward private schools.
Keystone Research Center: Who Pays for Property Tax Elimination?
April 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Across all Pennsylvania families, property tax elimination would increase taxes by $334 per family. While property taxes would fall by an average of $1,685 per family, sales and income taxes would rise by over $2,000 on average per family. Moderate-income families (earning between $22,000 and $63,000), many of who live in rural areas, would see […]
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: The Fair Share Tax to Support Public Investment in Pennsylvania
March 23, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This paper puts forward a plan, which we call the Fair Share Tax, that would take a major step toward fixing Pennsylvania’s broken tax system and raise the revenues we need to invest in the public goods that are critical to creating thriving communities and individual opportunity in our state: education, infrastructure, protection for our […]
Third and State: Undocumented Immigrants Already Paying Billions in State/Local Taxes
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Just this week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released a comprehensive report on the state and local tax contributions of undocumented immigrants. In the public debate about immigration policy, there are often gross inaccuracies about undocumented immigrants that are presented as facts. This important report provides state-by-state and national estimates on undocumented immigrants’ […]
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Who Pays For An Increase in the PIT to 4% on Income From Wealth
January 10, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Legislators are currently working to find the revenues necessary to fund the appropriations bill that passed the House and Senate this week. They are finding it difficult to agree on a proposal that raises genuine, recurring revenues in a way that does not make our already inequitable tax system more unfair. One constitutional way to […]
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: A Fair Share Tax Plan for Pennsylvania
January 6, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
“One barrier to raising revenues is the reluctance of legislators on both sides of the aisle to place additional taxes on Pennsylvania’s poor and middle-class. That reluctance is well motivated. Over the last 25 years, incomes for the richest Pennsylvanians have been rising fast while incomes for all other Pennsylvanians have been stagnant. Despite that, […]
Lancaster Online: Pennsylvania think tanks battle over remedies for $1.7B state budget deficit
January 3, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
“The Budget and Policy Center blames the deficit on reductions in corporate taxes enacted under Govs. Ed Rendell and Tom Corbett. The state’s top taxpayers are getting a bargain, the center says: Households in the top 1 percent of the income distribution pay less than half the tax rate of households in the middle.” Read […]
CBS News: Is your state next to raise its gas tax?
October 14, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“’There has been a lot of procrastination,’ said Carl Davis, research director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. ‘It’s an issue that the states cannot put off any longer. There are 21 states which have gone a decade or more since the last time they increased their gas tax rate. These states have […]
The Hill: Airbnb collecting taxes on convention rentals
July 18, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
Airbnb is collecting taxes on rentals during the political party conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia, according to a tax analyst. Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the decision is the result of recent agreements and laws, and he praised the move on the liberal Tax Justice blog. Davis […]
The Inquirer: Baer: Four ways to make Pa. taxes fairer
June 10, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“Worse, our PIT is largely responsible for our national ranking by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy as the sixth most regressive tax state.” Read more
Politifact: Rating the Philly Daily News’ claim that ‘It’s not a grocery tax’
May 12, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said it was possible the prices of other products would rise but not probable in most circumstances. He said smaller convenience stores would be more likely to raise prices on other products than larger grocery stores because they likely take in a greater […]
The Inquirer: Proposed Philly soda tax gets wide attention
May 9, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
“Carl Davis, research director at the Washington-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said that’s one of the key reasons people are watching Philadelphia. “Both sides argue using limited data,” he said. “We’re citing a limited number of facts here. Researchers and lawmakers and everyone else will be interested to see what kind of effects […]
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: PA Should Raise Needed Revenues in Fair Ways: Short- and Long-term Approaches to Fixing Pennsylvania’s Unfair Tax System
April 11, 2016 • By ITEP Staff
This briefing paper analyzes several options for raising revenue for the Pennsylvania state budget which would fall much less on middle- and low-income families than the existing Pennsylvania state and local tax system. We first analyze the income tax increase (from 3.07% to 3.4%) and expansion of income tax forgiveness and sales tax base […]
Newsworks: Pa. sales tax can be expanded in an equitable way
December 14, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
“A third group was rightly concerned that the sales tax places too much of a burden on those with low incomes. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the lowest-income 20 percent of Pennsylvania families pay an average of 5.8 percent of their income in sales tax. The top 20 percent, by contrast, […]
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Expanding the Sales Tax in an Equitable Way
December 7, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
“There is good reason to worry about the sales tax falling heavily on low-income families. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the lowest-income 20% of Pennsylvania families pay an average of 5.8% of their income in sales tax. The top 20%, by contrast, pay less than 2.3% of their income in sales […]
Third and State: Unintended Consequences? Property Tax Elimination Increases Taxes on the Middle Class to Reduce Taxes for High Income Families
November 30, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
“Let’s start with the impact of property tax elimination on different groups of taxpayers. While we have not examined the tax incidence of the current SB 76 bill, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) did estimate for us the tax incidence of a similar proposal several years ago. That proposal, like the current […]
Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center: Who Pays For An Increase in the Sales Tax: Analysis of the Tax Incidence of an Increase in the Sales Tax from 6% to 7.25%
November 18, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
Gov. Wolf and legislative leaders are currently negotiating over the terms of a plan to cut property taxes which would be financed by an increase in the state sales tax rate from 6% to 7.25%. This brief analyzes the size of the sales tax rate increase by income. It also compares that impact to how […]
Cheat Sheet: 10 Worst States in America for Fair Tax Systems
July 13, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
Americans generally believe that higher income households should pay a greater percentage of their incomes in taxes than lower income households. Yet the exact opposite occurs. The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) finds the nationwide average effective state and local tax rates by income group are 10.9% for the poorest 20% of individuals […]
Huffington Post: How Some States Are Trying To Fix Their Crumbling Infrastructure
July 6, 2015 • By ITEP Staff
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 […]
