Major tax cuts were largely rejected this year, but states continue to chip away at income taxes. And while property tax cuts were a hot topic across the country, many states failed to deliver effective solutions to affordability issues.
Aidan Davis
Aidan Davis works closely with policymakers, legislative staff, and state organizations across the country to advance policy solutions that aim to achieve equitable and sustainable state and local tax systems. Much of her research focuses on tax credits for lower-income families and state tax measures to improve revenue adequacy.
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blog July 18, 2024 Five Tax Takeaways from 2024 State Legislative Sessions
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blog March 20, 2024 Eliminating Income Taxes Would Be an Expensive Giveaway
Governors and legislative leaders in a dozen states have made calls to fully eliminate their taxes on personal or corporate income, after many states already deeply slashed them over the past few years. The public deserves to know the true impact of these plans, which would inevitably result in an outsized windfall to states’ richest taxpayers, more power in the hands of wealthy households and corporations, extreme cuts to basic public services, and more deeply inequitable state tax codes.
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blog September 12, 2023 State Tax Credits Have Transformative Power to Improve Economic Security
The latest analysis from the U.S. Census Bureau provides an important reminder of the compelling link between public investments and families’ economic well-being. Policy decisions can drastically reduce poverty and improve family economic stability for low- and middle-income families alike, as today’s data release shows.
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brief September 12, 2023 States are Boosting Economic Security with Child Tax Credits in 2023
Fourteen states now provide Child Tax Credits to reduce poverty, boost economic security, and invest in children. This year alone, lawmakers in three states created new Child Tax Credits while lawmakers in seven states expanded existing credits. To maximize impact, lawmakers should consider making their credits fully refundable, not including an earnings requirement, setting a maximum amount per child instead of per household, setting state-specific phase-out ranges that target low- and middle-income families, indexing to inflation, and offering the option of advanced payments.
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brief September 12, 2023 Boosting Incomes, Improving Equity: State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2023
Nearly two-thirds of states (31 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have an Earned Income Tax Credit, an effective tool that boosts low-paid workers’ incomes and helps lower-income families achieve greater economic security. This year, 12 states expanded and improved EITCs.
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blog July 7, 2023 The Highs and Lows of 2023 State Legislative Sessions
Nearly one-third of states took steps to improve their tax systems this year by investing in people through refundable tax credits, and in a few notable cases by raising revenue from those most able to pay. But another third of states lost ground, continuing a trend of permanent tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefit high-income households and make tax codes less adequate and equitable.
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blog June 5, 2023 The Real Impact of State Tax Cuts
This op-ed was originally published by Route Fifty and co-written by ITEP State Director Aidan Davis and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senior Advisor for State Tax Policy Wesley… -
blog April 12, 2023 Deep Public Investment Changes Lives, Yet Too Many States Continue to Seek Tax Cuts
When state budgets are strong, lawmakers should put those revenues toward building a stronger and more inclusive society for the long haul. Yet, many state lawmakers have made clear that their top priority is repeatedly cutting taxes for the wealthy.
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blog November 16, 2022 States Can Halve Child Poverty with Child Tax Credits
State policymakers have the tools they need to drastically reduce child poverty within their borders. A new ITEP report, coauthored with Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy, explores… -
report November 16, 2022 State Child Tax Credits and Child Poverty: A 50-State Analysis
Regardless of future Child Tax Credit developments at the federal level, state policies can supplement the federal credit to deliver additional benefits to children and families. State credits can be specifically tailored to meet the needs of local populations while also producing long-term benefits for society as a whole
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brief September 15, 2022 Boosting Incomes and Improving Tax Equity with State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2022
States continued their recent trend of advancing EITCs in 2022, with nine states plus the District of Columbia either creating or improving their credits. Utah enacted a 15 percent nonrefundable EITC, while the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Vermont and Virginia expanded existing credits. Meanwhile, Connecticut, New York and Oregon provided one-time boosts to their EITC-eligible populations.
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brief September 15, 2022 More States are Boosting Economic Security with Child Tax Credits in 2022
After years of being limited in reach, there is increasing momentum at the state level to adopt and expand Child Tax Credits. Today ten states are lifting the household incomes of families with children through yearly multi-million-dollar investments in the form of targeted, and usually refundable, CTCs.
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blog March 2, 2022 SOTU and GOP Response Highlight Dramatic Difference in Parties’ Tax Policy Approach
Since last year, multiple states across the country have proposed or are pursuing costly income and other tax cuts that are heavily tilted toward the highest-income households. State advocates have worked to beat back these proposals and sounded the alarm about the long-term consequences of tax cuts, but legislatures (most GOP-led) continue to introduce and approve top-heavy and permanent tax cuts. This state tax-cut fervor took center stage last night when Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa gave the Republican response to President Biden’s SOTU address.
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blog February 8, 2022 More Than One in Three Young Workers Would Benefit from EITC Reforms in Build Back Better Plan
Although the EITC expansion did not receive as much attention as the expanded Child Tax Credit, a new ITEP report shows the positive impact of allowing young workers without children in the home to maintain access to one of the nation’s most significant and effective anti-poverty programs.
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report February 8, 2022 Federal EITC Enhancements Help More Than One in Three Young Workers
More than one in three young adults would benefit from workers without children being eligible to receive the federal EITC. This policy change would bolster young adults’ economic security.
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blog January 10, 2022 Investing in a Joint Future: Harnessing State Tax Codes
Rather than resorting to tax cuts, which can eventually create revenue shortfalls, lawmakers should determine whether they have adequately invested in people and communities. There are better ways to leverage tax systems to help those who need it most.
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blog November 18, 2021 Tax Credit Reforms in Build Back Better Would Benefit a Diverse Group of Families
The CTC and EITC provisions would have a particularly profound effect on the poorest 20 percent of Americans, who all will have incomes of less than $22,000 in 2022. Taken together, the EITC and CTC changes would lift the average income of these households by more than 10 percent.
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brief October 21, 2021 Boosting Incomes and Improving Tax Equity with State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2021
The EITC benefits low-income people of all races and ethnicities. But it is particularly impactful in historically excluded Black and Hispanic communities where discrimination in the labor market, inequitable educational systems, and countless other inequities have relegated a disproportionate share of people to low-wage jobs.
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blog September 13, 2021 A Data-Driven Case for the CTC Expansion in the Ways & Means Committee’s Recent Proposal
The move toward permanent full refundability and inclusion of all immigrant children are crucial components of the future of the CTC. Together they will help ensure that the credit reaches the children most in need, making a vital dent in our nation’s unacceptably high rate of child poverty.
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blog September 13, 2021 Extending Federal EITC Enhancements Would Bolster the Effects of State-Level Credits
The EITC expansion targets workers without children in the home. In 2022 it would provide a $12.4 billion boost, benefiting 19.5 million workers who on average would receive an income boost of $730 dollars.
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blog July 20, 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion Acknowledges There Is More We Can Do for Children
For the next six months, low-, middle- and upper-middle-income families with children are eligible to receive part of their 2021 Child Tax Credit (CTC) in advanced monthly payments. More than putting money in people’s pockets, this policy recognizes “the dignity of working-class families and middle-class families,” as President Biden said last week.
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blog June 28, 2021 State-Level EITC Victories in 2021
A growing group of state lawmakers are recognizing the extent to which low- and middle-income Americans are struggling and the ways in which their state and local tax systems can do more to ensure the economic security of their residents over the long run. To that end, lawmakers across the country have made strides in enacting, increasing, or expanding tax credits that benefit low- and middle-income families. Here is a summary of those changes and a celebration of those successes.
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blog June 21, 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion Q&A with Aidan Davis
On July 15, the U.S. Treasury will begin mailing monthly checks to families with children who are eligible for the Child Tax Credit. Previously, the maximum credit was $2,000 per child, but for 2021, President Biden’s American Rescue Plan broadened the credit to $3,600 for each child under six and $3,000 for children over six. The expansion also made eligible children whose parents’ incomes were too low to qualify for the previous credit, both addressing a fundamental policy flaw and taking a significant step to reduce child poverty. This is the first time that the federal government is sending advanced partial payments to eligible families. ITEP has produced a distributional analysis that reveals how families of various income levels will be affected by the temporary expansion. Aidan Davis answers some commonly asked questions about our analysis and the CTC expansion.
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blog June 11, 2021 Child Tax Credit Is a Critical Component of Biden Administration’s Recovery Package
Nearly one in seven children in the United States live in poverty and about 6 percent of all children live in deep poverty. President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan would tackle child poverty in an immediate, meaningful way. It is expected to extend the one-year Child Tax Credit (CTC) enhancements included in the March 2021 American Rescue Plan (ARP) through 2025. Next year alone, this would provide around a $110 billion collective income boost to roughly 88 percent of children in the United States.
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blog May 13, 2021 Nearly 20 Million Will Benefit if Congress Makes the EITC Enhancement Permanent
Overall, the EITC enhancement would provide a $12.4 billion boost in 2022 if made permanent, benefiting 19.5 million workers. It would have a particularly meaningful impact on the bottom 20 percent of eligible households who would receive more than three-fourths of the total benefit. Forty-one percent of households in the bottom 20 percent of earners would benefit, receiving an average income boost of 6.3 percent, or $740 dollars.