Carl Davis
Carl Davis is the research director at ITEP, where he has worked since 2008. Carl works on a wide range of issues related to both state and federal tax policy. He has advised policymakers, researchers, and advocates on tax policy issues in nearly every state. Much of his work relates to the link between taxes and economic growth, and the shortcomings of dynamic scoring and supply-side economic theories.
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media mention July 3, 2019 Business Insider: Gas and Diesel Prices Rose at the Worst Possible Time for Drivers in the US and These States Are Being Affected Most
For some states, the gas tax increase has been long delayed. Some states have postponed this increase for several years due to the political challenges, Carl Davis, a research director… -
media mention July 2, 2019 Pacific Standard: Developers Aren’t Reporting How They’re Using Tax Incentives Meant for Low-Income Areas
Even for those who have tracked the bill closely, the reporting process remains opaque. “This bill was thrown together so incredibly quickly—there weren’t hearings on it, these types of questions… -
media mention June 13, 2019 KEYE TV: Colorado made $1B in marijuana tax revenue: What could this mean for federal legalization?
Tax experts explained that government revenue from cannabis is not a panacea for solving the country’s budget issues, but it could certainly help. According to a study by Carl Davis,… -
media mention June 12, 2019 CNBC: Feds block tax breaks for donating to these charitable state funds
These programs range from conservation easements to private school tuition scholarships. “The private school organizations were asking for full-scale carveouts for themselves; they wanted to be exempt if the program… -
media mention May 5, 2019 Crain’s Detroit Business: If Whitmer’s Gas Tax Increase Is Dead, Sales Tax on Services, Anyone?
Car rentals at Detroit Metro Airport are subject to the sales tax. But ordering a ride from an Uber driver at the airport is exempted from sales tax because it’s… -
media mention April 30, 2019 Washington Post: Democrats Said a GOP Tax Law Provision Would Devastate Blue States. That’s Not Happening.
“A lot of these claims were knee-jerk, political reactions,” said Carl Davis, a tax analyst for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “Some perspective is needed on some of the wild claims about how it would damage blue states’ economies.”
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media mention April 15, 2019 Minnesota Public Radio: Are Minnesotans Happy with President Trump’s Tax Cuts?
Carl Davis, ITEP’s research director, participated in this half-hour segment on how the public feels about the 2017 Trump-GOP tax cuts. Listen here or get more info here: https://www.mprnews.org/listen?name=/minnesota/podcasts/kerri-miller/2019/04/15tax_day_20190415_64.mp3 -
media mention April 14, 2019 Connecticut Post: Pot Tax Rate Key to Driving Down Illegal Market in Conn.
But potency-based taxation requires good laboratories and technology to accurately test THC levels, said Uetake who teaches marketing at Yale’s School of Management. “Reliability and replicability of testing remain problematic,”… -
media mention April 6, 2019 Crain’s Detroit: Legal Pot v. Black Market
“When you have so many communities opting out, you could have less quantity being sold in the legal market,” said Carl Davis, research director for Washington D.C.-based Institute on Taxation… -
media mention April 2, 2019 Bloomberg: Tax-the-Rich Fervor Builds in Statehouses After Trump’s Big Cut
The tax-the-rich proposals pending in states are “a reflection of a broader national trend towards recognizing what voters have felt for a long time — that high income individuals and… -
media mention March 6, 2019 Washington Post: State and Local Tax Laws Are Making the Rich Richer
State and local taxes effectively redistribute national income from the poor to the very rich, according to data released this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a… -
media mention March 1, 2019 Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Tax Avoidance Might Make Financial Sense, but Is It Fair?
One feature of sales taxes is that they cost lower-income people a bigger chunk of what they take in than is the case for more affluent people. In Minnesota the… -
media mention March 1, 2019 Bloomberg: Democrats In the Home of Hedge Funds Are Divided Over Tax Plans Sparing Rich
“Most public finance experts will tell you if you have sales tax it should be applied to a broad base,” said Carl Davis, the research director at the Institute on… -
media mention February 28, 2019 New York Times: Betsy DeVos Backs $5 Billion in Tax Credits for School Choice
Carl Davis, the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, noted that the new tax credit would be extremely generous in providing a 100 percent tax break,… -
media mention February 28, 2019 Marketplace: Devos Proposes $5B in Tax Credits for Scholarship Donations
This new segment features ITEP’s research director Carl Davis: -
media mention February 17, 2019 The Hill: Tech Looks for Lessons From Amazon HQ2 Fight
Amazon’s decision to scrap its plans for a second headquarters in New York City, dubbed HQ2, stunned both the tech world and its critics this week, raising new questions about the industry’s ambitious expansion plans and their dealings with state and local governments.
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media mention January 24, 2019 Politico: Let’s Talk Wealth Tax
Steve Wamhoff at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy projects that a wealth tax could raise well over $1 trillion in a decade, and notes that wealth inequality far… -
media mention November 26, 2018 New York Daily News: Cyber Monday Shopping Deals Blunting by Supreme Court Ruling
“This is about improved enforcement of a tax that’s already on the books,” echoed Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, to CNBC. “For years,… -
media mention November 14, 2018 CBS News: Can New York Make Back Its Amazon Investment
Opponents of corporate subsidies said Amazon’s choices prove taxpayer incentives matter much less than advertised. “[A]ccess to an educated workforce and high-quality public amenities are what drive business location decisions… -
media mention November 12, 2018 Yahoo! Finance: How Trump’s Tax Cuts Hurt the GOP in America’s Wealthy Suburbs
Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, told Yahoo Finance that the same story has been playing out across the country. “I think Californians and… -
media mention November 4, 2018 The Hill: IRS Sparks New Fight Over School Donations
However, other groups at the hearing, including representatives of public schools and the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), defended the application of the IRS guidance to the… -
media mention October 29, 2018 PolitiFact: Does Vermont Have the ‘Most Progressive’ Tax System in the Country?
Carl Davis, the research director for ITEP, said he doesn’t believe it would be accurate to call Vermont the most progressive state. California has a much higher top rate for the wealthiest taxpayers, he said.
“In our research Vermont does not have the most progressive system in the nation, but it is certainly far less regressive than the vast majority of states,” Davis said.
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media mention October 18, 2018 The Pitt News: Editorial: Riding High: United States Should Follow Canada’s Pot Legalization
“We don’t know the size of the marijuana market right now,” Carl Davis, senior analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told The Huffington Post. “But we do know that legalization would lead to a positive revenue impact on the income and sales tax side.”
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media mention October 17, 2018 KUOW: Washington State Tops ‘Terrible Ten’ List for Taxes
Washington State’s tax system is widening the gap between the rich and the poor. That’s according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) based in Washington, D.C.
“What you see is that Washington’s tax system couldn’t possibly be further from hitting people evenly,” Carl Davis said. “People are having to devote very different shares of their household budgets to funding state and local government.”
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media mention October 5, 2018 NPR: It’s Been 25 Years Since The Federal Gas Tax Went Up
Yet over those 25 years, the cost of building and maintaining roads, bridges and transit has shot up, leaving the highway trust fund, which pays the federal portion of highway and transit projects, running on empty.
“The whole reason this tax exists is to keep our roads paved and to keep our bridges from falling down,” says Davis. “And to do that effectively, it needs to collect a sustainable amount of revenue over time to cover the cost of paving roads and maintaining bridges, and it can’t do that if it’s just not updated for decades at a time.”