The GOP Senate stimulus bill voted down yesterday is a slight improvement over the first GOP proposal released Thursday, but it still fails to prioritize workers and families or provide fast relief to those who need it most.
Meg Wiehe
Meg Wiehe is ITEP’s deputy executive director. She joined ITEP in 2010 after spending several years working on tax policy in her home state of North Carolina. She coordinates ITEP’s federal and state tax policy research and advocacy agenda. Meg works closely with policymakers, legislative staff and state and national organizations to provide guidance and research on policy solutions that will achieve equitable and sustainable federal, state and local tax systems.
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blog March 23, 2020 New State-by-State Estimates: Modified Senate GOP Stimulus Bill Still Falls Short
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blog March 20, 2020 Why the GOP Senate Bill Fails to Address the Crisis, and Why a Democratic Bill Looks More Promising
National and state-by-state data available for download By Steve Wamhoff and Meg Wiehe On Thursday night, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a bill that reportedly cost more than $1… -
media mention March 3, 2020 Connecticut Mirror: After one alarming tax fairness study, CT is wary of launching a second
Gasoline distributors shift the entire cost of Connecticut’s 8.1% wholesale fuel tax onto local filling stations, which then pass it all onto motorists — who also pay a 25-cents-per-gallon retail… -
media mention January 16, 2020 Hartford Business Journal: CT Voices proposes major state tax shift to reverse inequality
And creation of a new Child Tax Credit could provide poor and middle-income residents — even those earning nearly $500,000 per year — as much as $800 to $1,550 on… -
blog September 4, 2019 Why Local Jurisdictions’ Heavy Reliance on Fines and Fees Is a Tax Policy Issue
The exposé (Addicted to Fines: Small Towns Are Dangerously Dependent) raises two important issues that policymakers have the power to address. One, lack of revenue at the local level is linked to a broader challenge with state tax systems. Two, fines and fees often entrap lower-income people in a cycle of debt and, in some jurisdictions, ultimately criminalize poverty by casting unpaid fines as misdemeanor crimes.
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July 26, 2019 We shouldn’t wait for Washington to tax the rich. We can begin at the state level. Examining the federal policy landscape is a logical place to start, but state policymakers… -
blog July 18, 2019 Many States Move Toward Higher Taxes on the Rich; Lower Taxes on Poor People
Several states this year proposed or enacted tax policies that would require high-income households and/or businesses to pay more in taxes. After years of policymaking that slashed taxes for wealthy households and deprived states of revenue to adequately fund public services, this is a necessary and welcome reversal.
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media mention June 14, 2019 Vox, The Weeds: 5 Big Ideas to Use Tax Credits to Fight Poverty
Meg Wiehe from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy explains the leading progressive tax plans in Congress and how they differ from Trump’s tax cuts. Listen to the podcast -
report May 22, 2019 American Family Act
The American Family Act would expand the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for low- and middle-income families. The CTC would increase from $2,000 under current law to $3,000 for each child age six and older and to $3,600 for each child younger than age six. The proposal removes limits on the refundable part of the credit so that low- and moderate-income families with children could receive the entire credit.
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report May 22, 2019 Working Families Tax Relief Act
The Working Families Tax Relief Act would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC) for low- and middle-income families.
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report May 22, 2019 LIFT the Middle Class Act
The LIFT (Livable Incomes for Families Today) the Middle Class Act would create a new tax credit of up to $3,000 for single people and up to $6,000 for married couples, which would be an addition to existing tax credits. Eligible taxpayers would be allowed a credit equal to the maximum amount or their earnings, whichever is less. Income limits would prevent well-off households from receiving the credit.
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report May 22, 2019 Rise Credit
The Rise Credit would replace the existing EITC. In most cases, the Rise Credit would be $4,000 for single people and $8,000 for married couples. Eligible taxpayers would be allowed a credit equal to the maximum amount or their earnings, whichever is less.
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media mention May 6, 2019 Governing: What States Can Do to Drastically Reduce Child Poverty
The following is an excerpt of an op-ed by Meg Wiehe and Christopher Whimer published in Governing: States have been called laboratories of democracy because they often launch some of… -
media mention April 17, 2019 Vox: Democrats don’t have to wait for Trump to leave office to cut child poverty
But these plans have one major obstacle: Donald Trump is president. Policymakers in the Democratic fold have been arguing over what should happen in a hypothetical 2021 in which Trump… -
report April 17, 2019 The Case for Extending State-Level Child Tax Credits to Those Left Out: A 50-State Analysis
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 CTC is a tool that states can employ to remedy inequalities created by the current structure of the federal CTC. State-level CTCs would significantly reduce child poverty and deep poverty in all states while also addressing racial inequities that the current system has exacerbated. This report examines the poverty impacts, costs and beneficiaries of two options for a state-level CTC.
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media mention April 10, 2019 Politifact: Kamala Harris Calls Her LIFT Plan ‘The Most Significant Middle-Class Tax Cut in Generations.’ Is It?
Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, considered a left-of-center think tank, said Harris’ descriptions are “a fair and an accurate portrayal.” Wiehe said it’s… -
report February 14, 2019 The Illusion of Race-Neutral Tax Policy
It is well known that the bulk of the federal tax cuts flowed to the highest-earning households, who received the largest tax cut both in terms of real dollars and also as a share of income. But as our analysis with Prosperity Now reveals, solely examining the tax law in the context of class misses a bigger-picture story about how the nation’s public policies not only perpetuate widening income and wealth inequality, they also preserve historic and current injustices that continue to allow white communities to build wealth while denying the same level of opportunity (and often suppressing it) to communities of color.
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media mention February 11, 2019 Newsweek: We Shouldn’t Wait for Washington to Tax the Rich: We Can Begin at the State Level
Following is an excerpt from an op-ed by ITEP deputy director Meg Wiehe published in Newsweek Magazine: The historic role tax and other policies have played in exacerbating the wealth… -
blog January 30, 2019 Data for the Win: Advocating for Equitable State and Local Tax Policy (Webinar)
Watch the video recording below for discussion on how ITEP’s distributional data can be part of an advocacy and communications strategy for securing state tax policies that raise enough revenue to fund various priorities. Outline includes a brief overview of findings from the sixth edition of Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States as well as insight from state advocates who use Who Pays? and other tax policy analyses research to pursue their legislative agendas.
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media mention January 28, 2019 Arizona Republic: Fact Check on Immigration
“It sounds extraordinarily high to me,” Meg Wiehe, deputy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy told NBC. Read more -
ITEP Work in Action January 24, 2019 Law360: Montana Mulls Statewide Sales Tax To Replace Property Taxes
Montana could become the first state in the nation to eliminate residential and commercial property taxes in exchange for creating a new 2.5 percent statewide sales tax…
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media mention December 31, 2018 Washington Times: Trump Tax Cut Foiled by State’s Itemized Deduction Rule
Last year, many states opened their legislative sessions at the beginning of January, just after the federal tax law passed in December 2017, leaving them little time to figure out… -
media mention December 22, 2018 NBC News: How Much Does Illegal Immigration Cost America? Not As Much As Trump Claims
“It sounds extraordinarily high to me,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy director at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). Read more -
media mention November 7, 2018 Washington Post: In blow to liberal efforts, voters across the country reject tax increases. (California is the exception.)
North Carolina voters, for instance, approved a change to their state constitution bringing down the maximum allowable tax rate from 10 percent to 7 percent. That will effectively only spare… -
media mention November 6, 2018 Governing: Voters Lower Cap on Income Tax in North Carolina
Still, many worry that locking down North Carolina’s income tax rates will hamstring future policymakers’ ability to raise revenue. North Carolina is one of a handful of states that has…