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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media mention November 6, 2018 Washington Post: Threat of Arizona Tax Measure Brings Together Liberals, Koch Brothers
(Meg Wiehe, a tax specialist at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, argued the sales tax is passed on to the consumers and that these businesses are not “double… -
media mention October 24, 2018 Bloomberg: Kamala Harris Tax Plan Would Cost $2.8 Trillion, Conservative Group Says
ITEP’s Wiehe said the plan is more highly targeted than the 2017 tax law to help low-income workers. The poorest 20 percent would see a $2,100 benefit under the Harris plan, compared with $80 under the GOP plan, she said. About 123 million workers would receive tax breaks under the plan, according to Wiehe.
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media mention October 22, 2018 Christian Science Monitor: A New Candidate Class: Schoolteachers Running For Office
North Carolina, one of six states where teachers held strikes before school let out last spring, “is an example of how lawmakers have prioritized tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy over public services,” says Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Washington, DC-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and a North Carolina resident. “The big tax-cutting spree started here in 2013, and they’ve continued cutting.”
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media mention October 19, 2018 Governing: The Week in Public Finance: Most States’ Tax Systems Worsen Income Inequality
Some people pay more than their fair share of taxes — and it’s not the rich.
According to a new report by the progressive-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), the lowest-income households pay 50 percent more, on average, of their income in state and local taxes than the wealthiest. That leads to worsening inequality in four out of every five states.
“While state and local taxes can’t eliminate income inequality, well-designed systems can help lessen the problem,” says Meg Wiehe, ITEP’s deputy director. “Meanwhile, it’s clear that steeply regressive systems only make it worse.”
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media mention October 18, 2018 Associated Press: Kansas Governor’s Race is Referendum on Notorious Tax Cuts
The argument over taxes is likely to dominate the campaign’s final weeks; it is playing out in television ads and was a persistent theme Tuesday. Tax cuts appeal to voters… -
media mention October 18, 2018 Bloomberg: States Could Feel Conservative Tax Pinch Even If Blue Wave Wins
Opponents say such restrictions are a recipe for political paralysis or deep budget cuts the next time the economy lapses into a recession.
“It restricts future lawmakers — even next year or in five years or ten years — from making fiscally responsible decisions,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “Whoever is in charge of the state should be able to make decisions that are best for the state at that time.”
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media mention October 17, 2018 Topeka-Capital Journal: New Study: Kansas’ Tax Policy Ranks as 23rd Most Regressive in the Nation
A 50-state study of tax systems found Kansas’ lowest-income residents pay 1.5 times more in taxes as a percent of income compared with the wealthiest residents, ranking the state 23rd in the nation on an equity index.
“State lawmakers have control over how their tax systems are structured,” said Meg Wiehe, the institute’s deputy director and a study author. “They can and should enact more equitable tax policies that raise adequate revenue in a fair, sustainable way.”
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media mention October 16, 2018 Truthout: North Carolina Ballot Initiative Would Enshrine Tax Cuts for the Rich
“Since 2012, when Republicans took full control of the legislature and governorship for the first time in modern history, they’ve been on a tax cutting rampage,” said Meg Wiehe, a North Carolina native and deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “The state will be about $3.6 billion shorter in revenue than it would have been otherwise, which is a pretty significant difference in a state with a general fund of just around $21 billion.”
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media mention October 13, 2018 Mother Jones: A New Study Shows White Families Getting Four-Fifths of Trump’s Tax Cut
“Households of color have less income and have less wealth than white households, in large part due to centuries of systemic racism,” says Meg Wiehe, ITEP’s deputy director and one of the report’s authors. “So inevitably a tax cut that’s so expensive and so tilted to the top is furthering not just income inequality—it’s also furthering racial inequity in income and in wealth.”
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media mention October 11, 2018 TalkPoverty: North Carolina Legislators Want to Add Tax Breaks for the Rich to the State Constitution
“Since 2012, when Republicans took full control of the legislature and governorship for the first time in modern history, they’ve been on a tax cutting rampage,” said Meg Wiehe, a North Carolina native and deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “The state will be about $3.6 billion shorter in revenue than it would have been otherwise, which is a pretty significant difference in a state with a general fund of just around $21 billion.”
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media mention October 11, 2018 New York Times: White Americans Gain the Most From Trump’s Tax Cuts, a Report Finds
The tax cuts that President Trump signed into law last year are disproportionately helping white Americans over African-Americans and Latinos, a disparity that reflects longstanding racial economic inequality in the United States and the choices that Republicans made in crafting the law.
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report October 11, 2018 Race, Wealth and Taxes: How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Supercharges the Racial Wealth Divide
A newly released report by Prosperity Now and the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy, Race, Wealth and Taxes: How the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Supercharges the Racial Wealth Divide, finds that the TCJA not only adds unnecessary fuel to the growing problem of overall economic inequality, but also supercharges an already massive racial wealth divide to an alarming extent.
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media mention September 4, 2018 WRAL: Meg Wiehe: Capping North Carolina’s top income tax rate isn’t good for our communities
ITEP Deputy Director Meg Wiehe writes for WRAL.com that it would be unwise to constitutionally cap the North Carolina state income tax rate, pointing out that school funding in the state is already down and faltering revenues in other states have led to teacher pay crises and strikes.
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media mention September 4, 2018 WRAL: Capping North Carolina’s Top Tax Rate Isn’t Good for Our Communities
Following is an excerpt from an op-ed written by ITEP deputy director Meg Wiehe: Earlier this year, teachers across the country staged walkouts or full-on strikes to protest low wages… -
media mention July 9, 2018 Washington Post: At State Level, GOP Renews Push to Require ‘supermajorities’ for Tax Hikes, Imperiling Progressive Agenda
In three additional states — Florida, Oregon and North Carolina — conservative lawmakers and business groups are currently advancing similar measures, said Meg Wiehe, a tax analyst at the Institute… -
media mention July 5, 2018 The Nation: Will Red-State Protests Spark Electoral Change?
State lawmakers came “out of the gate in 2011 with a pretty regressive, large-scale tax-cut plan,” said Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP),… -
media mention June 26, 2018 Governing: Why New Jersey Is Headed for Another Shutdown
But Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, notes that the federal corporate income tax cut also has an effect on high-income earners. Historically,… -
media mention May 16, 2018 Bloomberg: The Kochs Helped Slash State Taxes. Now Teachers Are in the Streets
“There’s this promise,” says Meg Wiehe of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. “ ‘We’re going to put more money in your pockets. We’re going to let your family decide… -
media mention May 12, 2018 News & Observer: Arizona Income Tax story
Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the public could be more likely to support income tax hikes since federal tax debate in the… -
news release May 11, 2018 Millionaires Average Annual Tax Cut in North Carolina Is Comparable to Average Teacher’s Salary
North Carolina lawmakers’ misplaced priorities are evident: The recent rounds of tax cuts will provide the state’s millionaires with an average annual tax break of more than $45,000, which is nearly as much as the average teacher’s annual salary of about $50,000.
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media mention May 11, 2018 Associated Press: Arizona Voters May Be Asked Whether They Want to Tax High Earners to Fund Education
Ballot initiatives to hike taxes on the rich are rare but not unheard of. A measure in Washington state in 2010 to adopt an income tax for individuals who make… -
media mention May 9, 2018 Working Life Podcast: A shift in the air on tax cuts?; Arizona uprising update; Inequality is worse than you think
The teachers’ uprisings around the nation have challenged the bankrupt ideology of supply-side tax cutting—and maybe marks a shift in the public’s view of taxes and public spending. Jonathan Tasini talks… -
media mention May 8, 2018 Washington Post: Iowa Republicans pitch ‘crisis-proof’ tax cuts. Democrats see another Kansas in the making.
“The trigger is a politically expedient way for lawmakers to claim they’ve cut your taxes without having to do anything immediately to make up for the consequences of reducing revenue,” said Meg Wiehe, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
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media mention May 5, 2018 Quartz: The obscure tax rule that’s stopping US states from paying teachers more
When lawmakers do gather enough votes to raise tax revenues, it is usually for “low hanging fruit” like cigarette taxes or a sales tax, said Meg Wielhe, the deputy director for… -
media mention May 3, 2018 Washington Post: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is sending 671,000 families an election-year check
Tax experts said the only similar recent tax break that came to mind was in 2014, when New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) pushed through a more targeted, three-year…