Kansas Governor Sam Brownback proposed, for the second straight year, major tax changes during his State of the State speech. These new changes include lowering the tax rates to 1.9 and 3.5 percent, eliminating itemized deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes paid, and raising the sales tax.
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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report February 1, 2013 Kansas Governor’s New Plan Increases Taxes on Poor Yet Slashes Revenue by $340 Million
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report January 11, 2013 Proposal to Eliminate Income Taxes Amounts to a Tax Increase on Bottom 80 Percent of Louisianans
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has said that he supports the elimination of the state’s personal and corporate income taxes. In fiscal year 2012, Louisiana collected nearly $3 billion in revenues from its personal and corporate income taxes.
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report December 13, 2012 Previewing Tax Reform in the States: National Trends and State-specific Prospects for 2013
Following an election that left half the states with veto-proof legislative majorities, 39 states with one-party rule and more than a dozen with governors who put tax reform high on their agendas, 2013 promises to be a big year for changes to state tax laws.
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brief December 1, 2012 Tax Principles: Building Blocks of A Sound Tax System
The fundamental purpose of taxation is to raise the revenue necessary to fund public services. While there are many ways to achieve this goal, a widely agreed-upon set of principles should be used to evaluate tax systems. This policy brief provides a basic overview of five commonly cited principles of sound tax policy: equity, adequacy, simplicity, exportability, and neutrality.
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report September 13, 2012 State Tax Codes As Poverty Fighting Tools
The tax systems of virtually every state are pushing poor families deeper into poverty. But state tax systems also have the potential to play a role in fighting poverty. The four low-income tax credits discussed in this report are among the most cost-effective anti-poverty strategies available to lawmakers: the Earned Income Tax Credit, property tax circuit breakers, targeted low-income tax credits, and child-related tax credits. This report identifies the states in which each of these credits is offered, and provides specific recommendations tailored to policymakers in each state as they work to combat poverty.
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brief August 1, 2012 Corporate Income Tax Apportionment and the “Single Sales Factor”
One of the thorniest problems in administering state corporate income taxes is how to distribute the profits of multi-state corporations among the states in which they operate. Ultimately, each corporation’s profits should be taxed in their entirety, but some corporations pay no tax at all on a portion of their profits. This problem has emerged, in part, due to recent state efforts to manipulate the “apportionment rules” that distribute such profits. This policy brief explains how apportionment rules work and assesses the effectiveness of special apportionment rules such as “single sales factor” as economic development tools.
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brief August 1, 2012 State Estate and Inheritance Taxes
For much of the last century, estate and inheritance taxes have played an important role in helping states to adequately fund public services in a way that exempts middle- and low income taxpayers.
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brief July 1, 2012 The Progressive Income Tax: An Essential Element of Fair and Sustainable State Tax Systems
A few vocal critics have pointed to state personal income taxes as the source of a variety of fiscal and economic problems- arguing that it has enabled wasteful spending, fueled the volatility of revenue collections, or even stifled job-creation. Accordingly, some of these critics have called for the outright repeal of the income tax, while others have suggested making it significantly less progressive. Such proposals, if acted upon, would make it all but impossible for state tax systems to produce revenue in a fair and sustainable fashion.
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brief July 1, 2012 Sales Tax Holidays: A Boondoggle
Sales taxes are among the most important–and most unfair–taxes levied by state governments. Sales taxes accounted for a third of state taxes in 2011, but sales taxes are regressive, falling far more heavily on low- and middle- income taxpayers than on the wealthy. In recent years, lawmakers thinking they might lessen the impact of these taxes have enacted “sales tax holidays” that provide temporary sales tax breaks for purchases of clothing, computers, and other items. This policy brief looks at sales tax holidays as a tax reduction device.
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report May 24, 2012 Tax Bill Signed by Governor Brownback Makes Kansas an Outlier
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback recently signed into law Senate Substitute for HB 2117, a tax bill that dramatically changes the Kansas income tax structure. The legislation will cut taxes by… -
report May 17, 2012 Latest Kansas Tax Bill Carries $680 Million Price Tag and Raises Taxes on Those Least Able to Pay
A joint House-Senate conference committ ee is poised to approve a revised version of the tax bill recently sent to the Governor by the House of Representatives. An Institute on… -
report May 10, 2012 Three Strategies for Making Enacted Kansas Tax Plan Less Unfair and Less Costly
Yesterday, the Kansas House of Representatives passed, and sent to Governor Sam Brownback, a tax plan, Senate Substitute for House Bill 2117, that had been previously ratified by the state… -
report May 8, 2012 Kansas Tax Bill Would Cost $600 Million a Year While Hiking Taxes on Low-Income Families
Kansas legislators are set to vote on a tax bill recently approved by a joint House-Senate conference committee. An ITEP analysis of the agreed-upon tax bill shows that it would… -
report April 24, 2012 Regarding Proposals to Increase Taxes on Upper-Income Rhode Islanders
My testimony focuses in general on the slate of bills in front of the committee today that would raise taxes on wealthy Rhode Islanders. These bills present Rhode Island policymakers… -
report March 30, 2012 Tax Plans Put Kansas on Road Away from Fair & Adequate Tax Reform
Both the House and Senate have recently passed bills, loosely modeled on the Governor’s plan, that would reduce income tax rates, but their plans are different in very important ways.… -
report January 11, 2012 Kansas Governor Tax Proposal: Wealthy Kansans Pay Less, Poor and Middle-Income Kansans Pay More
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback unveiled his long anticipated tax plan last week. Sweeping changes to reduce the state’s reliance on its progressive personal income tax are at the core of… -
report October 4, 2011 Costs of Personal Income Tax Repeal in Kansas
Given the challenging fiscal climate facing Kansas, the proposed income tax plan should be thought of not simply as a tax cut but as a tax swap. News reports confirm… -
brief October 1, 2011 Cigarette Taxes: Issues and Options
Efforts to increase sales and income taxes usually face some opposition. Yet in many states, lawmakers have been able to agree on one approach to revenue-raising: the cigarette tax. In the past several years nearly every state has enacted a cigarette tax increase to help fund health care, discourage smoking, or to help balance state budgets. This policy brief looks at the advantages and disadvantages of cigarette taxes, and cigarette tax hikes, as a state and local revenue source.
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brief October 1, 2011 Uncertain Benefits, Hidden Costs: The Perils of State-Sponsored Gambling
The recent fiscal downturn forced cash-strapped, tax-averse state lawmakers to seek unconventional revenue-raising alternatives, for additional revenue-raising opportunities outside of the income, sales and property taxes that form the backbone of most state tax systems. One of the most popular alternatives to those major revenue sources is state sponsored gambling. As this policy brief points out, however, gambling revenues are rarely as lucrative, or as long-lasting, as supporters claim.
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report September 22, 2011 State Tax Codes As Poverty Fighting Tools (2011)
This report presents a comprehensive view of anti-poverty tax policy decisions made in the states in 2011 and offers recommendations every state should consider to help families rise out of… -
brief September 1, 2011 Rewarding Work Through Earned Income Tax Credits
Low-wage workers often face a dual challenge as they struggle to make ends meet. In many instances, the wages they earn are insufficient to encourage additional hours of work or long-term attachment to the labor force. At the same time, most state and local tax systems impose greater responsibilities on poor families than on wealthy ones, making it even harder for low-wage workers to move above the poverty line and achieve meaningful economic security. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is designed to help low-wage workers meet both those challenges. This policy brief explains how the credit works at the federal level and what policymakers can do to build upon it at the state level.
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brief September 1, 2011 State Income Taxes and Older Adults
State governments provide a wide array of tax breaks for their elderly residents. Almost every state levying an income tax now sensibly allows some form of income tax exemption or credit for its over-65 citizens that is unavailable to non-elderly taxpayers. But many states have enacted poorly-targeted, unnecessarily expensive elderly income tax breaks that make state tax systems less sustainable and less fair. This policy brief surveys approaches to elderly income tax relief and suggests options for reforming state tax breaks for seniors.
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brief September 1, 2011 State Treatment of Itemized Deductions
In 2011, thirty one states and the District of Columbia allow a group of income tax breaks known as “itemized deductions.” Itemized deductions are designed to help defray a wide variety of personal expenditures that affect a taxpayer’s ability to pay taxes, including charitable contributions, extraordinary medical expenses, mortgage interest payments and state and local taxes. But, these deductions cost states billions of dollars a year while providing little or no benefit to the middle- and low-income families hit hardest by the current economic downturn. This policy brief explains itemized deductions and explores options for reforming these upside down tax breaks at the state level.
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brief September 1, 2011 Property Tax Circuit Breakers
State lawmakers seeking to enact residential property tax relief have two broad options: across-the-board tax cuts for taxpayers at all income levels, such as a homestead exemption or a tax cap, and targeted tax breaks that are given only to particular groups of low-income and middle-income taxpayers. One increasingly popular type of targeted property tax relief program is called a “circuit breaker” because it protects taxpayers from a property tax “overload” just like an electric circuit breaker: when a property tax bill exceeds a certain percentage of a taxpayer’s income, the circuit breaker reduces property taxes in excess of this “overload” level. This policy brief surveys the advantages and disadvantages of the circuit breaker approach to property tax relief.
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brief September 1, 2011 The Folly of State Capital Gains Tax Cuts
For over twenty years now, the federal tax system has treated income from capital gains more favorably than income from work. A significant number of state tax systems do as well, offering tax breaks for profits realized from local investments and, in some instances, from investments around the world. As states struggle to cope with short- and long-term budget deficits and to devise strategies to promote economic development in a sustainable fashion, policymakers should assess whether preserving such tax preferences is in the public interest. This policy brief explains state capital gain taxation and examines the flaws in state capital gain tax cuts.