Recent Work
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How Local Governments Raise Revenue — and What it Means for Tax Equity
December 5, 2024 • By Galen Hendricks, Rita Jefferson
Local taxes are key to thriving communities. One in seven tax dollars in the U.S.—about $886 billion annually—is levied by local governments in support of education, infrastructure, public health, and other priorities. Three fourths of this funding comes from property taxes, 18 percent comes from sales and excise taxes, and six percent comes from income taxes.
State Rundown 12/3: Some States Cast Away Fiscal Responsibility as They Plan for 2025
December 3, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
The 2025 legislative season will be here before we know it, and state lawmakers have begun unveiling their priorities and proposals. Unfortunately, despite stagnating revenue growth, many lawmakers continue to push for deep, regressive tax cuts - often before the full impact of previous tax cuts is felt.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the legislature back to the capitol the day after the national election to take up his plan to overhaul the state’s tax system during a 20-day special session. Our analysis shows the tax overhaul would worsen the inequity already rampant in Louisiana’s tax system while potentially shortchanging essential services for families across the state.
Average Louisianans Will Pay for Gov. Landry’s Tax Break for the Rich
November 26, 2024 • By Neva Butkus
Tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations will not make Louisiana more competitive. Rather, they will blow a hole in the state budget while asking low- and middle-income working families to make up the difference. Gov. Landry and the Louisiana legislature would make much better use of their time looking for ways to make Louisiana’s tax structure fairer and more capable of adequately funding important priorities.
State Rundown 11/20: Some Budgets and Tax Proposals Fail to Defy Gravity, Fall Short
November 20, 2024 • By ITEP Staff
This week, there are high-profile budget and tax debates at both the state and local levels. The Louisiana legislature continues to debate Gov. Jeff Landry’s deeply regressive tax package in a special session focused on replacing corporate and personal income tax revenue with additional sales taxes, but some efforts to find offsets for the cuts […]
State Tax Policy Should Adopt the Principles of ‘Black Women Best’
November 20, 2024 • By Brakeyshia Samms
Focusing policy analysis on Black women illustrates how Black women have long shouldered the shortcomings of the economy and clearly points to solutions that work for all. Black women are at their best when they are financially secure, healthy, and free – and our economy is at its best when all people can thrive and benefit.
On Election Day, Voters Across the Country Chose to Invest in Their States & Communities
November 19, 2024 • By Kamolika Das
On election day, voters across the country — in states red and blue and communities rural and urban — approved a wide range of state and local ballot measures on taxation and public investment. The success of these measures clearly shows that voters are willing to invest in public priorities that feel tangible and close to home.
Taxing Transportation Is One Great Way to Reduce Carbon Emissions
November 12, 2024 • By Amy Hanauer
Federal, state, and local tax codes are important but underused tools that can create a more climate-resilient, less carbon-emitting America. A modernized tax code would stop subsidizing emissions and instead encourage lower-carbon design. Because cars and trucks produce roughly one-fourth of US greenhouse gas emissions, transportation taxation is a great starting point.
Billionaires and businesses have too much power in Washington. Tax revenue is needed to pay for things we all need. If we want economic justice, racial justice and climate justice, we must have tax justice.
Tax policy results are mixed across the country as many voters weigh in on state and local ballot measures. For example, Washington state voted to maintain its new progressive tax on capital gains; Georgia voters capped growth in property tax assessments; Illinois voters approved a call for a millionaires’ tax; North Dakota voters rejected property […]
How Tax Decisions in 2025 Can Advance Racial Justice
October 30, 2024 • By Brakeyshia Samms, Jon Whiten
In the coming 14 months, federal lawmakers should address longstanding issues of racism in the tax code. With a presidential election this fall and many provisions of 2017’s Trump tax law expiring at the end of 2025, the debate over tax policy and economic fairness is in full swing.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is proposing a regressive tax reform package that would enact a flat personal and corporate income tax while expanding the state’s sales tax base and eliminating certain exemptions to make up for a portion of the lost revenue. West Virginia continues to chip away at its personal income tax, one of the state’s few progressive revenue options. And advocates in New York are rallying around a package of progressive tax legislation that would tax capital gains at higher rates, enact higher income tax brackets on multi-millionaires, and tax unrealized capital gains of billionaires.
How Would the Harris and Trump Tax Plans Affect Different Income Groups?
October 23, 2024 • By Jon Whiten
Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have put forward a wide range of different tax proposals during this year’s campaign. We have now fully analyzed the distributional impacts of the major proposals of both Vice President Harris and former President Trump in separate analyses. In all, the tax proposals announced by Harris would, on average, lead to a tax cut for all income groups except the richest 1 percent of Americans, while the proposals announced by Trump would, on average, lead to a tax increase for all income groups except the richest 5 percent of Americans.
The tax proposals from Vice President Kamala Harris would, on average, lead to a tax increase for the richest 1 percent of Americans and a tax cut for all other income groups.
2024 Local Tax Ballot Measures: Voters in Dozens of Communities Will Shape Local Policy
October 17, 2024 • By Rita Jefferson
Next month, voters across the country will weigh in on many local ballot measures that will have a profound effect on the adequacy of our local tax systems and whether cities and communities can fund public needs. These are in addition to statewide ballot questions, many of which have local implications this year.
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