Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy

Connecticut

Connecticut Voices for Children: Revenue Options are Crucial to Maintaining Public Investments that Promote Prosperity

March 15, 2016

In confronting the financial crisis looming over state budget decisions, the common-sense choice for Connecticut should be a balanced approach that includes revenue, rather than a cuts-only approach that threatens an already fragile economic recovery. Read more

Hartford Courant: Letters ‘New Economic Reality’ Requires Fairer Taxes

February 22, 2016

“According to the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Connecticut has the 26th most unfair state and local tax system in the country. According to the institute’s calculations, Connecticut’s richest 1 percent pay 5.3 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the other 99 percent of us pay an average of […]

Hartford Courant: Teachers Call For Taxing Wealthy, Not Cutting Programs

February 22, 2016

“Basing its comments on what it said are figures from the Washington, D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the union said that Connecticut households with incomes in the top 1 percent pay 5.3 percent of their incomes in state and local taxes, while the remaining 99 percent of Connecticut residents pay an average of […]

Fairfield Citizen: State aims for winning hand in high-stakes game to keep GE

December 18, 2015

“The real problem of giving into corporate demands like these is you’re basically inviting other companies to make this same threat,” said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington think tank.” Read more

Connecticut Voices for Children: Impact of the Final FY 2016 Budget on Children and Families

August 11, 2015

The State of Connecticut’s final FY 16 budget, improved from earlier proposals, still balances on children and families’ finite resources, this analysis finds.  While funding the “Children’s Budget” – state spending on children and family services – requires only a third of overall state funding, children’s program funding reductions account for nearly ninety percent of […]

CNN Money: States Raise Sales, Cigarette Taxes

July 24, 2015

Faced with a $1 billion budget gap, Connecticut this year adopted an array of tax changes, including increasing the top income tax rate to 6.9% and adding a 6.99% rate for couples earning more than $1 million. But it also eliminated the sales tax exemption on clothing purchases of up to $50. That move, coupled […]

CNBC: Is Your State a Gas Tax Winner–Or Loser?

July 22, 2015

As states from Connecticut to California scramble to find money to fix crumbling highways, Congress once again is expected this week to put a short-term patch on the nearly insolvent federal highway trust fund. To make up the shortfall, Congress has transferred more than $53 billion from other tax revenue over the past five years, […]

Planetizen: State Gas Tax Changes Effective July 1: Six Up; One Down

July 6, 2015

Carl Davis, Research Director of the Institute on Tax and Economic Policy (ITEP) writes where gas taxes used to fund transportation infrastructure increased, if only by decimal points, and about the aberration—the six-cent plunge in California. “The largest gas tax increases are taking place in Idaho (7 cents per gallon) and Georgia (6.7 cents for […]

WNPR: Hold On: Why Don’t Corporations in Connecticut Pay (More) Tax?

June 3, 2015

Matt Gardner is director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, and he explained it this way: “If you think it’s wrong for companies to be able to shift their profits freely from state to state, on paper, without actually moving employees, without actually moving production, then this reform is a no-brainer,” he told […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Funding Our Future: Child and Family Friendly Revenue Options

March 18, 2015

An analysis by the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) of Washington, D.C. found that adjusting top rates to the levels in the table below would impact only two percent of state taxpayers, generate $300 million in state revenue, enable taxpayers with increased state taxes to deduct $114 million from federal tax returns, leaving […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Families First, Prosperity for All: Making Connecticut’s Tax and Benefit System More Family-Friendly

February 9, 2015

Connecticut’s tax system is uniquely unfriendly to families. Connecticut is one of only two states with an income tax that does not offer tax credits or exemptions to adjust for the cost of caring for children and other dependents. Read the full report here. 

Greenwich Time: State ranks 26th for regressive taxes

January 16, 2015

Connecticut ranks 26 in a study that judges the fairness of state tax systems. According to the study, states with regressive tax structures have negative tax inequality indexes, meaning that incomes are less equal in those states after state and local taxes than before. Read more

The Day: Connecticut ranks in middle for fair taxes

January 15, 2015

Connecticut is right in the middle in a ranking of the 50 states’ tax fairness, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Still, the wealthiest residents of the state pay only about half the rate paid by the poorest households when measuring taxes as a percent of income: 5.3 […]

Hartford Business Journal: Legislative Panel Aims to Rethink CT’s Tax Code

November 17, 2014

But if the rich feel slighted, consider this: A study last year by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that lower- and middle-income residents pay a higher percentage of their wages to the income tax than do the wealthy. As if the panel’s charge wasn’t broad enough, it has one more thing to […]

The Day: Tax-Free Shopping Starts Sunday in Connecticut

August 20, 2014

Connecticut’s annual sales-tax holiday coinciding with back-to-school shopping kicks off Sunday and runs through Aug. 23. The tax holiday primarily applies to clothing and footwear costing less than $300 per item. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, in an appearance to promote the tax holiday, said this week that the idea is to boost retail sales while […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Making Children Visible in Connecticut’s Tax Code

May 21, 2014

This issue brief from the Fiscal Policy Center at Connecticut Voices for Children identifies a feature of the Connecticut tax system that effectively penalizes households with children, relative to households without kids. Across the country, nearly all states that have enacted an income tax have also enacted some form of tax exemption, deduction or credit […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Pro-Family Tax Reform in Connecticut: A Roadmap for Improvement

May 16, 2014

This report from the Fiscal Policy Center at Connecticut Voices for Children compares Connecticut’s tax system to those of other states and finds: Connecticut is nearly alone among states in not making broad-based tax adjustments for families with dependent children.  More than half of states with an income tax (24 of 41 states) offset the […]

The Day: Six firms paid less than 3% in state taxes

March 21, 2014

(Original Post) Published 03/21/2014 12:00 AMUpdated 03/20/2014 11:42 PM Six Connecticut-based companies, including General Electric, United Technologies, Northeast Utilities and Aetna, paid state taxes totaling less than 3 percent of their profits over the past few years, according to a new report. The report by Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute of Taxation and […]

CT News Junkie: The Important Message of the Sales-Tax Holiday

August 16, 2013

It's that time of year again, folks. Not only are my kids gearing up for a much-needed return to school, but sales tax holidays are sprouting up like weeds across the land of the free.

The Middletown Press: States could see millions more in tax revenues with immigration reform

August 14, 2013

Throughout the past year, Connecticut was faced with tough choices in passing its budget, and it was forced to do so with tens of millions of dollars less in tax revenue than the state would have had if its undocumented immigrants had been part of the mainstream population.

New Haven Register: Reconfigure tax system for transportation

July 10, 2013

(Original Post) Published: Tuesday, July 09, 2013 Some middle-class and wealthy Connecticut people point to government aid programs and services and say that poor people get a lot for nothing. But the working poor pay about 11 percent of their income in taxes compared to a little less than that for middle-income payers and just […]

Connecticut Voices for Children: Who Pays Taxes in Connecticut?

May 16, 2013

This brief finds that Connecticut’s wealthiest residents pay a smaller share of their income in state and local taxes than middle-income and low-income residents. Read the Full Report

Connecticut Voices for Children: Lower Than New York’s for Everyone but the Poor

May 16, 2013

One sometimes hears that recent state income tax increases on the rich could cause them to leave Connecticut for New York and points south. Academic research has shown that taxes are simply not a significant factor in families’ moving decisions. Nonetheless, some believe they are, and so it is important for policymakers to understand how […]

Hartford Courant: Rich Paying More Broadens Opportunity For All

April 22, 2013

(Original Post) April 19, 2013|By WADE GIBSON | COMMENTARY, The Hartford Courant Most people would agree that Connecticut’s wealthiest residents should pay a greater share of their income in taxes than middle- and working-class residents. With 100, 1,000 or even 10,000 times more disposable income than the average resident, the state’s richest individuals can afford […]

The Hartford Courant: Cutting Tax Credit Socks It To Hard-Working Poor

March 13, 2013

(Original Post) March 11, 2013|By JIM HORAN | OP-ED, The Hartford Courant Just two years ago, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy proposed, and Connecticut adopted, a state Earned Income Tax Credit, known as EITC, to help hard-working parents meet their basic needs and keep their families out of poverty. In its first year, that credit helped […]

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