Massachusetts
State Rundown 10/12: Tax Policy Debates Don’t Just Happen in the Statehouse
• By ITEP Staff
It may be the off-season for state legislatures, but tax policy changes could soon emerge from the ballot box or the courts. Advocates in Arkansas want voters to decide the future of taxing diapers and feminine hygiene products, and supporters of public education in Nebraska are working to make sure voters have a say on the state’s school choice tax credit. Meanwhile, cannabis firms in Missouri are suing the state over cities and counties stacking…
State Rundown 9/27: Some States are Looking to Paint the Budgets Red
• By ITEP Staff
When it comes to investments, state lawmakers across the country are positioning their states to be in the red as they pass or debate further tax cuts that will overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy – and some states are now adding an additional coat of red paint...
States are Boosting Economic Security with Child Tax Credits in 2023
• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus
Fourteen states now provide Child Tax Credits to reduce poverty, boost economic security, and invest in children. This year alone, lawmakers in three states created new Child Tax Credits while lawmakers in seven states expanded existing credits. To maximize impact, lawmakers should consider making their credits fully refundable, not including an earnings requirement, setting a maximum amount per child instead of per household, setting state-specific phase-out ranges that target low- and middle-income families, indexing to…
Boosting Incomes, Improving Equity: State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2023
• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus
Nearly two-thirds of states (31 plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico) have an Earned Income Tax Credit, an effective tool that boosts low-paid workers’ incomes and helps lower-income families achieve greater economic security. This year, 12 states expanded and improved EITCs.
State Rundown 8/23: Tax and Effect
• By ITEP Staff
While a number of state tax laws are debated, approved, and vetoed in any given year, many go unnoticed...
Gimmicky Sales Tax Holidays to Cost States & Localities $1.6 Billion This Year
• By ITEP Staff
Sales tax holidays are bad policies that have too often been used as a substitute for more meaningful, permanent reform.
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
• By Marco Guzman
Nineteen states have sales tax holidays on the books in 2023, and these suspensions will cost nearly $1.6 billion in lost revenue this year. Sales tax holidays are poorly targeted and too temporary to meaningfully change the regressive nature of a state’s tax system. Overall, the benefits of sales tax holidays are minimal while their downsides are significant.
State Rundown 7/26: The Dog Days of Summer Tax News
• By ITEP Staff
The Dog Days of summer are upon us, and with most states out of session and extreme heat waves making their way across the country, it’s a perfect time to sit back and catch up on all your favorite state tax happenings (ideally with a cool drink in hand)...
Refundable Credits a Winning Policy Choice Again in 2023
• By Neva Butkus
State lawmakers continue to make groundbreaking progress on state tax credits, with 17 states creating or enhancing Child Tax Credits or Earned Income Tax Credits so far this year. These policies have the potential to boost family economic security and dramatically reduce the number of children living below the poverty line.
State Rundown 6/22: Some Tax Debates Heat Up as Others Cool Off
• By ITEP Staff
Summer is here and many states nearing the end of their legislative sessions. Temperatures are rising in more ways than one in some state legislatures while others seem to be cooling off.
State Rundown 6/7: The Budget Race Continues
• By ITEP Staff
Across the country, the marathon budget season has held pace, with a steady stream of bills continuing to cross the finish line...
The Real Impact of State Tax Cuts
• By Aidan Davis
This op-ed was originally published by Route Fifty and co-written by ITEP State Director Aidan Davis and Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senior Advisor for State Tax Policy Wesley Tharpe. There’s a troubling trend in state capitols across the country: Some lawmakers are pushing big, permanent tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthy and […]
State Rundown 5/18: Credits, Cuts, and Corporate Revenue Raisers
• By ITEP Staff
This past week, in statehouses around the country, tax policy decisions are moving fast as budgets were signed and budget plans were released and passed...
Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center: What’s Race Got to Do With It? Some Tax Proposals Would Widen Racial Inequality, Others Would Advance Equity
• By ITEP Staff
Lawmakers have proposed a variety of tax cuts, some of which would provide outsize benefits to the most affluent households and widen existing racial and economic disparities. Other proposed tax changes would make the Commonwealth more equitable by targeting benefits to lower-income households who need them the most. Read more.
Preventing an Overload: How Property Tax Circuit Breakers Promote Housing Affordability
• By Brakeyshia Samms, Carl Davis
Circuit breaker credits are the most effective tool available to promote property tax affordability. These policies prevent a property tax “overload” by crediting back property taxes that go beyond a certain share of income. Circuit breakers intervene to ensure that property taxes do not swallow up an unreasonable portion of qualifying households’ budgets.
Extending Temporary Provisions of the 2017 Trump Tax Law: National and State-by-State Estimates
• By Joe Hughes, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
The push by Congressional Republicans to make the provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent would cost nearly $300 billion in the first year and deliver the bulk of the tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans.
Racial Justice Requires Tax Justice: Our Analysis Helps Deliver Both
• By Amy Hanauer
ITEP’s analytical approach, our comprehensive microsimulation model, and our unique state-level capacities enable us to do pioneering analyses that enrich the debate on racial justice in tax policy that no other entity can do.
We Can Create a Fair, Feminist Tax Code
• By Amy Hanauer
Everything! Taxing wealthy people and corporations and using the revenue for paid leave, child care, education, health care and college would transform America for girls and women of every race and family type, in every corner of this country.
State Rundown 4/12: Tax Day 2023 – A Good Reminder of the Impact of Our Collective Investments
• By ITEP Staff
With Tax Day quickly approaching it’s worth taking some time to reflect not just on tax forms (though those are important!), but also on the current state of state tax policy...
Testimony of ITEP’s Marco Guzman Before the Nevada Assembly Committee on Revenue
• By Marco Guzman
For a video of Marco’s testimony, click here. Thank you, Assemblywoman Anderson, and thank you chairman and members of the Assembly for the opportunity to speak on the topic of Nevada’s state tax system. My name is Marco Guzman, and I am a Senior State Policy Analyst with the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy […]
State Rundown 3/30: A Win for Tax Equity in The Evergreen State
• By ITEP Staff
Over the past week Washington state saw a major victory for tax fairness after the state Supreme Court held the state’s capital gains tax—passed in 2021—constitutional...
Massachussets Budget & Policy Center: Taking Measure of the Governor’s Tax Plan
• By ITEP Staff
Governor Healey’s tax relief proposal would reduce state revenue available for future investments by $986 million annually. Three proposed tax credits would be progressive, meaning the benefits for lower-income households would be a larger percent of their income than the benefits for higher-income houseolds..1 The Governor also proposes two highly regressive tax cuts, meaning richer, higher-income households would receive […]
State Rundown 3/1: The Long March to the Finish Line
• By ITEP Staff
This week, several big tax proposals took strides on the march toward becoming law...
The Five Best Tax Ideas Coming from Governors This Year
• By Carl Davis
The word “tax” appears 97 times and counting in one recent summary of governors’ addresses to state legislators so far this year. The policy visions that governors are bringing, however, vary enormously. While there's good reason to worry about tax cuts for wealthy families and the flattening or elimination of income taxes, there are at least five great tax ideas coming directly out of governors’ offices this year.
Why the States Have a Major Role to Play If We Want Tax Justice
• By Amy Hanauer
With fears of gridlock in a divided Washington, tax justice champions are building momentum in other places where there's dire need for better tax policy: the states. We can upgrade communities across the country by making 2023 a year to win tax improvements in statehouses.
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