
April 17, 2017
LB 461, the tax-cut package put forth by the Revenue Committee, is first and foremost an income tax cut for wealthy Nebraskans and the proposal does little to truly address property tax relief. In fact, LB 461 is fundamentally flawed in a way that makes it more likely to exacerbate, not help, Nebraska’s reliance on […]
April 12, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week in state tax news we see Louisiana‘s session getting started, budgets passed in New York and West Virginia, Kansas lawmakers taking a rest after defeating a harmful flat tax proposal, and Nebraska legislators preparing for full debate on major tax cuts. Nevada lawmakers may make tax decisions related to tampons, diapers, marijuana, and […]
This week in state tax news we saw a destructive tax cut effort defeated in Georgia, a state shutdown avoided in New York, and lawmakers hone in on major tax debates in Massachusetts, Nebraska, South Carolina, and WestVirginia. State efforts to collect taxes owed on online purchases continue to heat up as well. — Meg […]
In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. Corporations Offshore Cash Hoard Grows to $2.6 Trillion U.S. corporations now hold a record $2.6 trillion offshore, a […]
March 29, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week we see West Virginia, Georgia, Minnesota, and Nebraska continue to deliberate regressive tax cut proposals, as the District of Columbia considers cancelling tax cut triggers it put in place in prior years, and lawmakers in Hawaii, Washington, Kansas, and Delaware ponder raising revenues to shore up their budgets. Meanwhile, gas tax debates continue […]
March 23, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
In the Tax Justice Digest we recap the latest reports, blog posts, and analyses from Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve been working on lately. State-by-State Analysis of GOP Health Care Plan By now, it’s widely known that the GOP health care plan […]
This week in state tax news saw major changes debated in Hawaii and West Virginia and proposed in North Carolina, a harmful flat tax proposal in Georgia, new ideas for ignoring revenue shortfalls in Mississippi and Nebraska, an unexpected corporate tax proposal from the governor of Louisiana, gas tax bills advance in South Carolina and […]
State tax debates have been very active this week. Efforts to eliminate the income tax continue in West Virginia. Policymakers in many states are responding to revenue shortfalls in very different ways: some in Iowa, Mississippi, and Nebraska seek to dig the hole even deeper with tax cuts, while the Missouri House’s response has been […]
March 1, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
Tax cuts have been proposed in many states already this year, but amid so much uncertainty, it remains to be seen how successful those efforts will be. This week saw one dangerous, largely regressive tax cut proposal move in Georgia, new budget proposals in Louisiana and New Jersey, a new plan to close West Virginia‘s […]
March 1, 2017 • By Lisa Christensen Gee, Meg Wiehe, Misha Hill
Public debates over federal immigration reform, specifically around undocumented immigrants, often suffer from insufficient and inaccurate information about the tax contributions of undocumented immigrants, particularly at the state level. The truth is that undocumented immigrants living in the United States paybillions of dollars each year in state and local taxes. Further, these tax contributions would increase significantly if all undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States were granted a pathway to citizenship as part of comprehensive immigration reform. Or put in the reverse, if undocumented immigrants are deported in high numbers, state and local revenues could take a substantial…
February 28, 2017 • By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
So far in this series on tax policy topics to watch in 2017, we’ve covered important state debates in areas such as attempts to weaken or eliminate progressive taxes and needed updates to gas taxes and sales taxes. As if those topics weren’t enough to keep state lawmakers up at night, they will be making […]
This week saw a nearly successful attempt to right the fiscal ship in Kansas; regressive tax proposals introduced in WestVirginia, Georgia, and Missouri; ongoing gas tax fights in Indiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee; and further tax and budget wrangling in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and beyond. — Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director, @megwiehe Both […]
February 16, 2017
Forty percent of Nebraskans would see tax increases under LB 452 Low- and middle-income earners pay more of their incomes in sales taxes than income taxes. This is reflected in Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) data that show LB 452 – which includes a sales tax expansion — would raise taxes on average […]
February 15, 2017 • By Misha Hill
This is the fourth installment of our six-part series on 2017 state tax trends. The introduction to this series is available here. State lawmakers often find themselves looking for ways to raise revenue to fund vital public services, fill budget gaps, or pay for the elimination or weakening of progressive taxes. Lately, that search has […]
This week we are following a number of significant proposals being debated or introduced including reinstating the income tax in Alaska and eliminating the tax in West Virginia, establishing a regressive tax-cut trigger in Nebraska, restructuring the Illinois sales tax, moving New Mexico to a flat income tax and broader gross receipts tax, and updating […]
February 14, 2017
The bottom 80 percent of Nebraska earners pay 9 percent to 11 percent of their income in state and local taxes. The top 20 percent pay less — just 8 percent. The top 1 percent pay least — just over 6 percent, all according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
February 8, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week we bring news of Kansas lawmakers attempting to fix ill-advised tax cuts that have wreaked havoc on the state’s budget and schools, while their counterparts in Nebraska and Idaho debate bills that would create similar problems for their own states, as well as tax cuts in Arkansas that were proven unaffordable within one […]
February 2, 2017 • By Aidan Davis
This is the third installment of our six-part series on 2017 state tax trends. The introduction to this series is available here. As we described last week, many states are gearing up for challenging budget debates this year. But the need to address revenue shortfalls has not stopped lawmakers in many states from pursuing harmful […]
This week’s Rundown brings news of tax cuts passed in Arkansas and advanced in Idaho, proposals to exempt feminine hygiene products from sales taxes in Nevada and Michigan, revenue shortfalls forcing tough choices in Louisiana and Maine, and more governors’ state of the state addresses and budget proposals setting the stage for yet more tax […]
Below is a list of notable resources for information on state taxes and revenues: Alabama Alabama Department of Revenue Alabama Department of Finance – Executive Budget Office Alabama Department of Revenue – Tax Incentives for Industry Alabama Legislative Fiscal Office Alaska Alaska Department of Revenue – Tax Division Alaska Office of Management & Budget Alaska […]
January 30, 2017 • By Carl Davis
UPDATE: After this post was published, Amazon announced that it will begin collecting sales tax in Oklahoma on March 1. This post has been updated to reflect this development. The nation’s largest Internet retailer has made an about-face on its sales tax policy, making consumers’ ability to evade sales tax on online purchases a little […]
January 30, 2017
Below are some facts regarding, LB 337, the governor’s income tax cut plan: The example middle-class Nebraska taxpayer used to roll out the plan would not receive a tax cut under LB 337. Once the standard deduction is applied, this taxpayer, who earns $29,831, would not pay the top tax rate on any income, and therefore would […]
Over the next few weeks we will be blogging about what we’re watching in state tax policy during 2017 legislative sessions. In this “What to Watch in the States” series, we will look at the following: State responses to short- and long-term revenue deficits Boosting funding for infrastructure, though sometimes at the expense of other […]
January 18, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week we continue to track revenue shortfalls, governors’ budget proposals, and other tax news around the country, finding most proposals to be focused on slashing taxes and reducing public investments despite public opinion and economic research showing the benefits of well-funded state services and progressive tax policies. — Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director, […]
January 11, 2017 • By ITEP Staff
This week brings still more states looking for solutions to revenue shortfalls, multiple governors’ State of The State addresses, important reading on counter-transparency and local-preemption efforts, and more. — Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director, @megwiehe A Nebraska legislator this week diagnosed the state’s $900 million revenue shortfall in plain terms, describing it as “self-inflicted […]