Ohio
State Rundown 2/20: Property Taxes and School Finance Take Center Stage
• By ITEP Staff
Property taxes and education funding are a major focus in state fiscal debates this week. California voters will soon vote on borrowing billions of dollars to fill just part of the funding hole created in large part by 1978’s anti-property-tax Proposition 13. Nebraska lawmakers are debating major school finance changes that some fear will create similar long-term fiscal issues. And Idaho and South Dakota leaders are looking to avoid that fate by reducing property taxes…
State Rundown 2/13: What’s Trendy in State Tax Debates This Year
• By ITEP Staff
We wrote earlier this week about Trends We’re Watching in 2020, and this week’s Rundown includes news on several of those trends. Maine lawmakers are considering a refundable credit for caregivers. Efforts to tax high-income households made news in Maryland, Oregon, and Washington. Grocery taxes are receiving scrutiny in Alabama, Idaho, and Tennessee. Tax cuts or shifts are being discussed in Arizona, Nebraska, and West Virginia. And Arizona, Maryland, and Nevada continue to seek funding…
Politico: Cloudy Forecast for Tax Law Fixes
February 6, 2020
DECOUPLING DEDUCTIONS: Two-thirds of states with property tax deductions set a $10,000 ceiling along the lines of the TCJA’s cap on federal deductions for state and local taxes, according to a new report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning group that considers such deductions regressive. Many states tightly link their tax […]
Amy Hanauer
• By ITEP Staff
Amy Hanauer provides vision and leadership to bring accurate research and data to tax policy conversations. As Director, Amy raises resources, guides strategy, and works with the board and staff to make ITEP a critical part of the policy discussion around a stronger tax code. She brings nearly 30 years of experience working to create economic policy that advances social justice.
State Rundown 12/18: Utah’s Tax Fight Wraps Up As Other States’ Ramp Up
• By ITEP Staff
With the new year and many state legislative sessions just around the corner, most state tax and budget debates are just getting started. Arkansas will be among the states working to improve their roads and other infrastructure. Massachusetts will have to deal with revenue losses due to a misguided tax-cut trigger put in place in prior years. Maryland and South Dakota will be two of many states facing teacher pay shortages and other education funding…
States Should Decouple from Costly Federal Opportunity Zones and Reject Look-Alike Programs
• By ITEP Staff
Post enactment of TCJA, lawmakers in most states needed to decide how to respond to the creation of this new program. Given the shortcomings of the federal Opportunity Zones program and its added potential costs to states, the most prudent course of action is three-pronged: States should move quickly to decouple; states should reject look-alike programs; and lawmakers should make investments directly into economically distressed areas.
State Rundown 11/6: State Voters Show Readiness to Fix Broken Tax Codes
• By ITEP Staff
Many of yesterday’s Election Day votes came down to questions of whether or not to improve on upside-down and often inadequate state and local tax systems. The status quo was maintained in Colorado, where voters failed to approve a proposition to allow the state to invest tax revenue in education and other needs, and in Texas, where a constitutional amendment was approved to prohibit the state from creating an income tax. But voters supported important…
Amy Hanauer Appointed as Executive Director of ITEP-CTJ
• By ITEP Staff
Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) and Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ) Boards of Directors announced today the appointment of Amy Hanauer as Executive Director to lead the organizations’ tax justice work. Hanauer, founder of Policy Matters Ohio, will assume responsibilities mid-January 2020, joined by long-time ITEP-CTJ team member Meg Wiehe in her expanded role as Deputy Executive Director. Together the pair will lead the organizations in transforming tax policies to better meet the…
State Rundown 10/24: State Tax Talk Makes Like a Tree and Gets Colorful
• By ITEP Staff
As autumn brings a colorful display of foliage to many states, so too are tax proposals taking on interesting hues as states move from the summer off-season toward 2020 legislative sessions. Ohio lawmakers are blue in the face from debating and re-debating tax and budget issues there. Maryland residents again showed they can’t be called yellow-bellied when it comes to footing the bill for needed education improvements, showing their broad support for higher taxes to…
Wall Street Journal: Rising California Gasoline Prices Highlight Growing Divide in U.S.
October 23, 2019
A dozen states raised gas taxes earlier this year, including Illinois, Ohio, California, Maryland and Michigan, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a state and federal tax-policy think tank. Read more
State Rundown 10/10: Always Something Old, Something New in State Tax Debates
• By ITEP Staff
Creative thinking from Pennsylvania lawmakers has helped them discover that the Wayfair ruling allowing states to collect sales tax from online retailers can also help them identify and tax corporate profits earned in their borders. Similarly, New York leaders had the vision to put bold environmental goals in place and identify a carbon price as a potential pay-for. Gubernatorial candidates in Mississippi and Kentucky showed less ingenuity, proposing tax cuts even though Mississippi is still…
State Tax Codes as Poverty Fighting Tools: 2019 Update on Four Key Policies in All 50 States
• By Aidan Davis
This report presents a comprehensive overview of anti-poverty tax policies, surveys tax policy decisions made in the states in 2019 and offers recommendations that every state should consider to help families rise out of poverty. States can jump start their anti-poverty efforts by enacting one or more of four proven and effective tax strategies to reduce the share of taxes paid by low- and moderate-income families: state Earned Income Tax Credits, property tax circuit breakers,…
Boosting Incomes and Improving Tax Equity with State Earned Income Tax Credits in 2019
• By Aidan Davis
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a policy designed to bolster the incomes of low-wage workers and offset some of the taxes they pay, providing the opportunity for families struggling to afford the high cost of living to step up and out of poverty toward meaningful economic security. The federal EITC has kept millions of Americans out of poverty since its enactment in the mid-1970s. Over the past several decades, the effectiveness of the…
Why Local Jurisdictions’ Heavy Reliance on Fines and Fees Is a Tax Policy Issue
• By Meg Wiehe
The exposé (Addicted to Fines: Small Towns Are Dangerously Dependent) raises two important issues that policymakers have the power to address. One, lack of revenue at the local level is linked to a broader challenge with state tax systems. Two, fines and fees often entrap lower-income people in a cycle of debt and, in some jurisdictions, ultimately criminalize poverty by casting unpaid fines as misdemeanor crimes.
State Rundown 8/15: A Tax-Subsidy Cease-Fire in Kansas and Missouri
• By ITEP Staff
Over the last couple of weeks, leaders in Kansas and Missouri reached a historic agreement to stop giving away tax subsidies just to entice companies a couple of miles across their shared state line. Meanwhile, policymakers in Alaska resolved a stand-off over education funding...by cutting education funding slightly less. And California voters may be voting in 2020 on a stronger reform to the notoriously inequitable property tax effects of “Proposition 13.”
Cleveland Scene: Despite Tax Cuts, Lower-Income Ohioans Likely Won’t See Savings Under Ohio’s New Budget
August 12, 2019
The budget eliminated the state’s bottom two tax brackets below about $21,000 a year, increased the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit and took other measures to put money in non-wealthy Ohioans’ pockets. But it also slashed taxes for wealthy Ohioans and boosted the state’s gas tax while directing the state to collect sales taxes on […]
Columbus Dispatch: Make over $208,000 a Year? If Not, Ohio’s Tax Cut Won’t Help
August 11, 2019
In plain language, the rich get richer and the poor (and middle class) get poorer. In fact, only the most affluent 5% of Ohioans (those making more than $208,000 a year) wind up with a net tax cut. The data comes from an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington, D.C., […]
Policy Matters Ohio: Ohio Tax Shift Away From the Wealthy: The Pattern Repeats
• By ITEP Staff
The main tax measures in Ohio’s new budget bills will bring tax increases on average for lower- and middle-income taxpayers, while those at the top of the income scale on average will see cuts. Overall, the bottom 95% of taxpayers with annual income below $208,000 a year will average increases, while those in the top […]
State Rundown 7/26: The Dog Days of Tax
• By ITEP Staff
OHIO legislators passed a budget with unfortunate income tax cuts for high-income households. Other states turned their attention to unconventional ideas during their legislative off-seasons, for better and for worse. And there are many gems to be found in our “What We’re Reading” section below, including new research on the racial inequities that continue to pervade our communities and schools.
Many States Move Toward Higher Taxes on the Rich; Lower Taxes on Poor People
• By Meg Wiehe
Several states this year proposed or enacted tax policies that would require high-income households and/or businesses to pay more in taxes. After years of policymaking that slashed taxes for wealthy households and deprived states of revenue to adequately fund public services, this is a necessary and welcome reversal.
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Lawmakers in many states have enacted “sales tax holidays” (16 states will hold them in 2019), to provide a temporary break on paying the tax on purchases of clothing, school supplies, and other items. While these holidays may seem to lessen the regressive impacts of the sales tax, their benefits are minimal. This policy brief looks at sales tax holidays as a tax reduction device.
Sales Tax Holidays Are Outdated Gimmicks That Have Run Their Course
• By ITEP Staff
Just as the very first sales tax holiday for car sales did not fix the auto industry’s challenges, providing consumers a temporary reprieve on sales tax will not address families’ pocketbook concerns.
State Rundown Special Edition: Fiscal Year Wrap-Up
• By ITEP Staff
We've said it before, and we'll say it again: states don't have to wait for federal lawmakers to make moves toward progressive tax policy. And so far, 2019 has been a good year for equitable and sustainable tax policy in the states. With July 1 marking the start of a new fiscal year for most states, this special edition of the Rundown looks at how discussions in 2019 have been dominated by plans to raise…
The Wall Street Journal: From Gas Taxes to Vaping Rules, New State Laws Take Effect Across U.S.
July 2, 2019
Drivers in a number of states will now pay higher taxes on gas as part of a broader push to fund infrastructure improvements. In Illinois, the gas tax has doubled to 38 cents from 19 cents, making it the largest increase for any of these states, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, […]
Travelers in 12 States Will Pay More in Gas Taxes Beginning Monday
• By Carl Davis
Drivers in 12 states who hit the road during this summer driving season will be paying more in gas tax beginning Monday, July 1. While the federal gas tax has remained stagnant for nearly 26 years, many states have stepped up and increased their taxes so they can raise revenue to fund infrastructure and other projects. California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee and Vermont all will raise their gas…
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