Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Rhode Island

news release  

ITEP Policy Briefs: More and More States Are Helping Low-Income Families with New and Expanded Tax Credits

• By ITEP Staff

13 states plus D.C. created or expanded state CTCs or EITCs this year, helping create more equitable state tax systems WASHINGTON, D.C.: In 2022’s state legislative sessions, lawmakers across the country advanced tax policies that will bolster the economic security of millions of low- and moderate-income working families through new and enhanced Child Tax Credits […]

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More States are Boosting Economic Security with Child Tax Credits in 2022

• By Aidan Davis

After years of being limited in reach, there is increasing momentum at the state level to adopt and expand Child Tax Credits. Today ten states are lifting the household incomes of families with children through yearly multi-million-dollar investments in the form of targeted, and usually refundable, CTCs.

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Census Data Shows Need to Make 2021 Child Tax Credit Expansion Permanent

• By Joe Hughes

The Child Tax Credit expansion led to a 46 percent decline in childhood poverty. That it could be accomplished during the largest economic disruption in most of our lifetimes underscores a basic fact: thoughtful, decisive government action to combat poverty works.

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State Rundown 8/10: States Still Talking Taxes as IRA Dominates Headlines

• By ITEP Staff

While federal tax policy has dominated the headlines with the Senate’s recent approval of the Inflation Reduction Act, lawmakers in statehouses across the country...

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Legislative Momentum in 2022: New and Expanded Child Tax Credits and EITCs

• By Neva Butkus

State legislatures across the country made investments in their future, centering children, families, and workers by enacting and expanding state Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs), Child Tax Credits (CTCs), and other refundable credits this session. In total, seven states either expanded or created CTCs this session. Connecticut, New Mexico, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont […]

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State Rundown 6/15: States on Alert as Inflation Concerns Rise

• By ITEP Staff

With inflation dominating headlines both nationally and locally, state lawmakers around the U.S. are searching for ways to put their revenues to good use, and not surprisingly, some options are better than others...

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State Rundown 6/8: Tax Policy Features Prominently During Budget and Primary Season

• By ITEP Staff

As voters head to the polls to weigh in on their state’s primary elections and legislators convene to hash out budget deals, tax policy remains atop the agenda...

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Excess Profits Tax Proposals Meet the Moment, But Lawmakers Should Keep Their Eye on Fundamentally Fixing Our Corporate Tax

• By Steve Wamhoff

New corporate tax proposals address the current situation, but ultimately leaders in Washington must fix federal law to tax all corporate profits and stop the tax dodging that is rampant today.

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State Rundown 3/2: State Tax News When You Need It

• By ITEP Staff

ITEP is happy to announce the launch of our new State Tax Watch page, where you can find out about the most up-to-date tax proposals and permanent legislative changes happening across the country...

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State Rundown 2/23: Temporary Surplus, Permanent Cuts

• By ITEP Staff

Several state legislatures are continuing to push ahead this year with significant tax cut packages that are regressive and would dramatically reduce revenues and leave states in a bad position should they experience another unexpected economic shock...

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State Rundown 2/10: Dems Also Set Sights on Tax Cuts

• By ITEP Staff

While record state revenue surpluses have led to big pushes in red states to make unnecessary permanent income and corporate tax cuts, Democrats are also getting in on the tax-cut mania...

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State Rundown 1/26: States Offering Preview of Tax Themes and Trends for 2022

• By ITEP Staff

Governors and legislators are beginning to settle on and advance tax bills that could drastically shape the future of their states and several trends and themes are beginning to emerge...

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State Income Taxes and Racial Equity: Narrowing Racial Income and Wealth Gaps with State Personal Income Taxes

• By Carl Davis, Jessica Schieder, Marco Guzman

10 state personal income tax reforms that offer the most promising routes toward narrowing racial income and wealth gaps through the tax code.

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State Rundown 9/1: Labor Day Edition

• By ITEP Staff

Labor Day is around the corner and in the spirit of celebrating the achievements of workers around the country, we here at ITEP want to call attention to the states (and territories) that are using tax policy to support workers and residents alike...

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State Rundown 7/21: States Go for Tax Policy Gold This Olympics Season

• By ITEP Staff

It’s Olympics season! As countries around the globe battle for first place in a plethora of sports and contests it’s as good a time as any to look around America to see which states deserve a gold medal in the ‘Equitable Tax Policy’ event...

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State Rundown 7/7: The New Fiscal Year Starts off With a Bang, And Not Just Fireworks

• By ITEP Staff

States were busy over the past week despite the Fourth of July holiday. Many are gearing up for upcoming tax and budget clashes that could shape their futures for some time...

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State Rundown 6/24: Late June State Fiscal Debates Unusually Active

• By ITEP Staff

Delayed legislative sessions and protracted federal aid debates have made for a busier June than normal for state fiscal debates. Arizona, New Hampshire, and North Carolina legislators, for example, are still pushing for expensive and regressive tax cuts in their states while they remain in session...

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State Rundown 6/16: Progressive Tax Policy Keeps Racking Up Wins

• By ITEP Staff

Taxing rich households and large corporations to fund vital investments in education and other shared priorities has long been a winner in the eyes of the American public, and more recently has also enjoyed a string of victories in state legislatures and at the ballot box. That win streak continued this week as Arizona’s voter-approved tax surcharge on the rich and Seattle, Washington’s payroll tax on high-profit, high-salary businesses both survived court challenges, and Massachusetts…

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State Rundown 3/17: Momentum for Sound Progressive Tax Reforms Continues to Build

• By ITEP Staff

We wrote last week that the inclusion of fiscal relief for states and localities in Congress’s American Rescue Plan should free up state lawmakers’ time and attention to focus on the comprehensive reforms needed to address upside-down and inadequate tax codes, and some states are already doing just that.

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State Rundown 3/10: Federal Pandemic Aid Means States Can Focus on the Big Picture

• By ITEP Staff

State and local policymakers will be preoccupied for a short time with celebrating and deciphering the federal pandemic relief package approved today, but ultimately the federal aid should free them to focus on even bigger concerns such as tax codes that often fail to adequately fund core priorities even in good years and exacerbate the economic and racial inequities that this pandemic has laid bare.

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State Rundown 2/24: State Tax Debates Quickly Thaw Out with Warmer Weather

• By ITEP Staff

Warming temperatures in many parts of the country this week seem to be thawing out state fiscal debates as well. Multiple states including California, Colorado, Maryland, and New Jersey saw movement on efforts to improve tax credits for low- and middle-income families. Mississippi House lawmakers suddenly rushed through a dangerous bill to eliminate the state’s income tax and shift those taxes onto lower-income households. Montana senators also approved regressive income tax cuts and South Dakota…

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Comparing Flat-Rate Income Tax Options for Alaska

• By Carl Davis

Alaska lawmakers are facing an unprecedented fiscal crisis. The state is more dependent than any other on oil tax and royalty revenues but declines in oil prices and production levels have sapped much of the vitality of these revenue sources. One way of diversifying the state’s revenue stream and narrowing the yawning gap between state revenues and expenses would be to reinstitute a statewide personal income tax. Alaska previously levied such a tax until 1980.…

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State Rundown 2/11: Legalizing and Taxing Cannabis Becoming Increasingly Mainstream

• By ITEP Staff

This week, the governors of New Hampshire and West Virginia proposed to eliminate their states’ most progressive revenue sources and shift taxes even more heavily onto the middle- and low-income families who already pay the highest rates in both states. It was also a big week for proponents of legalizing recreational cannabis, as that movement made progress in Hawaii, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

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State Rundown 2/4: Some Lawmakers, Governors Rising to Occasion with Progressive Tax Proposals

• By ITEP Staff

States face shifting landscapes as they attempt to deal with both emergent and longstanding issues in their tax codes and budget structures. This is particularly evident in Oklahoma, where lawmakers must adjust to a U.S. Supreme Court decision that literally redraws state boundaries by recognizing the rights of indigenous communities, but is true in every state, and lawmakers in many of them are rising to the challenge. Read below and see our blog posted today…

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States Are Finally Going Bold with Progressive Tax Efforts

• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill

Advocates, lawmakers, study commissions, and even governors in some states are proposing bold tax policy reforms that look beyond pandemic-induced budget shortfalls and the “K-shaped recovery” to address underlying inequities and underfunding that gave rise to them. These efforts include proposals to: end or reverse regressive tax policies like the preferential treatment of income derived from wealth over income earned through work; restore or strengthen estate and inheritance taxes to slow the concentration of wealth…