South Carolina

South Carolina signed into law a regressive tax cut that will disproportionately benefit the state’s highest-income residents while simultaneously jeopardizing the state’s ability to pay for basic public services in the years to come.

As many state legislative sessions near or cross the halfway point, lawmakers are facing tough choices.

National Sausage Month isn’t until October, but now is the time of year when state lawmakers are really diving into their sausage-making processes, as separate legislative houses and oftentimes political parties send competing bills, budgets, and visions back and forth to grind out their differences.

State lawmakers are grappling with a range of challenges as their fiscal outlooks deteriorate, federal tax enforcement wanes (after the Trump administration cut the IRS workforce by 25 percent), and a rewritten federal tax code sends states scrambling to decide what changes they might want to make in their own codes.

Despite wintry conditions across much of the country, that hasn’t stopped state lawmakers from debating major tax policy changes.

Most states are adopting a very cautious approach so far this year as legislators begin their sessions and governors make their annual addresses, thanks to ongoing economic uncertainty and federal retrenchment.

As we kick off a new year, several states are facing revenue shortfalls. Some lawmakers are approaching the challenge with sustainable and equitable solutions.

State deductions for tips and overtime are not only ineffective at supporting working-class people, it will come at a substantial cost to state budgets.

States are increasingly facing difficult choices as revenues stagnate and deficits come clearer into focus.