Texas

2025 saw an intensification of state and local tax fights across the country, as well as growing experimentation with local-option taxes, levies, fees, and tourism taxes aimed at keeping budgets afloat while also navigating political constraints imposed by state legislatures.

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

This proposal would disrupt the state’s housing market and jeopardize local revenues while doing very little to help workers and families struggling to pay their property tax bills – just as Prop 13 did in California.

With a little over a week left, some states are solidifying their spots on the tax policy “naughty or nice” list.

property tax debates are taking place throughout the nation.

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

State governments are rushing to offer billions of dollars in subsidies to data center construction, apparently without understanding their full costs.

The progressivity of the federal tax code has been waning. State and local policymakers should respond by protecting their revenue bases, promoting equity, and safeguarding vulnerable communities from harmful budget cuts. 

Important tax measures were on the ballot this week, and the outcomes are clear: many voters support new state and local spending to support critical services in their communities.

Despite being an off-year election, voters made a call for shared public investments at the polls.

States across the nation are debating how best to respond to costly new federal tax cuts.

Local governments have a critical role to play in reducing child poverty. Local Child Tax Credits could provide large tax cuts to families at the bottom of the income scale, lessening the overall regressivity of state and local tax systems.

Despite an increasingly bleak state revenue outlook, state lawmakers across the country continue to prioritize regressive tax cuts.

While tax news has slowed as summer comes to an end, there are rumblings beneath the surface that could be an inauspicious sign of the times ahead for states and state budgets.

As states prepare for the revenue loss and disruption resulting from the federal tax bill, tax policy is being considered in legislatures across the country.

All eyes in statehouses in recent weeks have been on federal budget negotiations, and now that the “megabill” has passed, they are focused in on their own budgets in search of ways to cope with the enormous consequences coming their way. All states will see fewer federal dollars flowing through their coffers, higher needs due […]

Sales tax holidays are often marketed as relief for everyday families, but they do little to address the deeper inequities of regressive sales taxes. In 2025, 18 states offer these holidays at a collective cost of $1.3 billion.

Across-the-board property tax cuts create less fair local tax systems in the long run. State legislators and local governments should prioritize the residents who can least afford their property taxes, not the residents and businesses who can.

If instead of giving $117 billion to the richest 1 percent, that money had been evenly divided among all Americans, we'd each get $343 - or nearly $1,400 for a family of four.

$117 billion is a big number, so we thought it could use a little context.

The last states are wrapping up legislative sessions, and some are crossing the finish line with major income tax cuts.