Washington
The U.S. Supreme Court made big news this morning by allowing states to collect taxes due on internet purchases, which will help put main-street and online retailers on an even playing field while also improving state and local revenues and the long-term viability of the sales tax as a revenue source. Many states remain focused on more local issues, however, as Louisiana's third special session of the year kicked off, Massachusetts won a living wage battle while losing an opportunity to put a popular millionaires tax proposal before voters, and major fiscal debates continue in Maine, New Jersey, and Vermont.
State Rundown 6/13: Budget Crunch Time Sets in as State Fiscal Years Come to Close
June 13, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
With many state fiscal years ending June 30th, budget negotiations were completed recently in California, Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina. New Jersey remains a state to watch as a government shutdown looms but leaders continue to disagree about a proposed millionaires tax, corporate taxes, and school funding. In other states looking to wealthy individuals and large corporations for needed revenues, Arizona's teacher pay crisis could be solved with a tax on its highest-income residents and a similar proposal in Massachusetts is polling well, but Seattle's new "head tax" could be on the chopping block.
Washington Post: Seattle Council Votes to Repeal Tax to Help Homeless Amid Opposition from Amazon, other Businesses
June 12, 2018
“There’s a bargaining power problem here, and cities are on the wrong side of it,” said Matthew Gardner, a tax policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank. “When Amazon decides to be bullies and make this kind of threat, it’s really hard for officials to know how seriously […]
Springfield (Mass) Republican: Tax Breaks That Help Students Attend Private School Could Be Repealed
June 9, 2018
“This is a brand new tax break that was created automatically by an obscure linkage to federal law, and whether lawmakers want to offer it or not is worth discussing,” said Carl Davis, research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington-based tax think tank that tends to favor liberal policies. “It’s […]
New York Times: I.R.S. Warns States Not to Circumvent State and Local Tax Cap
May 24, 2018
Carl Davis, the research director for the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington, said that Alabama provides a 100 percent state tax credit for taxpayers who donate money to organizations that give children vouchers to attend private school. Under its new law, New York gives an 85 percent state tax credit to residents […]
Washington Post: NJ Democrats Loved the Idea of Taxing the Rich Until They Could Actually Do It
May 24, 2018
A spokesman for Sweeney, the state Senate president, said families earning over $1.1 million in New Jersey already face an average $738 tax hike under the GOP law, citing data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a left-leaning think tank. That number accounts only for the GOP tax law’s changes for households […]
Washington Times: Treasury Department Warns States over SALT Workarounds
May 24, 2018
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank, issued a new report Wednesday warning the Treasury not to single out the blue states, saying if they’re going to tackle charitable donations they could also target private school voucher programs. “Long before the tax law passed, some states abused the idea of charitable […]
An updated version of this blog was published in April 2019. State tax policy can be a contentious topic, but in recent years there has been a remarkable level of agreement on one tax in particular: the gasoline tax. Increasingly, state lawmakers are deciding that outdated gas taxes need to be raised and reformed to fund infrastructure projects that are vital to their economies.
Seattle Weekly: Seattle City Council Passes Reduced Head Tax
May 14, 2018
This comes on the heels of a 2015 Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report that showed Washington has the most regressive tax system in the country because of its high reliance on sales taxes. Read more
Associated Press: Arizona Voters May Be Asked Whether They Want to Tax High Earners to Fund Education
May 11, 2018
Ballot initiatives to hike taxes on the rich are rare but not unheard of. A measure in Washington state in 2010 to adopt an income tax for individuals who make more than $200,000 was overwhelmingly voted down. Meg Wiehe, deputy director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said the public could be more […]
Washington Post: Iowa Republicans pitch ‘crisis-proof’ tax cuts. Democrats see another Kansas in the making.
May 8, 2018
"The trigger is a politically expedient way for lawmakers to claim they’ve cut your taxes without having to do anything immediately to make up for the consequences of reducing revenue," said Meg Wiehe, of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning think tank.
Washington Post: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is sending 671,000 families an election-year check
May 3, 2018
Tax experts said the only similar recent tax break that came to mind was in 2014, when New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) pushed through a more targeted, three-year tax package aimed at middle-class families ahead of his reelection bid, according to Meg Wiehe, a tax expert at the Institute on Taxation and Economic […]
Under Pressure, Trump Organization Abandons Risky Sales Tax Avoidance Strategy in New York. Will It Face Penalties for Taxes it Did Not Collect?
May 3, 2018 • By Carl Davis
While President Trump was busy publicly shaming Amazon for failing to collect some state and local sales taxes, his own business’s online store was not only failing to collect the same taxes, but was arguably more aggressive than Amazon in refusing to do so. As of last month, TrumpStore.com was not even collecting sales tax in New York State despite having a “flagship retail store” inside Trump Tower, in Manhattan. As ITEP pointed out at that time: “It seems likely that the presence of a New York location should be enough to put TrumpStore.com within reach of New York’s sales…
Washington Post: Democrats’ Tax Plan Looks an Awful Lot Like a Big Giveaway to the Wealthy
April 26, 2018
Some Democratic-led states are also moving forward with plans that would offset the tax benefits for the rich, with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) acting swiftly to enact a millionaire’s tax, according to Meg Wiehe, deputy director of ITEP, who noted Murphy has acknowledged the workaround may help the rich. Cuomo has rebuffed similar […]
Newark Star-Ledger: The 15 Mostly Red States That Mooch off NJ the Most
April 15, 2018
Under the Republican tax bill, New Jersey and five other states, four of which now pay more to Washington than they receive in services, will contribute a greater share of federal income taxes than they do now, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a progressive research group. Read more
Washington Post: Kentucky’s Tax Cut for the Top 5 Percent Survives Despite Governor’s Veto
April 13, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Republicans in Kentucky's state legislature overturned Gov. Matt Bevin's (R) vetoes of their tax overhaul and budget plan Friday, capping a dramatic confrontation between members of the same party that has also seen thousands of teachers descend on the state Capitol in protests for better pay.
Washington Post: Behind Oklahoma’s Teacher Strike: Years of Tax Cuts and an Energy Slump
April 12, 2018
Some states that have also recently pushed through big income tax cuts, including North Carolina and Ohio, did so while also broadening their tax base, according to Meg Wiehe of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. But until this year, Oklahoma did very little to balance rate reductions with increases in the tax base. Oklahoma raised […]
Washington State Budget & Policy Center: Five Essential Truths About Our State Tax Code
April 12, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
Unfortunately, many myths permeate the public discourse about our state tax code. At the Washington State Budget & Policy Center, we are committed to making sure you know the truth about that tax code – and the real solutions that must be enacted in Olympia to make it work for everyone. Because it is a tax code that doesn’t live up to our values. It isn’t set up to invest in our communities in the short and long term. And it is set up to favor corporations, special interests, and the ultra-wealthy over everyday Washingtonians. As a result, the tax…
What to Expect if the Supreme Court Allows for Online Sales Tax Collection
April 11, 2018 • By Carl Davis
Online shopping is hardly a new phenomenon. And yet states and localities still lack the authority to require many Internet retailers to collect the sales taxes that their locally based, brick and mortar competitors have been collecting for decades.
Courier Journal: Kentucky Tax Reform Bill is a Break for the Rich but a Hike for Everybody Else, Study Says
April 6, 2018
The tax bill that zipped through the General Assembly on Monday will amount to a tax break for millionaires but a tax increase for 95 percent of Kentuckians, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy.
Washington Times: Andrew Cuomo complains about tax breaks for wealthy — then signs off on N.Y. loopholes
April 5, 2018 • By Matthew Gardner
Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said this appears to be another example of wealthy Americans “gaming” the tax system through special loopholes. “The whole point is to help New Yorkers to avoid a tax hike, and in particular to help wealthy New Yorkers avoid a tax […]
Washington Post: Kentucky Legislators Send Tax Cuts for Wealthy, Tax Hikes for the Other 95 Percent to Governor’s Desk
April 5, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
The Kentucky legislature passed a sweeping tax overhaul this week, and now lawmakers are asking Gov. Matt Bevin to sign a bill that would slash taxes for some corporations and wealthy individuals while raising them on 95 percent of state residents, according to a new analysis.
Washington Post: If Trump Wants to Go After Amazon, He Has Options
April 4, 2018
Despite Trump’s complaints, Amazon started paying sales taxes in 2017 in most states after setting up warehouses across the country to expedite its delivery times. But Amazon does not collect sales taxes on goods sold by third-party vendors, and several big cities in seven states still are not collecting sales taxes at the same level as from local […]
President Trump’s latest Twitter target, the Amazon Corporation, is now under the microscope for its state and local tax avoidance. In a Thursday tweet, the President claimed that “[u]nlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments.” Such a statement is a startling reversal for a president who previously said his own ability to avoid paying income taxes “makes me smart.”
State Rundown 3/30: Several Major Tax Debates Will March on into April
March 30, 2018 • By ITEP Staff
This week, after the recent teacher strike in West Virginia, teacher pay crises brought on by years of irresponsible tax cuts also made headlines in Arizona and Oklahoma. Maine and New York lawmakers continue to hash out how they will respond to the federal tax bill. And their counterparts in Missouri and Nebraska attempt to push forward their tax cutting agendas.
