Washington
Washington Post: How state tax systems unfairly burden low-income earners
January 14, 2015
“State taxes favor those with the highest incomes. That’s according to a new report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy report, which finds that on average the bottom fifth of earners pay proportionally twice as much of their incomes in state and local taxes as the top 1 percent. Such systems that are […]
The New York Times: Study Finds Local Taxes Hit Lower Wage Earners Harder
January 14, 2015
“When it comes to the taxes closest to home, the less you earn, the harder you’re hit. That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that evaluates the local tax burden in every state, from Washington, labeled the most regressive, to Delaware, ranked as the fairest of them […]
Yakima Herald-Republic: Tax System Unlikely to See Overhaul This Year
January 12, 2015
Further, due to reliance on a relatively high sales tax, Washington has ranked as the most regressive state tax system in the nation, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that advocates for progressive tax policies. The poorest 20 percent of state residents pay nearly 17 percent of […]
The Wall Street Journal: In Low Gasoline Prices, an Opening Emerges for Higher Taxes
January 9, 2015
“There aren’t many products where every time you go for a drive you see the price thrown at you a dozen times before you get to your destination,” said Carl Davis, a senior policy analyst at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit research group in Washington. “Gasoline is something people buy frequently. […]
Washington Post: The Gas Tax Has Been Fixed at 18 Cents for Two Decades
December 3, 2014
Meanwhile, the federal gas tax is less and less able to cover the cost of all this. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the gas tax has lost “28 percent of its value since 1997” as costs of highway construction and repair have grown, and as vehicle fuel efficiency has increased. Read more
The Arizona Republic: Obama’s Action Should Increase Tax Collections
November 24, 2014
Both Arizona’s Department of Revenue and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee said they have not estimated the tax and revenue impact of Obama’s executive action. However, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington-based think tank, estimated last year that undocumented immigrants currently pay about $10.6 billion a year in state and local taxes […]
Memphis Daily News: Why Are Tennesseans so Afraid of an Income Tax?
November 3, 2014
Six of the nine state states without a state income tax – Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Washington, Alaska and Nevada – have had higher than average annual unemployment rates over the last decade, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Five of the nine – Tennessee, Florida, New Hampshire, Alaska and Nevada – are […]
Oregon Center for Public Policy: Move Across State Lines for $40 a Month?
October 7, 2014
Say that you’re the sole breadwinner for your family and you earn $100,000 a year in Oregon. Would you pack your belongings and move your family north to Washington for a $40 monthly raise? It’s hard to imagine. That is why any Oregon business worried that it might lose employees to firms in Washington […]
Washington Post: Kansas’s Midterm Election Are a Referendum on Supply-Side Economics
September 30, 2014
By Max Ehrenfraud Brownback has signed major tax breaks into law, reduced state spending and arguably made it harder for people in poverty to receive welfare. He called his initiatives “a real live experiment” in red-state governance, a choice of words he now says he regrets. “I don’t consider this an experiment,” he told The Post recently. “This is […]
The Tampa Bay Times: How the Greenlight Pinellas Transit Plan Would ffect your wallet
September 22, 2014
With a regressive tax, “the people who do the best are the very best off,” said Matt Gardner, executive director of the nonprofit, nonpartisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy in Washington. “It’s pretty clear that low income families are going to see a tax hike under this,” he said. “The real question is which […]
The Philadelphia Inquirer: As Wealth Shifts, States Struggle to Tax Rich, Poor
September 17, 2014
The growing concentration of income among the richest Americans has made it tougher for states to fund their budgets, because of the way most states fund public services, writes Gabriel J. Petek, San Francisco-based primary credit analyst for Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. Separately, WalletHub, a Washington-based consumer credit data service owned by ex-Capital One […]
Beaver County Times: Taxes May Be Biggest Burden Facing Aliquippa
August 28, 2014
By Tom Davidson, The city still bustles with traffic now and then, although most of it’s just passing through town. On Thursday afternoon, Mayor Dwan Walker and City Manager Sam Gill took a drive through Aliquippa, starting at what they call the east end corridor between the Ohio River and Route 51 where the Jones […]
Akron Beacon Journal: After a decade of tax cuts in Ohio
August 25, 2014
“Zach Schiller of Policy Matters Ohio has assessed the broad impact of the changes, with the help of the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy, a research group in Washington. In a report released this week, he found that as a result, the state has experienced a net decrease in revenue of $3 billion a […]
The Motley Fool: The 5 States with the Highest Sales Tax
August 20, 2014
By Jeremy Bowman: Nearly every state in the union charges a sales tax, and the tax levied on goods and services sold at the retail level is just one of many tools states use to collect revenue, along with licensing and taxes on income, corporations, and property. Sales taxes tend to attract less attention than […]
The Toledo Blade: Tax Shift and Shaft
August 20, 2014
By the Editorial Board: Nearly a decade ago, Ohio placed a fateful bet: that big tax cuts, especially for the state’s richest people and corporations, would generate strong job creation, economic growth, and revenue increases. That mostly hasn’t happened. Columbus’ tax-cut scheme — which costs about $3 billion a year — has forced huge reductions […]
The Bond Buyer: No Easy Fix for Highway Trust Fund
August 14, 2014
By Jim Watts Congress delayed but did not fix a $100 billion hole in federal transportation spending with the enactment last Friday of legislation providing $10.8 billion to extend solvency of the rapidly shrinking Highway Trust Fund by 10 months. … The gasoline tax is quickly losing steam and purchasing power, according to the Institute […]
Bloomberg BNA: Processor Giant Intel Corp. Enters $100 Billion Incentive Agreement to Invest in Oregon
August 14, 2014
By Michael Kerman Processor and semiconductor giant Intel Corp. entered a Strategic Investment Program Agreement Aug. 11 with Washington County, Oregon’s second-largest county, located just outside Portland, the Portland Business Journal reports. The agreement is loaded with property tax incentives to ensure that Intel continues to invest in manufacturing and developing technologies in the state. […]
Washington Post: Do Sales-Tax Holidays Boost Back-to-School Shopping?
August 11, 2014
By Sarah Halzack It’s back-to-school shopping season, meaning parents everywhere are dragging their kids to the store to stock up on notebooks and supplies or to nab the perfect first-day-of-school outfit. Sixteen states, including Maryland and Virginia, have offered or will offer some sort of sales tax holiday in July or August, a policy that […]
Washington Times: Democratic superdonor Tom Steyer’s use of tax shelters draws Romney comparisons
July 16, 2014
“While at Farallon, however, Mr. Steyer used loopholes in U.S. tax regulations to produce maximum returns for his elite clientele. That included using tax havens in the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Mauritius, ‘where there are no regulations at all, no call for transparency, and have little to no income tax rates,’ said […]
Bloomberg: Governors Warn That Road Repairs Stalled by Congress
July 14, 2014
“U.S. governors say they won’t be able to plan or build all the major highway and bridge projects the country needs as long as Congress delays action on a long-term funding plan…. “As Congress delays a long-term solution, states are acting. Seven, including New Hampshire and Wyoming, have raised or adjusted fuel levies since February […]
Puget Sound Business Journal: Replace sales tax hike with business tax to pay for transit
June 13, 2014
Seattle Councilmembers Nick Licata and Kshama Sawant Jun 12, 2014, 10:59am PDT Washington state has the nation’s most regressive tax structure, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s (a progressive D.C.-based think tank) latest edition of “ Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States.” Washington state’s sales […]
Washington Budget & Policy Center: Flawed Economic Model Hurts Washington State
June 11, 2014
An economic model frequently cited by some Washington state lawmakers to justify their opposition to tax increases distorts the impact of tax proposals on state economies, according to a new study from the non-partisan Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP). The report makes it clear the Beacon Hill Institute’s State Tax Analysis Modeling Program […]
South Florida Times: State Policies Affect the Middle Class
June 5, 2014
By David Madland and Keith Miller, June 5, 2014 The past 30 years has not been kind to Florida’s middle class which now ranks among the weakest in the nation. While the state enjoyed significant economic growth over this period, few of the benefits ever trickled down to the families who were not among the […]
AP: State Governments May Be Expanding the Wealth Gap
June 5, 2014
"What's happening at the state level is increasingly important, and, to many eyes, it appears to be moving things in one direction -- towards greater inequality," said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a Washington-based tax research group.
Toledo Blade: Bad budget business
June 3, 2014
The progressive advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio worked with the Institution on Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonpartisan organization in Washington, to analyze the Senate bill. They conclude that most of the tax relief in the measure would go to the top 5 percent of Ohioans — those who earned at least $151,000 last year. […]
