West Virginia
State-by-State Estimates of Sen. Rick Scott’s “Skin in the Game” Proposal
• By Steve Wamhoff
A proposal from Sen. Rick Scott would increase taxes for more than 35% of Americans, with the poorest fifth of Americans paying 34% of the tax increase.
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...
State Rundown 2/16: Spending Priorities Emerge as the Votes Are Counted
• By ITEP Staff
State lawmakers have been busy working out deals and negotiating how best to use excess revenues, and as the votes are beginning to come in, spending priorities are becoming clearer...
West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: House Personal Income Tax Cut Plan Largely Benefits Wealthy, Not Fiscally Sustainable
• By ITEP Staff
The West Virginia Legislature has introduced a bill to cut and eventually eliminate the state’s personal income tax. The House Finance Committee voted to advance that bill to the House floor with no discussion or questions asked. Like previous attempts to eliminate the state’s income tax, HB 4007 would lead to major revenue losses for the […]
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...
State Rundown 1/20: Governors Eyeing Tax Cuts in Yearly Addresses
• By ITEP Staff
A common theme is emerging out of states, as governors around the U.S. begin the year with their annual state speeches, and the news does not bode well for long-term growth and sustainable budgets...
State Rundown 1/13: The Tax Cuts Cometh, But There Is a Better Way
• By ITEP Staff
As expected, with the start of many new legislative sessions around the country, lawmakers have introduced a slew of tax cut plans following better-than-expected budget outlooks that have, so far, weathered the impact of the pandemic...
Investing in a Joint Future: Harnessing State Tax Codes
• By Aidan Davis
Rather than resorting to tax cuts, which can eventually create revenue shortfalls, lawmakers should determine whether they have adequately invested in people and communities. There are better ways to leverage tax systems to help those who need it most.
State Rundown 11/10: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like…Election Season?!
• By ITEP Staff
If the leaves are turning colors and you find yourself walking out of the office into pitch-black darkness, it only means that time of the year is upon us—and no, I'm not talking about the holiday season. Before that, it’s the equally important election season...
Paying The Estate Tax Shouldn’t Be Optional for the Super Rich
• By Carl Davis
ProPublica this year released multiple exposés revealing how the nation’s wealthiest individuals and families avoid taxes on an unimaginable scale. Most recently, it uncovered Republican and Democratic elected officials and political appointees who used complex strategies to avoid taxes. Richard Painter, a White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, said these revelations should be “troubling […]
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.
Sales Tax Holidays: An Ineffective Alternative to Real Sales Tax Reform
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
Policymakers tout sales tax holidays as a way for families to save money while shopping for “essential” goods. On the surface, this sounds good. However, a two- to three-day sales tax holiday for selected items does nothing to reduce taxes for low- and moderate-income taxpayers during the other 362 days of the year. Sales taxes are inherently regressive. In the long run, sales tax holidays leave a regressive tax system unchanged, and the benefits of…
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...
Income Tax Increases in the President’s American Families Plan
• By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
President Biden’s American Families Plan includes revenue-raising proposals that would affect only very high-income taxpayers.[1] The two most prominent of these proposals would restore the top personal income tax rate to 39.6 percent and eliminate tax breaks related to capital gains for millionaires. As this report explains, these proposals would affect less than 1 percent of taxpayers and would be confined almost exclusively to the richest 1 percent of Americans. The plan includes other tax…
State and Local Lessons on Tax Day 2021
• By ITEP Staff
Take a minute on this Tax Day to reflect on all that you survived, accomplished, and contributed to the collective good this past year, and be proud. There is always more work to be done to build the communities we desire, and paying your share is what allows that work to continue.
Effects of the President’s Capital Gains and Dividends Tax Proposals by State
• By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
President Biden’s proposal to eliminate the lower income tax rate on capital gains (profits from selling assets) and stock dividends for millionaires would affect less than half of one percent (0.4 percent) of U.S. taxpayers if it goes into effect in 2022. The share of taxpayers affected would be less than 1 percent in every state.
Bold Progressive State Tax Victories Provide Bright Spots in Difficult Year
• By Dylan Grundman O'Neill
“Bold progressive victories” is probably not the first phrase that comes to mind when thinking about state laws enacted so far in 2021...But progressive advocates, lawmakers, and voters have won some tremendous victories in states recently...We should celebrate them for the achievements they are—and closely study them for lessons they can teach about how to bring about positive progressive change in these and other states.
State Rundown 4/14: More Progressive Wins in the Headlines this Week, but Mind the Fine Print
• By ITEP Staff
Two significant victories headlined state tax debates in the past week, as New Mexico leaders improved existing targeted tax credits to give bigger boosts and reach more families in need, and West Virginia lawmakers unanimously shut down a destructive effort to eliminate the state’s progressive income tax. These developments follow last week’s major wins for progressive taxation and targeted assistance in New York, and more good news is likely soon as Washington legislators continue to…
National and State-by-State Estimates of President Biden’s Campaign Proposals for Revenue
• By ITEP Staff, Matthew Gardner, Steve Wamhoff
During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden proposed to change the tax code to raise revenue directly from households with income exceeding $400,000. More precisely, Biden proposed to raise personal income taxes on unmarried individuals and married couples with taxable income exceeding $400,000, and he also proposed to raise payroll taxes on individual workers with earnings exceeding $400,000. Just 2 percent of taxpayers would see a direct tax hike (an increase in either personal income taxes,…
CQ Roll Call: It’s Spring, the Sap Is Rising — and Congress Turns Its Thoughts to Taxes (Column)
April 7, 2021
In similar paint-by-numbers fashion, the Biden White House is flogging studies by liberal think tanks highlighting how many major corporations have avoided paying any income taxes in recent years. For example, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated that at least 55 profitable companies (including Nike, Salesforce and FedEx) took a tax holiday in […]
State Rundown 4/7: Tax Justice Advocates Applaud New York Budget Deal
• By ITEP Staff
New York lawmakers stole the spotlight this week as they were able to agree on—and convince reluctant Gov. Andrew Cuomo to support—strong progressive tax increases on the highest-income households and corporations in the state to fund shared priorities like K-12 education and pandemic recovery efforts. Minnesota leaders are attempting a similar performance off Broadway with progressive reforms of their own, while Kansas legislators are getting poor reviews for cutting a number of taxes and worsening…
State Rundown 4/1: Most States Resisting Foolish Tax Cut Games That Tear Revenues Apart
• By ITEP Staff
Supporters of tax fairness and adequate funding for public needs are hoping West Virginia’s income tax elimination effort turns out to be a prank, but most states are not fooling around with such harmful policies this year. For example...
West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy: Senate Income Tax Cut Plan is More of the Same: Tax Cuts for the Wealthy, Tax Increases and Budget Cuts for Everyone Else
• By ITEP Staff
This week, the Senate Finance Committee took up HB 3300, the House’s income tax cut plan, and made significant changes before quickly passing it out of committee. Unlike the House plan, which phased out the income tax over time with no revenue offsets, the Senate’s plan is more similar to the governor’s proposal, making a […]
State Rundown 3/24: The Calm Before the Reform?
• By ITEP Staff
It was a relatively quiet week in state fiscal policy, likely partly due to states waiting for federal guidance on some of the details in the American Rescue Plan. As they await those details, lawmakers in Mississippi and West Virginia continue to wrangle over whether to recklessly eliminate their income taxes, while leaders in states including Connecticut and New York considered more productive and progressive reforms. And in the meantime, groundbreaking work on the intersection…
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.
