We retired Tax Justice Blog in April 2017. For new content on issues related to tax justice, go to www.justtaxesblog.org
Months after cutting the state income tax for wealthy taxpayers, Idaho’s budget situation isn’t looking good. The Associated Press reports that “earlier this year it looked like the state had sufficient revenue to provide a $36 million tax cut, as well as give state employees a 2 percent raise” but that surplus has already evaporated. In fact, there was never real consensus about the state’s revenue projections in the first place.
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback admits his radical tax cut package is a “real live experiment.”
The South Carolina House approved a measure to keep the state running if it doesn’t have a budget by July 1 when the new fiscal year begins. The Senate and House are currently bickering over how to implement a (regressive) tax cut for so-called “small” business owners.
It’s back! New Jersey Assembly Democrats are once again planning to introduce a millionaire’s tax into the budget debate. Proponents of the tax on the wealthiest New Jerseyans want to use the $800 million in revenue it would raise to boost funding to the state’s current property tax credit program for low and middle-income homeowners and renters. Governor Chris Christie has already vetoed a millionaire’s tax twice.
The clever folks at Together NC, a coalition of more than 120 organizations in North Carolina, held a Backwards Budget 5K race this week to “to shine a spotlight on the legislature’s backwards approach to the state budget.”
California Governor Jerry Brown’s revenue raising initiative (which temporarily raises income taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents and increases the sales tax ¼ cent) has officially qualified for the state’s November ballot. Two additional tax measures will join Brown’s plan on the ballot: a rival income tax measure pushed by a billionaire lawyer to fund education and early childhood programs; and an initiative to increase business income tax revenues by implementing a mandatory single-sales factor (PDF backgrounder) formula.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorializes in favor of capping Pennsylvania’s “vendor discount,” a program (PDF) that allows retailers to legally pocket a portion of the sales taxes they collect in order to offset the costs associated with collecting the tax. The Gazette explains that a handful of big companies are taking in over $1 million per year thanks to this “antiquated” giveaway. Computerized bookkeeping takes the effort out of tax collecting and a cap would only impact the national chain stores who disproportionately benefit from the program.