State Rundown 2/26: Tax Changes on the Horizon

Thanks for reading the Rundown! Here’s a sneak peek: Alaska legislators consider moving money from their oil tax fund to shore up the budget. Maine lawmakers consider tax changes that would benefit the top 5 percent of earners while Oklahoma lawmakers consider delaying a tax cut that would also primarily benefit the wealthy. Hawaii’s legislature will mull a new state Earned Income Tax Credit. And the South Dakota House passes a sales tax increase by a one-vote margin.

 – Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director

Efforts to raise taxes in Alaska to close a yawning budget gap caused by declining oil revenues may be pushed to next session. Legislators are instead considering plans to use the Permanent Fund to plug the state’s revenue hole. The Permanent Fund is a constitutionally-mandated sovereign wealth fund, financed with oil tax revenue that pays Alaska residents a dividend each year. Dividends have ranged from $878 to $2,072 per person over the last decade. Under Gov. Bill Walker’s plan, that payout would be reduced as the state would transfer $3.3 billion from the Permanent Fund to the state budget each year. Rep. Mike Hawker’s plan would go even farther, putting dividends on hold until the state’s deficit is eliminated. A large reduction in the dividend is likely to impact lower- and moderate-income families much more heavily than the wealthy, though a progressive income tax (as has also been proposed by the Governor) could help offset some of that regressivity.

Under the cloud of a large budget deficit, the Oklahoma Senate Finance Committee has voted to reverse itself on a previously approved income tax cut. The committee surprised many by voting 10-2 to delay the 0.25 percent reduction in the state’s top income tax rate that went into effect January 1. Gov. Mary Fallin and the leaders of the House and Senate all want the income tax cut to remain in effect. The author of the bill to postpone the tax cut, Sen. Mike Mazzei, rallied support to his cause last week, as we covered on The Tax Justice Blog. Expect additional fireworks in this developing story.

A column in the Portland Press Herald makes the case against a bill that would give upper-income Mainers a tax break. The column’s author, Bill Creighton, is in the top 5 percent of Maine taxpayers and would see a tax cut if LD 1519 were passed. The proposal would eliminate the cap on itemized deductions adopted last year in a comprehensive tax reform package and would come at a cost to the state of roughly $52 million. ITEP crunched the numbers on behalf of the Maine Center for Economic Policy and found that over half the benefit of eliminating the cap on itemized deductions would go to the top 1 percent of taxpayers. That group would receive an average tax cut of $4,000 per year. No Mainer in the bottom 80 percent of the income distribution (those making less than $93,000) would see any benefit.

Hawaii lawmakers will consider creating a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). SB 2299 would implement a state credit equal to 10 percent of the federal EITC—providing an average benefit of approximately $220 per eligible filer. In 2013 over 315,800 Hawaii residents, including 127,200 children (PDF), benefited from the federal version of the EITC. Enacting an EITC could go a long way toward lessening the unfairness of a tax system that ITEP ranks as levying the 2nd highest taxes in the country on low-income taxpayers.

The South Dakota House voted to raise the state sales tax rate by half a point, from 4 to 4.5 percent, in order to fund an increase in pay for teachers. The measure initially failed by one vote, but supporters were able to convince their colleagues to reconsider. The measure will now go to the Senate for consideration. The South Dakota Budget and Policy Institute, citing ITEP data, says the change will raise $107 million but will also make the state’s tax structure more regressive. They suggest an alternative plan that would remove food purchases from the sales tax base but raise the rate an entire percentage point on all other goods. This alternative would raise $128 million while actually cutting taxes for the bottom 20 percent of earners.

If you like what you are seeing in the Rundown (or even if you don’t) please send any feedback or tips for future posts to Sebastian Johnson at sdpjohnson@itep.org. Click here to sign up to receive the Rundown via email.