State Rundown 6/23: Budget and Tax Happenings

Thanks for reading the State Rundown! Here’s a sneak peek: Alaska’s legislative session continues to drag on, sessions in Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island are potentially nearing their end and Philadelphia’s got a new soda tax. Don’t forget to check out What We’re Reading.

— Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director, @megwiehe

• There is no immediate end in sight for Alaska’s legislative session, originally set to end in mid-April. This week Gov. Bill Walker called the Legislature back for yet another special session to consider tax and Permanent Fund legislation. Scheduled to reconvene in July, the Legislature will continue to grapple with ways to close the state’s $4 billion budget deficit. ITEP’s analysis of revenue options finds that an equitable solution cannot be reached without a personal income tax.
• Louisiana’s special session to address a FY17 $600 million budget gap ends tonight at midnight. The House has approved $284 million in new revenue, the majority from an increased tax on HMOs and revised business tax credits. All significant income tax reform measures failed in the House, and the Senate has given up on reviving the proposal to eliminate the personal income tax deduction for state taxes. With $200 million less than expected corporate income and a $27 million accounting error, new revenues fall significantly short of what is needed to fill the hole—the TOPS scholarship program and safety net hospitals will likely feel the most significant cuts.
• New Jersey’s tax debate and fiscal crunch are coming down to the wire this week and next, as the state’s Transportation Trust Fund (TTF) is set to run out of money for repairing and maintaining roads and bridges in the Garden State on June 30th. Raising the state’s gas tax, which has not been adjusted for inflation or changing needs since 1988, is the obvious way of shoring up the TTF. Yet in what the New Jersey Star-Ledger is calling “an astonishing capitulation,” the debate continues to focus largely on using the TTF crisis as an opportunity to pass tax cuts that primarily benefit the most well-to-do New Jersey residents.
• Pennsylvania‘s Gov. Tom Wolf abandoned calls to raise revenue through the state sales or income tax this year. This is an unfortunate turn of events for the Keystone State. ITEP analysis found that the Governor’s proposal to increase the state’s flat personal income tax rate from 3.07 to 3.4 percent, coupled with increases to the state’s tax forgiveness credit to mitigate the impact on low-income families, would be an equitable solution to help address the state’s revenue shortfall.
• The Philadelphia City Council approved a new tax on soda and sweetened beverages last week making it the first major US city to impose this additional levy. The estimated $91 million raised from the 1.5 cent per ounce tax will primarily be used to fund an expansion of the city’s early childhood education program.
• The Rhode Island House and Senate approved an $8.9 billion budget that has already received praise from Gov. Gina Raimondo. The budget, in brief, provides a tax break for retirees, reduces the corporate minimum tax down to $400 from $450, cuts beach parking fees, increases education aid and expands the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit from 12.5 to 15 percent of the federal credit. 

What We’re Reading…

• This Washington Post Wonkblog piece examines the impact of opposite approaches to tax policy in Kansas and California (bonus- it also features ITEP data).
• The Kansas City Star takes down false claims from some lawmakers who are peddling misleading”’facts” to constituents about the state’s fiscal and economic health.
• A new report from the Economic Policy Institute documents growing income inequality across the states.