State Rundown 6/24: High-End Boats and Low-End Credits

In a textbook example of a silver lining, working families in Colorado could see an Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) enacted this year thanks in part to the state’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Enacted in 1992, TABOR limits the amount of revenue that the state and local governments can collect and spend. Any revenue over the TABOR limit must be sent back to taxpayers through a complex set of formulas. While TABOR is inflexible and prevents the state government from responding effectively to crises, in this case it has worked to the benefit of Coloradans near the bottom of the income scale. Once the state EITC is triggered as a TABOR rebate, it becomes a permanent tax credit set at 10 percent of the federal level. The EITC will benefit 300,000 working families in the state and boost 75,000 individuals – half of them children – out of poverty.

States all along the East Coast are competing for a slice of the yacht business through hefty sales tax breaks, as reported in The Washington Post. New York recently passed a law limiting sales taxes on yacht purchases to $20,000 to counter Florida’s 2010 sales tax limit of $18,000. (For context, an owner purchasing a $2 million yacht would save $150,000 in taxes under New York law.) Florida struck back at New York by adopting a $60,000 sales tax limit on yacht repairs, and New Jersey copied their rival to the north by adopting the same $20,000 limit on purchases. While such sales tax breaks are usually justified as protecting the jobs of yacht builders, in reality the primary beneficiaries are yacht owners. As ITEP’s Matt Gardner notes in the article, “It’s just a deluded approach to tax policy to say that you have to exempt these transactions or else they will move elsewhere.” 

Lawmakers in Washington are facing a budget impasse ahead of their July 1 deadline. Initially, House lawmakers sought to levy a state capital gains tax on investors who earn more than $25,000 a year from investments. But the House dropped that plan this week when the state Senate refused to pass a new tax but indicated a willingness to get rid of some tax exemptions. Lawmakers have a little over a week left to agree on the budget before the state government begins a partial shutdown.

California lawmakers reached a deal with Gov. Jerry Brown, passing a $115.4 billion budget that includes a new EITC for working families. This new EITC is worth approximately $380 million and is expected to help 2 million Californians.