We retired Tax Justice Blog in April 2017. For new content on issues related to tax justice, go to www.justtaxesblog.org
New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has to decide Wednesday how to respond to mounting public pressure (including 5,000 signatures) to support a new corporate fair tax bill. Supported by small business, it enacts combined reporting, which requires out-of-state companies to pay taxes on in-state profits, along with a slight drop in the corporate income tax for most profitable companies. In the meantime, proponents remain committed and organized, check out http://ohsusana.org/.
The details of South Carolina House Republican tax proposals read like a How-Not-To guide for making the state’s tax structure more fair and equitable. Lawmakers there are proposing to eliminate the state’s corporate income tax, provide targeted tax breaks to manufacturers, lower taxes on business owners, and more. But when is a plan crafted behind closed doors ever in the public’s interest?
Income tax cuts paid for by a new tax on fracking for natural gas may be on the horizon in Ohio. Governor Kasich took the notorious no-new-tax pledge and will likely have to defend his new fracking tax against the anti-tax crowd, while progressives would probably support a new tax on a lucrative (if controversial) industry but not the personal income tax cut. Kasich’s plan is a political hybrid and worth watching as fracking for gas becomes an issue in more states.
Our crystal ball predicts a refreshing battle in 
Maryland over tax increases in the coming weeks. Governor O’Malley, Senate leadership, and House leadership all recently unveiled their own proposals to raise taxes. The Governor proposed raising taxes on better-off taxpayers by reducing deductions and exemptions, and by increasing the gas tax. The competing Senate plan would increase income taxes on nearly every Marylander, while the House plan would raise taxes on only the wealthiest taxpayers. Lawmakers in the Old Line State should be applauded for confronting these important issues and putting tax increases on the table rather than taking a cuts-only approach to the state’s $1 billion deficit.
Because legislators said it went too far, Nebraska’s Governor Heineman is revising his initial tax plan in cooperation with a the chair of the senate’s revenue committee. The compromise being developed by the Governor and Senator Abbie Cornett changes the governor’s original proposal in two positive ways: it preserves the state’s inheritance tax and it holds steady the corporate income tax rate. The compromise plan, set for debate this week, still leaves in place income tax cuts that barely help those who need them most.
Photos of Governor Susana Martinwz and Governor Martin O’Malley via Albuquerque Public Schools and Third Way Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0