State Rundown 8/3: Looming Revenue Shortfalls and Short-Sighted Tax Reform Talk

This week’s Rundown features a reiterated commitment to no new taxes in New Mexico, talk of a special revenue session in Oklahoma, tax shifting debates in Mississippi, and a looming shortfall in Missouri. Be sure to check out the What We’re Reading section for a guide to income inequality trends and an article examining studies on tax and spending levels. Thanks for reading the Rundown!

— Meg Wiehe, ITEP State Policy Director, @megwiehe

• With New Mexico facing revenue shortfalls, some lawmakers are urging Gov. Susana Martinez to consider revenue solutions and save the state’s schools, roads, and public safety services from further funding cuts. But so far, Gov. Martinez has rejected these pragmatic pleas and only reiterated her devotion to her ideologically driven no-tax pledge.
• Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin is weighing whether to call the Legislature into special session to consider an alternative plan to fund teachers’ pay. Already under consideration is a 1 percentage point increase to the state’s sales tax, a proposal that will appear on the ballot this fall. Fallin’s proposed alternative would use, in part, $140.8 million that the state collected from cuts to state agencies. The call for a special session, however, faces criticism across the aisle.
• A Mississippi legislative “working group” has begun looking at the state’s tax structure with an intent to shift the responsibility to fund state services even further onto low- and middle-income families by slashing income taxes and replacing them with regressive sales taxes. And some are already hoping for “an overall reduction in taxes” despite the massive, regressive, and short-sighted tax cuts already enacted earlier this year.
• Results are in from a state study showing Missouri‘s state workers are some of the lowest-paid in the nation, and that these low wages “have led to high turnover rates, costing taxpayers additional money in overtime and training.” And the Missouri Budget Project reports that more revenue shortfalls could be looming. But one silver lining on this cloudy outlook is that slow revenue growth has so far saved the state from a tax-cut “trigger” enacted two years ago, buying legislators time to change course and avoid reducing the revenues used to pay state workers even further.

 What We’re Reading… 

• The Florida Policy Institute’s latest report calls for the state to carefully examine the “silent spending” it undertakes in the form of tax expenditures that total nearly $18 billion per year but receive very little scrutiny.
• CBPP’s guide to historical trends in income inequality.
• The New York Times reviews recent studies on tax and spending levels, including one important study that asks “How Big Should Our Government Be?” and concludes that a significantly higher level of public investment would improve security, opportunity, and middle-class lives without sacrificing economic growth.
• The Center for American Progress released a report this week, making the case for rainy day funds as a tool to help enact progressive policies.

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 Kelly Davis at kelly@itep.org. Click here to sign up to receive the Rundown via email.