October 8, 2015 03:05 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and House and Senate lawmakers continue to grapple with how to balance the state’s books more than 90 days past the budget due date. The state’s fiscal year started July 1, but policymakers have yet to […]
October 8, 2015 02:33 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Plans to eliminate the state income tax in Arizona continue, with State Rep. Darin Mitchell telling officials that the push will come during the next legislative session. Mitchell, […]
October 6, 2015 01:28 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Today Citizens for Tax Justice and the U.S. PIRG Education Fund released, “Offshore Shell Games,” a new study which found that nearly three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies maintained at least one tax haven subsidiary in 2014, with just 30 companies accounting […]
September 30, 2015 04:41 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Michiganders will pay sales and use tax on online purchases for the first time when a new law goes into effect this Thursday. The Main Street Fairness Act, […]
September 30, 2015 01:41 PM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | The slow march toward a more rational sales tax continues. On Thursday, Amazon.com (and other e-retailers) will begin collecting and remitting sales taxes owed by Michigan customers. Once this happens, the share of the country’s population living in states where […]
September 29, 2015 04:14 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | The emerging conventional wisdom on Donald Trump’s tax plan is that it is a trillion dollar giveaway to the best-off Americans coupled with a populist flourish in the form of a small tax hike for the carried interest income earned by […]
September 28, 2015 05:01 PM By Bob McIntyre, Director of Citizens for Tax Justice | Permalink | *Updated as of November 4, 2015 Donald Trump released a tax plan today that is missing some details. But a preliminary analysis of the plan by Citizens for Tax Justice finds that it would cost $12 trillion in its first […]
September 24, 2015 11:05 AM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | There have been lots of fireworks since the beginning of the year in Maine over tax policy, and they are unlikely to stop anytime soon. This week, the Maine Republican Party announced its intention to seek a ballot measure […]
September 24, 2015 10:58 AM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Progressive activists in California introduced a new ballot proposal this week that would make permanent temporary income tax increases on the state’s highest earners included in Proposition 30, […]
September 24, 2015 09:39 AM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | After months of budget negotiations, legislators in Alabama and North Carolina limped to the budget finish line last week. Legislators left Montgomery and Raleigh with budget agreements that represent missed opportunities, a disregard for the near-future revenue needs, and lessons […]
September 22, 2015 02:16 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Last week the Coca-Cola corporation revealed that it may have to pay $3.3 billion in back taxes to the U.S. government. The disclosure, buried in a corporate filing, says that the reason for this tax hit is the company’s allegedly […]
September 21, 2015 03:59 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Way back in 1902, when the Oregon legislature passed the first law allowing ballot initiatives, the measure was seen as a progressive reform that would put power back into the hands of the many, rather than the few. Today, […]
September 17, 2015 10:08 AM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | In conjunction with the U.S. Census Bureau’s release of new poverty data this week, ITEP has an updated report out today, State Tax Codes as Poverty Fighting Tools, that provides an overview of anti-poverty tax policies, surveys state developments in […]
September 16, 2015 07:20 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Leaders in New Hampshire voted on a final budget deal this week after months of wrangling between Gov. Maggie Hassan and legislative leaders. Hassan vetoed a budget passed […]
September 16, 2015 06:21 PM By Bob McIntyre, Director of Citizens for Tax Justice | Permalink | Update: The House Ways and Means Committee passed the extender bills on a party line vote, with Republicans in favor. On Thursday, The House Ways and Means Committee will once again contemplate making permanent controversial tax breaks that overwhelmingly […]
September 16, 2015 03:15 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | New data from the Census Bureau show that the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the refundable portion of the child tax credit (CTC) lifted 9.8 million people out of poverty, including 5.2 million children, in 2014. Taken together, these credits […]
September 16, 2015 01:13 PM By Guest Blogger | Permalink | Thanks to Alexandra Sirota from the North Carolina Tax and Budget Center for guest posting for us about the budget debate in North Carolina. For more information we urge you to visit the North Carolina Tax and Budget Center’s website. The Budget & Tax […]
September 11, 2015 03:15 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Dear West Virginia Lawmakers, Do you remember the scene in Return of the Jedi where Admiral Ackbar and Han Solo launch an assault on the partially-constructed second Death Star during the Battle of Endor? (Of course you do.) Unbeknownst […]
September 10, 2015 05:13 PM By Bob McIntyre, Director of Citizens for Tax Justice | Permalink | Presidential candidate Donald Trump made headlines last week for saying that hedge fund managers are “getting away with murder” in their tax-avoidance behavior. He said he would put a stop to this by closing the infamous carried interest […]
September 10, 2015 02:40 PM By Meg Wiehe, Deputy Director at ITEP | Permalink | Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley has publicly said his state has a revenue problem, not a spending problem. Perhaps this isn’t the most profound statement, but it is remarkable coming from a Republican governor who 1.) governs a state that would require a constitutional amendment […]
September 9, 2015 04:12 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Louisiana voters will consider ballot initiatives next month regarding road and bridge funding. The first measure would steer tax revenues from oil and gas from the state’s rainy […]
September 3, 2015 03:45 PM By Jenice Robinson, Communications Director | Permalink | Public outrage over the financial crisis may have subsided in recent years, but the lasting legacy is a nation that remains acutely aware of exploitative business practices that line the pockets of corporate executives and shareholders at the expense of ordinary working […]
September 3, 2015 03:36 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | As Labor Day weekend approaches, a tanned and rested Congress is poised to return to Washington to hash out corporate tax changes. Much of the debate over corporate tax reform in Washington sensibly focuses on how to encourage Fortune 500 corporations […]
September 3, 2015 02:12 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. The Texas Supreme Court this heard oral arguments in a school finance case regarding recession-era education budget cuts. In 2011, the Texas Legislature cut K-12 education spending by […]
September 1, 2015 03:50 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | During presidential primaries, we expect candidates to talk about their big plans for moving the country forward and addressing the nation’s most pressing issues. We expect soaring rhetoric based on so-called traditional ideals. Discussing the world in right v. wrong extremes […]