May 6, 2015 03:01 PM By Carl Davis, Research Director at ITEP | Permalink | Although Michigan voters rejected a ballot proposal Tuesday that would have raised sales taxes, gasoline taxes, and vehicle registration fees, the debate over how to boost funding for the state’s deteriorating infrastructure is far from over. Leading up to the […]
May 6, 2015 12:18 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | While the focus of marijuana legalization debates is rightly on the potential health and criminal justice impacts, the decision to legalize marijuana also has real implications for state and local revenue. Over the past two decades, 23 states and […]
May 5, 2015 12:39 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Dr. Ben Carson enters the Republican presidential field without any significant legislative experience so he doesn’t have a record on tax policy. But in a 2013 op-ed, the well-respected neurosurgeon explained his avid support for a flat tax system. The case […]
May 4, 2015 05:14 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. A complex Michigan ballot initiative that would increase various taxes to fund roads, public transit, K-12 education and local governments is a sound idea that, unfortunately, is unpopular […]
May 1, 2015 02:48 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | More tax changes are likely coming to the Buckeye State. Lawmakers are considering a tax package from Gov. John Kasich and an alternative offered by leaders in the House; Senate leaders have indicated that they will draw up their […]
May 1, 2015 01:42 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Interpreting corporate tax data shouldn’t be like playing “Where’s Waldo.” Analysts seeking to understand whether big corporations are engaged in tax-avoidance hijinks should be aided, not thwarted, by the information that companies make available in their annual financial reports. A […]
May 1, 2015 12:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Senator and now presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has one of the strongest records of any elected official when it comes to standing up for tax fairness. In many cases, Sen. Sanders has been the lone voice in the Senate fighting for […]
April 30, 2015 04:29 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. A proposed constitutional amendment that would implement a flat income tax has stalled in the Alabama Senate. A vote on the measure, titled the “The Simplified Flat Tax […]
April 27, 2015 03:47 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. New Hampshire business leaders, nonprofits and civic organizations have come together to oppose business tax cuts proposed in the legislature, arguing that they would jeopardize needed investments in […]
April 23, 2015 05:52 PM By Guest Blogger | Permalink | Guest Post by John Ruoff of the Ruoff Group, Click here for orignal post Who will pay to fix our roads? The burden, as a percentage of income, will fall hardest on those making less than $19,000 a year. Facing massive shortfalls in repairs […]
April 23, 2015 04:04 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Alabama senators have proposed a constitutional amendment that would establish a flat personal income tax and lower the corporate tax rate, despite facing a devastating budget shortfall. The […]
April 23, 2015 10:39 AM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Stymied in their efforts to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Republican leaders in Congress continue their efforts to undermine the law by starving it of funding. Today, the Senate Finance Committee will consider legislation that would repeal some […]
April 22, 2015 04:58 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | With funding for the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) set to expire yet again on May 31st, many states are already delaying much needed infrastructure projects due to concerns over the fund’s ongoing solvency. Such delays and the fund’s impending […]
April 22, 2015 01:45 PM By Matt Gardner, Senior Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Around the nation, environmentally minded Americans are taking steps to achieve e a greener nation. The tax code may not be the most obvious tool for achieving environmental change, but reforming some tax giveaways to oil and gas companies could […]
April 20, 2015 12:12 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Legislators in the Pennsylvania House released an alternative to Gov. Tom Wolf’s tax reform plan last Tuesday. The House plan would increase income and sales tax rates to […]
April 16, 2015 03:19 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Despite its setting among rugged coastlines and quaint lighthouses, there will be nothing picturesque about the coming tax battle between Gov. Paul LePage and legislative leaders in Maine. The current debate is the latest in a string of Maine […]
April 16, 2015 02:53 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | An ITEP report released today found that the 11.4 million undocumented immigrants living in the US contribute significantly to state and local taxes – to the tune of $11.84 billion in 2012, our analysis shows. Under the terms of […]
April 16, 2015 12:23 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Tax day is the perfect opportunity for legislators, the media, and taxpayers to be reminded who pays (and who doesn’t pay) taxes, how tax dollars are spent and about current tax policy debates raging in the states. The following […]
April 15, 2015 05:05 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Idaho legislators ended their session very early on Saturday morning without enacting a regressive flattening of the state’s income tax. Instead, lawmakers agreed to simply raise the state’s […]
April 15, 2015 04:58 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | North Carolina legislators are moving ahead with plans to double down on fiscally-ruinous income tax cuts less than two years after enacting a significant tax cut package that was heavily tilted to the Tarheel state’s richest residents. Senate Bill […]
April 14, 2015 02:12 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Just over a month before announcing his run for president, Sen. Marco Rubio released a tax reform plan that provides trillions in deficit-busting tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. Some news outlets lauded the plan as a moderate approach on […]
April 11, 2015 07:48 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | All eyes will be on former Secretary of State, and now presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton as she sets out a policy agenda during the opening months of her campaign. While in recent years Clinton has not gotten into the nitty-gritty of […]
April 10, 2015 05:06 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Click Here to sign up to receive the State Rundown in your inbox. Momentum is building in California for the passage of a state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for low-income workers. Two bills, Assembly Bill 43 and Senate Bill 38, […]
April 10, 2015 12:26 PM By Sebastian Johnson, State Policy Fellow at ITEP | Permalink | Kansas’s fiscal woes have become the stuff of legend. Thanks to disastrous income tax cuts championed by Gov. Sam Brownback, the state government repeatedly has been forced to slash spending. The projected revenue shortfall for the fiscal year beginning […]
April 7, 2015 03:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | No member of Congress has been more active in the cause of protecting tax cheaters and tax avoidance by our nation’s wealthiest individuals and corporations than Sen.(now presidential candidate) Rand Paul. While Paul is a standard bearer of anti-tax conservatives through […]