August 9, 2012 04:19 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | The Boston Globe covers an important new report finding that: “Over the past 16 years [Massachusetts] has more than doubled the amount of tax breaks it provides businesses to spur economic development but has only a vague idea whether […]
August 9, 2012 03:16 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | When news broke last week that a Senator on the GOP vice presidential short list had introduced one of the dumbest, most opportunistic and transparently political pieces of tax legislation of all time, we wrote: How, at a time when Congress […]
August 8, 2012 04:16 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | In a recent Wichita Eagle op-ed the Kansas Governor defended his harsh, regressive, and costly tax bill saying “our new pro-growth tax policy will be like a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.” He is proud that […]
August 8, 2012 12:37 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | It’s no secret that Indiana’s gubernatorial race has been a breeding ground for bad tax ideas this year. So far on the tax front, the race has essentially been an endless barrage of promises regarding which taxes will be cut, and […]
August 7, 2012 12:20 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | New research from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy shows “there is little evidence that property tax incentives [for businesses] actually work” to boost economic growth or create jobs, and that “the use of these tax incentives continues to […]
August 6, 2012 12:08 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | State revenues remain low, and there are historic, structural reasons for this as well as more short term reasons, including the recession. It is increasingly clear that states can no longer afford the tax-cutting agenda that politicians of all ideological stripes […]
August 3, 2012 03:25 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Former Texas deputy comptroller, Billy Hamilton, explains why extreme proposals to repeal the property tax are a bad idea. Among the reasons he cites: out-of-state property owners would get a massive tax cut, localities would lose control of their […]
August 3, 2012 12:01 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | For someone who’s not interested in a high profile job like Vice President, Florida Senator Marco Rubio sure knows where the limelight shines. Earlier this week he introduced legislation that would create a new federal income tax break for the cash […]
August 2, 2012 04:05 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Today, the Senate Finance Committee approved a package of provisions often called the “tax extenders” because they extend several tax cuts, mostly benefiting businesses. A new report from Citizens for Tax Justice identifies two of the “tax extenders” as particular problems, […]
August 2, 2012 01:37 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Federal efforts to fight consumer sales tax evasion facilitated by the likes of Amazon.com continue to make news. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing in which lawmakers appeared to agree on the need to empower states to enforce […]
August 1, 2012 05:12 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | New reports from Americans for Tax Fairness, Citizens for Tax Justice and the National Women’s Law Center demonstrate how public investments and taxpayers in each state would be affected by the competing approaches to the Bush tax cuts. Americans for Tax […]
August 1, 2012 04:25 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | For Immediate Release: August 1, 2012 Sales Tax Holidays No Substitute for Tax Reform Year Round Tax Breaks for the Rich Dwarf Annual Tax Holidays for Consumers Washington, DC – Eighteen states will host sales tax holiday weekends in August this […]
July 31, 2012 06:32 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | North Carolina is home to one of the great examples of how economies flourish when government gets involved: the Research Triangle Park. It was developed in the 1950s by a public-private partnership, depended heavily on more than one governor’s leadership and […]
July 31, 2012 12:19 PM By Kelly Davis, Assistant Director of Communications | Permalink | This year, 18 states will encourage consumers to buy back-to-school items tax free. These sales tax holidays get lots of promotion and lots of press, but the reality is that sales tax holidays are no kind of deal for most […]
July 27, 2012 01:53 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | To celebrate the five year anniversary of the first “Rich States, Poor States,” an Arthur Laffer/ALEC publication that ranks states based on how closely their tax and budget policies adhere to conservative economic principles, the Iowa Policy Project put […]
July 26, 2012 04:20 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | According to one of the latest counts, officials in 30 state governments have indicated that their state plans to opt out of the Medicaid expansion that was enacted as part of health care reform, or are at least leaning […]
July 26, 2012 12:49 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | On Tuesday, House Republicans released a proposal, H.R. 6169, that would relax some of Congress’s normal procedural rules in order to enact an overhaul of the tax code — so long as the tax overhaul meets the objectives laid out in […]
July 25, 2012 05:15 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Today, a majority of U.S. Senators voted for a proposal that would extend for one year the Bush-era income tax cuts, except for those tax cuts going solely to the richest 2 percent of taxpayers, and would also extend some 2009 […]
July 24, 2012 05:09 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | UPDATED July 26, 2012: On Wednesday the Senate approved the Democrats’ tax bill, modeled on President Obama’s plan to extend most of the expiring tax cuts, and rejected the Republican alternative. (See CTJ’s statement on the votes.) The Republican proposal (S.3413) […]
July 24, 2012 04:33 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | A new report about the long-term fiscal problems facing the states is making news, and for good reason. While much of the report focuses on spending-side issues that we’ll leave for others to address, one of the main findings of the […]
July 23, 2012 01:39 PM By Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy Staff | Permalink | Louisiana is preparing to take a much closer look at the $4 billion it spends on special tax breaks each year, as the brand new Revenue Study Commission holds its first meeting this week. The chairman of the state’s […]
July 20, 2012 11:49 AM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | In a little over a week, Georgia voters will decide whether to raise local sales taxes to better fund transportation. The state’s business community supports the effort, but Jay Bookman at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reminds readers businesses are one reason the […]
July 19, 2012 03:29 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | At a hearing before the House Ways and Mean Committee today, witnesses from Corning, Inc. and 3M called for a “territorial” tax system, which would exempt offshore corporate profits from U.S. taxes, and which is part of Mitt Romney’s tax plan. […]
July 19, 2012 03:24 PM By Richard Phillips, Senior Policy Analyst at ITEP | Permalink | A new study by Ernst and Young is grabbing headlines by purporting to show that President Obama’s plan to end most of the Bush tax cuts for the richest 2% of Americans would cause job losses over the long […]
July 19, 2012 12:56 PM By Citizens for Tax Justice Staff | Permalink | Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee held a hearing on “tax reform and the U.S. manufacturing sector.” With no apparent irony, the Committee invited Susan Ford, a senior official from champion corporate tax-avoider Corning, Inc., to […]