State Budget and Tax Archive
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States Should Embrace 21st Century Economy by Extending Sales Taxes to Digital Goods and Services
December 13, 2012
States are losing more and more revenue each year from a failure to require the payment of sales taxes when goods and services are sold and delivered online. The tax-exempt status in many states of “digital goods and services” — a fast-growing sector of the economy that ranges from movie downloads to online dating services to … -
Fact Sheet: Reducing Federal Deficits Without a Significant Revenue Increase Would Shift Substantial Costs to States
December 6, 2012
If it fails to include significant new revenues, a major legislative package to shrink federal deficits would almost certainly make substantial cuts in federal funds that support states and localities. These cuts likely would force states and localities to reduce the quality and reach of their basic public systems — schools, clean … -
Deficit-Reduction Package That Lacks Significant Revenues Would Shift Very Substantial Costs to States and Localities
Updated December 5, 2012
If it fails to include significant new revenues, a major legislative package to shrink federal deficits would almost certainly make deep cuts in federal funds that support states and localities as they perform many basic public functions, including educating children, building roads and bridges, protecting public health, and providing law … -
Policy Basics: State Earned Income Tax Credits
Updated December 5, 2012
Twenty-five states (counting the District of Columbia) have created earned income tax credits (EITCs) to help families struggling to get by on low wages, make ends meet, and provide basic necessities for their children. These credits build on the benefits of the federal EITC, offering a hand up to … -
Media Briefing: Examining Wide and Growing Income Gaps in the States
November 15, 2012
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute held a joint conference call briefing on Wednesday, November 14, 2012 to discuss a major new state-by-state report on income inequality. -
Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends
November 15, 2012
A state-by-state examination finds that income inequality has grown in most parts of the country since the late 1970s. Over the past three business cycles prior to 2007, the incomes of the country’s highest-income households climbed substantially, while middle- and lower-income households saw only modest increases. During the … -
Wide and Growing Income Gaps in Most States, New Report Finds
November 15, 2012
The gaps between the incomes of the richest households and low- and middle-income households are wide and growing in most states, according to a major new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute that examines inequality at the state level. Across all states, the average income of the richest fifth of households was … -
Statement of Nicholas Johnson, Vice President for State Fiscal Policy, on Defeat of “TABOR” Amendment in Florida
Updated November 7, 2012
Florida voters yesterday resoundingly rejected the crippling and arbitrary spending limit known as TABOR, showing once again that such limits remain unpopular around the country. Anti-government groups have made serious efforts to enact TABORs through both ballot measures and legislation … -
Florida’s “Amendment 4” Would Cause Tax Rate Increases and Deep Local Service Cuts, Likely Harming the State’s Economy
September 25, 2012
Amendment 4, which appears on the ballot in Florida in November, would lock a deeply flawed set of property tax changes into the state’s constitution, leading to tax increases for large numbers of Florida residents, a competitive disadvantage for new and emerging businesses, and significant cuts in local services — while producing … -
Amendment 4 Would Cost Florida Jobs, Raise Taxes on Year-Round Residents, and Force Cuts in Public Services
September 25, 2012
Amendment 4 would cost the state jobs and lead to both tax increases for large numbers of Florida residents and cuts in local services such as police and fire protection, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The measure, on the Florida ballot in November, also would put new and emerging businesses at a competitive … -
Amendment 3 Would Undermine Florida’s Schools and Universities, Health Care, and Roads
September 13, 2012
Amendment 3 will hinder Florida’s efforts to strengthen its economy if voters adopt it, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The measure, which the Florida Legislature placed on the ballot for this November, would impose rigid limits on state spending, forcing cuts to education, roads and highways, health care and … -
Florida’s Amendment 3 Would Cut Funds for Schools, Health Care, Roads, and Other Services
September 13, 2012
Funding for Florida schools, universities, roads and bridges, health programs for children and the elderly, public transit, and a wide range of other public services will fall significantly if voters enact Amendment 3 on Florida’s November statewide ballot. This constitutional amendment would severely limit the amount of state … -
New School Year Brings More Cuts in State Funding for Schools
Updated September 4, 2012
States have made steep cuts to education funding since the start of the recession and, in many states, those cuts deepened over the last year. Elementary and high schools are receiving less state funding in the 2012-13 school year than they did last year in 26 states, and in 35 states school funding now stands below 2008 levels … -
How Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion Will Impact State Budgets
Revised July 25, 2012
Shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that states can choose whether to adopt the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion to cover low-income parents and other adults, some governors declared that they will forgo the expansion, claiming it would place a heavy financial burden on their states.[1] Claims that states will bear a … -
States Continue to Feel Recession’s Impact
Updated June 27, 2012
As a new fiscal year begins, the latest state budget estimates continue to show that states’ ability to fund services remains hobbled by slow economic growth. The budget gaps that states have had to close for fiscal year 2013, the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2012, total $55 billion in 31 states. That amount is smaller … -
Some Basic Facts on State and Local Government Workers
Updated June 15, 2012
This brief report presents some basic facts about state and local employees: the jobs they perform, how many there are, how their pay compares with pay in the private sector, and how much states and localities — mainly school districts, cities, and counties — spend on pay and benefits. Who Are Public Employees? By far … -
New CBO Report Finds Hundreds of Thousands of People Still Owe Their Jobs to the Recovery Act
Updated May 29, 2012
A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased the number of people employed by between 200,000 and 1.5 million jobs in March.[1] In other words, between 200,000 and 1.5 million people employed in March owed their jobs to the Recovery Act. This estimate, … -
“Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act” Would Impair Funding for Education, Health Care and Other State and Local Services
May 29, 2012
The proposed Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2011 would immediately and significantly reduce state and local tax collections, and these revenue losses would accelerate in the future. The Act (DGSTFA, S. 971/H.R. 1860) would restrict sharply the ability of state and local governments to levy sales and gross receipts taxes … -
Testimony of LaDonna Pavetti, Ph.D. Vice President, Family Income Support Policy, Before the House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Human Resources, Hearing on "State TANF Spending and its Impact on Work Requirements"
May 17, 2012
Good afternoon Chairman Davis, Ranking Member Doggett, and distinguished members of the Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify on the relationship between TANF State maintenance-of-effort (MOE) requirements and their interaction with work requirements. I am Vice President for Family Income Support Policy at the Center on … -
North Dakota's Measure 2 is Reckless and Misguided
May 15, 2012
A proposal to amend North Dakota's constitution to ban property taxes would lock North Dakota into a risky, uncharted course of action and leave the state's schools at the mercy of the highly volatile oil industry, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, DC-based policy research institution. "North Dakota has … -
North Dakota's Measure 2: High Risk For Little Reward
May 15, 2012
A proposal on the June 12 primary ballot would amend North Dakota's constitution to ban property taxes, a highly imprudent experiment that would fail to maximize the benefits of today's oil-driven economic boom to improve the state for future generations. The list of dangers posed by Measure 2 is long. It would: Lock North Dakota into … -
What if Chairman Ryan’s Medicaid Block Grant Had Taken Effect in 2001?
April 20, 2012
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s proposal to convert Medicaid to a block grant, which the House recently passed as part of Chairman Ryan’s overall budget plan, would have cut federal Medicaid funds to most states by more than 35 percent by 2010 — and to several of them by more than 50 percent — if it had been … -
Out of Balance
April 18, 2012
The state budget gaps of the last five years led to $290 billion in cuts to public services and $100 billion in tax and fee increases. Those actions lengthened the recession and delayed the recovery. Because spending reductions were dominant, hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost; undermining education, health care and other state … -
The Impact of State Income Taxes on Low-Income Families in 2011
Revised April 17, 2012
The successful bipartisan effort over the last two decades to reduce state income taxes on working-poor families has stalled and is in danger of reversing. No new states exempted working-poor families of four from income taxes in 2011, and in almost all of the 15 states where such families still pay income taxes, they saw their income taxes increase. … -
Press Release: Hawaii Among Worst States in Nation on Taxing the Working Poor
April 4, 2012
Unlike most states, Hawaii taxes working-poor families deeper into poverty, and it charges them higher tax bills than all but four other states, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "Hawaii should help working families work toward the middle class rather than undermine their … -
The Texas Economic Model: Hard for Other States to Follow and Not All It Seems
April 3, 2012
Whatever its boosters may say, Texas is not a helpful model for economic growth for the rest of the country. True, the number of people and jobs in Texas has been expanding, causing other states to wonder whether Texas holds important lessons for state policies that can generate similar growth elsewhere. The answer is no. Texas has … -
Tax Foundation Figures Do Not Represent Typical Households’ Tax Burdens
April 2, 2012
This report has been updated. Click here for the updated analysis. The Tax Foundation released its annual “Tax Freedom Day” report today that, once again, leaves a strikingly misleading impression of tax burdens — announcing an “average” tax rate across the United States that’s likely higher than the tax … -
Federal Government Will Pick Up Nearly All Costs of Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion
Updated March 28, 2012
For updated data, view this report: How Health Reform’s Medicaid Expansion Will Impact State Budgets July 12, 2012 Claims that states will bear a significant share of the costs of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion — and that this will place a heavy financial burden on states — do not hold up under scrutiny. … -
Proposed Kansas Tax Break for “Pass-Through” Profits Is Poorly Targeted and Will Not Create Jobs
Revised March 26, 2012
Kansas is seriously considering a new, unprecedented state income tax break — at a huge cost to the state budget — that would benefit large corporations and passive investors, and reward tax avoidance, while failing to meet its stated objective of job creation. The tax break was first proposed by Governor Brownback earlier this year, … -
Higher Property and Sales Taxes Likely if Kansas Eliminates Income Tax
March 22, 2012
Kansans likely would face higher sales and property taxes if the state legislature moves forward with efforts to eliminate the state income tax, according to a report released today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan policy research organization based in Washington, DC. Elimination of the state income tax also would undermine the … -
Without A State Income Tax, Other Taxes Are Higher
March 22, 2012
States without an income tax have higher sales or property taxes, on average, than states with an income tax. No-income-tax states have property taxes that are 8 percent to 12 percent above the national average and sales taxes 18 percent to 21 percent above the national average. These data are of particular relevance in … -
New CBO Report Finds Up to Two Million People Still Owe Their Jobs to the Recovery Act
Updated February 24, 2012
View the most recent version of this report: New CBO Report Finds Hundreds of Thousands of People Still Owe Their Jobs to the Recovery Act Updated May 29, 2012 A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report estimates that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) increased the number of people employed by between 300,000 and 2 million jobs … -
Testimony: Michael Mazerov, Senior Fellow, State Fiscal Project Before The Maryland Senate Budget And Taxation Committee Regarding Senate Bill 269 — Combined Reporting
February 22, 2012
Chairman Kasemeyer and members of the Committee, I am Michael Mazerov, Senior Fellow with the State Fiscal Project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington. The Center is a non-profit, non-partisan research institute that focuses on federal and state budgets, programs, and tax policies, with a particular emphasis on how they … -
Using Economic Census Data to Estimate the Revenue Impact of Taxing Services
February 15, 2012
Public finance experts have long identified the failure of states to collect sales taxes on most services purchased by households as a major shortcoming of state tax systems. A 2009 Center report lays out the case for expanded sales taxation of services, including its potential to mitigate erosion of the sales tax base and improve the fairness of … -
Testimony: Phil Oliff, Policy Analyst, Before the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee
February 14, 2012
Madam Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify here today. My name is Phil Oliff. I am a Policy Analyst with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts research and … -
Six Reasons Why Supermajority Requirements to Raise Taxes Are a Bad Idea
February 13, 2012
A few states are considering amending their constitutions to make it even harder to close tax loopholes and otherwise change the tax code to raise more revenue. The proposed amendments would require that revenue-positive tax changes win support from supermajorities of each house of the legislature plus the governor’s signature, rather than the normal … -
Improving Budget Analysis of State Criminal Justice Reforms: A Strategy For Better Outcomes and Saving Money
January 11, 2012
Issued Jointly With An increasing number of states are considering criminal justice reforms proven to protect the public and produce significant cost savings. For example, some states are offering effective addiction treatment to more people convicted of drug-related crimes instead of incarcerating them. Other …
