Media coverage of possible teacher strikes in Arizona and Oklahoma, following one in West Virginia, has often overlooked an important contributing factor in those states: excessive state tax cuts that have shrunk state revenues and thereby made it harder for states to devote adequate resources to education. Reductions in state education funding largely due to tax cuts have limited pay and...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
North Carolina’s Tax Cuts Haven’t Caused Economy to Surge
February 27, 2018
State tax cut proponents often cite North Carolina as a model since its economy — unlike those of most states that have cut income tax rates deeply in recent years...
States Can’t Afford Trump Budget’s Massive Cost Shift
February 15, 2018
President Trump’s 2019 budget would shift massive new costs to states and localities at a time when many states are already struggling to meet the needs of residents and businesses. It:
Slashes funding for Medicaid and marketplace subsidies that help low-...
How States Should Respond to the Federal Tax Changes
January 24, 2018
As we’ve said, many states expect to see a change in revenues under the federal tax law. But states should respond very cautiously to the possibility of a revenue...
States Should Respond Cautiously to Uncertain Revenue Impacts From Federal Tax Changes
January 23, 2018
Some state policymakers have overreacted to the possibility of new revenue from the recent federal tax changes by proposing major income tax rate cuts, including some that would cost more than the highly uncertain estimate of new revenue. While claims that most or all states will see...
Claims of State "Windfalls" from Federal Tax Changes Are Overstated
January 23, 2018
Claims that most states will receive a revenue “windfall” from the recent federal tax changes due to their tax codes’ interaction with the federal one are overstated, our major new report...
UPDATE: California House Members Appear to Be Settling for Bad SALT “Compromise”
December 15, 2017
Republican House members from California have reportedly pushed to change a provision in the emerging GOP tax bill that eliminates much of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which lets taxpayers deduct state and local property taxes and either state and local income taxes or general sales taxes. But the...
California House Members May Settle for Bad SALT “Compromise”
December 11, 2017
Update, December 14, 2017: This post has been revised.
Republican House members from California are reportedly pushing to change a provision in the emerging GOP tax bill that eliminates much of the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which lets taxpayers deduct state and local property taxes and either...
House District Map: Partial SALT Repeal Kills Most Valuable Part of Deduction
December 5, 2017
The part of the federal income tax deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) that’s most valuable to taxpayers in 77 percent of House districts — not just those with relatively high taxes — is the deduction for state and local income or sales taxes. Yet that’s exactly the part of SALT that both the House- and Senate-passed tax bills would eliminate.
The SALT deduction lets...
K-12 Funding in Some States Still Far Below Pre-Recession Levels
November 29, 2017
Public investment in K-12 schools — crucial for communities to thrive and the economy to offer broad opportunity — has fallen dramatically in a number of states over the last decade, our newly updated survey of state budgets finds. Worse, some of the deepest-cutting states have also cut...
