The emerging bipartisan agreement on the Senate’s economic emergency legislation contains very significant new resources to help states address their massive, immediate budget problems due to COVID-19, though it almost certainly doesn’t go far enough. Congress will need to come back and provide more help to states and families affected by the crisis, as some policymakers have already called...
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
BEYOND THE NUMBERS
Hidden New Tax Breaks for Wealthy Households, Corporations Risk State Revenues
March 22, 2018
As states develop legislation to adapt their tax laws to the new federal tax law, corporate lobbyists and anti-tax advocates are trying to capitalize on the legislative process to secure state tax breaks that they’ve been seeking for years. If they succeed, states will lose tax revenues that they otherwise could be allocating to strengthen schools, infrastructure, and other state services by,...
Steps for Fixing Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Problems
February 9, 2016
As both parties now agree, the federal government must respond in the coming months to Puerto Rico’s economic and fiscal challenges — most immediately, the $70 billion or so that Puerto Rico owes creditors and on which its government says it must default unless the debt is restructured. Policymakers must address this threat, but they should go further and also implement health and tax policy...
State Policy Fellowship Applications Are Open
November 6, 2015
We’re now accepting applications for the 2016 class of State Policy Fellows. Since 2010, CBPP and our State Priorities Partnership have placed fellows in leading state-based policy organizations across the country. The fellowship is designed to:
- Bring diverse perspectives to state policy debates. To expand the voices ...
Improving State Budget Policies
December 4, 2014
States’ choices about investing in schools, health care, child care, and other services can either help create opportunity and prosperity for people or hold them back. This short video explains how the State Priorities Partnership, a national network of 41 independent state policy...
What Does Kansas’ Botched Tax-Cut Experiment Portend for Other States?
June 12, 2014
The budgetary disaster emerging from Kansas’ radical tax-cutting experiment is making pro-tax-cut elected officials in other states uneasy. The Wall Street Journal...
In Illinois, a Chance to Fix a Constitutional Flaw
April 23, 2014
Illinois’ constitution has a requirement that is quite unusual among states: the state must have a single-rate income tax, meaning that middle-income taxpayers pay income tax at the same rate as the state’s wealthiest. This provision has been a fiscal and economic failure. Now lawmakers are considering a fix that would benefit the state’s middle-income taxpayers and economy for the long...
Brownback Reiterates Faulty Claim to Justify Radical Tax Cuts
February 25, 2014
Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said recently that his radical 2012 income tax cuts — among the largest that any state has ever enacted — generated over 15,000 small businesses in Kansas. He’s...
Florida’s Boost to K-12 Education Welcome, But a Gap Remains
December 9, 2013
In a letter to state school superintendents encouraging them to raise teacher pay, Florida Gov. Rick Scott boasted that the state’s budget this year includes “the most state funding for education ever,” and that Florida’s increase in per-student spending this year — $263 — ranked...
Missouri Lawmakers Wisely Push Back Against Plan to Shift, Cut Taxes
September 12, 2013
A bipartisan group of Missouri legislators this week rejected a plan to slash income taxes for the wealthy and corporations, raise sales taxes largely on middle- and low-income consumers, and cut...