California

Fixing Connecticut’s Budget Woes? Tread Carefully When Implementing New Fiscal Controls

Late last October, Governor Dan Malloy approved a two-year $40.2 billion budget for Connecticut more than 100 days after the fiscal year began. A strongly...

March 9, 2018Kim S. Rueben

State and Local Issues: TaxVox

The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program: Why pension reform turns inefficiently to the states

Starting as soon as it can be made operational, perhaps in 2018 , as many as 7 million private-sector California workers who currently have no...

December 2, 2016C. Eugene Steuerle Pamela Perun

State and Local Issues: TaxVox

The Trouble with State Tax Triggers

State policymakers are increasingly using “triggers” to pass big tax cuts while ducking tough decisions on how to pay for them. They are bad tax policy. Naturally, they are incredibly popular. Here’s how a tax trigger works: A state cuts taxes over a period of years. There may be an initial tax cut

September 24, 2015Norton Francis

: TaxVox

Rewarding Work, Paying by the Mile, a Windfall, and… Tax Magic  

Redesign the EITC to help more low-income workers. TPC’s Elaine Maag thinks that’s the way to go. She explains in her new paper : “A worker credit based on individual earnings, and not contingent on having children at home, could provide substantial benefits to all low-income workers, ease

May 21, 2015Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Wishes, Dreams, and Bittersweet Denials

Be careful what you wish for. Businesses have backed an overhaul of the US tax code for quite some time, but their tune changes when it comes to corporate tax reform in other countries. The Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project, or BEPS, is an effort by the Organization for Economic Cooperation

May 14, 2015Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Revenues and Rate Hikes: What’s an Elected Official to Do?

There’s a revenue surge in California. The state is exceeding its 2013 tax collections and beating 2014 forecasts. The Franchise Tax Board netted $7.6 billion in personal income taxes between April 1 and this past Monday. It collected $6 billion during the same period in 2014. The state’s school

April 22, 2015Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Bipartisan or Partisan: Tax Efforts Abound

There’s a bipartisan House effort to double the federal gas tax. It would raise the 18.4 cents-per-gallon tax to about 30 cents, would be inflation adjusted, and would rise again in three years if Congress does not find another way to pay for federal transportation projects. The bill’s sponsors—

April 17, 2015Renu Zaretsky

Individual Taxes: TaxVox

One Solution to California’s Drought: Tax Water

The idea is straight out of Economics 101: If you want people to do less of something, raise the price. And California desperately needs its residents and businesses to use less water. So rather than trying to curb water use through a complex maze of regulation, why not just raise the price though

April 7, 2015Howard Gleckman

: TaxVox

Budget Plans and Fun with Tax Forms

The Senate GOP budget is out. It would cut spending by $5.1 trillion and reach balance in 10 years , according to its dynamic score. Like the House budget released Tuesday, it would repeal the Affordable Care Act, but unlike the House plan, it includes reconciliation instructions that could give

March 19, 2015Renu Zaretsky

: TaxVox

Can Expectations Be Too Low?

Pot tax refunds for all in Colorado? Colorado’s controversial Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) says that the state cannot keep more tax revenue than it expected to collect in the year it levies a new tax. Colorado is on track to collect an extra $219 million in revenue in the current fiscal year and

March 3, 2015Renu Zaretsky