Kim S. Rueben

New mothers , families with low incomes , and immigrant parents often miss out on tax benefits by failing to file returns. But with tax...

Thanks to surging tax revenues and an unprecedented infusion of federal aid, many states cut taxes over the past two years by lowering individual income tax rates, expanding tax credits, or sending one-time checks to residents. But there is another way states can use these funds: reduce or eliminate some local criminal legal fines and fees.

While state budgets are recovering along with the US economy, state fiscal policymakers remain cautious about the post COVID-19 future, according to a survey by...

This week, Colorado became the 14 th state to either require or allow some pass-through businesses such as partnerships to pay state income taxes at...

Tax policies are commonly viewed as race-neutral or “colorblind”— simply because information on race or ethnicity is not reported on tax returns or explicitly referenced...

Opponents of additional federal aid to state and local governments have noted that overall state revenue declines have not been as bad as expected during...

Aid for state and local governments remains a sticking point in Congressional deliberations over additional relief to address the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic...

On the California ballot this year is an initiative that could partially unravel what is possibly one of the most consequential ballot initiatives.

Because the IRS does not ask for a tax filer’s race or ethnicity on tax forms, examining the relationship between race and the tax system...

While it may have attracted less attention than US House and Senate races, Tuesday’s elections also resulted in shake-ups in some state capitols . And...

On September 21 st , the Trump Administration proposed a regulation limiting access to legal permanent residency status (green cards) and other visas for immigrants...

Forty years ago, California voters were sent a 63-page pamphlet explaining the 13 questions on the primary ballot that June. At the end of the...

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...

The House Ways & Means Committee version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) rightly aims to simplify a complex system of tax subsidies...

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA), which the House Ways & Means Committee will consider this week, would generally disallow the state and local...

A Midwestern state passing a budget is not typically front-page news in the New York Times . Then again, most states don't go 736 days...

Heated debates about travel bans and border walls seem to dominate the news cycle, but what do we really know about the effects of immigration?...

Earlier this month, voters across the country decided a number of state initiatives that affect both the services they receive and the taxes they pay...

Are immigrants good for the economy and the country’s balance sheet? That is the politically charged and analytically difficult question tackled in a three-year study...

In November, voters will consider ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage in eight states, following the decision by the California legislature to phase in its own version. Overall, workers will benefit, but because government aid and taxes are based on income, other state and federal policies can either amplify higher wages or reduce them. We used the Urban Institute’s Net Income Change Calculator (NICC) to get a sense of how these wage changes would affect the bottom line for a sample family.

There is no joy (and some anger ) in St. Louis: its beloved Rams are returning to Los Angeles. St. Louis is now left thinking about what this means...

The President’s budget includes a long list of tax changes including at least one that he has already disavowed: his plan to limit the tax exemption...

President Obama will feature higher education prominently in next week’s budget—a choice that makes sense, given that educational attainment is the...

While most national attention is focused on which party will control the Senate and who will win the 36 gubernatorial races, many states also have...

This week the rating agency Standard and Poor’s got a lot of attention for a study that concluded that rising income inequality is damaging state tax...