Tax Increases: The Ugly, the Bad, and the Good?

“What’s [still] the matter with Kansas?” TPC’s Norton Francis explains. “The $423 million package proposed by the Senate backpedals on some previous income tax cuts but is made up of mostly regressive tax hikes… That Kansas is scrambling at this late date to close its budget hole is a scandal. After all, the revenue losses from recent tax cuts are no surprise.”

In Connecticut, Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy wants to rein in new tax increases. He’s asking the legislature to reduce some of the tax hikes his administration helped negotiate. General Electric responded to some increases by threatening to relocate out of state. Malloy’s budget improvement plan would roll back close to $224 million of those tax increases over two years.

Tennessee’s GOP Governor Bill Haslam will hit the road this summer on behalf of asphalt—and gas taxes. He wants talk up the idea of raising the state’s gasoline tax to pay for road repair and maintenance. “The reality is that we're going to have to do something and I think we're going to have to do something while I'm still in office.” The last increase to Tennessee’s gas tax was in 1988 to 21.4 cents per gallon. The governor, currently chair of the Republican Governors Association, leaves office in January 2019.

Another candidate, another promise of tax reform. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, in her first major speech as a candidate on Saturday, pledged to rewrite the US tax code if elected. She wants the code to reward hard work, not equities trades or money banked overseas. Will Jeb Bush get on the tax reform bandwagon when he announces today?

On the Hill this week… The House may vote on repeal of the medical device excise tax this week. On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee will mark up a bill that could cut IRS funding by 8 percent, and the Senate Budget Committee will review the Congressional Budget Office’s long-term budget outlook with CBO director Keith Hall. CBO’s budget outlook is due out tomorrow. The Highway Trust Fund will get lots of attention: The House Ways & Means Committee holds a hearing on Wednesday and the Senate Finance Committee will do the same Thursday.

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