The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff
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 funding formula will direct nearly all revenue that exceeds state estimates to public schools.
No such luck in Kansas. The state is short another $200 million in tax revenue, and Governor Brownback may need to raise more in taxes than he originally planned. He’s already proposed about $210 million in cigarette and liquor tax increases.
How might presidential candidates or governors use new tax-cut research? TPC’s Howard Gleckman takes a deeper look at the new paper by University of Chicago economist Owen Zidar. “His results provide policy ammunition for both conservatives and liberals. Conservatives will point to evidence that tax changes do, indeed, affect the economy… Progressives will say that Zidar’s work buttresses their claim that tax cuts for the wealthy have little effect on growth.”
Meanwhile, support is growing for a gas tax increase in New Jersey. A new Quinnipiac University poll of registered New Jersey voters finds that half support raising the gas tax to fund roads and transit. Just a few months ago, just 37 percent favored an increase. In December 2007, only 24 percent backed the idea. It’s not certain that GOP Governor Chris Christie, a presidential hopeful, will follow state voters.
Back-up plans B and C for the ACA. Republican Senator Ron Johnson has proposed a bill to address possible fallout from the US Supreme Court’s King v. Burwell decision on the Affordable Care Act, expected in June. The high court could take health insurance from millions who rely on federal subsidies to purchase coverage. If that happens, Johnson would let them keep their subsidies—and thus their insurance—until August 2017. He hopes that would give the next president time to repeal and replace ACA. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Finance Committee Chair Orrin hatch and Ways & Means Chair Paul Ryan are both working on refundable tax credits to replace the subsidies. Some would say they are the same thing.
Today on the Hill. The House Ways & Means panel’s Subcommittee on Oversight holds a hearing today on the 2015 tax filing season and general operations at the IRS.
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