April 16, 2009

And the [News] Beat Goes On: Another Sampling of Media Coverage From a Busy Tax Week

by Matt Moon

The filing deadline for federal income taxes, as well as the Tax Day Tea Party protests, brought a new wave of media coverage for us. I appeared on CNN last night to talk about federal, state and local tax burdens; staff economist Josh Barro did a live segment yesterday morning on Fox Business News to compare tax situations in different states. While we don't yet have the video for those segments, here's a sample of some more media coverage we received from yesterday:

On Tax Freedom Day and the federal income tax:

• Andrea Neal, an adjunct scholar at the Indiana Policy Review Foundation, writes an op-ed on the intended impact of the Tea Party protests in the Indianapolis Star.
• Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Thomas Oliver shares his many thoughts on the tax code.
• The editorial board at the Washington Times led with figures from our Tax Freedom Day report in a column on the Tea Party protests.
• The editorial board at the Orange County Register also joined the Tea Party, bemoaning California's relatively late Tax Freedom Day, April 20th.
• WebCPA editor-in-chief Michael Cohn also featured Tax Freedom Day.
• CNN guest commentator John Feehery asks why so many people pay nothing in federal income taxes. (Read more about "non-payers" here.)
• Professor Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago cites our income tax data in a New York Times Economix Blog post on payroll taxes, which he calls "Form 1040's Neglected Kid Sister."
• Andy Sullivan writes on Tax Freedom Day and the Tea Parties on Reuters's "Front Row Washington" blog. 
• The Christian Science Monitor interviews senior research fellow Robert Carroll on the effects of higher tax rates on higher income earners. 
• CNET chief political correspondent Declan McCullagh interviews me for a column on CBS News declaring our "income tax system is broken."

On our recently released 2009 Poll on Taxes, Government Spending and Wealth Distribution:

• Karl Rove features many of the results from our poll questions in the Wall Street Journal today. Rove also features the poll on his own website.
• CNNMoney.com cited our poll question on tax burdens in a story on how those burdens are distributed among different income groups.
• Brett Joshpe uses the results of our poll in a column for National Review Online on estate taxes.
• The editorial board of the Deseret News in Salt Lake City features our polls questions on tax burdens and tax complexity in a column bemoaning our current tax code.

On state taxes and sin taxes:

• Michigan's Attorney General Mike Cox (R) cites our State Business Tax Climate Index in a Detroit News op-ed calling for a repeal of the state's income tax.
• Andrew Cline, editorial page editor of the New Hampshire Union-Leader, cites our State-Local Tax Burden report in a Tea Party column in the American Spectator. 
• The Arizona Republic features our data on state tax burdens. 
• The editorial board at the Wall Street Journal cites our tax counsel, Joseph Henchman, in a column on beer taxes. 
• Both the New York Times Economix Blog and the Arkansas Times feature a study from our analyst Mark Robyn on border zone cigarette taxation in Arkansas.

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