July 29, 2009
Reuters Article Highlights Tax Foundation Research on State Tax Changes, Updated Facts & Figures Booklet
"Facing budget gaps, U.S. states shuffle tax codes: group"
By Reuters
Caught with near-chronic budget shortfalls, U.S. states are scrambling to change their tax codes and bring in more revenues, the Tax Foundation said on Wednesday.
The foundation has compiled an annual index on 37 categories of states' taxing and spending since 1937. This is the first time that it has had to update the report in the middle of the year.
"Many states have started the new fiscal year with tax codes that are vastly different compared to just a few months ago," Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge said in a statement.
Hawaii, for example, has recently increased its top marginal tax rate to 11 percent, making it tied for first in the country with Oregon. New Jersey, New York, Wisconsin and Delaware also increased individual income taxes for high earners in recent months.
"It's a bit of a troubling trend to see," Mark Robyn, the foundation's staff economist, said on a conference call with reporters. "One of the problems we see with taxing high income individuals is that high-income individuals tend to have volatile incomes."
