The mix of tax sources states choose can have important implications for both revenue stability and economic growth, and the many variations across states are indicative of the different ways states weigh competing policy goals.
29 min read
Maine has blueberry taxes. Alabama has mosquito taxes. Each state and county has its tax quirks. But when state and local governments want to raise revenues, there are four key taxes they turn to.
There are a number of sources of state and local tax collections each with important implications for revenue stability and economic growth. Which taxes does your state and/or locality rely on most?
22 min readIndividual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for more than a third of state tax collections. How do income taxes compare in your state?
9 min read
Michigan’s tax code remains too complex, and taxpayers should be asking for a system that bends toward simplicity, not the other way around.
Assessment limits are not sound tax policy. While well-intended, with hopes of preventing owners from being “taxed out of their homes,” the tax shifts, lock-in effects, and housing supply issues created by assessment limits make housing affordability worse.
Although New York’s 2027 budget proposal avoids tax increases on income, sales, and property taxes, it is full of policy proposals that threaten the long-run integrity of the state’s finances and harm New York taxpayers.
5 min read
Lawmakers in many states continue to pursue additional income tax relief, while their counterparts elsewhere pursue the opposite goal.
3 min read
One area of the tax code in which extreme complexity and low compliance go hand-in-hand—and where reform is desperately needed—is in states’ nonresident individual income tax filing and withholding laws.
9 min read
While the CEA’s analysis of the benefits of reduced reliance on income taxes is sound, its revenue replacement estimates are not. The actual revenue replacement rate could be as high as 17.51 percent.
6 min read
Retail sales taxes are an essential part of most states’ revenue toolkits, responsible for nearly a quarter of combined state and local tax collections.
18 min read
New Jersey’s proposed data tax on corporations is based on dubious premises and made worse by its poor design.
5 min read
Delaware Governor Matt Meyer’s proposal to decouple from the full expensing provision of the OBBBA would make the state’s tax code less friendly toward investment and undermine long-term growth.
5 min read
Some state lawmakers are considering decoupling from the pro-growth expensing provisions of the OBBBA due to revenue concerns, but it is valuable to recognize just how much the corporate tax base has expanded over the past decade.
6 min read
Each level of government provides its own services and therefore levies its own taxes to generate revenue for these services.
While the Council of DC is right to consider decoupling its tax code from several revenue-reducing provisions in the OBBBA, they should maintain conformity with the business expensing reforms that are strongly pro-growth, better align with sound tax principles, and primarily change the timing of revenues.
4 min read
When property values soar, homeowners can end up paying significantly higher taxes for basically the same services. Thankfully, there is a solution.
Backfilling forgone local property tax revenue through new state taxes is difficult because it dramatically shifts overall tax burdens, undermines local accountability, and cannot easily adjust for changing population mixes.
20 min read
Kansas policymakers’ proposal to expand the sales tax base is well-intentioned but could be designed more prudently.
Growing cigarette tax levels and differentials have made cigarette smuggling both a national problem and a lucrative criminal enterprise.
6 min read
For Congress, work on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is done. But in state capitols, the work has not yet begun. Many of the tax changes in the federal reconciliation act flow through to state tax codes—automatically in some states, and subject to an update in states’ Internal Revenue Code conformity date in others.
39 min read
New Jersey’s residents deserve tax relief, and the state must stem the tide of out-migration. Affordable reforms in the near term could pave the way for more sweeping, and competitive, reforms to take root in the future.
Florida’s latest property tax debate highlights the familiar challenge of prioritizing pro-growth tax policy while tackling rising property tax burdens.
6 min read