Study: Medicaid-eligible children pay more in taxes as adults, By Amanda Cuda, January 12, 2015, Stamford Advocate: “Children of the 1980s who were eligible for expanded Medicaid benefits in their youth paid more in taxes as adults, according to a new study from Yale University. The study also showed that these same people were more likely to attend college and less likely to die prematurely in adulthood than peers who weren’t eligible for benefits. For some advocates, the research supports what they have long believed about providing Medicaid to vulnerable populations…”
Tag: Taxes
State Tax Burdens
- Study finds local taxes hit lower wage earners harder, By Patricia Cohen, January 13, 2015, New York Times: “When it comes to the taxes closest to home, the less you earn, the harder you’re hit. That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that evaluates the local tax burden in every state, from Washington, labeled the most regressive, to Delaware, ranked as the fairest of them all. According to the study, in 2015 the poorest fifth of Americans will pay on average 10.9 percent of their income in state and local taxes, the middle fifth will pay 9.4 percent and the top 1 percent will average 5.4 percent…”
- Are local taxes unfair to the poor?, By Aimee Picchi, January 14, 2015, CBS News: “When it comes to state taxes, the rule of thumb is often topsy-turvy: The less you earn, the more you pay. That’s the conclusion from a new analysis of local taxes from the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonpartisan research firm that studies tax issues. The organization’s findings won’t do much to make middle- and low-income workers feel good about their state and local tax burdens. The poorest 20 percent of Americans pay an average effective state and local tax rate of 10.9 percent. By comparison, the top 1 percent of Americans have an effective local tax burden of 5.4 percent…”
State-Level Income Inequality
- Income inequality last year rose in 15 states, By Niraj Chokshi, September 18, 2014, Washington Post: “The nation became more unequal last year. The Gini Index, a measure of income inequality, was higher, in a statistically significant way, in 2013 than in 2012, rising from 0.476 to 0.481, according to a new Census Bureau report. A score of zero suggests perfect equality where all households have equal income, while a score of one suggests perfect inequality, where one household has it all, and the rest have none. Alaska was the only state to see its Gini Index score decline…”
- Income inequality is hurting state tax revenue, report says, By Josh Boak (AP), September 15, 2014, Washington Post: “Income inequality is taking a toll on state governments. The widening gap between the wealthiest Americans and everyone else has been matched by a slowdown in state tax revenue, according to a report being released Monday by Standard & Poor’s. Even as income has accelerated for the affluent, it has barely kept pace with inflation for most other people. That trend can mean a double whammy for states: The wealthy often manage to shield much of their income from taxes. And they tend to spend less of it than others do, thereby limiting sales tax revenue. As the growth of tax revenue has slowed, states have faced tensions over whether to raise taxes or cut spending to balance their budgets as required by law…”
- Income inequality: States struggle to balance budgets as rich-poor gap widens, By Mark Trumbull, September 15, 2014, Christian Science Monitor: “A widening gap in incomes between the rich and the middle class may be hitting US states where it hurts – making it harder for them to raise the tax revenue they need for balancing their budgets. This conclusion, reached in a report released Monday by Standard & Poor’s, comes at a time when states across America are still struggling to rebuild their revenue streams more than five years after the end of a historically deep recession…”