Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Podcast

Missouri spends about $544 million a year on various tax credits. Recently, these tax credits have included $5 million a year for sausage casing manufacturers and $25 million for an indoor practice facility and parking lot enhancement for the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs (which then doubled its parking fees for patrons). State Senator Jason Crowell, who represents the 27th district, wants to change...

Homeownership has come to be viewed as an integral part of The American Dream, and tax policy is just one way that politicians have sought to promote it. The mortgage interest deduction is the second most expensive tax subsidy, second only to the tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance. Dennis Ventry, a law professor at the University of California-Davis, recently authored an article on the mortgage...

Which state will be "the next California"? The Pew Center on the States has attempted to answer this question by evaluating the factors that led to California's budget crisis and identifying other states that face similar problems. "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril" shows that Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode...

The New York Superior Court recently heard oral arguments in the state's so-called "Amazon tax" case. In April 2008, New York Gov. David Paterson signed into a law a budget requiring that out-of-state online retailers collect sales taxes on purchases if the company does at least $10,000 worth of business with in-state affiliates. Amazon.com filed suit shortly thereafter, but the New York State Supreme Court - the state's trial-level court - ruled in favor of the state and upheld...

Both the House bill and Senate Finance Committee plan are expected -- according to Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee and Taxation projections -- to reduce the deficit, but whether large cuts to Medicare spending will actually happen remains to be seen. Regardless of whatever health care reform proposal emerges from Congress (or when), it appears tax increases are on the table. Outside discussions of health care reform,...

The 2009 election is an off-year election for most states. Gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia have taken the spotlight when it comes to election coverage. But several state ballots on Tuesday will feature taxpayer-related measures - notably, Maine's Question 4, which would institute a "Taxpayer Bill of Rights" to restrict state and local government spending an require voter approval for any tax increases or spending over the...

New Jersey has the least-business-friendly tax climate of all 50 states. The Garden State has the highest median property taxes in the nation, the second-highest state-level sales tax rate, and the third-highest top individual income tax rate. All of these factored in to New Jersey's recent last-place ranking in the Tax...

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland recently announced a plan to freeze income tax cuts for two years in order to fund education. The cuts, totaling 21 percent, were scheduled to be phased in over five years at a rate of 4.2 percent a year. Matt Mayer recently was named President of the Buckeye Institute in Columbus, OH. He joins us for this week's Tax Policy Podcast to discuss the governor's proposal and alternative...

What is income redistribution? How would it change under President Obama's budget proposal? And what about health care reform? Answering these questions and more on this week's Tax Policy Podcast is Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge, who recently authored three fiscal facts looking at income redistribution based on the Tax Foundation's fiscal incidence project. View the latest reports on income redistribution in the Tax Foundation Fiscal Fact series: "...

The Tax Foundation recently released a report on property taxes compiled from the Census Bureau's 2008 American Community Survey, which found that homeowners in counties and states in the Northeast - especially New York and New Jersey - along with parts of the Midwest tend to pay the most in property taxes. In this week's Tax Policy Podcast, Tax Foundation Senior Economist Gerald Prante discusses which counties and states have the highest...

This week, the Tax Foundation released its 2010 State Business Tax Climate Index, which measures how "business-friendly" a state's tax system is. Equally important to the question of how much states tax, which we answer in our annual State and Local Tax Burdens study, is the question of how those taxes are raised. In this week's Tax Policy Podcast, Staff Economist Kail Padgitt...

After a several-month budget standoff between the Connecticut legislature and Governor Jodi Rell, the state budget became law two months after the new fiscal year began - without the governor's signature. In this week's Tax Policy Podcast, Fergus Cullen, Executive Director of the Yankee Institute for Public Policy in Connecticut, discusses the some of the new provisions....

With the majority of the debate on Capitol Hill focused on health care, cap and trade has seemingly slipped to the back burner -- for now. The Senate is expected to pick up cap-and-trade legislation this month. A new analysis from the Heritage Foundation takes a look at the economic impact of the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill that passed the House of Representatives in June. This week's podcast features...

Many state recently wrapped up back-to-school sales tax holidays, periods of time during which certain goods are exempted from the state (and sometimes local) sales tax. Sales tax holidays are politically popular not just for back to school items, but others such as energy-efficient products and hurricane-preparedness materials. However, they're also problematic for a number of reasons. To explain why on this week's podcast is Tax Foundation Staff Economist...

Even during Congress's August recess, the debate on health care reform continues to make headlines. The focus seemingly has shifted from a proposed surtax on the wealthy to fund an expansion in coverage to whether a public option insurance plan is "essential" to reform. But one issue has not received as much attention: the tax treatment of employer-provided health insurance. In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation Manager of Media Relations ...

This year, several states enacted "sin taxes" -- those targeting perceived negative behavior such as smoking or drinking - to help close budget deficits. The Tax Foundation has long argued against sin taxes as ineffective revenue sources; they're simply a way for government to micromanage the economy by punishing certain industries. Nonetheless, sin taxes have remained popular as politicians tout them as ways to discourage certain activities. A July paper from the National Bureau...

California's Commission on the 21st Century Economy has until next month to finalize its recommendation for reforming the state's finances. This week's Tax Policy Podcast features Dr. Steven Sheffrin, a Professor of Economics at the University California Davis, Director of the Center for State and Local Taxation, and former dean of social sciences. Dr. Sheffrin is the author of many books and articles on state taxation and has served on the Board of Directors of the National Tax...

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the Supreme Court Tuesday after a sometimes contentious confirmation hearing that covered a lot of ground. One area, however, that has not received as much attention is her judicial philosophy on tax issues. In this week's podcast, Tax Foundation Manager of Media Relations Natasha Altamirano interviews Travis Greaves, a law clerk with the Tax Foundation's Center for...

Pennsylvania is among several states that began the new fiscal year without a budget in place. As Matt Brouillette, President and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation in Pennsylvania explains in this week's Tax Policy Podcast, it's been seven years since the state legislature has passed an on-time budget. Interviewed by Tax Foundation Manager of Media Relations Natasha Altamirano, Brouillette...

Maine recently passed the most sweeping changes to the state's tax code since the establishment of its income tax in 1969—in part due to the efforts of State Representative John Piotti, who introduced LD 1088, a bill that included a single flat rate individual income tax of 6.5 percent and an expansion of the sales tax. The legislation passed both the state House of Representatives and Senate in June, but at the urging of Governor Baldacci, the reforms were altered and reintroduced...