What to Watch in the States: Further Attempts to Weaken or Eliminate Progressive Taxes

There are further attempts to weaken or eliminate progressive taxes. Many states are getting ready for challenging budget debates this year. There are people on both sides of the issue. Some want things to be harder, while others want it easier and help people be better off. There are talks on eliminating personal income tax in Michigan and West Virginia.

Key Takeaways:

• As we described last week, many states are gearing up for challenging budget debates this year.
• At the same time, however, lawmakers in a handful of states are exploring meaningful income tax reforms that could improve the fairness and sustainability of their tax systems.
• Graduated-rate income taxes allow states to collect more revenues from high-income taxpayers that often face the lowest overall state and local tax rates.

“Two bills to eliminate Michigan’s personal income tax may be at play this legislative session. In the House, a bill has been filed that would reduce the current income tax rate from 4.25 percent to 3.9 percent in 2018 and then phase down the rate by 0.1 percentage point each year over the next 40 years, well after all of the state’s current elected officials have left office (Michigan prevents any individual from serving more than 14 years in the legislature)”

http://www.taxjusticeblog.org/archive/2017/02/what_to_watch_in_the_states_fu.php