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The Governor and legislature are clearly able to come up with large amounts of new revenue for top priorities. However, we believe more revenue is needed to restore the Local Government Fund, invest from pre-K to higher ed, and take on poverty and the opiate epidemic at the scale of our state’s needs. Instead, we’re troubled by an ongoing and unfounded focus on more income tax cuts that have already cost the state billions without leading to promised jobs and growth.
Overall, the plan will lead to $170 million more in state cuts – meaning more cuts to public safety, schools, and other great public services that lead to stronger communities. The plan is fiscally irresponsible, swapping stable, progressive revenue for sources like the severance tax that are still largely hypothetical, and passing unpaid-for cuts to the next legislature.
No matter what you think of the cigarette tax, it will hit poor and working people to give a tax cut to those who need it the least. Income tax cuts benefit the wealthy the most.
Revisiting the Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) and severance tax to ensure corporations are paying their fair share makes sense, but not to replace the income tax.
Good ideas that make our revenue system more fair – like expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – should remain to improve our already regressive revenue system.
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