/PRNewswire/ -- Thirteen states taxed working-poor families deeper into poverty last year, according to a new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In some of those states, poor families faced several hundred dollars in state income taxes -- a significant amount for a family struggling to make ends meet, the report said.
Moreover, while some states implemented tax reductions for low-income working families in 2009 (usually enacted before the recession), progress has since ground to a halt because of state budget problems. In fact, some states have enacted or are considering reductions in tax credits for low-income working families, according to a companion report.
"States' budget challenges are real, but so are the challenges that hard-working families are facing in today's tough economy," said Nicholas Johnson, director of the Center's State Fiscal Project. "States have better ways to balance their budgets than to make their tax codes tougher on low-income workers."
Some States Tax Families Well Below Poverty Line
The report found that in tax year 2009:
-- In 13 of the 42 states that levy income taxes, two-parent families of
four with incomes below the federal poverty line are liable for income
tax;
-- In 11 states, poor single-parent families of three pay income tax;
-- And 25 states impose income tax on families of four just above the
poverty line.
These findings are based on the poverty line for 2009: $21,947 for a family of four and $17,102 for a family of three. While families below the poverty line don't pay state income tax in most states, they do pay other taxes such as sales, gas, excise, and property taxes.
Some states levy income tax on working families in severe poverty. For example, Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Montana, and Ohio tax two-parent families of four earning less than three-quarters of the poverty line ($16,460).
In some states, poor families face several hundred dollars in income tax. In 2009, for example, a two-parent family of four with income at the poverty line owed $468 in Alabama, $266 in Hawaii, and $225 in Montana, according to the report.
Recession Threatens Recent Progress
The number of states levying income tax on working-poor families of four declined from 16 in 2008 to 13 in 2009; the taxes levied by those remaining 13 states also declined. But in the face of state budget problems, this progress has ground to a halt and some states have recently taken steps to cut back their credits, according to the companion report. For example:
-- Virginia enacted a cut to its EITC that would raise taxes by $6
million on an estimated 114,000 low-income working families. (This
cut might be reversed before it takes effect.)
-- Minnesota cut back a renters' credit affecting 300,000 low- and
moderate-income households and eliminated a gas tax credit.
-- Georgia is considering eliminating $22 million in wage support for 1
million workers earning less than $20,000 per year.
Similar measures have been proposed in New Jersey, the District of Columbia, and Montgomery County, Maryland.
Raising taxes on low-income working families is not the best option for raising state revenue, the report explains. Some states are considering such measures alongside proposals to cut taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations, which likely would neither strengthen the economy nor create jobs. States would be better off maintaining their low-income tax credits -- which families spend quickly and locally, giving the economy a needed boost -- while canceling other tax cuts and raising new revenue from higher-income families and profitable corporations.
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Showing posts with label working poor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label working poor. Show all posts
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Obama's First 50 Days: Devastating to Taxpayers
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) released a taxpayer timeline of President Obama's first 50 days in office:
January 20: The Dow opens at 8,279.63. Obama is inaugurated. The Dow falls 330 points.
January 26: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is confirmed despite his tax problems.
February 2: In order to ensure "What happens in Chicago, stays in Chicago" by preventing corruption and kickbacks arising from the "stimulus" bill, ATR asks each Member of Congress planning to vote for the bill to sign a statement promising that they, their family, and the members of their staff will not personally benefit from the bill. All refuse.
February 3: Health & Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination due to tax problems. Chief Performance Officer-designate Nancy Killefer withdraws her nomination due to tax problems.
February 4: On the sixteenth day of his presidency, Obama breaks one of the central promises of his campaign by singing into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack, to take effect April 1. Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would never raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year, for example:
"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes"
(September 12, 2008, Dover, NH -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U )
This tax increase will fall squarely on the shoulders of the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on: 55 percent of smokers are "working poor," one in four smokers live below the poverty line, and on average, smokers, whose median income is a little more than $36,000 make about 30 percent less than non-smokers.
February 9: Obama holds his first press conference, during which he calls for massive government spending increases. He fails to provide a single historical example where a government increased spending which led to increased jobs, income, and wealth on any sustainable basis. Obama also has the audacity to claim the "stimulus" plan is free of pet projects and earmarks:
"What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
Responding to a reporter's question as to what specific metric the American people should use to determine whether Obama's programs are working, Obama replies:
"I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs."
How, exactly, does one measure a "saved" job? (See March 4 for details)
During the press conference, Obama builds expectations about the next day's planned announcement by Treasury Secretary Geithner.
February 10: Instead of presenting the promised specific plan, Geithner instead offers vague statements and echoes FDR's economically paralyzing "bold, persistent experimentation" philosophy with this gem:
"We will have to adapt our program as conditions change. We will have to try things we've never tried before. We will make mistakes. We will go through periods in which things get worse and progress is uneven or interrupted."
The Dow falls 380 points.
February 12, sometime around 10:00 PM: The "Stimulus" conference report is completed behind closed doors. Less than sixteen hours pass before the bill is taken up by the House.
Friday, February 13
2:24 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the House passes the conference report for H.R.1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."
5:29 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the Senate passes the conference report for H.R. 1.
The Dow falls 82 points.
February 17: Obama signs the "Stimulus" bill and violates his pledge to the American people that he will allow legislation to be posted online for five full days before signing it. The stimulus bill was posted for only four days, not five.
"No more secrecy. ... when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you, the American voter, will have five days to look online and find out what it is before I sign it, so that you know what your government's doing."
(June 22, 2007. Manchester, New Hampshire, http://tinyurl.com/dl2wog)
The Dow falls 293 points.
February 24: Obama makes his first address to a joint session of Congress and claims he doesn't believe in "bigger government." Obama also says he is proud that "we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks."
February 25: The first trading day after Obama's address, the Dow drops 78 points.
February 26: Obama releases his budget outline which raises taxes on individuals, small businesses, capital gains, dividends, and foreign source profits of corporations while eliminating several energy tax credits.
The budget also calls for a "cap and trade" regime which makes an absolute mockery of Obama's central campaign promise not to raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year.
Obama also shatters his campaign promise to enact net spending cuts during his administration:
"So we're going to have to make some investments but we've also got to make spending cuts, and what I've proposed -- you'll hear Senator McCain say 'he's proposing a whole bunch of new spending' -- but, actually, I'm cutting more than I'm spending. So that it will be a net spending cut."
(Oct. 7, 2008. Second Presidential Debate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM0Eri8VWiw)
The Dow drops 86 points.
March 1: The Obama administration foreshadows another broken promise when Peter Orszag, appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, claims the 8,000 earmarks in the 2009 Omnibus are "last year's business. We just need to move on."
To say the least, this is not consistent with Obama's campaign promises on earmarks and "change":
"And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."
(Oct. 14, 2008. First Presidential Debate)
March 3: Obama compares the stock market to a political daily tracking poll:
"The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day-to-day," Obama said. "And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong."
Obama also indicates to union leaders he will sign "card check" legislation.
The Dow drops 38 points.
March 4: While testifying before the Senate, Treasury Secretary Geithner is challenged by Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) as to the invention by the Obama administration of a new metric -- "creating or saving" jobs -- the very same metric Obama claimed on Feb. 9 is the most important measure of success:
"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong. If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs," Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."
March 4: CNN visits the site of the first "stimulus" dollars to hit the ground: A $8.5 million bridge serving the town of Tuscumbia, Missouri - population 223.
March 5: While testifying before the House, Treasury Secretary Geithner concedes Obama's budget raises taxes on small businesses, but focuses on a meaningless metric: the percentage of small businesses affected rather than the fact that two-thirds of small business profits will be subject to higher taxation.
The Dow falls 279 points.
March 9: The Dow closes at 6,547.05. From Inauguration Day to March 9, the Dow is down 1,732.58, a 21 percent drop.
-----
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January 20: The Dow opens at 8,279.63. Obama is inaugurated. The Dow falls 330 points.
January 26: Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is confirmed despite his tax problems.
February 2: In order to ensure "What happens in Chicago, stays in Chicago" by preventing corruption and kickbacks arising from the "stimulus" bill, ATR asks each Member of Congress planning to vote for the bill to sign a statement promising that they, their family, and the members of their staff will not personally benefit from the bill. All refuse.
February 3: Health & Human Services Secretary-designate Tom Daschle withdraws his nomination due to tax problems. Chief Performance Officer-designate Nancy Killefer withdraws her nomination due to tax problems.
February 4: On the sixteenth day of his presidency, Obama breaks one of the central promises of his campaign by singing into law a 156 percent increase in the federal excise tax on tobacco, a hike of 61 cents per pack, to take effect April 1. Obama promised repeatedly on the campaign trail that he would never raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year, for example:
"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes"
(September 12, 2008, Dover, NH -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8erePM8V5U )
This tax increase will fall squarely on the shoulders of the middle- and low-income Americans Obama said he would not raise taxes on: 55 percent of smokers are "working poor," one in four smokers live below the poverty line, and on average, smokers, whose median income is a little more than $36,000 make about 30 percent less than non-smokers.
February 9: Obama holds his first press conference, during which he calls for massive government spending increases. He fails to provide a single historical example where a government increased spending which led to increased jobs, income, and wealth on any sustainable basis. Obama also has the audacity to claim the "stimulus" plan is free of pet projects and earmarks:
"What it does not contain, however, is a single pet project, not a single earmark, and it has been stripped of the projects members of both parties found most objectionable."
Responding to a reporter's question as to what specific metric the American people should use to determine whether Obama's programs are working, Obama replies:
"I think my initial measure of success is creating or saving 4 million jobs."
How, exactly, does one measure a "saved" job? (See March 4 for details)
During the press conference, Obama builds expectations about the next day's planned announcement by Treasury Secretary Geithner.
February 10: Instead of presenting the promised specific plan, Geithner instead offers vague statements and echoes FDR's economically paralyzing "bold, persistent experimentation" philosophy with this gem:
"We will have to adapt our program as conditions change. We will have to try things we've never tried before. We will make mistakes. We will go through periods in which things get worse and progress is uneven or interrupted."
The Dow falls 380 points.
February 12, sometime around 10:00 PM: The "Stimulus" conference report is completed behind closed doors. Less than sixteen hours pass before the bill is taken up by the House.
Friday, February 13
2:24 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the House passes the conference report for H.R.1, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009."
5:29 PM: With not a single Member voting for the bill having claimed to have actually read it, the Senate passes the conference report for H.R. 1.
The Dow falls 82 points.
February 17: Obama signs the "Stimulus" bill and violates his pledge to the American people that he will allow legislation to be posted online for five full days before signing it. The stimulus bill was posted for only four days, not five.
"No more secrecy. ... when there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you, the American voter, will have five days to look online and find out what it is before I sign it, so that you know what your government's doing."
(June 22, 2007. Manchester, New Hampshire, http://tinyurl.com/dl2wog)
The Dow falls 293 points.
February 24: Obama makes his first address to a joint session of Congress and claims he doesn't believe in "bigger government." Obama also says he is proud that "we passed the recovery plan free of earmarks."
February 25: The first trading day after Obama's address, the Dow drops 78 points.
February 26: Obama releases his budget outline which raises taxes on individuals, small businesses, capital gains, dividends, and foreign source profits of corporations while eliminating several energy tax credits.
The budget also calls for a "cap and trade" regime which makes an absolute mockery of Obama's central campaign promise not to raise any form of taxes on those making less than $250,000 per year.
Obama also shatters his campaign promise to enact net spending cuts during his administration:
"So we're going to have to make some investments but we've also got to make spending cuts, and what I've proposed -- you'll hear Senator McCain say 'he's proposing a whole bunch of new spending' -- but, actually, I'm cutting more than I'm spending. So that it will be a net spending cut."
(Oct. 7, 2008. Second Presidential Debate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM0Eri8VWiw)
The Dow drops 86 points.
March 1: The Obama administration foreshadows another broken promise when Peter Orszag, appearing on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, claims the 8,000 earmarks in the 2009 Omnibus are "last year's business. We just need to move on."
To say the least, this is not consistent with Obama's campaign promises on earmarks and "change":
"And, absolutely, we need earmark reform. And when I'm president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely."
(Oct. 14, 2008. First Presidential Debate)
March 3: Obama compares the stock market to a political daily tracking poll:
"The stock market is sort of like a tracking poll in politics. It bobs up and down day-to-day," Obama said. "And if you spend all your time worrying about that, then you're probably going to get the long-term strategy wrong."
Obama also indicates to union leaders he will sign "card check" legislation.
The Dow drops 38 points.
March 4: While testifying before the Senate, Treasury Secretary Geithner is challenged by Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) as to the invention by the Obama administration of a new metric -- "creating or saving" jobs -- the very same metric Obama claimed on Feb. 9 is the most important measure of success:
"You created a situation where you cannot be wrong. If the economy loses 2 million jobs over the next few years, you can say yes, but it would've lost 5.5 million jobs. If we create a million jobs, you can say, well, it would have lost 2.5 million jobs," Baucus said. "You've given yourself complete leverage where you cannot be wrong, because you can take any scenario and make yourself look correct."
March 4: CNN visits the site of the first "stimulus" dollars to hit the ground: A $8.5 million bridge serving the town of Tuscumbia, Missouri - population 223.
March 5: While testifying before the House, Treasury Secretary Geithner concedes Obama's budget raises taxes on small businesses, but focuses on a meaningless metric: the percentage of small businesses affected rather than the fact that two-thirds of small business profits will be subject to higher taxation.
The Dow falls 279 points.
March 9: The Dow closes at 6,547.05. From Inauguration Day to March 9, the Dow is down 1,732.58, a 21 percent drop.
-----
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