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State Tax Issues

Check The Fiscal Link for all the latest news from the states!

Publications and Reports on Tax Issues

Not all publications are available freely to the public. Call NCSL's book department to order.

Periodic Reports and Updates

• State Tax Actions, yearly; with a preliminary report released at the Legislative Summit.
• State Budget Update, two or three times annually.
• Rankings of Major State and State-Local Revenues and Expenditures, per Capita and per $100 of Personal Income.
• Pensions and Retirement Plan Enactments, yearly.

Other Reports

• State Budget and Tax Actions 2008: Preliminary Report (July 2008)
• State Tax Actions 2007 (May 2008)
• State Tax Collections, 2000 to 2007, quarterly: a chart summarizing changes in state tax collections and indicating the effect the national recession and subsequent recovery had on state tax collections in those years.
• Fiscal Analysis Careers in State Legislatures: a video from NALFO provides an inside look at the challenging and rewarding work of the legislative fiscal analysis, fall 2007.
• Real Estate Transfer Taxes, October 2007.
• State Tax and Expenditure Limits, September 2007.
• Texas-Style Tax Cut. State Legislatures magazine, April 2007.
• Property Tax Relief for Veterans. LegisBrief. March 2007.
• State Lodging Taxes. Legisbrief. January 2007.
• State Tax Incentives for Film Production. January 2007.
• Local Option Taxes (2006)
• State Energy Revenues Update: State Severance Taxes, 2007.
• Two States Enact Property Tax Swaps, June 2006.
• Coloradans Reach Their Limit with Tabor. State Legislatures, January 2006.
• Piecing Together the State-Tribal Tax Puzzle: States and tribes puzzle out state sales and income taxes. March 2005.
• State Tax Study Commissions
• Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Retirement Plans. This short summary of defined benefit and defined contribution plans was prepared as a short introduction to the issues for a legislative committee in February 2005. Further details on the issues presented here are available from the author.
• New Realities in State Finance: Executive Summary (April 2004)
• TABOR talking points (March 2004).
• Supermajority Requirements to Raise Taxes (September 2003).
• Tax Policy Handbook for State Legislators: Executive Summary (public) and (for constituents) the entire book in pdf (April 2003).
• A Guide to Property Taxes: A Primer, Property Tax Relief, and The Role of Property Taxes in State and Local Finance.
• Securitization of Tobacco Settlement Revenue, 2003.
• Dedicated State Tax Revenues: A Fifty-State Report (a Philip Morris and Fiscal Planning Services, Inc. publication; June 2000).
• State and Local Tax Collections, from State Policy Reports, 2001.
• The Appropriate Role of User Fees in State and Local Finance (Foundation Fiscal Partners, July 1999).
• State Tax Refund Trigger Mechanisms.
• Which States Require a Supermajority Vote to Raise Taxes?.
• Is the global economy leaving state-local tax structures behind?
• State Tax Policy Implications: Roth Versus Traditional IRAs, 1999.
• Constitutional Provisions Requiring a House of Origin for Revenue Bills, 1999
• State and Local Value-Based Taxes on Motor Vehicles (1998).
• Critical Issues in State-Local Fiscal Policy: A Guide to Local Option Taxes: Executive Summary (Foundation Fiscal Partners).
• Principles of a High Quality State Revenue System (Foundation Fiscal Partners). Fourth edition, 2001, updated June 2007.

Projects on Tax Issues