Kiplinger reports that business are expected "to mount pitched battles to defeat" TABOR-esque spending tax cap initiatives in Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and Oregon. In fact, there's a concerted effort forming in Oklahoma that is actually being lead by business groups. The Chairman of Tulsa's Chamber of Commerce was even quoted as saying that TABOR would be a "train wreck" for Oklahoma.

Alaskan voters approved an initiative to increase tax revenues by charging a $50 "cruise tax". In the wake of Alaska's recent troubles with oil revenues, it's no surprise that voters decided to bolster public coffers and stabilize long-term revenue with an additional tax source. It appears that voters took a lesson from their recent oil revenue troubles: diversity is good.

The all-important first step towards an equitable property tax is figuring out how much each home and business is actually worth. To do this perfectly, a tax assessor would need to visually inspect the inside and outside of every home... which, of course, no one actually does. But as a recent New York Times article notes, governments from Philadelphia to Florida are now relying on computerized aerial images (taken from a small plane) to detect changes in the outside appearance of homes and businesses. A Philadelphia tax administrator notes that the computerized system, which costs the city about $100,000 a year, "probably paid for itself within about two weeks." Assessment by low-flying planes may seem intrusive, but at the end of the day this is how the property tax is supposed to work. This approach is in stark contrast to the head-in-the-sand approach to property tax administration proposed by Alabama Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lucy Baxley, who has proposed ending the annual reassessment of Alabama homes.

Once again, the public is learning that tax funded corporate economic incentives don't really work. In Oregon, right after Georgia-Pacific received a property tax break that will amount to $15 million over 15 years, the company turned around and announced that it was laying off 130 workers. Chuck Sheketoff over at the Oregon Center for Public Policy puts it the best, "[i]t's payoffs for layoffs". On the other side of the country, AAA Mid-Atlantic demanded that Delaware grant the company tax incentives if the state wanted them to move there. The twist? AAA Mid-Atlantic already made the decision to move to Delaware before they demanded the tax incentives - Delaware simply paid AAA Mid-Atlantic to do something it was already going to do. For a more in-depth analysis of AAA Mid-Atlantic's scheme, check out this report by New Jersey Policy Perspectives.

United Vision for Idaho Report

Property tax is a major issue in Idaho. One proposal put forward by the Governor would repeal one property tax levy and increase the sales tax. On August 25, a special session of the Idaho Legislature will consider Governor Risch's proposal, which would result in a net tax increase for most Idaho families.

A New York Times article reports that for many homeowners, property taxes are growing much faster than income. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine blames this trend on the property tax being "imposed without any regard to income or ability to pay." This isn't quite true, of course: a well-administered property tax will be based on a homeowner's actual home value, which is a decent, if imperfect, measure of ability to pay for most people. And for lower-income families, an income-sensitive circuit-breaker credit can make the property tax even more responsive to ability to pay considerations. Unfortunately, state lawmakers typically respond to rising property values by freezing or capping assessed values, which further warps the relationship between property taxes and ability to pay. A gubernatorial candidate in Alabama wants to put an end to a recently adopted reform requiring annual reassessment of properties, and at least one county in South Carolina has taken the step of throwing out the results of its most recent reassessment. The likely outcome of this misguided tax deform is a tax shift away from homes that are appreciating rapidly and toward homes whose values are stagnant or declining. Facing a localized home-value boom of its own, Mississippi policymakers are discussing imposing another, equally misguided approach: capping the allowable annual growth in homeowner property taxes. Find out more about why tax caps are counterproductive here.

While the governor of Tennessee, Bill Bredeson, stumps to promote the state's ongoing sales tax holiday as a means of reducing the state's taxes, his Republican gubernatorial opponent, Jim Bryson, is discussing more permanent changes in tax policy. Bryson correctly asserts that abolishing the regressive food tax would bring more lasting relief, but he offers no replacement revenue source. As Tennessee is already a low-tax state, a new source of revenue must take the place of the regressive food tax if it is abolished. To read more on the food tax and options for revenue replacement, click here.

Sales tax holidays are growing in popularity this year with four more states, Alabama, Maryland, Tennessee and Virginia, joining nine others and the District of Columbia in waiving sales and use taxes for a limited time during July and August. To see a list of participating states and tax holiday dates, click here.

As ITEP staff told USA Today earlier this week, "This tax break makes sense for lawmakers because it's cheap and avoids real reform." State legislatures claim that tax holidays alleviate the tax burden on working families and jump-start local retail businesses. In reality, however, sales tax holidays are a political gimmick that probably helps consumers less than proponents claim.

Philadelphia mayoral candidate Michael Nutter has a plan to make his city more competitive: sweeping tax cuts. The former city councilman has made the repeal of the Business Privilege Tax (BPT) the centerpiece of his campaign. There is just one problem... eliminating the BPT will leave a $109 million hole in the municipal budget and could potentially make the city more unattractive to businesses. Not surprisingly, Nutter has failed to explain how his tax cut will impact city services. Ben Waxman, ITEP's summer intern and Philadelphia-native, takes on Nutter's proposal in an op-ed published in the Philadelphia Citypaper.