A progressive think tank has found that America’s wealthiest citizens aren’t just benefiting from the federal tax cuts passed in Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act this past summer, but also from tax giveaways offered by Republican-run states.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a new analysis on Thursday showing that five states—Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma—have enacted income tax cuts this year for families earning over $1 million per year. These cuts are projected to collectively reduce their state governments’ revenues by $2.2 billion per year once fully implemented.
The two biggest tax cuts for the wealthy came in Mississippi and Oklahoma, both of which have voted to phase out their state income taxes over several years. Once fully repealed, ITEP estimates millionaires in these states will pay $130,000 less per year in state income taxes.
ITEP also challenged Republican claims that these tax cuts benefit “working families,” showing that GOP policies overwhelmingly favor the wealthy.
“The average millionaire tax cut is more than 50 times the size of the average cut for non-millionaires in each of the five states included in this report,” the think tank noted. “In Mississippi and Ohio, the average tax cuts for millionaires are over 100 times the size of those for non-millionaires.”
The group found Missouri’s tax cuts particularly egregious in benefiting millionaires. As reported by the Missouri Independent, Missouri lawmakers made their state the first in the nation to eliminate taxes on capital gains over the summer, which is estimated to slash state revenues by more than $100 million annually.
According to ITEP, this capital gains tax cut is projected to deliver an average annual benefit of $43,000 to Missouri families making over $1 million per year, compared to just an $80 average annual benefit for non-millionaire households in the state.
Aidan Davis, ITEP’s state policy director, expressed dismay at how much these state governments are willing to give their wealthiest residents despite facing significant budget cuts to crucial programs such as Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), both of which support low-income Americans.
“These tax cuts are not only fiscally reckless but also deeply inequitable,” Davis explained. “At a time when state budgets are under immense pressure, it’s indefensible to hand millionaires five- and six-figure annual tax cuts while too many families struggle to afford the basics.”
Dylan Grundman O’Neill, senior analyst at ITEP, argued that these states’ policies “double down on inequality” and “prioritize millionaires while putting critical services like education, healthcare, and infrastructure at risk for everyone else.”
https://www.rawstory.com/tax-cuts-2674206606/