State GOP Law­mak­ers Move To Slice Tax­es While Dems Raise Theirs

State Repub­li­can law­mak­ers across the coun­try are intro­duc­ing and cod­i­fy­ing leg­is­la­tion to cut tax­es and ease gov­ern­ment spend­ing.

Since the Novem­ber elec­tion, state Repub­li­cans have slashed income tax­es, relieved prop­er­ty tax­es and estab­lished reforms in an attempt to save tax­pay­ers mon­ey. In con­trast, some blue state Democ­rats are advanc­ing leg­is­la­tion that will raise prop­er­ty tax­es and fees for res­i­dents.

Sta­tis­tics released by the Repub­li­can State Lead­er­ship Com­mit­tee (RSLC) and shared with the Dai­ly Caller News Foun­da­tion via email show GOP gov­er­nors in Geor­gia, Ida­ho, Mis­sis­sip­pi and Utah have signed tax leg­is­la­tion into law. Fur­ther­more, Repub­li­can leg­is­la­tors in Min­neso­ta, Mis­souri and South Car­oli­na have tak­en steps in propos­ing bud­gets and plans to cut tax­es. (RELATED: GOP Lead­ers Pledge Mas­sive Spend­ing Cuts As House Advances Trump Agen­da) 

States with Demo­c­ra­t­ic-con­trolled leg­is­la­tures such as Mary­land and Wash­ing­ton are dis­cussing leg­is­la­tion that would increase tax­es. In Virginia’s case, Repub­li­can Vir­ginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin attempt­ed to pass a tax cut and Demo­c­ra­t­ic law­mak­ers turned it down in favor of less com­pre­hen­sive cuts.

“State Repub­li­cans nation­wide are tak­ing strong steps to ease the eco­nom­ic pres­sures fac­ing work­ing-class fam­i­lies. In con­trast, state Democ­rats have stood against Repub­li­cans at every oppor­tu­ni­ty, even vot­ing for tax increas­es in some regions,” Mason Di Pal­ma, RSLC Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Direc­tor said in an email. “It’s becom­ing increas­ing­ly clear to Amer­i­cans which par­ty gen­uine­ly cham­pi­ons the inter­ests of the work­ing class.”

Tax­es Low­ered

Repub­li­can Ida­ho Gov. Brad Lit­tle signed the largest income tax cut in the Gem State’s his­to­ry, slic­ing $253 mil­lion in tax­es for Ida­hoans. Lit­tle was ini­tial­ly con­cerned about the tax cut decreas­ing state rev­enue lat­er this year, but decid­ed to move for­ward with House Bill 40, low­er­ing the income tax rate from rough­ly 5.7% to 5.3%.

Sim­i­lar­ly, Repub­li­can Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed House Bill 106 which will result in $127 mil­lion in tax reduc­tions, knock­ing the rate down from 4.55% to 4.5%.  The bill also takes vital steps in expand­ing the child tax cred­it, mod­i­fy­ing the leg­is­la­tion to include tax­pay­ers with chil­dren under five years old to claim the non­re­fund­able cred­it. Non­re­fund­able cor­po­rate and indi­vid­ual income tax cred­its will also be avail­able for employ­er-pro­vid­ed child­care.

Mean­while, Repub­li­can Mis­sis­sip­pi Gov. Tate Reeves signed leg­is­la­tion to grad­u­al­ly phase out indi­vid­ual income tax­es in his state. By 2030, House Bill 1 will chop the indi­vid­ual income tax rate to 3% and will con­tin­ue low­er­ing the rate annu­al­ly until it is ful­ly elim­i­nat­ed. The bill how­ev­er does have one caveat; sales tax on gro­ceries will fall from 7% to 5% as of July 1, but gaso­line tax­es will be increased through 2027.

Geor­gia Gov. Bri­an Kemp signed House Bill 1015 last spring, accel­er­at­ing the largest state income tax cut pack­age in the Peach State’s his­to­ry which can save Geor­gia tax­pay­ers an esti­mat­ed $3 bil­lion over the next ten years. The bill builds upon House Bill 1437 which sought to low­er the 2025 tax rate from 5.49%, allow­ing the tax rate to now fall to 5.39%. Much like Utah, Geor­gia is also see­ing depen­dent-relat­ed tax relief through House Bill 1021 which allows each tax­pay­er to deduct $4,000 per depen­dent rather than the cur­rent $3,000 per depen­dent.

Repub­li­cans in the Min­neso­ta Sen­ate intro­duced a plan in March to elim­i­nate $600 mil­lion in “waste­ful or unnec­es­sary spend­ing” which would include gut­ting state rail­way projects, nonci­t­i­zen health ser­vices and gov­ern­ment reforms. The trans­porta­tion projects — which were encour­aged and fund­ed under Demo­c­ra­t­ic Gov. Tim Walz’s pro­posed bud­get — account for rough­ly $250 mil­lion in waste with non-cit­i­zen fund­ing equat­ing to about $348 mil­lion.

Also in March, the South Car­oli­na House passed a bud­get that will cut some of the state’s most heav­i­ly taxed peo­ple from a rate of 6.2% to 3.99% with the even­tu­al goal of flat­ten­ing the income tax rate at 2.49%. The flat­tened rate, although might take years to take hold, would mean three out of four tax­pay­ers would pay less than they cur­rent­ly do. The bud­get also pro­vides sig­nif­i­cant­ly more funds for state employ­ees, infra­struc­ture and edu­ca­tion, and also increas­es the base teach­ing salary to $48,500.

“We want to enact the Trump agen­da in South Car­oli­na,” said Repub­li­can state Rep. Jor­dan Pace, leader of the state House Free­dom Cau­cus. The bill now awaits a vote by the South Car­oli­na Sen­ate.

In ear­ly April, the Mis­souri House vot­ed to move a bill for­ward to the Sen­ate in an attempt to cut $1 bil­lion in tax­es. The bill would make tax cred­its for con­tri­bu­tions to dia­per banks, mater­ni­ty homes and preg­nan­cy resource cen­ters match the full con­tri­bu­tion com­pared to the pri­or 50–70% of the con­tri­bu­tion. It would also allow for the Mis­souri stan­dard deduc­tion to be the same as the fed­er­al stan­dard deduc­tion plus $4,000. For fed­er­al income tax pur­pos­es, the bill would autho­rize income tax deduc­tions for 100% of all income labeled as cap­i­tal gain. A Sen­ate hear­ing for the bill is yet to be sched­uled.

In Virginia’s case, Repub­li­can Gov. Glenn Youngkin made pro­pos­als to cut tax­es and phase out the unpop­u­lar car tax cred­it but was rebuffed by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic House and Sen­ate in favor of more tar­get­ed, less inten­sive tax relief. Virginia’s law­mak­ers instead green lit a $1 bil­lion tax rebate for qual­i­fy­ing Vir­gini­ans, set­ting indi­vid­ual fil­ers to receive $200 and mar­ried fil­ers $400. The Old Domin­ion state will also see an increase in their stan­dard deduc­tion- although not quite the amount Youngkin was push­ing — bring­ing indi­vid­ual fil­ers to $8,750 and mar­ried fil­ers at $17,500.

Tax­es Raised

Maryland’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­trolled leg­is­la­ture passed a $67 bil­lion bud­get in ear­ly April that will raise tax­es and fees by $1.6 bil­lion. The bud­get includes a 3% tax on infor­ma­tion and tech­nol­o­gy ser­vices with an excep­tion for quan­tum com­put­ing in Col­lege Park and also places a 2% tax on cap­i­tal gains for those earn­ing over $350,000 a year. Democ­rats will also be imple­ment­ing tax­es on recre­ation­al cannabis and sports wager­ing.

Wash­ing­ton, which also has a Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­trolled leg­is­la­ture, is cur­rent­ly dis­cussing leg­is­la­tion to raise prop­er­ty tax­es with the inten­tion of pro­vid­ing more fund­ing for schools and ser­vices. Due to the tax hike, home­own­ers and land­lords would face increased tax bills, poten­tial­ly harm­ing renters if land­lords choose to raise prices to match inflat­ing prop­er­ty tax­es.

How­ev­er, the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty does not see this as a ben­e­fi­cial way to raise rev­enue; in an email to KOMO News, the group said the bill would triple growth on prop­er­ty tax­es.

“With­out a doubt, if this prop­er­ty tax goes into effect, many will be forced to fore­close on their homes,” the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty told the news out­let.

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