state tax notes - Tax Analysts

State Tax News and Analysis
• State aid to cities and towns would be cut by 6
percent — about $66 million. The cuts would be
offset by various steps, including implementation
of a single, statewide healthcare contract
for all state and municipal workers and elimination
of the requirement to have monitors on
school buses.
• A worker covered under a state or municipal
employee pension plan in Rhode Island would
be required to attain the age of 59 before being
eligible for a pension. Currently, most workers
generally may begin drawing a pension at a
younger age under some conditions, he said.
• Annual cost-of-living increases for state and
municipal employee pension plans in Rhode
Island would be eliminated. Most of those plans
currently boost benefits by 3 percent a year
once a retiree has been collecting benefits for
three years, he said. (This provision would not
affect those already retired.)
• All new public employees would be required to
take part in a 401(k)-style retirement savings
plan, instead of the traditional pension plan.
Carcieri also said that his tax policy group ‘‘in a
few weeks’’ will submit its recommendations to
make the state more economically competitive. ‘‘We
need to lower our tax burden, especially on business,’’
Carcieri said.
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Washington
Initiative Would Lower Property
Taxes
by Dave Wasson, Spokane
Veteran Washington initiative promoter Tim
Eyman wants to cap tax revenue growth to the rate
of inflation each year and require that any excess
amounts collected by state and local governments be
used to lower property tax bills.
Eyman filed his proposal, which he calls the
Lower Property Taxes Initiative, with the Office of
the Secretary of State on January 5. He’ll have to
collect the signatures of more than 241,000 registered
Washington voters by July to get the measure
onto the November ballot.
‘‘The Lower Property Taxes Initiative doesn’t reduce
the size of government; it ensures that government
grows at an affordable, sustainable, votercontrolled
rate and dedicates excess revenue toward
lowering our state’s crushing property tax burden,’’
Eyman said.
Under the plan, growth in state and local general
fund budgets from taxes and fees would be limited to
the rate of inflation. Any excess revenue collected
beyond the inflation cap would have to be used to
lower property taxes in the following year.
Critics say the measure is shortsighted and fails
to take into account numerous variables such as
population increases.
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(C) Tax Analysts 2009. All rights reserved. Tax Analysts does not claim copyright in any public domain or third party content.
90 State Tax Notes, January 12, 2009