Budges and Taxes

Closing budget deficits is not always the optimal fiscal policy in the short term  or the medium term. Instead, budgets should simply be seen as a tool with which to boost living standards. Sometimes policy needs to move the budget toward a deficit to achieve this; at other times, the budget needs to be moved closer to a balance or surplus.

Reducing budget deficits is too often presented as a key budgetary challenge. Defining fiscal policy this way in the present economic environment, however, is simply bad economic analysis. Instead, the most pressing economic task should be viewed as finally securing a durable return to genuine full employment.

Publications

Women in Maryland Pay More in Taxes as a Share of Their Incomes

  • December 1, 2015
  • Mark Scott

Because women in Maryland typically earn less than men, they are more likely to pay a higher percentage of their household income in state and local taxes. The state’s highest-income households – more likely to be headed by men – pay a lower percentage of their yearly earnings in state and local taxes compared to middle-class and low-income households, which are more likely to be headed by women.

Women in Maryland, on average, earn more than their counterparts in all but one other state. Yet for every dollar women in Maryland earn, men on average earn 13 cents more—a pay gap that leaves households headed by women thousands of dollars behind those headed by men. This means that the more than 1.4 million female workers in Maryland (49 percent of the workforce) tend to shoulder a larger burden than men do when it comes to supporting our schools, the construction of our roads, and other services.

Maryland’s Poor Taxed More Than Rich; Communities of Color Feel Biggest Pinch

The state’s highest income households pay the lowest percentage of their yearly earnings in state and local taxes compared to middle-class and low-income households. Residents struggling the most to make ends meet — Maryland’s poor and minorities — also are being taxed to a greater extent than the wealthiest. This unfortunate reality reinforces both economic and racial inequalities in Maryland and policymakers should correct it. All Marylander’s should pay their fair share to support our schools, public safety and other services we all benefit from.

Low- and moderate-income taxpayers — those making less than $67,000 and who are more likely to be people of color – pay the highest share of their household incomes in state and local taxes. The top 1 percent of Maryland taxpayers  — those making more than $481,000 — are more likely to be white and pay the lowest share of their household income in state and local taxes. The result: a racially imbalanced tax structure.