In October 2003, California experienced record-breaking wildfires. The devastation from this catastrophic disaster was pervasive and staggering. The raging fires instantly turned several thousand homes and businesses together with the everyday and precious stuff of life into ashes. Thousands of...

Immigrants toil in sweatshops for torturously long days at sub-minimum wages, which may or may not be paid, with little meaningful recourse. Immigrant workers with and without authorization to work in the United States are disproportionately represented among the lowest earners. The average wage...

The Brookings Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute have collaborated in a study analyzing the shift of earned income tax credit (EITC) benefits away from the working poor, their families and neighborhoods. The study determined that approximately $1.75 billion of the $30 billion in 1999...

Conditions are ripe for harvesting tax benefits provided to private owners of forest land. As our exploding population paves more paradise, government agencies provide economic incentives to motivate private landowners to engage in conservation activities. With real estate values escalating to...

#BlackTaxpayersMatterThe world has witnessed the brutal suffocation of George Floyd on a concrete sidewalk in Minneapolis. While this is but one more example of centuries of relentless violence against Black people, many are hoping that this tragic death might be a catalyst for meaningful...

Certain federal, state, and local government employees do not pay into the Social Security system, but rather pay into alternative government pension plans. For purposes of the Social Security Act, where a worker pays into an alternative government pension plan, the worker’s employment...

Few economic indicators have more salience and pervasive financial impact on everyday lives in the United States than poverty measures. Nevertheless, policymakers, researchers, advocates, and legislators generally do not understand the details of poverty measure mechanics. These detailed...

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” Rep. John Robert Lewis (1940-2020)It seems fitting that the civil rights movement was born in the district that John Robert Lewis represented in Congress for 34 years until his death on July 17. In the 1960s,...

While the aggregate tax system is mildly progressive, state and local tax systems are notably regressive. The lowest 95 percent of all income earners pay on average a higher percent of their income in state and local taxes than their share of aggregate income. By comparison, the top 5 percent of...

Despite this phenomenal success and the Biden administration’s strong support, a divided Congress narrowly failed to extend these enhancements to 2022. The adverse impact was immediate. The January 2022 monthly child poverty rate increased by more than 40 percent to 17 percent in January 2022,...