In March 2013, Wyoming became the 44th state to legalize the operation of a state lottery. Lottery sales across all states totaled nearly $69 billion in 2012, with profits of more than $19 billion. Most states use at least some of that revenue to fund education and 17 states mandate that revenue be used exclusively for this purpose.

Cigarette taxes are a means both to raise state revenue and to discourage the use of tobacco. Cigarette taxes range significantly across states, as does the amount of revenue collected on such taxes. Revenues from state taxes on tobacco totaled more than $17 billion in 2012, representing 2.2 percent of all state tax revenue. 

While the economy has slowly started to rebound and state fiscal positions are getting stronger, high unemployment rates stubbornly remain and state leaders are still struggling to find ways to bring jobs to their states. According to a new Stateline article, states are once again turning to big incentive packages to either retain or lure companies into their states. In addition, states are experimenting with other creative solutions - such as work share - to help usher recovery in to a still-fragile economy.

Stateline Midwest ~ June 2013

Every Midwestern state offers property tax breaks to certain disabled veterans, though the scope and amount of these credits and exemptions vary.

Stateline Midwest ~ June 2013

When Wisconsinites went to the polls in 1908, they had tax reform on their minds. The existing state revenue system was perceived by many as being unfair, and reformers, including former Gov. Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, had been calling for change for years. And so, by a margin of better than two-to-one, voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that paved the way for the nation’s first modern state income tax.

A century later, the Wisconsin income tax stands out as a landmark in the evolution of state revenue systems, but the idea of taxing earnings was not new at the time. 

On a previous blog post I took a look at a Washington Post article that highlighted how arguments across state legislatures are heating when it comes to how best to spend surplus revenue due to the recent rebound in state revenue levels. It was noted that Republican-leaning states tended to use the surplus to cut taxes while Democrat-leaning states tended to use the surplus for social welfare benefits like education. This new Stateline article picks up where that Washington Post article left off and details how some of these states are going about their business. 

According to CoreLogic’s recent negative equity report, in the first quarter of 2013, 9.7 million or 19.8% of all residential properties with a mortgage were still underwater, or in negative equity.

The Tax Foundation recently released an analysis of state beer excise tax rates from 2009-January 2013.