As proposals emerge to meet the Governor’s goal of a 40% decrease in revenue generated from property taxes, let’s be clear that sales taxes are the most regressive tax category.
In the latest edition of Who Pays?, the only distributional analysis of tax systems in all 50 states, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that low-wage families in Nebraska pay almost five times more as a share of their income in sales and excise taxes than the best-off families. Low-wage families may pay a larger share of their income in property taxes than top wage earners, but the difference is only 2.5 times.
