Extending Trump tax law would benefit wealthy most 

At the top of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2025 agenda is renewing the 2017 tax cuts that skewed heavily toward the wealthiest Americans and most profitable corporations. A new analysis from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy shows national and state-by-state estimates for how different income groups would be affected:

Trump’s plan to make most of the temporary provisions of his 2017 tax law permanent would disproportionately benefit the richest Americans. This includes all major provisions except the $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local taxes (SALT) paid which Trump has indicated he would not extend. This plan would also be expensive. The resulting impact would be $466 billion in the first year alone. You can read more about these effects and the rest of the 2025 federal tax debate here.

Extending the 2017 provisions would result in the poorest Louisianans receiving an average tax cut of $80, middle-income households receiving an average cut of $830 and the wealthiest 1% receiving an average cut of $70,660. View ITEP’s full estimates for Louisiana here.

Good news on college tuition

For decades, many states put the responsibility of funding higher education on the backs of students and families through tuition and fee increases. But new research shows that the cost of attending public universities in the United States is decreasing. The AP’s Nick Perry and Cheyanne Mumphrey report: 

Figures compiled by the nonprofit College Board indicate the average student attending an in-state public university this year faces a tuition bill of $11,610, which is down 4% from a decade earlier when taking inflation into account. But the real savings come in what the average student actually pays after getting grants and financial aid. That’s down 40% over the decade, from $4,140 to $2,480 annually, according to the data. 

How vouchers harm public schools

States across the country, including Louisiana, are rapidly expanding universal school vouchers. These programs allow families, regardless of income, to use public tax dollars to homeschool their children or send them to private schools. While the biggest cost of universal vouchers stems from families who already have children in private schools, these programs still lead to students leaving public schools. But the fixed costs of running public schools do not decrease when taxpayer dollars “follow the child” to a private school. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute explains the consequences of siphoning money out of public school systems: 

Fixed costs, such as building electricity or utilities, do not automatically fall when student enrollment declines. As a result, when total revenue declines, districts are stuck paying more per pupil for costs they can’t adjust. All the downward adjustment that occurs when enrollment is reduced must be absorbed by variable costs, which fall even on a per-pupil basis. The fiscal externality is the per-pupil funds each district would require to maintain the same level of variable cost spending for remaining public school students due to voucher programs. This cost is entirely borne by state and local education budgets and leaves districts unable to deliver the same level of instruction to the remaining public school pupils.

Proven solutions to solving homelessness

Last year, homelessness in America reached its highest level on record since data began being collected in 2007. Rising rent and homeowners insurance premiums have the potential to exacerbate this disturbing trend in future years. Anna Bailey of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains how federal policymakers can help solve the problem:  

Federal policymakers should at least maintain existing assistance levels in the face of proposed cuts and reject cruel and ineffective policy proposals. Better yet, they should enact reforms to make rental assistance work better for tenants and expand rental assistance, building toward a rental assistance guarantee, to bridge the gap too many renters experience between their incomes and rent costs.

Number of the Day

5% – Percentage increase in real annual earnings for the bottom 90% of workers from 2019-2023. (Source: Economic Policy Institute)