Arizona

In Washington, Gov. Bob Ferguson and lawmakers decided to stop fooling around with one of the nation’s most upside-down tax codes and finally brought to life a new millionaires’ tax, the first new income tax created in a state since 1991.

As many state legislative sessions near or cross the halfway point, lawmakers are facing tough choices.

State lawmakers are grappling with a range of challenges as their fiscal outlooks deteriorate, federal tax enforcement wanes (after the Trump administration cut the IRS workforce by 25 percent), and a rewritten federal tax code sends states scrambling to decide what changes they might want to make in their own codes.

Despite wintry conditions across much of the country, that hasn’t stopped state lawmakers from debating major tax policy changes.

Most states are adopting a very cautious approach so far this year as legislators begin their sessions and governors make their annual addresses, thanks to ongoing economic uncertainty and federal retrenchment.

State governors are beginning to lay out their top priorities as legislatures reconvene in statehouses around the country.

An unknown number of workers who previously were assumed to be ineligible for the tax break may nonetheless claim it.

Lawmakers in two more states have wisely said “no thank you” to federal tax cuts that would have flowed through to their state tax codes and undermined funding for their priorities

Despite being an off-year election, voters made a call for shared public investments at the polls.