United for a Fair Economy to Release Flip It to Fix It:
An Immediate, Fair Solution to State Budget Shortfalls,
Documents Current Regressive State Tax Structures

MEDIA ADVISORY for May 25, 2011

Contact: Shannon Moriarty, [log in to unmask],
(617) 423-2148 ext. 108

Report: Invert State Tax Structures To Eliminate State
Budget Deficits

Boston, MA (May 23, 2011): A new study has found that
inverting state and local tax structures--whereby the
highest income earners would be taxed at the current
percentage of income for the lowest income earners and
vice versa (so that taxes for the bottom 60 percent of
households would be reduced or unchanged) -- would
collectively raise $32.5 billion in new state and local
revenue for Illinois (a 56.2 percent increase in public
revenue), immediately eliminating state and local
budget deficits and avoiding the serious consequences
of budget cuts.

The report, titled "Flip It to Fix It: An Immediate,
Fair Solution to State Budget Shortfalls" will be
released on Wednesday, May 25, 2011 by Boston-based
United for a Fair Economy. An embargoed summary of the
key findings is available at www.faireconomy.org/flipitreport.

"Flip It to Fix It" attributes a large part of states'
current deficits to the regressive tax structures that
the report shows are designed to fail. "Trying to raise
adequate revenue through a regressive tax
structure--where a greater percent of income is demanded
of the poor than the well-off--is like trying to squeeze
water from a stone," said Karen Kraut, coordinator of
state tax policy at United for a Fair Economy and
co-author of the report.

"The inadequacy of regressive tax structures puts
everything we value at risk: the wellbeing of families,
the future competitiveness of the American workforce,
and the nation's ability to rebound from the recession
and prosper," said Kraut.

The report builds on the fact that most Americans
believe that states tax systems are already equitable
in the way that can be achieved by inverting state tax
structures. The report contends that the inverted tax
structure best spurs steady and strong economic
activity.

The report--available for download at
http://www.faireconomy.org/flipitreport on Wednesday,
May 25th--calls on states to adopt its proposed
non-regressive tax reforms which are immediately
achievable to eliminate most states' budget deficits.

An embargoed summary of the report is now available at
http://www.faireconomy.org/flipitreport. The full
report will be released on Wednesday, May 25, 2011.

The authors of the study and other state tax fairness
advocates will be available for interviews starting
Wednesday, May 25, 2011. Video testimonies will also be
available at www.faireconomy.org.

United for a Fair Economy is a national, independent,
nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located
in Boston, Massachusetts, that works to promote
economic justice by supporting social movements for
greater equality. Learn more at www.faireconomy.org.

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