
Tax & Budgets
How political trifectas can affect your tax bill
November 28, 2022 | Ryan Maness
When one party controls both the legislative chamber and the executive (known as a political trifecta) they can have a marked impact on state lawmaking and that is particularly true when it comes to fiscal policy. Using a decade’s worth of data we found that an adage that we at MultiState regularly propound hold up: tax politics trumps tax policy. When state policymakers are all under the same political banner, the legislative process is smoothed and more changes cross the finish line, regardless of their revenue impact. It also seems clear that, at least for this period of time, the two parties lived up to their general fiscal reputations: Democrats were more likely to raise revenues and Republicans were more likely to cut them. But the delta between the two parties with respect to tax hikes was much larger than it was with respect to tax cuts.