View Research by Author - Kim Rueben

Kim Rueben is an expert on state and local public finance and the economics of education. Her research examines state and local tax policy, fiscal institutions, state and local budgets, issues of education finance and teacher labor markets. Current projects include work on state budget shortfalls, financing options for California, the fiscal health of cities and examining higher education tax credits and grants. In addition to her position at TPC, Rueben is an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) and a member of the Strategic Planning Group of the Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER).

Prior to joining the Urban Institute, Rueben was a research fellow at the PPIC. She has served as an adjunct professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, a visiting scholar at the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, and a member of the executive board of the American Education Finance Association.

Publications

In a contribution to the New York Times' Room for Debate, Kim Rueben argues if the tax rate for marijuana is too high, people will continue to buy weed from the guy on the street. However, setting the tax rate too low leaves revenue on the table and use might boom.

This document reviews several notable tax proposals in President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2014 Budget. These include a 28 percent limit on certain tax expenditures, a cap on tax preferences for retirement savers with high balances, a minimum tax ("Buffett Rule") on high-income taxpayers, alternative incentives for infrastructure investment, and a new measure of inflation ("chained CPI") for indexing tax parameters.

Kim Rueben's testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on federal tax reform and what it means for the tax and fiscal policies of states.

Gas prices have increased substantially since the beginning of this year, continuing their upward trend since 1990. American drivers are pushing the federal and state governments to implement policies to lower gas prices. But gasoline taxes have not contributed to the increase in gas prices. Rather than bringing pump prices down, lowering gasoline taxes or having gas tax holidays will mostly shift gasoline purchases across state lines or encourage people to fuel up during the gas tax holidays. Such proposals will siphon away revenues from already cash-strapped states and do little to help consumers and the economy.

Gas prices have increased substantially since the beginning of this year, continuing their upward trend since 1990. American drivers are pushing the federal and state governments to implement policies to lower gas prices. But gasoline taxes have not contributed to the increase in gas prices. Rather than bringing pump prices down, lowering gasoline taxes or having gas tax holidays will mostly shift gasoline purchases across state lines or encourage people to fuel up during the gas tax holidays. Such proposals will siphon away revenues from already cash-strapped states and do little to help consumers and the economy.

Urban Institute scholars from diverse disciplines tackle a simple-to-state, hard-to-answer question: How can solutions to our national and state budget crises fit the facts about children in the United States? In their responses, the contributors wrestle with recent and approaching economic and demographic challenges in different ways and bring very different experiences to bear.

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of California's initiative process. In 1911, California famously adopted the direct initiative process and ballot box decision-making has become almost as synonymous with the Golden State as beaches, hi-tech innovation, and Hollywood. While 75% of voters in California still see direct initiatives as a good thing, a similar percentage thinks it could use some tweaking. In honor of the anniversary, Zócalo Public Square garnered commentary on the initiative process.

President Obama's 2012 Budget contains a number of tax provisions that would cut taxes for low- and middle-income households and raise taxes on wealthier taxpayers. This resource guide describes the tax proposals, offers more detailed commentary on key provisions, and links to tables showing the distributional effects of the overall proposal and various elements of the plan.

The March edition of the Program on Retirement Policy's video series features Kim Rueben, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, explaining the reality of a typical state pension, how states are talking about reforming pensions, and the risks posed to the economic security of new, veteran, and retired state employees, as well as states themselves.

The current economic downturn has resulted in a sharp decline in state tax revenues. Forty-six states faced budget shortfalls when passing their fiscal year (FY) 2011 budgets, and 17 states reported shortfalls of more than 20 percent. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, in tandem with budget cuts, 40 states enacted legislation to raise tax revenues in some form between fiscal years 2009 and 2011.

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