This policy brief offers a framework for analyzing state tax changes affecting low-income working families from 2002 to 2006. This timeframe encompasses the difficult choices states faced in the latest recession and the years just beyond as state revenues recovered. Lessons learned about how state tax policy choices affected low-income families during and immediately after the recession can help states refine their choices in the future. States often raise taxes during recessions, and depending on the design, those tax increases can fall hard on lower-income families. Policymakers may be particularly concerned with tax increases affecting low-income working families during times of fiscal stress because budgets for programs that assist these families are often cut at the same time (Rivlin 2002). One reason that recessions can have such a substantial effect on state taxes and spending is that every state except Vermont has some sort of balanced budget requirement.