Taxation
I think it’s pretty clear, from Ed Fitzpatrick’s Tuesday column that the Deepwater deal has put Republican general treasurer candidate Kerry King in an awkward position, but a tangential parenthetical from Fitzpatrick offers unfortunate indication that the tax-change scheme has succeeded in accomplishing one thing while saying another: King, a retired life-insurance executive, began an…
Arthur Laffer asks a good question: “Whoever heard of a country taxing itself into prosperity?” When President Kennedy cut the highest income tax rate to 70% from 91%, revenues also rose. Income tax receipts from the top 1% of income earners rose to 1.9% of GDP in 1968 from 1.3% in 1960. Even when Presidents…
This intra-conservative debate in East Providence points to one of those issues that tends to slide under residents’ awareness: [Mayor Joseph] Larisa is now trying to solidify tax limits by putting language into the city’s Home Rule Charter. Charter amendments have to be approved by voters in a referendum, while ordinances are approved — and…
Randy Barnett has been following litigation in response to the individual mandate of the healthcare legislation that the Democrats rammed through Congress. Noting that the Obama administration’s reliance on a claim of Congress’s taxation power proves that arguments against the legislation’s claims of Commerce Clause authority were never “frivolous,” Barnett explains that the law, itself,…
A while back, I pointed out (see the addendum) that what looked, at first, to be an economic improvement — the increased percentage of wealthy people in Rhode Island — turned out to be evidence of the contrary. The percentage improved because the non-wealthy left the state in such great numbers while the decreasing flat…
As first reported by the Boston Herald: Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I. Isabel – Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two…
Having followed the work of Providence Journal reporter Neil Downing for years, now, I’m confident that it was not a deliberate omission, but I can’t help but wonder why a particular factor contributing to economic malaise didn’t make it into his recent article about unemployment: In the current recession — which began in late 2007,…
The New York Times is the latest to bring attention to the “maverick” independent campaign for governor being run by Lincoln Chafee, specifically highlighting his call for an increase–and broadening–of the state sales tax. [Chafee] would seek to eliminate a series of exemptions to the state’s sales tax, effectively raising the cost of food, clothing…
We keep hearing about the horrible prospect that Massachusetts is going to steal Rhode Island’s gambling revenue if we don’t win the race to build our own full-scale casinos, but what do you suppose would be the consequence, for RI, were the voters of MA to implement this? The initiative would reduce the sales tax…
Unless Congress and President Obama take action, the so-called Bush tax cuts will expire at the end of the year. Despite the rhetoric, it ain’t just “the rich” who will be affected, folks. Here are a couple of the expiring cuts that will affect us “working class” people. 1) The tax brackets will go up…