Taxation
Ed Achorn points out today that the tax hikes on income and gross business receipts passed by Michigan’s Governor and legislature have backfired in a couple of ways. In a state already battered by the decline of the auto industry, the tax hike left Michigan with an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent, high above the…
Under Marc’s post “Lima Gives some budget hints”, commenter Ken says: there appears to be a proposal made by NEA Walsh to GA to sell RI Lottery gaming futures netting a supposed ESTIMATED $4-4.4 billion This idea is a complete non-starter. First and principally, it is the end of the line when an entity, government…
Dr. David Savitski, a child psychiatrist, was part of a group of East Siders that met with House Majority Leader Gordon Fox to ask that he raise “their” (that would be “our”) taxes so that state services to “our most vulnerable citizens” aren’t cut. John DePetro–taking a cue from Bob Kerr’s column–had Savitski on the…
The Newport Daily News has the most thorough explanation of the outcome of Tiverton’s Financial Town Meeting that I’ve seen: More than 800 voters packed Tiverton’s reconvened financial town meeting Wednesday night and approved a slightly amended budget of $41.7 million for fiscal 2009. Voters also approved a tax-levy override of $1.6 million, which will…
Well, my first financial town meeting is about to begin. As if knowingly, the woman at the rapidly moving G-L registration line stamped my admittance arrow to the right. (Or perhaps it was a sly political statement from her perspective.) If you’re coming, wear your walking shoes: Of course, you get to go right by…
WPRO’s Matt Allen, in the last hour of his show yesterday, reported that at the Tiverton financial town meeting last week, a woman stood up to urge that the budget cuts be reconsidered, thereby at least tacitly (and perhaps overtly) expressing support for the 11% tax increase proposed by Tiverton’s solons. Her suggestion was not…
The Congressional Budget Office has released a new report, “Data on the Distribution of Federal Taxes and Household Income,” which covers 1979-2005. Here’s the “money graph”: Here’s an explanation, including: CBO’s analysis of effective tax rates assumes that households bear the burden of the taxes that they pay directly, such as individual income taxes (including…
Life kept me away from Tiverton’s Financial Town Meeting, Wednesday night, although to be honest, I suspected that I would have been one of the few not falling into line in response to town official arguments such as the following: … since Mr. Cotta and other officials said that legally the school budget cannot be…
While RI politicians continue to avoid dealing constructively and aggressively with the structural problems underlying the state’s financial crisis, some of our neighbors in Massachusetts are heading in the completely opposite direction. Yes, in the state formerly known as Taxachusetts, a band of activist citizens are pushing for a statewide vote to eliminate the state…
A few important considerations are missing from Tom Sgouros’s comment of his “review” of state tax revenue statistics: I was reviewing some statistics about state tax revenues last week, and looked at business taxes. Along with the income tax and sales tax, business taxes were once the third important leg of funding state operations, but…