Taxation
From an interesting blog called Pension Risk Matters: Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is investigating “alleged abuses of the state pension fund” at school district, town and village levels. External contractors may be costing Empire State taxpayers a bundle in the form of “undeserved” retirement benefits. (See “Cuomo expanding pension probe,” April 14, 2008.) The TimesUnion…
So proud of this little snippet from a Providence Business News piece is Patrick Crowley that he’s mentioned it multiple times: But what about the rest of us? After all, nearly 50% (48.7%) of the returns filed were for incomes BELOW $30,000 a year. And while this group pays 4% of the state’s income tax…
In a leave-no-stone-unturned search for more revenue, the Massachusetts legislature has ordered a study of the implementation of a 2.5% “annual assessment” on college and university endowments which exceed $1 billion. Nine Massachusetts institutions of higher learning would be affected by what would be a first of its kind assessment. Glenn Beck points out the…
For almost thirty years, lucky Massachusetts has had Proposition Two and a Half. But it can be overridden by voters on the local level. On Sunday, Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr highlighted some justifications offered to elicit “yes” votes in advance of Brookline’s override ballot two days ago. A snooty editorial writer for a local…
Saul Hansell of the New York Times reports on a challenge to the state of New York’s attempt to extend its tax reach that is likely to have a big impact on the future of the Internet…Before the ink on the bill has even dried, Amazon.com has filed a suit challenging New York State’s new…
Senator Stephen Alves (D – West Warwick) has proposed a graduated tax on gross corporate revenue. Moving swiftly (because, obviously, Senator Alves did also) past Rhode Island’s already repellent corporate tax climate and the fact that the budget crisis will not be solved by raising taxes of any sort, by the senator’s own numbers, a…
At the Taubman Center panel on the Rhode Island budget crisis I attended at Brown University a few weeks ago, several members of the audience attempted to attribute at least part of the state deficit to Federal cut-backs in domestic spending forced by the costs of fighting in the Iraqi theater in the War on…
The Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council (RIPEC) makes a point that ought to be raised every time the progressives put forward data purporting to illustrate the lack of effect of recent tax cuts: Estimating that taxpayers already are kicking in an average of 12.3 percent of their income to finance state and local government, the…
I’ve been meaning to note — for its sheer shock power — a chart of Rhode Island’s state budget since 1950. Stunning. I’d say there’s room to trim, don’t you think?
It was one thing when Representative Art Handy (D, Cranston) decried the injustice of the little known diaper-service tax shelter during his testimony supporting his Economic Death and Dismemberment Act. We could at least give him the benefit of the doubt that he was speaking extemporaneously. But he apparently liked the image so much that…