Taxation
Liberals and progressives and those further out on the left assure me that government spending is what it is because of hard economic and social realities, certainly not because the machinery of government has self-serving incentives to spend everything given to it, then demand more! more! more! If that’s true, somebody explain to me how…
Assessing monies collected by state and local governments, the Rhode Island Public Expenditures Council ranks Rhode Island 7th in the United States in “state and local taxes collected per $1,000 of personal income”, but 26th in “state and local tax collections, charges and miscellaneous general revenues per $1,000 of personal income”. To some, the meaning…
There’s that learning curve again. Amidst all of the things that I’ve had to learn as a homeowner (not including carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and so on), it took me until today to realize an important part of my town’s tax structure: In addition to my annual property tax bill for the Town of Tiverton, I…
A few weeks back, Justin observed that the single biggest factor retarding fiscal and economic reform in Rhode Island may be the “but what can we do?” attitude of learned helplessness prevalent in Rhode Island’s legislature and municipal councils. Members of the But-What-Can-We-Do Caucus profess that they are powerless to do anything but raise taxes…
In discussing an Ohio proposal to exempt military pensions from the state income tax, the Toledo Blade names Rhode Island as one of only five states imposing an income tax on military pensions…With one of its members now on military duty and another about to return to Iraq, [the Ohio House] suddenly fast-tracked a proposal…
Ian Donnis points to the Campaign for Rhode Island’s Priorities, who are going to “call on the Governor to bring close scrutiny to Rhode Island’s hidden budget of expensive tax expenditures!” More on that in a minute, but first a quick aside: Ian doesn’t think we at AR pay enough attention to “corporate welfare.” Well,…
Rep. Charles Rangel (D, NY), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is looking to overhaul the current tax system. He’s got all sorts of ideas, summarized in this story (or this PDF summary), but I just want to point out to one portion: Middle and upper-middle income families would benefit under the plan…
Poverty Institute Executive Director Kate Brewster says the solution to the budget crunch is higher taxes, not cutting the budget: • Restore the tax on long-term capital gains and freeze the “alternative flat tax,” both of which primarily benefit a handful of very wealthy taxpayers, many of whom are not even Rhode Island residents. There is…
Chris Edwards at CATO illustrates how Americans currently share the tax burden (h/t). First, the shiny graph: Then Edwards’ analysis: 1990 was before the Clinton tax increases of 1993. 2000 was after the modest tax cuts of 1997, but before the Bush tax cuts of 2001. 2005 was with the Bush tax cuts in place.…
