Taxation
Even if you’ve disagreed with everything I’ve ever written, take a moment to ponder the thinking on display in this Kathy Gregg article. It’s about a study from the left-wing Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy finding that Rhode Island places a high tax burden on lower-income families. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
Offered entirely tongue in cheek…I think…….Anyway, it looks like Governor Patrick is going to propose a series of tax hikes that could end up making Rhode Island look good in comparison (shhhhh, don’t tell anyone!): According to Boston.com, Patrick listed possible revenue sources including: Raising the gas tax from 21 cents to 51 cents per…
I’m going through all legislation as it’s introduced to the Rhode Island General Assembly, and the Center for Freedom & Prosperity will be putting out a real-time Freedom Index — essentially a watch list — in a couple of weeks. That’ll have the collection of good and bad within the think tank’s scope. Card check?…
Most legislation introduced into the General Assembly comes with a brief summary that appears with references to the bill — most visibly on the various pages of the legislature’s Web site. Sometimes the descriptions are misleading; sometimes they’re just confusing. (Usually, they’re pretty good, assuming one understands the lingo of policy.) Today, Representatives Thomas Winfield…
It seems the RI Republicans in the State House might be finally stumbling on to an idea they can hang their hats on. Eliminating the state sales tax. Granted, it’s one that they may be simply saying “me too” on as the RI Center for Freedom and Prosperity suggested this back in June. However, that’s…
Marc Comtois highlights another fascinating glimpse into the reasoning behind policy ideas that he and I agree are, well, in error. I’m speaking of this paragraph from Slate’s Matthew Yglesias: … I’m especially enthusiastic about the mortgage part. Suppose homeowners in expensive coastal cities couldn’t deduct their mortgage interest, what would happen? Well, what would…
As Michael Barone points out, historically, no matter the tax rate, tax receipts have almost never eclipsed 20% of GDP. The only time they did (20.5%) was in 2000 just before the dotcom bubble burst. Here’s the chart: Source: Economic Report of the President 2012, Appendix B, Table B-79, p. 412. As Barone explains: In…
Threats to the economy (cliffs and debts); RI lagging again (yawn); dependors and dependees; Social Security a problem; and a civil right to the war zone frat party. Continue reading on the Ocean State Current…
“[W]e’ve got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes. Well, if you’ve got a kid that’s extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker. But Government has never reduced. Government does not tax to get the money…
Mainly on government’s bad incentives: bad housing spending in Providence, unlearnable spending lessons for the governor, stimulus corruption, and Medicaid reform. Continue reading the Ocean State Current…