Business & Economics
Business & Economics
A dishonest debate on VAT
The debate over a national sales tax, or value-added tax (VAT), to tackle the country’s deficit and debt problems is becoming fiercer as we approach the fall election. Unfortunately, the facts are becoming more obscure, and the narrow scope within which a VAT makes sense is being lost. This should ...
Commentary
Mass. health meltdown is your future
New York Post, May 25, 2010 The future of US medicine under ObamaCare is already on display in Massachusetts. The top four health insurers there just posted first-quarter losses of more than $150 million. Most of them blamed the state’s decision to keep premiums at last year’s levels for individual ...
Business & Economics
Lessons from Lorena
Vol. 14 No. 06: June 1, 2010 Lessons from Lorena By Sally C. Pipes, President and CEO, Pacific Research Institute As Contrarian readers know from my 2008 column on Billy Jean King, my game is tennis, not golf. I greatly admire, however, those who achieve success in that difficult sport, ...
Business & Economics
Grab that redevelopment cash
SACRAMENTO Few things are more ironic, and infuriatingly funny, than listening to California’s notoriously ham-fisted redevelopment agencies complain about the state’s “theft” of redevelopment funds. Last week, California cities had to comply with a Sacramento Superior Court judge’s ruling requiring them to make the first of two payments transferring a ...
Business & Economics
State IT Plan Should Help Silicon Valley and Respect Taxpayers
Historically, California officials have struggled to manage effectively the state’s massive, decentralized $3 billion IT (information technology) network. In recent years, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has used the state’s IT Strategic Plan as a guiding document to streamline operations, improve efficiencies and accountability across dozens of state agencies. The motive is ...
Business & Economics
Washington needs spending reform, not just tax reform
Washingtonians are struggling with unemployment and a sluggish economic recovery. In these conditions, it’s worth understanding how tax policies in Olympia are hurting a state the recession has hit particularly hard. Washington’s unemployment rate, which stood at 9.5 percent in March, has increased or remained the same every month since ...
Business & Economics
Taxifornia reaps what it sows
Orange County Register, May 12, 2010 If you prefer as little tax burden as possible, you will cringe to learn that California ranks in a tie for last place with South Carolina and New York. But if you delight in the idea of government taxing people for every dime it ...
Business & Economics
Transparency, consistency in lobbying needed
As Illinois struggles with deficits and a failing economy, it is critical to understand the behind-the-scenes lobbying that fuels the state’s political decision-making. That calls for more transparency in Springfield, but on this issue, Illinois’ record is decidedly mixed. According to State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers, a recent study that examines ...
Business & Economics
Sunset In Taxifornia?
Deficits: We’ve been hard on Arnold Schwarzenegger in recent months, but we’re foursquare behind the California governor in his effort to balance the state’s budget without raising taxes. The Golden State’s $18.6 billion budget deficit, the nation’s largest, is the result of uncontrolled spending by the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature — ...
Business & Economics
Largest, smallest tax burdens
California is tied for last place on yet another study of how and what states tax. The report, “Taxifornia,” is part of the California Prosperity Project by the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market advocacy group. Here are the five least burdensome states, based on a 10-point scale (10 is best): ...
A dishonest debate on VAT
The debate over a national sales tax, or value-added tax (VAT), to tackle the country’s deficit and debt problems is becoming fiercer as we approach the fall election. Unfortunately, the facts are becoming more obscure, and the narrow scope within which a VAT makes sense is being lost. This should ...
Mass. health meltdown is your future
New York Post, May 25, 2010 The future of US medicine under ObamaCare is already on display in Massachusetts. The top four health insurers there just posted first-quarter losses of more than $150 million. Most of them blamed the state’s decision to keep premiums at last year’s levels for individual ...
Lessons from Lorena
Vol. 14 No. 06: June 1, 2010 Lessons from Lorena By Sally C. Pipes, President and CEO, Pacific Research Institute As Contrarian readers know from my 2008 column on Billy Jean King, my game is tennis, not golf. I greatly admire, however, those who achieve success in that difficult sport, ...
Grab that redevelopment cash
SACRAMENTO Few things are more ironic, and infuriatingly funny, than listening to California’s notoriously ham-fisted redevelopment agencies complain about the state’s “theft” of redevelopment funds. Last week, California cities had to comply with a Sacramento Superior Court judge’s ruling requiring them to make the first of two payments transferring a ...
State IT Plan Should Help Silicon Valley and Respect Taxpayers
Historically, California officials have struggled to manage effectively the state’s massive, decentralized $3 billion IT (information technology) network. In recent years, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has used the state’s IT Strategic Plan as a guiding document to streamline operations, improve efficiencies and accountability across dozens of state agencies. The motive is ...
Washington needs spending reform, not just tax reform
Washingtonians are struggling with unemployment and a sluggish economic recovery. In these conditions, it’s worth understanding how tax policies in Olympia are hurting a state the recession has hit particularly hard. Washington’s unemployment rate, which stood at 9.5 percent in March, has increased or remained the same every month since ...
Taxifornia reaps what it sows
Orange County Register, May 12, 2010 If you prefer as little tax burden as possible, you will cringe to learn that California ranks in a tie for last place with South Carolina and New York. But if you delight in the idea of government taxing people for every dime it ...
Transparency, consistency in lobbying needed
As Illinois struggles with deficits and a failing economy, it is critical to understand the behind-the-scenes lobbying that fuels the state’s political decision-making. That calls for more transparency in Springfield, but on this issue, Illinois’ record is decidedly mixed. According to State-Level Lobbying and Taxpayers, a recent study that examines ...
Sunset In Taxifornia?
Deficits: We’ve been hard on Arnold Schwarzenegger in recent months, but we’re foursquare behind the California governor in his effort to balance the state’s budget without raising taxes. The Golden State’s $18.6 billion budget deficit, the nation’s largest, is the result of uncontrolled spending by the state’s Democrat-controlled legislature — ...
Largest, smallest tax burdens
California is tied for last place on yet another study of how and what states tax. The report, “Taxifornia,” is part of the California Prosperity Project by the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market advocacy group. Here are the five least burdensome states, based on a 10-point scale (10 is best): ...
