There’s a story today about the removal from the ballot of one of two referendum questions concerning our public school district. (The story rightly describes this as a ‘pause.’) See, Whitewater referendum ‘paused’. I’ve written about a referendum approved in August for Whitewater’s public schools. The first question of two authorized for the November ballot…
Taxes/Taxation
Government Spending, Politics, Taxes/Taxation
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Next Wisconsin Governor Faces Big Deficit
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a story on Wisconsin’s difficult fiscal situation entitled, Next Wisconsin governor faces big deficit. The story has detail and analysis of all three major party candidates’ (Barrett, Walker, Neumann) views. Here’s a summary from the story: The gubernatorial candidates have unveiled plans to deal with a $2.7 billion projected shortfall…
Official Misconduct, Taxes/Taxation
Los Angeles Times: 41 White House Aides Owe $831,000 in Back Taxes – And They’re Not Alone
by JOHN ADAMS •
Apologists of big government wonder why there’s a gap between governors and the governed, why voters are dissatisfied. It’s because some bureaucrats behave as though the normal relationship is between rulers and ruled, and governors and governed. Dozens of White House aides owe a total of eight-hundred thousand dollars in back taxes. Nationally, federal workers…
Taxes/Taxation, Weird Tales
La Crosse Tribune: Romanian Senators Reject Tax on Witches and Fortune Tellers
by JOHN ADAMS •
The rejected legislation was contradictory: it called for both taxes on income from fortune-telling and liability for wrong predictions. Liability for wrong predictions would put fortune tellers out of business, so there’d soon be no income to tax. (If witches’ predictions were really any good, they’d be using those supposed powers in a field with…
City, Government Spending, Politics, Poverty, Taxes/Taxation
Dockside Inspections, a Lost Decade, and Municipal Obstructionism
by JOHN ADAMS •
Years ago, in the 80s, when trade with Japan was controversial, Americans leveled legitimate criticisms about how Japan used dockside inspections of cargo as a way to prevent importation of foreign goods. The regulations were often small, and although rational individually, they were collectively irrational and counter-productive. By inhibiting free trade, Japan’s insidious protectionism actually…
Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
CSI Walworth County Sunday Editorial: The Growing American Divide
by JOHN ADAMS •
As fears grow that the economy is sputtering into a double-dip recession, it has become all but impossible to overstate the extent of the disconnect that now exists between the public and private sectors. While the latter remains crippled by high unemployment, tight credit, onerous taxation and consumer belt-tightening, the former feasts happily on its…
City, Government Spending, School District, Taxes/Taxation, University
Calls for Public Spending in a Small Town
by JOHN ADAMS •
There are, I think, two principal ways that a government spending proposal in a small town succeeds. (There are more than two ways, but here I’m simply considering principal ways.) The first way is how all spending proposals should be considered — on the merits. Is it necessary to tax for a public purpose, and…
Economy, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
Bury Keynesian Voodoo Before It Can Bury Us All: Kevin Hassett
by JOHN ADAMS •
If the economy is in deep trouble, there are two economic policy steps that one could take in order to create a positive stimulus: reduce tax rates, or spend more money. (The so-called tax cuts in the 2009 stimulus had little effect because they were primarily credits and deductions, rather than reductions in marginal rates.)…
City, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
The Whitewater, Wisconsin City Manager’s Unpersuasive Lament
by JOHN ADAMS •
I read, each week, the Weekly Report from Whitewater’s City Manager, Kevin Brunner. The August 13th issue has clippings that Brunner chose to include from news stories and columns published elsewhere. Brunner included one from New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Here’s the clipping Brunner included: Krugman States Anti-Government Movement Hurting “Basic Government Functions.” Paul…
Economy, Taxes/Taxation
Analyst: Odds of Double Dip Recession Higher Than 50-50
by JOHN ADAMS •
I have no way of calculating the likelihood of another recession. More meaningfully, and without any predictions, one can see that present conditions are already hard for millions of unemployed Americans. It’s telling that no major analyst seems to be predicting better times soon. We can assure a return of better times sooner, however, if…
Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
JOHN STOSSEL: Memo to Alan Greenspan — Zip It
by JOHN ADAMS •
….[Greenspan] says he supported the 2001 cuts because of pending budget surpluses, but now that huge deficits loom, new revenues are needed. Why? Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation says that since the cuts, “The rich are now shouldering even more of the income tax burden.” The deficit has grown not because we are undertaxed…
Economy, Government Spending, Taxes/Taxation
Krugman Is Wrong on Ryan and the CBO – McArdle @ The Atlantic
by JOHN ADAMS •
Laws/Regulations, Taxes/Taxation
Applying So-Called Sin Taxes Sensibly
by JOHN ADAMS •
In a recent column at Bloomberg, Amity Shlaes writes that not all sin taxes, taxes on supposedly harmful behaviors, are applied to best revenue-generating effect. Shlaes is author of the excellent The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. She finds that Franklin Roosevelt understood the best way to implement a ‘sin’ tax…