by Ashley Muchow Pew Center on the States and the Public Policy Institute of Californiareleased a comprehensive study this morning zoning in on the public’s opinion of state fiscal management. The study, Facing Facts: Public Attitudes and Fiscal Realities in Five Stressed States, polled residents from five fiscally distressed states: California, Arizona, Florida, New York, and our very...

by Amanda Griffin-Johnson As the debate over whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts continues, Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center adds some much needed perspective by comparing the size of the tax cuts to the amount of spending over the next decade. In The American, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. de...

Apparently Bill Gates, Sr. is not smarter than a 5th grader because he seems to think the correct answer is 74.  Mr. Gates is advocating for a progressive income tax increase in Washington state.  He has put $500,000 of his own money into the initiative campaign to impose this tax on the people of Washington. That data...

by Ashley Muchow Arthur Laffer addressed a core issue regarding the economic impact of state income taxes in the WSJ today. Laffer addressed the often ignored negative impact income taxes have on state economies. Illinois’s personal income per capita decreased from 133 percent of the U.S. prior to its 1969 income tax levy,  to just 106 percent...

by Wesley Fox Like many states, Illinois faces severe budget problems resulting from the economic recession.  Illinois’s budget problems are made worse by the massive cost of its Medicaid program.  According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, Medicaid represents approximately 30% of the Illinois budget. Only two other states (Maine and Missouri) commit more of their...

by Amanda Griffin-Johnson Over the weekend, unions in France protested pension reform plans, which include raising the retirement age from 60 to 62. The reforms are an effort to maintain France’s AAA credit rating and limit the growing public debt. But the reforms are rubbing some the wrong way. Reuters reports: The unions and the left-wing opposition say the...