Taxes

Tax Expenditures Imposed on Local Governments

With regard to tax expenditures, I think it is important that the legislature review and reconsider the many tax expenditures it has imposed on local governments.  Millions of local tax dollars are lost as a result of the huge local property tax breaks private golf courses and public utilities receive.  For example, the Oakley Country …

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Progress on Controlling Special Interest Tax Breaks

Many citizens would welcome lower taxes, but most also question the effectiveness of special tax breaks for particular groups or industries. Special tax breaks tend to encourage crony capitalism by placing the government in the position of picking winners and losers in the economy. Fortunately, we have recently started to make some progress towards bringing special interest tax breaks under better control.

Off Topic – How’d the national debt get so huge?

Interesting study – see the original document (quick read, 8 pages, simple-to-understand, good graphics) at: http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Fact_Sheets/Economic_Policy/drivers_federal_debt_since_2001.pdf How’d the national debt get so huge? In 2001, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that the nation’s publicly-held debt would be eliminated by 2006, and a surplus of $2.3 trillion would have accumulated by now. Instead, the federal government is now …

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An exchange about policy on economic growth

I left David Chase and Jim Sloman know that I liked this article on pro-growth economic policies and asked for their comments and they had the exchange reproduced below. As a state representative, I focus on matters of state policy and especially on those matters of state policy where there is some potential for action. …

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