Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| The History of Farm Bill Spending In 2010, 10 percent of farms received 74 percent of all subsidies... |
| Trend No. 1: "Millionaires' Taxes" Some states have been more willing to raise income taxes by designing the increase to affect only a small subset of high-income earners... |
| Private Fix for Public Parks California was scheduled to close 70 of its 278 state parks starting July 1; 46 will now remain open due to the fundraising efforts of municipalities, private donors and nonprofits... |
| Trend No. 2: Income Tax Reform If targeted deductions, credits and exclusions are avoided, substantial revenue can be raised with low tax rates... |
| Trend No. 3: Corporate Tax Reductions In 1979, state corporate income taxes made up 4.9 percent of total state tax revenue; that number dropped to just 2.6 percent in 2007... |
| Trend No. 4: Sales Tax Increases Sales tax base breadth has declined from 55 percent of personal income in 1970 to just 35 percent today; states have responded by raising sales tax rates... |
| Is It Time to Stop Building Convention Centers? In the last 10 years, spending on convention centers has doubled to $2.4 billion annually, much of it from public coffers... |
| North Dakota Considers Drilling Its Way Out Of Property Taxes North Dakota oil revenues generated an estimated $839 million in fiscal 2011 and are expected to deliver more than $2 billion over the next two years... |
| State Tax Trend No. 5: "Amazon" Taxes Not only is state control over interstate commerce of dubious constitutionality, but also it is an ill-advised endeavor as a revenue generator... |
| State Tax Trend No. 6: Tax Abolition As many state governments move for the abolition of entire types of taxation, it remains essential that states do not simply substitute one tax for another, thereby failing to improve tax efficiency... |
