Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| Sales Tax Rates in Major U.S. Cities Birmingham and Montgomery, both in Alabama, have the highest combined state and local sales tax rate among major U.S. cities, at 10 percent... |
| Congress Should Not Authorize States to Expand Collection of Taxes on Internet and Mail Order Sales States are clamoring for legislation to allow states to require out-of-state businesses that have no connection to the state, such as Amazon, to collect taxes so that additional revenues can be realized... |
| Evaluating and Improving the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery Grants The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants program was fraught with vague qualification standards and internal bias that derailed a program that otherwise might have fulfilled a vital need... |
| Cost of Aging Rising Faster than Expected If everyone in 2050 lived just three years longer than now expected, society would need extra resources equal to 1 to 2 percent of gross domestic product per year to care for them... |
| Ten Golden Rules of Taxation When you tax something more you get less of it, and when you tax something less you get more of it -- thus, governments should avoid taxing good activities such as working and investing... |
| How America Spends Nearly $1 Trillion a Year Fighting Poverty -- and Fails Total welfare spending in constant 2011 dollars (including state and local funds) has risen from $256 billion in 1965 to $908 billion today... |
| How Tax Expenditures Hurt the Economy -- and What to Do About It Tax expenditures should be reduced with simultaneous adjustments to tax rates, in order that total policy changes would be revenue-neutral... |
| The Paradox of Taxing the Rich Since 2004, the pre-tax income share of the top 1 percent has been around 20 percent, meaning that the share of income taxes paid by the top 1 percent is about twice as large as their share of income... |
| Public Opinion on Taxes: 1937 to Today Polling data suggest strongly that the Occupy Wall Street movement had little effect on public perceptions of taxes on the wealthy... |
| Fixing America's Crumbling Underground Water Infrastructure Over the next 20 years, upgrading the nation's water and wastewater systems is expected to cost between $3 trillion and $5 trillion... |
