Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| The Sources of State and Local Tax Revenues In 2010, property taxes, including commercial and residential real estate taxes and personal property tax revenues, accounted for 35 percent of state and local government tax revenues... |
| The Financial Burden of Compliance and Paperwork The Government Accountability Office says that compliance costs for federal paperwork and taxes are at a minimum $300 billion per year... |
| Social Security Could Be Made Solvent through Payroll Tax Increase, but Not Without Consequences The payroll tax rate would have to immediately jump from 12.3 percent to 16.3 percent in order to make Social Security sustainable... |
| Public-Private Partnerships: A Solution for Infrastructure In 2011, private investment accounted for $1.818 trillion in infrastructure spending compared with the government's expenditure of $480 billion... |
| New Tax Hikes Eyed for Roads, Transit The American Society of Engineers estimates the country needs to spend $2.7 trillion on total infrastructure between now and 2020, but is falling more than $1 trillion short of that... |
| Tax Increases Are Futile When taxes are raised, many wealthier Americans will renegotiate their wages and salaries with their employers... |
| Recent Congressional Research Service Study Provides Inaccurate Information to Congress A recent study by the Congressional Research Service that examines the effect of the top statutory tax rates on economic activity fails to provide accurate research that reflects the best information and scholarship available... |
| Federal Dollars: Here, There, Everywhere! More than 1,700 federal grants in fiscal year 2011 accounted for $515 billion in infrastructure, health and other program spending, a 160 percent increase from 1990... |
| Double Taxation of Capital Gains Must End Single taxation would encourage savings and investment, which are necessary to supply capital to investors... |
| VA Overpaid Disabled Vets The Department of Veterans Affairs overpaid 12,800 veterans $943 million from 1993 to 2009; if the error isn't corrected, another $1.1 billion could be wasted by 2016... |
