The Tax and Revenue Committee of the California Assembly will soon hear AB 927 authored by Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi. The measure allows various tax credits against the taxes imposed by the Personal Income Tax Law and the Corporation Tax Law: This bill would, under both laws, for taxable years beginning on or after January…
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We’re revisiting the academic furor of the Reinhart/Rogoff data controversy today because there has been some new analysis to come out of the debate that seeks to answer a good question: Does a high national debt burden lead to slower economic growth, or vice versa? Arindrajit Dube of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, a…
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Taxes are not the only way government wrings money out of the workers. Governments also impose fees, and the Sacramento Bee has recently exposed one of California’s favorite tricks: Government establishes fees, which the Bee describes as “targeted assessments to people who participate or benefit from a state program for the purpose of funding…
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We’re very close to releasing an updated version of the MyGovCost calculator, with all the latest projections for government spending. Stay tuned!…
Fisker Automotive, Inc, got a federal loan of $529 million to produce its $100,000 Fisker Karma hybrid, built not in America by American workers but in Finland by Finnish workers. Fisker has not produced a car since last summer and recently dumped all its rank and file employees. The company faces bankruptcy and could…
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The federal government spends nearly $1 million a year on fees for bank accounts with a balance of zero. The Washington Post calls this “one of the oddest spending habits in Washington” and explains how it works. When federal agencies hand out grants they don’t just send out checks. Rather, they create “an account…
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The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is keeping busy overhauling the nation’s food-safety system, a legacy of the 2010 Food Safety Modernization Act, which tasked the FDA to prevent food-borne illnesses rather than just respond to them. That means the FDA will have to decide which fruits and vegetables will be subject to…
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After the mortgage crisis left many homeowners in foreclosure, the federal government cut a $3.6 billion settlement with banks accused of wrongful evictions and such. But now those settlement checks are being returned for “insufficient funds.” As the New York Times noted, the government chose Rust Consulting to distribute the checks. But Rust failed…
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As a rule, most things that academics argue most about among themselves tend to have very few or little real world consequences. At least, that’s the main insight of what has become known as Sayre’s Law, which states: “Academic politics is the most vicious and bitter form of politics, because the stakes are so…
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How do each of the big budget proposals now circulating about Washington D.C. compare to each other? And better still, how much do each spend per average American household? Political Calculations did the math: Veronique de Rugy of the Mercatus Center provides a year-by-year comparison of each of the different spending proposals: She notes:…
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