May 2004 Budget & Tax News

Leading the May issue of Budget & Tax News is a report from California, where voters overwhelmingly defeated a proposal that would have lifted the state’s supermajority requirement for spending and tax bills. Proposition 56--dubbed the “blank check” or “take my wallet, please” initiative--was rejected by 66 percent of the state’s voters in a March referendum.

Also on page 1:

• Responding to the recently released trustees’ report on Medicare finances, taxpayer advocacy groups note a bad situation was made much worse by last year’s budget-busting Medicare reform measure.

• Florida Governor Jeb Bush has directed his Department of Management Services to evaluate the state’s current privatization initiatives and identify new outsourcing opportunities.

• Kentucky Governor Ernie Fletcher has unveiled a “tax modernization plan” that reduces marginal income tax rates but also extends the corporate income tax to new entities and increases or expands a wide range of excise taxes.

The issue’s centerfold exposes the federal budget deficit, featuring the work of syndicated columnist Terry Savage and a new Institute for Policy Innovation report offering a “weight loss plan” for the federal budget.

Also in this issue: tax and budget news from Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Oregon; Treasury Secretary John Snow’s call for making the Bush tax cuts permanent; how states are (mis)using tobacco settlement funds; estate taxes; toll road privatization in Chicago; and the effect of U.S. tax policy on foreign capital and trade.