Opinion
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St. Cloud’s New Mayor Cuts Spending, Lowers Tax Levy
Opinion -St. Cloud, Minnesota Mayor Dave Kleis had been on the job less than two weeks when he was presented with a budget he played no part in putting together. -
Leader Quits Union
Opinion -Cheryl Conn, a nationally credentialed specialist, worked for the Department of Labor and Industries in Washington state and had long been active in her local union as a shop steward and delegate. -
Anti-Poverty Spending Grows
Opinion -Congress adjourned until January 31 without taking final action on federal budget and tax bills, but that did not stop Republicans and Democrats from both praising and vilifying separate spending and tax bills passed by the House and Senate shortly -
As Tax Rates Fall, Wealthy Pay More
Opinion -The Internal Revenue Service has released data on tax year 2003 that show the top 1 percent of taxpayers, ranked by adjusted gross income, paid 34.3 percent of all federal income taxes that year. The top 5 percent paid 54. -
Lawmakers Pave Way for Wisc. Tax Relief
Opinion -Late-year legislative sessions often result in less-than-pleasant surprises for taxpayers, but recently in Wisconsin the outcome was pleasantly surprising. -
Seniors Benefit from Capital Gains, Dividend Tax Cuts
Opinion -In the Congressional fight over whether to preserve cuts in capital gains and dividend tax rates, there's one group of beneficiaries that has been largely overlooked: retired seniors who rely on investment income. -
Millions Hit by Tax Intended for Wealthy
Opinion -Millions of middle-income Americans are about to be hit by the alternative minimum tax (AMT), enacted nearly 30 years ago to ensure the nation's wealthiest citizens pay income taxes. -
Nevada Senator Seeks Spending Limits
Opinion -After presenting fellow lawmakers with three different proposals to limit state and local spending in 2005, all of which failed, Nevada state Sen. Bob Beers (R-Las Vegas) has decided to take the matter directly to voters. -
Public Servants Live Better than the Public Itself
Opinion -For 50 years, public-sector unions, health care lobbyists, and social services advocacy groups have doggedly been amassing power in state capitols and city halls, using their influence to inflate pay and benefits for their workers and to boost government -
Government Pay, Benefits Soar
Opinion -Public employee unions have so successfully used their political muscle that whereas public-sector compensation once lagged behind the private sector, now the reverse is true. -
Unions Drive Growth of Government
Opinion -David Denholm, president of the Public Service Research Foundation (PSRF) in Vienna, Virginia, has spent almost 40 years studying the impact of unionism in government on government. -
Hospitality Industry Ignored by Tax Relief Bill
Opinion -Congress awarded businesses that suffered losses because of Hurricane Katrina tax breaks worth nearly $8 billion in the closing days of 2005, but the breaks exclude hospitality industry businesses such as liquor stores, casinos, and golf courses. -
IRS Gets Record Funding to Prosecute Taxpayers
Opinion -On November 30, 2005, President George W. Bush signed into law the largest appropriation for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the history of the agency. A remarkable share of the $10.7 billion IRS checkbook is going to law enforcement activities. -
Union Demands Wash. Workers Be Fired
Opinion -On November 2, 2005, the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE), Washington state's largest public employee union, delivered a list of 800 workers' names to the state Labor Relations Office. -
States Have Recovered from Budget Crisis, Report Says
Opinion -The outlook for state budgets is the best in five years, according to a report of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), a bipartisan organization serving state legislators and staff. -
Federal Labor Reforms Could Be Models for States
Opinion -The past several years have seen the United States make great strides toward a freer labor market. -
Americans Eager to Know about Economics, Study Says
Opinion -Americans may not have articulated it to themselves, but they have been considering complex economic issues and forming opinions about them, according to Princeton University economist Alan Blinder, one of several experts who participated in a panel -
Courts Strike Down Phone Tax
Opinion -Some large telecom consumers are filing lawsuits against the Internal Revenue Service ... and winning. In October 2005, Hewlett-Packard won a $6.2 million refund, plus interest. -
Illinois Court Strikes Down Ruling Against Workers Comp Fee
Opinion -Barely one year after an Illinois circuit court judge ruled a state surcharge on workers compensation insurance policies violates the state constitution, the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and State of Illinois must again square off in court over the -
Washington State Voters Call for Independent Performance Audits
Opinion -In a reform nearly half a century in the making, Washington state voters in November restored the state auditor's authority to conduct independent and comprehensive performance audits of state and local government. -
TABOR Movement Picks Up Steam
Opinion -Last November, friends and foes of government spending limits had their eyes on Colorado, home to the nation's strongest Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR), a type of tax and expenditure limit (TEL). -
Detroit on Brink of Fiscal Catastrophe
Opinion -Even as Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick won re-election in November, the city's financial situation continued to slide, as reflected by a November 21 announcement by the bond rating service Standard & Poor's. -
Washington Voters Reject Repeal of Gas Tax Increase
Opinion -Washington voters on November 8 rejected Initiative 912, which would have repealed a 9.5 cents per gallon increase in the gasoline tax passed by state lawmakers in April 2005. -
Feds Pledge $337 Million for Chicago Airport
Opinion -Chicago's O'Hare International Airport expansion project moved ahead on two fronts in November when it received a formal pledge of funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and won the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by two Chicago suburbs and
