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Daily World (LA): Analyst says tax holiday not prudent
December 21, 2012
August 5, 2011 BATON ROUGE — State officials say the sales tax holiday today and Saturday only costs the state $3.7 million, but the director of the Louisiana Budget Project says that money has to come from somewhere. Louisiana’s sales tax holiday Friday and Saturday is one of the most generous in the nation, said […]
USA Today: Critics say states should discontinue tax holidays
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 6, 2011 by Jayne O’Donnell The back-to-school sales tax holidays that start Friday in many states may be popular with politicians and retailers, but critics say revenue-starved states should abandon them. Seventeen states plan to give shoppers a break on sales taxes for school-related purchases this season. Massachusetts and Arkansas added a […]
Virginian-Pilot: Back-to-school shoppers hit stores for tax holiday
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 6, 2011 by Carolyn Shapiro Rich Tourville stopped Friday morning at JCPenney at Greenbrier Mall to pick up a birthday present and back-to-school clothes for his son, who will turn 5 on Sunday. The Chesapeake dad didn’t realize he would save the 5 percent Virginia sales tax on those items. The state’s […]
Baltimore CityBizList: Tax Flight Debate Is One-Sided, Professor Says
December 21, 2012
by Len Lazarick August 12, 2011 Professor Roy Meyers, the government budgeting expert at UMBC, says the focus of our ongoing stories and comment strings “on the flight/plight of the millionaires is a bit one-sided.” Meyers is afraid that the discussion of Maryland’s tax structure will go down the sorry path of the national debate, […]
AOL Daily Finance: The True Cost of State Sales Tax Holidays
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 12, 2011 by Sheryl Nance-Nash ‘Tis the sales-tax-holiday season, when states give the gift of tax-free shopping for clothing, computers and other back-to-school supplies. It seems like a good thing: Take a little pressure off the pockets of cash-strapped parents, make retailers smile and make politicians look good for supporting tax relief. […]
Nashua (NH) Telegraph: Leading Latinos: Hudson cardiologist struggles with injustice
December 21, 2012
August 16, 2011 by Simon Rios EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the second in a five-day series of stories profiling leaders in Nashua’s Latino community. Only a small percentage of Americans ever attain medical degrees, and even fewer hold unorthodox opinions on the origin of heart attacks. But Alejandro Urrutia, a native of Mexico and resident […]
Fox Business: Sales Tax Holidays: Not All that Meets the Eye
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 17, 2011 by Kathryn Glass There are very few situations in life that are truly a win-win, but the idea of a week of shopping sans sales tax seems like a scenario with little downside. On the surface, it is difficult to devise a disadvantage for a tax break on back-to-school shopping. […]
Huffington Post: Texas Tax System Heavily Burdens Poor Residents
December 21, 2012
Also featured in Huffpost Hill Digest on August 19, 2011 Original Post August 19, 2011 by Laura Bassett During his presidential campaign announcement speech last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry lamented the “injustice” that nearly half of all Americans — the poorest half — “don’t even pay any income tax.” But in Texas, the tax […]
Kansas City Star: Momentum grows to swap income tax for sales tax in states
December 21, 2012
By DAVE HELLING Talk about a tax break. While all the attention this summer was focused on the federal debt and tax policy in Washington, some lawmakers and activists closer to home were quietly moving toward achieving a long-term goal: eliminating income taxes in Missouri and Kansas. “The time has come,” said Jonathan Williams, director […]
AlterNet: Rich Lifestyles of the GOP’s Starve-the-Poor Presidential Candidates
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 1, 2011 by Rania Khalek With the campaign season for Republican presidential primaries in full bloom, the candidates are falling all over each other in a fierce competition to tout their conservative bona fides. Even as housing foreclosures reach all-time highs, and unemployment in some states climbs into the double digits, Republican […]
Chicagoist: Illinois Can’t Afford Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday
December 21, 2012
by Chuck Sudo August 7, 2011 How deadbeat of a state is Illinois? So much so that the state won’t be offering a sales tax holiday for back-to-school sales this year because we need the money to pay bills. Suspending the sales tax holiday may not be a bad thing. They’re evidently great for retail […]
Chicago Sun Times: Cash-strapped Illinois rejects back-to-school tax holiday
December 21, 2012
August 7, 2011 Gannett news service Unlike last year, there will be no “back-to-school” sales tax holiday in Illinois this year. State Sen. Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago), who was chief sponsor of the state’s holiday last year, says Illinois “just cannot afford it this year.” New York was the first state to enact a back-to-school sales […]
Christian Science Monitor: Jon Huntsman vs. Rick Perry: Shoot-out at the GOP corral
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 21, 2011 by Brad Knickerbocker Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry represent very different views of how a Republican can beat Barack Obama in 2012. To jazz up his campaign, Huntsman laid into tea party favorite Perry Sunday. In the end, whoever wins the GOP presidential nominating contest will have to take on […]
OpEd News: Why the Rich Should Pay Higher Taxes
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 22, 2011 by PAUL BUCHHEIT Most wealthy Americans will recoil at the suggestion that they should pay higher taxes, likely responding with the tired mantra that the top earners already pay most of the income tax. But, two points can be made in response to this: (1) Federal income tax is only […]
Washington Post: The Trouble with the Fair Tax
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 24, 2011 By Dylan Matthews Greg Sargent has been doing some great reporting on Rick Perry’s walk-back on his past support for repealing the 16th amendment, which enables the federal governments to levy income taxes, and enacted the “Fair Tax” proposal for a national sales tax. The fair tax plan has been […]
Los Angeles Times: An undeserved attack on the ‘undeserving poor’
December 21, 2012
Original Post August 31, 2011 by Michael HiltzikCriticism of low earners who pay no federal income tax is in fact a not-so-veiled assault on government aid for those in need. Amid the crowd-rousing shorthand employed by some American politicians, surely one of the hardiest chestnuts is the notion of the “undeserving poor.” You know the […]
Think Progress: Perry Brags About Texas’ Tax System That Charges The Poor Four Times As Much As The Rich
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 16, 2011 by Pat Garofalo Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) was on the campaign trail in Newton, Iowa today, reviving his stump speech promise to make government “as inconsequential in your life as I can.” At one point, Perry bragged about the Texas tax system and its light burden on “job creators”: […]
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Effort to kill Missouri income tax has begun in earnest
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 26, 2011 by Virginia Young JEFFERSON CITY • Wrestling with your state income tax return? Missouri legislators are weighing a plan that would do away with that chore. But before you celebrate, be aware that it’s not a tax cut. While state individual and corporate income taxes would be eliminated, the lost […]
Huffington Post: Poverty Is Rising, But State Tax Systems Burden The Poor, While Rich Get Off Easy
December 21, 2012
Original Post September 27, 2011 by Tyler Kingkade WASHINGTON — Newly released U.S. Census data reveal that poverty levels have skyrocketed, but in most states, the tax systems disproportionally burden the poor. Most states also impose tax structures similar to what current Republican presidential candidates are advocating, and experts warn these should serve as cautionary […]
Hawaii Reporter: Tax Commission To Weigh Elimination Of State Income Taxes
December 21, 2012
Original Post October 5, 2011 BY JIM DOOLEY The Hawaii Tax Review Commission is soliciting the services of a consultant to study the fairness of Hawaii’s tax system and recommend changes, including the possible elimination of personal and corporate income taxes. A national state-by-state analysis of taxes completed in 2009 and referenced on the Hawaii […]
Anniston (AL) Star: Alabama’s poverty problem: Economy will strengthen if poverty is addressed
December 21, 2012
Op-ed by Kimble Forrister October 7, 2011 “Anytime we create more jobs, we get more people off the unemployment rolls and out of poverty,” state Sen. Del Marsh, R-Anniston, said in a recent Birmingham News profile of Alabama Arise. We agree. That’s why many items on Arise’s agenda this year (and every year) are designed […]
The Emporia (KS) Gazette: The “Class Warfare” Nonsense
December 21, 2012
October 7, 2011 by Bob Grover When President Obama released his most recent plan to create jobs and address the national deficit, he proposed that wealthy Americans and corporations should pay higher taxes. Congressional leaders John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan responded with cries of “class warfare.” Boehner and company must be desperate for […]
Fox 4 TV News Kansas City: Will Kansas Eliminate Income Tax?
December 21, 2012
October 25, 2011 by John Pepitone and Christie Walton A new group wants Kansas to join nine other states that don’t have an individual income tax. Supporters claim states like Texas, Tennessee and Florida are growing faster and creating new jobs because they don’t have an income tax. A proposal to eliminate the state […]
Baltimore Sun: Panels Recommended Higher MD Taxes, Fees
December 21, 2012
Original Post Groups say funds needed for roads, transit, pollution cleanup By Michael Dresser and Timothy B. Wheeler, October 25, 2011 Two groups charged with figuring out how the state can pay for new roads, a cleaner Chesapeake Bay and other key functions of government suggested the same basic answer Tuesday: Marylanders should be asked […]
Maryland Reporter: Increased Tax Proposals Get Mixed Reception
December 21, 2012
October 27, 2011 by Megan Poinski Although the next legislative session is still a couple months off, it’s becoming apparent that new taxes will be one of the central issues before the General Assembly. The Blue Ribbon Commission on Maryland Transportation Funding formally recommended a 15-cent per gallon gas tax increase phased in over three […]
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