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For its fiscal year 2009/2010, the City of Mesa, Arizona, expects to spend $408.6 million and collect $245 million in revenue, which is a deficit of $164.6 million. Mesa’s left hand announced that all 3,400 employees would take a 2 percent pay cut just after Mesa’s right hand gave 1,600 employees a 5 [...] Wall St. Journal: “Income tax rates go up, rich taxpayers vanish. . . . after passing a millionaire surtax nearly one-third of Maryland’s millionaires had gone missing, thus contributing to a decline in state revenues. The politicians in Annapolis had said they’d collect $106 million by raising its income tax rate on millionaire households . [...] USA Today has a story entitled “Federal Employees Paid More than Public Employees” that sheds more light on the upside down facts of life that the people of the United States pay taxes so that federal government workers can be on the gravy train. The story says: “Federal employees earn higher average [...] Pretend you are on the board of directors of a government owned transit system called NJT. Times are tough and money is tight. The board must make some hard decisions that are in the best interest of NJT and the public it serves to deal with the shortage of money. The governor [...] They say never pick a fight with somebody that buys ink by the barrel. Whoa Nelly, watch out because the New York Times is mad that the $100 million in the red Arizona Department of Transportation closed thirteen of eighteen highway rest stops in Arizona. Recently more that $500 million was diverted from [...] Arizona Republic: “From 2005 to 2009, Phoenix paid claims for 2,339 accidents involving police cars, firetrucks, buses and other city vehicles, costing taxpayers about $15.7 million. That works out to roughly 1.3 accidents per day, including weekends.” In 2009 Rick Painter, Bishop of the Phoenix, Cathedral of Christ the King was charged with disturbing the peace and given a 10-day suspended jail sentence and three years probation for two counts. His crime – he caused the church’s bells to ring 13 times a day. St. Mark Roman Catholic Parish [...] It’s good work if you can get it, i.e., being employed by the State of California that is. The pay is great, retirement at an early age is fabulous, amazing benefits and the State pays a ton for not taking time off. Consider the following real case examples from the Golden State: California paid [...] As the red ink gets deeper and thicker, some states are considering raising additional revenue by imposing taxes on tax-exempt charities. New taxes on charities are being considered by Hawaii (1% franchise tax), Pennsylvania (property tax), Kansas (sales tax and property tax). Nonprofit organizations say that taxing them reduces money that would otherwise [...] Wall St. Journal: “The White House’s new health-care proposal promises the “largest middle class tax cut for health care in history,” which is a creative way of describing a vast taxpayer-subsidized insurance entitlement. Naturally, the fine print goes on to describe one of the largest tax increases for health care in history, too.” The Tax Professor Blog contains a chart that summarizes the findings of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government that state tax revenues fell for the fifth consecutive quarter. Oklahoma tax revenue was down the most of all states last quarter at 26.9%, and Arizona had the second highest drop at 17.1%. This is the headline of a post yesterday on the Tax Prof Blog who says “The Tax Policy Center has released a detailed 49-page analysis of the key tax proposals in President Obama’s 2011 budget . . . . “ Amazon does not collect or pay California sales tax to purchasers who are residents of California. State law makers estimate that near-bankrupt California could collect $150 million or more if it could force Amazon to collect the tax or give information to California that would allow the state to go after residents who [...] A story in the Washington Times says that the City of Phoenix picks and chooses property owners to receive millions of dollars in real property tax savings. The property taxes saved by property owners who are favored by those in power in city government (the winners) come at the cost of higher property [...] From the government workers are hired for life department. The LA Weekly story called “LAUSD’s Dance of the Lemons” explains how difficult to impossible it is for the Los Angeles Unified School District to fire a teacher. The LAUSD attempted to fire 74 year old 4th grade teacher Shirley Loftis, but gave up [...] nj.com: “More than $70 billion in wealth left New Jersey between 2004 and 2008 as affluent residents moved elsewhere, according to a report released Wednesday that marks a swift reversal of fortune for a state once considered the nation’s wealthiest. Conducted by the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, the report [...] Arizona Republic: “The nitty-gritty details of Arizona’s bleak state finances are now on the Web for all to see. State Treasurer Dean Martin on Tuesday announced the launch of AZCheckbook.com, a free site that contains a wealth of information about how state government spends money.” The Tax Foundation has an interesting map of the United States that shows the combined state and local tax rates of all fifty states as of September 29, 2009. The State of Washington wants to raise sales taxes by one percent and Arizona voters will decide on May 18, 2010, whether the state will raise [...] Wall St. Journal: “Will plumbers, lawyers and hot-air balloon operators be forced to pitch in to solve state and local government revenue shortfalls? Sales taxes today mainly, though not exclusively, hit sales of tangible goods like cars and couches. Faced with the worst budget crisis in a generation, many states are looking to expand sales [...] New York Post: “The cash-starved city is socking New Yorkers with a massive ticket blitz in a bid to pump an extra $80 million into its depleted coffers, records show. Reluctant to raise taxes publicly, the Bloomberg administration is pursuing a “stealth tax” — launching an unprecedented squeeze on Big Apple residents and [...] Phoenix is $242 million in the red, but that number does not include the $300 million it owes on the $600 million new and expanded Phoenix Convention Center. Arizona Republic: “City Manager David Cavazos proposed shutting down senior centers, libraries and sports complexes, and laying off hundreds of police officers and firefighters for [...] Bloomberg: “Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania, will consider Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection along with tax increases and asset sales as options to address $68 million in debt service payments due this year, the chairwoman of a City Council committee said last night. . . . The $68 million in debt service payments that [...] Wall St. Journal: “The federal budget deficit has long since graduated from nuisance to headache to pressing national concern. Now, however, it has become so large and persistent that it is time to start thinking of it as something else entirely: a national-security threat. The budget plan released Monday by the Obama administration [...] Washington Times: “The era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history. The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year . . . . Most of the increases are on the civilian side, which will [...] Arizona Republic: “Phoenix shoppers could soon be paying more for their vegetables, milk and bread. City Council members on Tuesday are expected to approve a 2 percent sales tax on food items to help close the city’s $241 million budget deficit through June 2011. The tax would take effect April 1. . . [...] Remember last week during his state of the union address when President Obama’s left hand said he had cut tons of taxes? Well today President Obama’s right hand wants to taketh what the left hand giveth. Bloomberg: “The Obama administration wants to increase taxes on Americans earning more than $200,000 by almost $970 [...] A lot of politicians and pundits are grossly misinformed about the deficits during the Bush era, the actual deficits in 2009 and estimated deficits through 2019. The following chart prepared by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the night and day budget deficit difference between the two administrations. When you look at the [...] It’s easy to see why New York City has a $4 billion deficit. New York City bureaucrats are idiots. Years ago the teachers’ union negotiated a deal with the NY Department of Education where teachers who were fired were not actually fired, but sent to the “rubber room” to sit for 7 hours [...] MercuryNews.com: “State Controller John Chiang issued a stern warning Friday about California’s cash reserves, telling legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger they must act on nearly $9 billion in budget cuts the governor is seeking by March — or the state will run out of cash to pay its bills. Without making those cuts — [...] reason.com: “In April 2008, The Orange County Register published a bombshell of an investigation about a license plate program for California government workers and their families. Drivers of nearly 1 million cars and light trucks—out of a total 22 million vehicles registered statewide—were protected by a ’shield’ in the state records system between [...] |
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