What would fundamental changes in the federal tax code mean for state and local governments? Would it limit their ability to raise or borrow money? Would it make their revenue systems more or less progressive or even work more smoothly? Last Friday, I participated in a joint Tax Policy Center and UCLA Law School conference [...]

As state legislatures return for what promises to be yet another difficult budget year, they ought to be starting to refill their rainy day funds–those accounts that set aside money for future hard times. That’s a tough decision. After all, for the past three years, states have been raising taxes and cutting spending just to [...]

It is that time of year when we celebrate with family, remember all we have to be thankful for, and scramble to squeeze out those last few dollars of tax deductible charitable gifts. And that got me thinking about the tax treatment of charities and other non-profits.   It is surely true that we give [...]

With apologies to Charles Dickens, I’d like to tell a Tale of Two States. Earlier this month, on December 5, California Governor Jerry Brown and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo both announced that, even though state revenues in general were rebounding, they were both facing budget shortfalls.  This isn’t totally surprising since earlier in the [...]

Just when you thought you’ve heard it all, the Virginia General Assembly is about to consider a bill that would provide a tax subsidy to encourage people to be buried in space. Is buried the right verb? Republican Delegate Terry Kilgore has proposed a deduction of up to $8,000 for people who agree to have [...]

A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators would allow states to require online retailers to collect sales taxes on all purchases, as long as the states first agree to simplify their sales tax rules. And, remarkably, their  idea has broad support in the business community and may actually pass. The effort, led by senators Mike [...]

As a brief respite from our discussions of all the various flat tax plans being proposed (or recycled) – below is a post I did for Metrotrends yesterday on budget antics at the subnational level. Last month I blogged about how the federal and state governments could learn from cities, which seemed to be making [...]

Michael Lewis is a brilliant writer who has brought clarity and insight to the sometimes arcane worlds of Wall Street, baseball, and parenting.  In his latest book, he surveys fallout from the 2008 financial crisis in exotic locales such as Greece, Iceland, and California.  Uh oh. Dedicated readers of this blog know that I have [...]

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of California’s initiative process . In 1911, California famously adopted the direct initiative process and ballot box decision-making has become almost as synonymous with the Golden State as beaches, hi-tech innovation, and Hollywood.  While 75% of voters in California still see direct initiatives as a good thing, a similar [...]

Legislative leaders in California, big box stores, and Amazon have reached an agreement to delay internet  tax collection until September 2012. There is no word on whether Governor Jerry Brown will support the plan and no mention of whether the 7,000 distribution center jobs Amazon previously offered the state is part of the package.   Amazon [...]