Spending & Taxes

It’s a tale of two state budget pictures. A new report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University compares North Carolina’s fiscal solvency to those of other states. Meanwhile,…

Since nonpartisan staff at the General Assembly presented a five-year projection of spending and taxes, editorials and comments from state legislators make it clear that long-term estimates of spending and…

The University of Chicago is known for its imaginative admission application essay questions, questions such as “So where is Waldo, really?” or “Find x” or one year “How are…

What do subsidies for “green” energy, mandated health insurance benefits, and quotas on imported sugar all have in common? Most obviously, all three policies generate a wealth transfer from the…

By now you know the major points of the state budget: it spends $23 billion in the first year and $23.6 billion in the second year, reduces the tax rates…

It is easy to become complacent, to think that things now are as they always have been and always will be. But as Heraclitus and Disney’s Pocahontas both remind us,…

A progressive tax system is based on the premise that it is a moral imperative for government to tax people at increasingly higher rates as their incomes go up.  The…

Pay for teachers and other state employees has generated headlines in news coverage of the budget this year, in part because there have been no legislative salary increases in five…

How consensus-based budgeting works Most people are familiar with the concept of logrolling: accepting someone else’s proposal to get their acceptance of yours. In government, it often means more programs…

With both chambers of the General Assembly agreeing to spend $22.9 billion in the fiscal year beginning July 1, the biggest differences between their budget proposals are what to do…