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Government taxation and revenue
Some states asking the tax man to get tougher
Dentist Frank Illuzzi was stunned when Vermont tax collectors began demanding a 6 percent sales tax on the value of toothbrushes and floss he hands out to patients. Senior care facility operator Jay Grimes was similarly surprised to get a $350,000 bill slapping a 9 percent restaurant tax on the ...
Alabama voters to decide on selling bonds
Alabama voters will decide in November whether to allow Gov. Robert Bentley to increase the state's borrowing to provide more money to entice industries to locate and expand in the state. In the closing hours of its special session Thursday, the Legislature approved a proposed constitutional amendment that would rewrite ...
Tax cut, Okla. Capitol bonds go nowhere in 2012
Gov. Mary Fallin's ambitious plan to eliminate the state's income tax is not the only proposal that was left on the table when state lawmakers adjourned their four-month-long legislative session. Proposals to repair Oklahoma's crumbling Capitol building, complete the world-class American Indian Cultural Center and Museum and give the state's ...
Illinois House approves higher cigarette tax
Without a vote to spare, the Illinois House agreed Friday to raise cigarette taxes by $1 a pack as part of an ambitious and politically perilous plan to close a $2.7 billion budget hole that threatens health services for the state's poor and elderly. The measure passed 60-52, the bare ...
House Republican leaders plan summer tax cut vote
The House will vote this summer on continuing wide-ranging tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Friday as the GOP sharpened its plans for confronting Democrats on one of the election's top issues. In a memo to fellow Republican lawmakers, Cantor said ...
Okla. court rules cars eligible for tax credit
The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals on Friday overturned a state Tax Commission ruling that certain electric cars were not eligible for a state tax credit. The court's decision orders the Tax Commission to grant the credit for the 2009 tax year to nine parties who filed lawsuits when the ...
Senate rejects GOP, Dem plans on student loans
The Senate rejected dueling Democratic and Republican plans on Thursday for averting a July 1 doubling of interest rates on federal college loans for 7.4 million students, pushing back efforts to resolve the election-season showdown until next month. In mostly party-line roll calls, senators voted 62-34 against the GOP package ...
Report: State tobacco prevention funding lacking
States have spent only about 3 percent of the billions they've received in tobacco taxes and legal settlements over the last decade to fund tobacco prevention programs, making it harder to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use, according to a report released Thursday by the federal Centers ...
Obama to campaign in Iowa, promote energy plan
As President Barack Obama readies for a return to the Iowa State Fairgrounds, his campaign is reminding voters that it was in that same spot where Republican rival Mitt Romney declared last year that "corporations are people." Democrats slammed Romney's assertion as a gaffe that showed the former Massachusetts governor ...
Romney promotes education agenda, defends Bain
Originally planning to focus on education, Mitt Romney instead reignited the debate over his business credentials on Wednesday, welcoming scrutiny of the private equity firm he co-founded and declaring he's a far more qualified steward of the economy than President Barack Obama. At the same time, Romney said that if ...
Social Security a focus of debate in Arizona seat
Republican Jesse Kelly and Democrat Ron Barber clashed on Social Security, the health care overhaul and taxes during a Wednesday evening debate in the race for a U.S. House seat formerly held by Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. The major party nominees and Green Party nominee Charlie Manolakis, who also participated in ...
States looking to new tolls to pay for highways
Driving onto an Interstate highway? Crossing a bridge on the way into work? Taking a tunnel under a river or bay? Get ready to pay. With Congress unwilling to contemplate an increase in the federal gas tax, motorists are likely to be paying ever more tolls as the government searches ...
CBO warns of US falling off 'fiscal cliff'
A new government study released Tuesday says that allowing Bush-era tax cuts to expire and a scheduled round of automatic spending cuts to take effect would probably throw the economy into a recession. The Congressional Budget Office report says that the economy would shrink by 1.3 percent in the first ...
Prolonged Facebook slide could hurt Calif budget
California's budget could take a hit if Facebook's stock price keeps sliding. Gov. Jerry Brown previously estimated the state would generate between $1.4 billion and $1.9 billion over the next 13 months from taxes related to sales of Facebook stock. The estimate was based on a price of $35 a ...
Calif. worries Facebook could lead to stock slump
California's budget could take a hit if Facebook's stock price keeps sliding. Gov. Jerry Brown estimated the state will generate between $1.4 billion and $1.9 billion over the next 13 months from taxes related to sales of Facebook stock. The estimates were based on prices at $35 per share. Facebook ...
Obama to push clean energy technologies in Iowa
Anxious to show voters he's working to create jobs, President Barack Obama is putting tax credits to boost clean energy in the spotlight this week as he heads to the political battleground state of Iowa. The president will visit TPI Composites, a wind manufacturer in Newton, on Thursday to highlight ...
After NATO summit, questions about protest mindset
For activists, the NATO summit in Chicago served as one big stage from which to air a broad range of grievances — not just the war in Afghanistan or other actions of the 63-year-old military alliance. In their effort to maximize turnout, organizers were quick to welcome a wide variety ...
SC senator attempting to remove items from budget
A South Carolina Republican senator said Monday that state taxes should not go to private colleges or local projects, and he wants them removed from the budget. Sen. Shane Massey is proposing an amendment to the 2012-13 budget plan that takes out more than $4 million worth of items; including ...
Is GOP trying to sabotage economy to hurt Obama?
Are Republican lawmakers deliberately stalling the economic recovery to hurt President Barack Obama's re-election chances? Some top Democrats say yes, pointing to GOP stances on the debt limit and other issues that they claim are causing unnecessary economic anxiety and retarding growth. The latest Democratic complaint came after House Speaker ...
Mo. lawmakers pass contraception bill on final day
Missouri's Republican-led Legislature registered its discontent with President Barack Obama's health care policies Friday during an otherwise uneventful final day of a legislative session in which lawmakers settled for the doable instead of the ideal on their education and business priorities. Legislators sent the governor a bill stating that employers ...
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