From the category archives:

state & local

School’s Out for Summer

30 July 2009

I know, I know… It’s still summertime. But retailers are counting on the fact that parents are already thinking about school for fall. My newspapers and inboxes have been stuffed to the gills already with “back to school” ads and specials.
In a tough economic climate, retailers are hoping for every extra incentive [...]

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DC Considers Hike in Gas Tax

27 July 2009

Cities are getting mighty creative in their efforts to fight rising deficits. No run of the mill income/wage/salary/vocation tax increases here. Philadelphia wants to raise its sales tax; Oakland is taxing marijuana and now DC is considering raising… its gas tax?
DC Council Member Tommy Wells (D) has suggested a gas tax hike of [...]

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Oakland Votes to Tax Marijuana

22 July 2009

A measure to tax the gross receipts of licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Oakland passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday. The vote makes Oakland the first city in the US to tax marijuana.
The tax was put on the ballot after a considerable push from the medical community. City Council jumped on the bandwagon, too, when [...]

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States Find It May Not (*gasp*) Be Necessary to Raise Taxes

17 July 2009

With budget deadlines looming, many states felt that there were no alternatives to balancing the budget other than raising taxes or adding new ones. More than half of all states were considering significant tax changes to fill gaping holes… What a difference a few weeks and some angry taxpayers make.
New Jersey recently “found” [...]

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NJ Applies Retroactive Tax To Lottery Winners

16 July 2009

When New Jersey Governor Corzine and the legislature were scrambling to find ways to fill the holes in their budget, it was clear that they wanted to utilize “sin” or “vice” taxes as much as possible. Unlike income taxes which affect everyone, sin taxes only affect people who engage in certain behaviors. The [...]

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New Orleans Saints Players Involved in Tax Credit Loss

5 July 2009

As previously blogged, film tax credits may be popular in many states, but in Louisiana, there are at least 27 members of the NFL’s New Orleans Saints who are not yet ready for their close up.
A number of people associated with the team including Kevin Houser, Drew Brees, Sean Payton, Archie Manning (dad [...]

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Is Amazon.com Playing Favorites?

1 July 2009

Last year, New York decided to aggressively pursue a sales tax rule already on the books by expanding the definition of venue to include companies with affiliates physically present in the state. Many vendors, Amazon.com included, made a lot of noise about pulling their affiliate program; interestingly, Amazon.com didn’t go anywhere. They did, [...]

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Lights, Cameras, Tax Burden Shifting

25 June 2009

The highest grossing movie of all time is Titanic, which has amassed nearly $2 billion in revenue in just 12 years. The five Harry Potter films, all released within the last 10 years, have grossed nearly $5 billion in revenue. It’s clear that even in an age where there are other [...]

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Message from NJ: Amnesty Works

19 June 2009

When NJ announced its tax amnesty program, it had high hopes. With sinking revenues and a gaping hole in the budget, Governor Corzine hoped that the amnesty program would give the state some much needed relief. His lofty goal? $200 million in just six weeks.
Barely two weeks into the amnesty program, the [...]

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PA Tax Hike Higher Than Expected

17 June 2009

Initially, reports out of my home state of Pennsylvania were that Governor Rendell planned to raise income taxes by about 10% to 3.37%. This week, Governor Rendell outlined his plan to raise income taxes by 16% to 3.57%.
Under Rendell, the tax rate has increased once before, in 2004, an increase that was made [...]

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