North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is under fire for cuts to the education budget. To make way for the cuts, rates for personal and corporate income taxes were slashed with additional changes made to sales and use taxes, unemployment insurance, and property taxes. Is it worth it?
I once spent about 15 minutes wandering up and down the aisles of the Superfresh grocery in Society Hill looking for a bottle of wine. No, I’m not picky. I just didn’t realize that you couldn’t buy wine in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania outside of the state-operated liquor store system (there is an exception for…
All of the taxes in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t collect on them – or so many states and localities are figuring out these days. Taxing authorities from Tennessee to New Jersey are reporting shortfalls and lags in collections activities just as cuts from federal funding are being felt. Some taxing…
I’ve been part of a military family ever since I was 14 years old. My older brother (now retired military) announced that he was following in his grandfather’s footsteps and joining the Navy when I was still in high school. My younger brother (career military) followed suit a few years later, making us officially a…
Every one of us has had that moment when we’ve had to shuffle the cards a bit to make sure all of the bills get paid. That’s exactly the situation our country is finding itself in right now. And what’s in the stack of “to pay later”? It could be your tax refund. How could…
Christmas came early this year for the Senate. No, there’s no budget deal – nothing so trivial as that. We’re talking super serious stuff. Like holiday parties. Yes, in between speeches about how they can’t get anything done this year, the Senate Secret Santa Exchange went on as planned. Sixty-two Senators managed to agree to…
As I type this, I am watching the winds pick up outside of my window. It’s a gloomy day out here in eastern Pennsylvania and about to get gloomier: Hurricane Sandy is headed our way. I grew up in coastal North Carolina. It’s hurricane central so I’ve spent plenty of time taping up windows, filling…
It’s that time of year again! Despite evidence that state sales tax holidays actually cost taxpayers money, many states have renewed their temporary reprieve on state sales tax collections for certain back-to-school and hurricane preparedness items – oh, and guns (let’s not forget the guns). Politically, sales tax holidays are “feel good” legislative acts: they…
When you think post-apocalyptic North America, you think western North Carolina, right? That’s what Lionsgate Entertainment is betting on. On March 23, the über-hyped Hunger Games will open worldwide. The movie is expected to make millions for Lionsgate Entertainment and author Suzanne Collins despite being made on a relatively shoestring budget for a project of…
So, show of hands: who really thought that former Massachusetts Governor and current GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney would win South Carolina? My hand will stay firmly by my side. I expected Romney to lose South Carolina. I also still fully expect him to get the nod from the party at the GOP Convention despite…