Last week I made a presentation to the Colorado Assessors Association on tax increment financing (TIF) subsidies. With the organization’s permission, I am sharing the PowerPoint presentation for my talk, as well as adding this introduction. The talk begins by putting TIF in the context of subsidies generally. As a subsidy, TIF is subject to […]
On Friday, the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB) published the final version of its new rules requiring governments to make reporting on subsidies a standard part of their financial reports (known as Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports, or CAFRs). Since GASB determines the content of “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles,” its new rules will have to be […]
California Pays off $14 Billion in Costly Debt From 2004 Promoting the borrowing in Proposition 57 was one of Schwarzenegger’s first acts in office, and he pitched the measure as a way to avoid public service cuts and tax increases. The state had the lowest credit rating among all 50 states in the nation at […]
Update: some guy named Krugman suggests that I am not totally off base here. The Disappearing Entitlements Crisis I hear he has an audience. Update two: Social; Security Defender Archive docs and spreadsheets Update(From main Angry Bear page you may need to click ‘Read More’ to see Charts) http://www.socialsecurity.gov/history/pdf/tr09summary.pdf http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/ http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/ 2009: Medicare Unsustainable. From […]
This is just so perfect. Yet again, our comedians have to do what journalist are supposed to do. And, he does it with facts! Considering here in RIland some rich dude (who just died) paid $20 million for the Pawtucket Red Sox (the Boston’s farm team) and has proposed moving it to Providence on the […]
In any event, it’s completely unclear where people will stop in for hamburgers and fries, and where they will buy extremely cheap household items, once the fast food industry and Walmart have ceased to exist because there no longer are Americans who lack the skills and qualifications for good jobs and they’ve all found good […]
The left claims they’re for American workers, and they’ve got lame ideas, things like minimum wage. Instead of focusing on that, we need to talk about how we get people skills and qualifications they need to get jobs that go well beyond minimum wage. — Scott Walker, yesterday Yep, raising the minimum wage and instituting […]
Many conservatives breathed a sigh of relief after the speech, having feared a fresh set of innovative proposals that might have required serious responses. “I think it’s a horse race between what’s more tired, her or the material,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “There really isn’t anything new here. It’s really […]
My aspiration for the country and I believe we can achieve it, is 4 percent growth as far as the eye can see. Which means we have to be a lot more productive, workforce participation has to rise from its all-time modern lows. It means that people need to work longer hours. — Jeb Bush, in an […]
Oh, dear. This post of mine from yesterday is soooo yesterday. (Okay, sooo last-weekend, to be precise.) The attempt to paint Sanders as the Democrats’ Donald Trump has failed. Sanders isn’t the left’s Donald Trump; he’s the left’s Ron Paul! At least according to a rapidly congealing CW pushed by pundits that include—surprisingly—at least one progressive one. Freelance […]