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Does state tax policy affect state economic growth? Fiscal conservatives tend to say yes. Fiscal liberals tend to say no.
Published: Monday, May 27th, 2013 @ 5:20 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Last week, I assessed the tax reform plan offered by Senate leader Phil Berger and his colleagues. While crediting the Senate plan for setting the proper goals...
Published: Monday, May 20th, 2013 @ 12:02 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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For months, North Carolina's political establishment has been lying in wait for the state's new Republican leaders to act on their long-promised initiative...
Published: Friday, May 10th, 2013 @ 9:35 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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If you can get beyond the horribly dated technology and the occasional lapse into hippie-inspired silliness, the classic late-1960s libertarian-themed television
Published: Sunday, May 5th, 2013 @ 7:50 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Fiscal conservatism comes naturally to me. After all, my middle name is McDonald.
Published: Friday, April 26th, 2013 @ 11:41 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Is New York City a better place to work than Charlotte? It depends on your priorities. For many people, the Big Apple with all its glamour and glitz may be...
Published: Wednesday, April 24th, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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For a group of people who claim to believe in empirical study and higher learning, liberal politicians and other critics of North Carolina's new...
Published: Thursday, April 18th, 2013 @ 8:03 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Over the years, I've become increasingly convinced that future gains in freedom and prosperity for North Carolina will only follow gains in appreciation of the past - of the people, events, and ideas that form our constitutional heritage.
Published: Friday, March 22nd, 2013 @ 5:06 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Whether the setting is Raleigh or Washington, the tax reform debate will inevitably come down to one Big Question: Are you willing to trade current tax preferences for lower marginal tax rates?
Published: Thursday, March 14th, 2013 @ 4:52 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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The last week of February must have been a slow news period, because all we seemed to hear about was a heated discussion between Gene Sperling and Bob Woodward.
Published: Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 @ 8:07 am
By: Jim Bispo
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Although Raleigh is a much different state capital than it was when I started writing about politics in the late 1980s - the ratios of plaids to pinstripes...
Published: Monday, February 4th, 2013 @ 8:35 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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As you may know, the John Locke Foundation has just published a new book - First in Freedom: Transforming Ideas into Consequences for North Carolina - that proposes a new tax system for our state.
Published: Sunday, January 27th, 2013 @ 5:05 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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You would think we would have learned by now - but, alas, it doesn't seem so. Specifically, we have not learned to listen carefully to the Anointed One when he speaks and to carefully parse every word that he utters.
Published: Sunday, January 20th, 2013 @ 10:22 pm
By: Jim Bispo
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In response to four years of massive federal deficits, tax cuts scheduled to expire this month, and lackluster economic growth.
Published: Saturday, January 12th, 2013 @ 6:08 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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The world is full of imponderables. We have been treated over the last year or so to a seemingly unending diatribe about the need for the wealthy to pay their fair share of taxes (whatever that is).
Published: Sunday, January 6th, 2013 @ 4:50 am
By: Jim Bispo
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Don't count me among those who think President Obama and Congress will spend the next month locked in a death struggle over marginal income tax rates.
Published: Saturday, December 1st, 2012 @ 2:22 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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A trillion-dollar sequestration that immediately would cut large portions of domestic and military spending likely will be deferred until budget architects can put together a long-term fiscal plan in the new Congress, U.S. Rep. David Price said Monday.
Published: Thursday, November 22nd, 2012 @ 6:30 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Has anyone ever heard of Chester Barnard?? Probably not, so I'll tell you who he was.
Published: Wednesday, November 21st, 2012 @ 10:10 am
By: Jim Bispo
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Two of the top issues facing new North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and the General Assembly in 2013 are tax reform and education reform. For the performance of North Carolina's economy to improve significantly in the short run, we need a more competitive tax system.
Published: Monday, November 19th, 2012 @ 11:27 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The ninth Commandment says something like "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor".
Published: Thursday, October 25th, 2012 @ 6:40 pm
By: Jim Bispo
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President Gerald Ford once quipped in the middle of a presidential debate, "It was my understanding that there would be no math."
Published: Thursday, October 18th, 2012 @ 5:21 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Sometimes the truth hurts, and there's no way to hide it. The latest Economic Freedom of the World Report, which ranks 144 nations, constitutes such a moment for those of us who cherish freedom in the United States.
Published: Saturday, October 6th, 2012 @ 11:16 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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I don't find the structure of North Carolina's tax code to be at all surprising. I find it confusing, destructive, unfair, and absurd, as do most folks who have ever studied it. But no one should ever be surprised that tax systems are screwy.
Published: Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 @ 12:40 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Well, Mitt Romney has finally released his 2011 tax return, all 379 pages of it. Yes, 379 pages!! And now we are going to start hearing about all the "bad" things he did and "good" things he didn't do in his return.
Published: Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 @ 4:10 pm
By: Jim Bispo
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While the national Democratic ticket is enjoying a modest lift in the polls after the convention in Charlotte, the party's gubernatorial nominee, Walter Dalton, remains significantly behind Republican Pat McCrory.
Published: Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 @ 11:31 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina's entire "economic development policy" should be replaced with "economic growth policy."
Published: Sunday, September 2nd, 2012 @ 7:44 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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This week marks the start of the Republican National Convention in Tampa. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will be named the GOP ticket for November's election. We already know that Barack Obama and Joe Biden will be the Democratic ticket.
Published: Monday, August 27th, 2012 @ 11:35 pm
By: Diane Rufino
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Still puzzled about how North Carolina can rank so highly on some national measures of business climate, and still have among the worst-performing economies in the country?
Published: Friday, July 27th, 2012 @ 9:31 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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I see that some politicians and government officials are continuing to cite magazine rankings that paint North Carolina's business climate in a favorable light. [Sigh]
Published: Sunday, July 22nd, 2012 @ 11:01 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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As the North Carolina House and Senate work out their differences over a 2012-13 spending plan, it's not too early to be thinking about what the state's fiscal policy choices will be in 2013.
Published: Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 @ 9:01 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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According to the Triangle Business Journal, special state tax credits for renewable energy, research & development, and capital purchases reduced North Carolina's corporate-tax collections by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars last year.
Published: Monday, May 28th, 2012 @ 12:17 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Consider these two facts. First, most net job creation in any modern economy comes from new companies, typically small firms that grow quickly.
Published: Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 @ 9:37 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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If North Carolina were a separate country, we would not fare well in key international comparisons of economic competitiveness.
Published: Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 @ 9:19 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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We hear that figures don't lie - but we all know (or should know) that liars figure. So be careful. In places like MN and IA it would seem that the so called "figuring" is really simply counting (or is it mis-counting??).
Published: Sunday, April 15th, 2012 @ 9:03 am
By: Jim Bispo
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