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Category Archives: Government Spending
Utah ranks 34th in amount of state debt per capita
Tweet According to an analysis of data by the Tax Foundation, Utah has the 34th highest amount of state debt per capita at $2,577. Compared with our Mountain West neighbors, we fare better than Montana ($4,290), New Mexico ($3,914), and … Continue reading
National liberal fiscal insanity, or why Utah needs a spending amendment
Tweet As noted on The Weekly Standard blog, the acting director of President Obama’s Office of Management and Budget wrote an op-ed published across the country, as well as put up on the White House blog, claiming that “the President’s … Continue reading
Special interests go to extremes against spending limits
Tweet The following post is a transcript of a 4-minute weekly radio commentary aired on several Utah radio stations: For the last few years, Sutherland Institute has been working on proposed legislation that would use state constitutional powers to limit … Continue reading
One reason why liberal economic policies haven’t led to a strong recovery
Tweet For every economically beneficial project funded by “economic stimulus spending,” there is at least one economically wasteful project … such as the $423,500 of federal funding spent studying “barriers to condom use” as part of President Obama’s “economic stimulus” … Continue reading
What a liberal ‘economic recovery’ feels like
Tweet Technically, the so-called “Great Recession” ended in June 2009. So does it feel like an “economic recovery” to you? Fortunately for many Utahns – in part due to the generally conservative public policies put in place by Utah policymakers … Continue reading
Budget deal? It’s just more spending
Tweet In these weekly commentaries I try to stay pretty even-keeled but the whole “fiscal cliff” mess has driven me over the edge. The nation – the American people – are $16 trillion in debt – $16 trillion with no … Continue reading
Posted in Budget, Government Spending
Tagged congress, fiscal cliff, government spending
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Utah’s reliance on federal spending makes the cliff’s edge painful
Tweet As Washington, D.C., moves ever closer toward taking us off the so-called fiscal cliff (which politicians in Washington created for us in the first place), it is worth looking at what the effect on Utahns will be. The projected … Continue reading
Posted in Government Spending
Tagged federal funds, fiscal cliff, government spending
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Let’s avoid insane ‘payday loans’ for local government
Tweet According to a recent news article, a school district in California recently got a $2.5 million bond (i.e., a loan) that will cost taxpayers in the district $34 million to pay off – almost 14 times the size of … Continue reading
Map: How much Utah and other states rely on federal funds
Tweet As we move closer toward the so-called fiscal cliff, the Tax Foundation has put out a map of the United States with estimates of how much each state relies on funds from the federal government. The measure is federal … Continue reading
Spending pledges vs. spending limits
Tweet As Congress begins to drive America off the fiscal cliff, the politics of taxes and spending will reach new levels of absurdity. Over 20 years ago a young upstart in Washington, D.C., Grover Norquist, began an anti-tax campaign calling … Continue reading
The fiscal cliffs of insanity
Tweet “Do you want me to send you back to where I found you … UNEMPLOYED in GREENLAND?” Or perhaps “Princess Bride’s” Vizzini should have threatened Fezzik with unemployment in the United States. As the graphic below shows us, the … Continue reading
Utah government entities catalogue how they compete with the private sector
Tweet During yesterday’s interim meetings, the Legislature’s Political Subdivisions Interim Committee heard reports from representatives of higher education, K-12 public schools, counties, cities, and others about activities they participate in that potentially compete with the private sector and how they … Continue reading
Posted in Free market, Government Spending, Legislature, Limited Government
Tagged big government, competition, private sector
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Positive signs for Orem taxpayers after 8-hour tax hearing
Tweet After an eight-hour Truth in Taxation Hearing, the Orem City Council voted 4-3 at 1:45 this morning to approve a 25 percent property tax increase for the Orem portion of the property tax bill, instead of the proposed 50 … Continue reading
Legislative committee considers giving cities authority to “earmark” property taxes for roads
Tweet Provo Mayor John Curtis proposed that the Legislature’s Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee enact a law allowing a city like Provo to dedicate a portion of their general property tax revenues to be spent only on roads during interim … Continue reading
Posted in Government Spending, Legislature, Public Transportation
Tagged Provo, road maintenance
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Who’s paying for the party?
Tweet A recent study by BYU professors (see here and here) tells us that when parents pay for their children’s college, those children are more likely to engage in risky behaviors like alcohol abuse than those who pay their own way, … Continue reading