[lbo-talk] Tax receipts up ...

Jordan Hayes jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com
Thu Apr 27 15:31:24 PDT 2006


I've been seeing headlines about this over the last few days, but today's big one was from California: an 'extra' $1.5B of tax revenue showed up this month than they were expecting (sort of a drop in the bucket, since Arnold's recent budget was $125B, but still), and total revenues for the month of April (with a few days left) might be an all-time high. I haven't found too much about it in the press, except this in Newsweek:

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http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8GM2S4OH.htm

WASHINGTON By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER Associated Press Writer

State tax receipts climb as economy grows

MAR. 30 2:14 P.M. ET State tax receipts jumped nearly 10 percent last year as a strong national economy increased individual earnings and corporate profits.

Most states showed increases without raising tax rates, meaning the gains were caused primarily by an expanding economy, said Corina Eckl, fiscal program director for the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"It's absolutely attributable to an improving national economy," Eckl said. "Very few, very modest tax changes happened last year."

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And I heard this commentary yesterday on Marketplace by Steve Moore (member of the editorial board at the WSJ, but still) that included these nuggets:

It turns out that the income tax burden has

substantially shifted onto the wealthy. The

percentage of federal income taxes paid by

those who make more than $200,000 a year has

actually risen from 41% to 47% in recent years.

and

The IRS data show that the share of all income

earned by the wealthiest 10% of Americans has

actually fallen since 2001. The rich are earning

less of the total income but paying more of the

total taxes.

Nevermind his blurring of "rich/wealthy" and "high income" (and not factoring in what $200k was N years ago compared to today) but he actually references the Laffer Curve in regards to lower capital gains taxes. It might just be a coincidence, but he says the Bush tax cuts are responsible.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/shows/2006/04/26/PM200604264.html



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