The U.S. budget deficit through the first three months of this budget year is up 11.8% from the same period a year ago, putting the country on track to record its first $1 trillion deficit in eight years. In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Monday that the...
US Budget Deficit Surges to $134.5 Billion in October
WASHINGTON — The federal government, which ended the 2019 budget year with its largest deficit in seven years, began the new budget year with a deficit in October that was 33.8% bigger than a year ago as spending hit a record. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the deficit last...
Walters: Are the Wealthy Fleeing California Taxes?
Here is an indisputable fact about California taxation: More than two-thirds of state general fund revenues come from personal income taxes and about half of those taxes are paid by the 1% of taxpayers atop the income scale. In other words, K-12 schools, state colleges and universities, health and welfare...
Walters: School Budgets Squeezed Despite ‘Extraordinary’ State Surplus
Mac Taylor, the Legislature’s soon-to-retire budget analyst, generally takes a very conservative, glass-half-empty approach to the state’s finances. However, the report his office issued this month was downright exuberant, citing California’s strong economy, growing revenues and a historically large “rainy day fund” created by outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown. “It is...
Up in Nevada, Folks Really Love Their Cannabis
CARSON CITY, Nev. — Tax collections on recreational marijuana sales in Nevada have exceeded projections for the entire fiscal year in just the first 10 months since they became legal last July. Nevada Department of Taxation Director Bill Anderson says the $6.5 million in pot tax revenues in April slipped...