Taxes & Budget news Subcribe to Taxes & Budget news |
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Melissa Maynard and Jim Malewitz, Stateline Staff Writers
Rick Snyder hasn’t followed the confrontational path of many Republican governors elected in 2010. In a Stateline interview, he explains some of his strategies.
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By Melissa Maynard, Stateline Staff Writer
MANAGEMENT BEAT: As the debate on a new labor law heats up, the bill’s sponsor unexpectedly switches sides.
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Funding for K-12 education set to improve
By Ben Wieder, Stateline Staff Writer
EDUCATION BEAT: A new survey says many states plan to increase spending on K-12 education this year. Even so, state education spending remains below pre-recession levels.
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AK: Coastal Management cost estimates challenged
By Pat Forgey, The Juneau Empire
Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho told a legislative committee Monday the Parnell administration significantly overstated the cost of restoring the Coastal Management program in Alaska.
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AK: Alaska could see savings with pension deposit, analyst says
By Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press, Anchorage Daily News
The state could save $5.3 billion in payments to Alaska's troubled public employees' retirement system by putting $2 billion into a reserve fund now, a legislative fiscal analyst said Wednesday.
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AK: Alaska Senate plans generic oil tax bill, at first
By Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The Alaska Senate is planning to unveil a generic oil tax bill this week, leaving to the committee process the job of finding problems in the proposal and working out solutions.
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AL: Bentley calls for cuts to government, funding and reform for schools
By Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser
Gov. Robert Bentley called Tuesday night for new economic development legislation and special tax credits for teachers, while promising to protect Public Safety, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Human Resources from potentially steep cuts in the state's General Fund.
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AL: Bentley calls for cuts to government, funding and reform for schools
By Brian Lyman, Montgomery Advertiser
Gov. Robert Bentley called Tuesday night for new economic development legislation and special tax credits for teachers, while promising to protect Public Safety, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Human Resources from potentially steep cuts in the state's General Fund.
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AR: Home, state care backers push for cash
By Evie Blad, Northwest Arkansas Times
Arkansans seeking waivers to place their developmentally disabled family members in home- and community-based programs told lawmakers Tuesday that placing less emphasis on institutional care would free up funding and lessen the years-long stints many spend on waiting lists.
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AZ: Arizona lawmakers target public workers' unions
By Ted Robbins, National Public Radio
Labor unions are scheduled to rally in front of the Arizona State Capitol Thursday afternoon to protest four bills quickly moving through the state legislature that could make last year's Wisconsin labor laws look modest by comparison.
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AZ: Ind. lawmaker says school bus fees increase risk
By The Associated Press, Northwest Indiana Times (Munster)
Indiana's public school districts wouldn't be able to end school bus service for their students under a proposal advancing in the General Assembly after protests from parents in a suburban Indianapolis district who now face annual bills of more than $400 a child for rides to and from school.
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AZ: Arizona loses out on $1.9 billion
By Mar Jo Pitzl, The Arizona Republic (Phoenix)
Arizona has lost an estimated $1.9 billion over the last decade because it doesn't tax online sales, a study commissioned by the Arizona Retailers Association said.
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CA: Time for a truce on tax-hike initiatives
By George Skelton, Los Angeles Times
If the California Capitol were a classic movie, the governor would be telling his consigliere to arrange a meeting with the heads of the five families.
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CA: Calif. Speaker Pérez wants to cut college costs
By Wyatt Buchanan, San Francisco Chronicle
California students from middle-income families would receive massive breaks on tuition and fees at the state's colleges and universities under legislation Assembly Speaker John Pérez plans to introduce today at the Capitol.
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CO: Ag inheritance tax may go away
By Patrick Malone, The Pueblo Chieftain
A Southern Colorado lawmaker's proposal to do away with inheritance tax on agricultural land cleared its first hurdle on Wednesday, when the House Finance Committee approved it 9-3.
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CT: Red ink, spending cap threaten new budget next year
By Keith M. Phaneuf, The Connecticut Mirror
One year after building the largest fiscal security blanket in more than two decades of state budgets, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy moved onto the fiscal high wire Wednesday without a net.
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CT: Malloy proposes $50 million increase in ECS funding
By Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, The Connecticut Mirror
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy asked state legislators today to send an additional $50 million to local school districts, a move that school advocates say will cover a small portion of what the state actually owes them.
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FL: Legislators reject attempt to clarify state's regulation of slot machines
By Mary Ellen Klas, The Miami Herald
State gambling regulators are in a bind. They have indirectly authorized the expansion of gambling in the past six months as lawyers for parimutuels found holes in state laws and opened the door to slot machines at parimutuels across the state and table-game look-alikes at existing racinos.
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FL: Ex-South Florida politician to plead guilty to tax charges in federal corruption probe
By Jay Weaver, The Miami Herald
A former Fort Lauderdale politician who is the only elected official charged in a major federal public corruption probe of Tallahassee's "pay-to-play" politics has decided to plead guilty to tax-evasion offenses. Mandy Dawson, who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years, signaled her intention to change her plea in court papers filed this week.
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IA: Iowa House panel OKs 40 percent cut in commercial property taxes
By William Petroski, The Des Moines Register
An Iowa House committee approved a bill Wednesday night that would slash commercial property taxes by 40 percent over eight years, while providing hundreds of millions of dollars in state money to "backfill" lost property tax revenues to school districts, cities and counties.
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IA: Iowa Senate Dems vote to spend more on schools
By The Associated Press, The Muscatine Journal
The Iowa Senate voted Tuesday to spend an additional $122 million on public education during the 2013-14 school year, but Republicans who control the House said they won't even debate the measure this year.
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IA: Iowa costs of teaching non-English speakers rising
By The Associated Press, The Muscatine Journal
The cost of teaching non-English-speaking students is skyrocketing in some Iowa schools, and while state funding has increased, local property taxes are paying a bigger share.
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ID: Bill to end lawmaker pension perk derailed
By The Associated Press, The Idaho Statesman (Boise)
A bill to end a pension perk that allows former Idaho lawmakers to hike their pensions by taking more-lucrative state appointments has been derailed, at least for now, on concern it would erode incentives to enter public service.
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KS: Kansas income tax debate accelerates
By John Milburn, The Lawrence Journal-World
Opponents to Gov. Sam Brownback's proposal for cutting Kansas income tax rates said Wednesday the Republican's plan is misguided and would punish working families.
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KS: Auditors release 2nd report on KBA probe
By John Milburn, The Lawrence Journal-World
Forensic auditors said Tuesday that they stand by their investigation of the Kansas Bioscience Authority and that any further work would be a waste of time and public funds.
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KY: More court funds urged
By Deborah Yetter, The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
After several years of budget cuts, Kentucky's court system is in urgent need of money for upgrades in several areas, including technology, Chief Justice John Minton told a legislative panel Tuesday.
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LA: Super Bowl 2013 state promotion expenses should be shared, Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne says
By Ed Anderson, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne said Tuesday his office should not be singled out to pay the state's entire $6 million cost of promoting Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans next February. Dardenne said that "it should be a shared responsibility" by the Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, which he oversees, the state Department of Economic Development and the state general fund.
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MA: No say for some who would be casinos' neighbors
By Mark Arsenault, The Boston Globe
WALPOLE, Mass. - Mike McCarthy lives close enough to a Gillette Stadium parking lot to smell the hibachi grills on game day. He does not mind Sunday tailgaters a few hundred feet from his house, but he draws the line at a billion-dollar casino. Though he lives closer than almost anyone to the proposed site of a Wynn Resorts casino, he will not be allowed to participate in a local referendum if the project makes it to a vote.
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ME: DHHS budget now a political showdown between governor, Legislature
By Eric Russell, Bangor Daily News
After working for weeks to fashion a compromise proposal that would address a shortfall in the Department of Health and Human Service budget, a deal remains elusive as a divide appears to be growing among lawmakers, especially House Republicans.
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ME: Maine could lose money for scenic roads if federal bill passes
By Bill Trotter, Bangor Daily News
ELLSWORTH, Maine — If a transportation bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives is approved as written, it could mean the end of a federal program that has brought $5 million to rural Maine over the past two decades.
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MI: Surplus surprises Michigan, but is it safe to spend again?
By Monica Davey, The New York Times
Over most of the past decade, budget deliberations in Michigan have taken on a glum and familiar monotony: What do we cut now? But the state that experienced an economic downturn earlier, deeper and longer than most of the rest of the country has made an unlikely discovery as its officials closed out its latest financial books: Michigan has a $457 million surplus.
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MI: School aid fund expected to see $142 million surplus
By Dave Murray, mlive.com
The state school aid fund is expected to finish the year with $142 million in savings, and potentially $222 million in the black in a year, but lawmakers said it would be a mistake to spend the money right away
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MS: No fight over hospital tax
By Staff, Hattiesburg American
Looks like Gov. Phil Bryant will be spared the all-out war that greeted former Gov. Haley Barbour when it came to imposing a state hospital tax to help fund Medicaid.
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NC: State unemployment system under review
By David Ranii, The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The $2.7 billion debt that North Carolina has incurred to pay unemployment benefits in the wake of the recession has led the N.C. Chamber of Commerce to commission a comprehensive study of the state's unemployment system.
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NJ: Bill would add $1 billion to NJ tax break fund
By Hugh R. Morley, The Record of Bergen County
A new bill introduced in Trenton would add $1 billion to the tax credits available for the corporate incentive program that rewarded Panasonic and Goya Foods for staying in New Jersey.
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NM: House approves $5B state budget proposal
By Barry Massey, The Associated Press, Santa Fe New Mexican
The House on Wednesday gave bipartisan support to a proposed budget that will spend $5.6 billion on public education and other government programs next year, and provide for higher take-home pay for educators and state workers.
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NM: Voters OK tax levy for schools
By Staff, Santa Fe New Mexican
By a margin of about 3-to-1 in a light turnout, Santa Fe school district voters on Tuesday approved renewal of a mill levy expected to generate about $12.7 million annually from property taxes over the next six years.
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NY: Medicaid shift creates state jobs
By Jimmy Vielkind, Times Union (Albany)
The state Department of Health plans to hire up to 1,200 workers — many to be located in the Capital Region — over the next six years as it takes over the Medicaid program from counties, an official testified at a budget hearing Wednesday.
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NY: DiNapoli warns of power grab by governor
By The Associated Press, Times Union (Albany)
State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli praised Gov. Andrew Cuomo's proposal as a continued plan for fiscal restraint, but along with top legislative leaders warned that the governor also wants to use the budget to grab power and reduce public oversight and accountability in the spending of billions of taxpayer dollars.
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NY: Tier VI plan tests labor
By Jimmy Vielkind, Times Union (Albany)
Labor groups immediately attacked Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan for a new pension tier for future workers when he proposed it last month, and starting Wednesday the state's largest labor coalition will begin airing advertisements making its case.
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OH: Kasich on Ohio -- 'We're alive again'
By Joe Vardon, The Columbus Dispatch
STEUBENVILLE, Ohio — A $10 million program to boost the state's broadband speeds tenfold and establish a $2.3 million broadband testing center at Ohio State University was the pre-eminent policy announcement Gov. John Kasich made in his State of the State address yesterday — historic for its circumstance but ripped by Democrats for being short on specifics.
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OR: State fund mistakenly overpays schools
By Tracy Loew, Statesman Journal (Salem)
More than $75 million in principal from the state's Common School Fund was mistakenly distributed to schools between 2001 and 2007, a state audit released Tuesday shows.
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OR: Ore. schools fund overdrawn by $76 million
By The Associated Press, Corvallis Gazette-Times
An Oregon state agency improperly distributed $76 million from an account that boosts school funding, an oversight that is likely to decrease money available for schools in future years, auditors said in a report released Tuesday.
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PA: Shale bill heads to governor
By Laura Olson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
A sweeping overhaul of the state's gas-drilling regulations, including restrictions on local zoning rules and a new fee on those companies, now awaits Gov. Tom Corbett's signature.
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PA: Educators criticize proposed Pa. schools funding
By Kathy Matheson, The Times Leader (Scranton)
PHILADELPHIA -- Educators who say they are still grappling with about $860 million in state cuts this year are criticizing proposed school funding levels in next year's budget, which they contend will cause more hardships on districts statewide.
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PA: Pennsylvania set to allow local taxes on shale gas
By Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times
HARRISBURG, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would authorize a tax on the shale gas industry and set uniform standards for development, changes that critics said would leave many municipalities with little control over the use of their land. Approval in the House was expected on Wednesday.
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PA: Corbett calls fiscal plan 'lean and demanding'
By Laura Olson and Karen Langly, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Facing a budget deficit that is a half-billion dollars and growing, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett on Tuesday proposed an austere spending plan for next year that would slash millions from state universities and revamp how counties receive aid for human-services programs.
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PA: Environmental programs take a hit in state budget
By Donald Gilliland, The Patriot-News (Harrisburg)
At A Glance: Gov. Tom Corbett's second budget isn't green. The Department of Environmental Protection takes a $71 million hit, mostly from the discontinuation of federal stimulus funds, but the state share of the cut is $10.5 million.
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SC: Proposal squeezes retirees, workers
By Adam Beam, The State (Columbia)
South Carolina's 106,000 retired teachers, state employees and local government workers would get raises only if the state's retirement fund makes more money consistently from its investments.
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SC: Governor -- Senate stalling on restructuring
By Gina Smith, The State (Columbia)
Gov. Nikki Haley called out state senators Tuesday in an impromptu press conference, saying they are not working fast enough to pass a massive government restructuring bill.
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US: A terrible transportation bill
By Staff, The New York Times
The list of outrages coming out of the House is long, but the way the Republicans are trying to hijack the $260 billion transportation bill defies belief. This bill is so uniquely terrible that it might not command a majority when it comes to a floor vote, possibly next week, despite Speaker John Boehner's imprimatur. But betting on rationality with this crew is always a long shot.
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US: Lawmakers set aside money for construction
By Ron Nixon, The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Dozens of local and regional construction projects, which the Obama administration did not include in this year's budget, managed to received special financing through money set aside by lawmakers, according to a review of documents issued Wednesday by the Army Corps of Engineers.
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US: Florida, 9 other states to get No Child Left Behind waiver
By The Associated Press, The Orlando Sentinel
President Barack Obama on Thursday will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, giving leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students, The Associated Press has learned.
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US: States negotiate $26 billion deal for homeowners
By Nelson D. Schwartz and Shaila Dewan, The New York Times
After months of painstaking talks, government authorities and five of the nation's biggest banks have agreed to a $26 billion settlement that could provide relief to nearly two million current and former American homeowners harmed by the bursting of the housing bubble, state and federal officials said.
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US: States with highest foreclosure rates among bank deal holdouts
By Staff, Bloomberg Businessweek
California, New York, Nevada, Florida and Massachusetts are among the states that haven't signed off on a settlement with banks over foreclosure abuses, according to state officials and two people familiar with the talks. The holdouts include some with the highest rates of foreclosures.
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UT: UTA finances cause heartburn on Capitol Hill
By Lee Davidson, The Salt Lake Tribune
Legislators aired worries Wednesday whether the Utah Transit Authority can continue walking a financial tightrope without needing an eventual taxpayer bailout, while UTA officials swore that the agency is fine.
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VA: Deal offered to Portsmouth lawmaker could ease tolls
By Julian Walker, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)
Gov. Bob McDonnell's aides have dangled millions in toll-reducing road funds in front of a local Democrat in hopes of avoiding a Senate stalemate over his proposed two-year state budget.
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VA: Amazon in talks with Virginia about tax deal, lawmaker says
By Julian Walker, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)
As retailers from around the state lobbied lawmakers to end a sales tax loophole for online merchants, a state senator said one of the biggest beneficiaries, Amazon.com, is in talks with state officials about a tax deal.
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VA: Outcry erupts over McDonnell request for toll authority
By Bill Sizemore, The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk)
Public outcry over impending tolls on the Downtown and Midtown tunnels has helped spark widespread opposition in the General Assembly to the governor's request for broad new authority to use tolls as a major transportation funding mechanism statewide.
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WV: State Housing Fund bonuses top $800,000
By Eric Eyre, Charleston Gazette
The West Virginia Housing Development Fund gave out more than $800,000 in cash bonuses to employees during the past decade, agency records show.
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