The Heartland Institute

Another secretive budget is in the near future as California Democrats passed 37 empty budget “spot bills” Monday. Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Los Angeles), the author of AB 74, the budget bills and chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, called the bills “budget vehicles.” Blumenfield said Republicans began to care about ...

According to Governing magazine, there were 28 public bankruptcies in 2011 and 2012. Although that number fell short of many experts’ predictions, it still represents a significant increase in defaults. Of the dozens of cities considering bankruptcy, Stockton, California is the largest and has received the most attention. A recent ...

Employees of the City of Irvine, Calif., received total compensation averaging $143,691 in 2012, according to a study published by the California Public Policy Center. Median total compensation, which means half of the Irvine city employees received less than this amount, and half received more, was $133,782 during 2012. These ...

What if most of the public employee compensation enhancements of the past decade or more in California were based on inaccurately optimistic government financial statements? Or to be blunt, what if government decision makers incorrectly thought they could afford these compensation enhancements because the information they relied ...

Yesterday, at the Republican National Convention, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice gave a superb speech covering many important issues. One issue she touched on that regrettably hasn’t been talked about enough this campaign season is education reform. For the United States to have sustained economic prosperity ...

California state government over the past few years has borrowed $4.3 billion from special funds that were designated for specific purposes to cover general fund expenses, according to an analysis by the Sacramento Bee newspaper. The news did not surprise Ed Howard, senior counsel of the Center for Public Interest Law. “I can ...

This Taxpayer Risk Assessment examines the financial risks to taxpayers of the proposed XpressWest high-spreed rail project from Victorville to Las Vegas. There would be no need for a Taxpayer Risk Analysis without government (taxpayer) involvement. For example, if a bus company were to establish a new service between Victorville ...

Corporate Income Taxes Problem All 50 states currently have a higher combined federal and state corporate tax rate than France, whose rate is third-highest among OECD countries 1. Although corporate income taxes make up a fairly minor part of state tax revenue, they have a harmful impact on economic behavior. Nonetheless, many ...

In states and municipalities across the country, the high cost of traditional defined-benefit public pensions has become a hot-button issue as unfunded liabilities have raced out of control. These increasing liabilities are further complicated by the fact that in many instances the regulators controlling pension funds have overestimated ...

Myth 1: A tax on Internet sales just enables states to collect taxes they are already legally entitled to collect. Fact: A state is not legally entitled to collect taxes from Internet sellers with no physical presence in that state. In Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that a mail-order or ...

Problem States across the country continue to struggle with balancing their budgets as a result of increasing spending and a lagging economy. Many states also have accumulated massive amounts of debt that taxpayers will have to pay due to years of overspending combined with state employee pensions and benefits. Thirty-one states ...

Stockton, California, has gone into bankruptcy, making this city of 300,000 residents the nation’s largest city to seek protection under the U.S. bankruptcy code. The Stockton City Council voted 6-1 on June 26 to adopt a spending plan for operating under bankruptcy protection, and to file a motion with the courts to enter ...

California legislators in late June approved dozens of amendments to this year’s state budget, but opponents say it's still unbalanced and incomplete. The budget depends on voters approving an $8 billion tax increase in November. If they refuse it, billions in spending cuts will kick in on January 2013. ‘Worst in California ...

This report from California Common Sense cites three main factors contributing to the city’s bankruptcy: The housing bust and financial collapse decimated the city’s property tax (and related) revenues. This problem was made worse by a skyrocketing home foreclosure rate. The real estate bubble encouraged large spending increases ...

California is facing a worse budget predicament than previously thought, and while the governor touts additional short-term fixes of tax hikes and spending cuts, opponents are calling for systemic reform. In January, the state was staring down a $9.2 billion deficit. By mid-May, the projection had ballooned to $15.7 billion. Gov ...

Although gasoline taxes have long been the main source of funding for building, maintaining, and operating America’s network of highways, roads, and streets, the tax is at best an imperfect user fee. As such, Congress and the states should take action to transition from gas taxes to more efficient vehicle-mile fees. One of ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

With transportation coffers barely able to maintain highways, let alone adding new capacity to relieve congestion, many transportation economists and urban planners have concluded that the best solution to U.S. freeway congestion is to implement variable pricing on all congested freeways. At the same time, many political scientists ...

Hydraulic fracturing has enabled profitable extraction of oil and gas in diverse areas of the country. As a result, many states sitting atop the country’s shale formations are reconsidering the way they tax these resources, to fill budget holes. Many of these debates are occurring in states with unconventional deposits and where ...

President Obama's dream of a high-speed rail future for California is dead. The only question now is whether the state government will kill it in time to save taxpayers billions of dollars. On Nov. 1, the California High-Speed Rail Authority issued a new report conceding what critics have been saying for years -- that the ...