Albeit Concealed, State Spending Has Grown For Decades
Total state spending per capita is at its highest level ever in the 2012 fiscal year and has more than tripled since 1970. Over the past four decades, state spending has grown much faster than personal income, and in real, per capita terms, spending on all reported categories has more than doubled since the mid-1970s. That includes education, corrections, health and human services, transportation, and debt servicing. General fund spending per capita has declined by 16 percent since 2009, but per capita spending outside of the general fund increased by 26 percent and more than compensated for the general fund’s decline. Federal aid continues to comprise an ever-larger portion of the state budget, and North Carolina’s cash-basis accounting conceals spending and is generating unfunded liabilities.
A Potential Tool to Undo a Tragedy of the Commons in NC Fisheries
Declining fish stocks are affecting N.C. fishermen and fishing communities despite the U.S. government spending $70 million a year to bail out failing federally managed fisheries under traditional management systems. Catch shares are a transformative approach to fisheries management that inject property rights into the fisheries to produce a sea change in incentives. Catch shares eliminate race to fish, encourage a more discriminating harvest, and reduce bycatch. Research finds strong links between catch shares and improved economic and biological performance of fisheries and that switching fisheries to catch share systems not only slows their decline but possibly stops (or even reverses) it.
Catch Shares: A Potential Tool to Undo a Tragedy of the Commons in NC Fisheries
Efficient and Fair Tax Reform for North Carolina
North Carolina’s state income tax penalizes people’s income generating activities, those that lead to the production of goods and services and spur economic growth. By reducing the rewards to all income-generating activity — work, saving, and investment — the income tax discourages those activities relative to non-income generating activities — leisure and consumption. The tax that should be adopted as a replacement for the existing income tax is what is called a “flat rate consumed income tax.”
The Consumed Income Tax: Efficient and Fair Tax Reform for North Carolina
What government costs in North Carolina cities and counties
The average North Carolinian surrendered more than 4.5 percent of his personal income to fund city and county government in the 2010 budget year, according to a new John Locke Foundation report. The local tax and fee burden continues to top more than $2,000 a year in five of North Carolina's largest cities.
By the Numbers: What Government Costs in North Carolina Cities and Counties FY 2010
A member of the task force speaks out
Wake County commissioners should be wary of their environmental sustainability task force's final report. A John Locke Foundation expert who served on the task force says the report relies on a flawed decision-making process, bad assumptions, and incomplete analysis.
Wake County Sustainability Task Force Report: An Alternate Opinion
Forty of 52 RCC contracts include special pricing breaks
The Raleigh Convention Center continues to rely on deep discounts to get business -- knocking $569,000 off the room prices for meetings scheduled over the last six months of 2011. A new John Locke Foundation Regional Brief documents the deals. The new report includes a searchable website (JohnLocke.org/site-docs/research/RCC) to help taxpayers keep track of these discounts.
Marc A. Levin is a director of the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Levin is an Austin attorney and an accomplished author on legal and public policy issues.
Levin has served as a law clerk to Judge Will Garwood on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Staff Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court.
In 1999, he graduated with honors from the University of Texas with a B.A. in Plan II Honors and Government. In 2002, Levin received his J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law.
Levin's articles on law and public policy have been featured in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Texas Review of Law & Politics, National Law Journal, New York Daily News, Jerusalem Post, Toronto Star, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Charlotte Observer, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, San Antonio Express-News and Reason Magazine.
Marc was a Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow in 1996. As part of that program, he interned at Reason Magazine and had two articles published, one on juvenile justice and one on airport privatization.
John Locke Foundation analysts and staff have traveled to every corner of North Carolina. We’ve listened to your greatest hopes and worst fears for our state, and we’ve heard a consistent message: You want JLF to be a more prominent resource in your community.
JLF's regional clubs will host meetings for like-minded conservatives, on your home turf. We'll bring you events with well known thinkers and writers, give you reports on our activities and new research, update you on issues that impact your neighborhood and wallet, and learn more about the threats to liberty you face in your city and country.
We have established 7 regional clubs covering every part of North Carolina.
May 16, 2012 9:09 AM
May 16, 2012 8:45 AM
May 16, 2012 8:28 AM
May 16, 2012 8:18 AM
May 16, 2012 8:13 AM
May 16, 2012 7:21 AM
May 03, 2012
When schools spend time preaching the virtues of a green lifestyle while ignoring basic education, they're ripping off taxpayers.
Apr 25, 2012
Senate Bill 655 would set into law restrictive regulations controlling the financing and operation of dental practices, while adding others.
Apr 20, 2012
Natural gas exploration using hydraulic fracturing, aka fracking, may be moving forward in North Carolina. The General Assembly is ready to authorize it.
Mar 21, 2012
The world's media found the neo-Nazi meme in stories about the school shooting in France just too enticing.
Jan 16, 2012
In a Sunday piece, <i>The Charlotte Observer</i> employs all the steps used by the mainstream media to mislead readers.
Jan 03, 2012
When it comes to quoting blog sites in <i>The News & Observer</i>, the liberal Huffington Post seems to be a favorite.
