Spending & Taxes

The Democratic party’s most radically progressive candidates, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have promised to impose a tax on wealth. To be clear, wealth is distinct from income. Wealth is…

In this research update, I take a closer look at revenues and expenditures in North Carolina over the past 20 years. I use actual collections and expenditures from the…

The John Locke Foundation is approaching its 30th anniversary, and the Republican majority in the General Assembly is halfway through its fifth session. It seems a good time to…

It is widely believed, with plenty of evidence to support the hypothesis, that tax cuts spur economic growth. Over the past six decades, tax cut legislation has been implemented by…

Governors and state legislators have given away much of their ability to make policy over the last 30 years. Even as state government has grown in size and scope, it…

Despite his protestations, Gov. Roy Cooper has signed three mini-budget bills passed unanimously by the General Assembly. Republican legislative leaders signaled their move to piecemeal budgeting in mid-August when they…

Kansas has been criticized since 2012 for cutting taxes irresponsibly, despite a court-ordered increase in education spending. Tax cuts in the Sunflower State may have been larger than circumstances warranted,…

Only four House Democrats refused to sign a letter pledging to uphold Gov. Roy Cooper’s budget veto. That is three fewer than the seven Democratic votes needed to override and…

There is a great deal of public discussion right now about the minimum wage. Democrats and activists want to raise it, and they have settled on the arbitrary figure of…

In addition to questions of money and Medicaid, the budget stalemate raises a philosophical question: When is a balanced budget not a balanced budget? North Carolina’s state constitution and…