News Story of the Day: do you think that you’re paying more taxes at the state level? Well, you are right.
According to new data from the United States Census Bureau, state government taxes totaled $916.5 billion last year. This is up 4.8 percent from the previous year.
Income taxes were responsible for much of the tax hikes as it accounted for $387.2 billion, or 7.5 percent of the taxes. Corporate taxes also spiked 4.7 percent to $338.1 billion. Severance taxes fell by 29.1 percent because of the dip in oil extraction.
With the tax hikes, state governments are using the funds to spend even more money.
“State policymakers should trim spending and access rainy day funds to balance their budgets. Federal policymakers should help the states revive their economies by freeing them up from costly regulations that are blocking new energy projects,” said Chris Edwards, a tax policy expert at the Cato Institute, in a statement.
“In general, state government finances have bounced back strongly since the last recession, with tax revenues up 31 percent between 2010 and 2015. The problem is that many states are over-expanding their spending programs once again, and they will face a serious crunch when the next recession comes.”
H.L. Mencken was right: we are progressing. You’re paying more taxes than before!
Chart of the Day: the feminists won’t like this chart one bit. The American Enterprise Institute, using data from the College Board, found that high school males have better average SAT math scores than high school females. This has been the trend since 1972, but both genders have experienced a decline since 2013. Here is the chart:
Illustration of the Day: you don’t have to be a Donald Trump supporter to see how easy Lester Holt was on Hillary Clinton during Monday night’s debate. Anyone with common sense could see Holt throwing softballs at the former Secretary of State. Perhaps because he didn’t want to suddenly commit suicide, as this funny meme suggests.
Quote of the Day: legendary free market economist Thomas Sowell penned a superb op-ed last week about the 2016 presidential election. Here is an excerpt from the excellent (as usual) opinion piece:
There is no point denying or sugar-coating the plain fact that the voters this election year face a choice between two of the worst candidates in living memory. A professor at Morgan State University summarized the situation by saying that the upcoming debates may enable voters to decide which is the “less insufferable” candidate to be president.
My own take on this election is that the voter is in a situation much like that of an American fighter pilot in World War II, whose plane has been hit by enemy fire out over the Pacific Ocean and is beginning to burst into flames.
If he bails out, there is no guarantee that his parachute will open. But even if he lands safely in the ocean, he may be eaten by sharks. If he comes down on land, he may be captured by the Japanese and tortured and/or killed.
In other words, there are huge and potentially fatal risks. But, if he remains in the plane, he is doomed for certain. To me, Donald Trump represents multiple and potentially fatal risks. But Hillary Clinton is a certainty of disaster. Her vaunted ‘’experience” is an experience of having repeatedly made decisions that turned out to be not merely wrong but catastrophic.
Video of the Day: former New Mexico Republican Governor and 2016 Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson isn’t having a good week. After suffering from another “Aleppo moment” on MSNBC and sticking his tongue out at a reporter, Johnson is now caught yelling at the media for asking if he’ll be a spoiler. The clip makes it look like he wants to jump over the table and start beating the crap out of the journalists. It’s pretty funny.
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