Over at the MacIver Institute this week, a look at the child tax credit and its impact, especially in Wisconsin.
Because of the Bush tax cuts, joint married filers earning less than $110,000 receive a per-child tax credit of $1000. The tax credit phases out after income reaches $110,000. The tax credit is also $1000 per [...]
Somebody will have to let me know if it’s okay for a writer covering an event to help himself to the free doughnuts. I spent Saturday morning listening to Tom Beebe of the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools describe a “crisis” in education funding in the state and suggest, purely as a band-aid measure, raising [...]
Harley Davidson told it’s employees last week they need to figure out how to come up with $45 million in savings. Of course, maybe they wouldn’t have to come up with so much if the state wasn’t shaking them down for an additional $22.5 million this year thanks to the new combined reporting requirement. [...]
Wisconsin finally changed the tax code for conversions of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs to match the rest of the country and the federal government. It’s now okay for you to do your taxes. Another victory for the good guys, and an issue I wrote about for the MacIver Institute.
The League of American Voters has revised it’s television ad calling on Congressman Steve Kagen (WI-8) to not vote for the latest health care plan. Kagen’s attorney, Mike Maistelman, sent letters to television stations in the district asking them not to air the ad because the ad incorrectly stated that Kagen had previously voted [...]
Time once again to look back at the predictions of last January. Robert Heinlein’s character Lazarus Long said that Cassandra did not get nearly the kicking she deserved. Well, I hope I deserve better.
My predictions, 29 for 2009, are below, and the results are in italics.
1. Beer and alcohol prices will increase substantially due to [...]
In this week’s article for the MacIver Institute, I took a look at Governor Jim Doyle’s plans for the “Race to the Top” money from the federal government.
Doyle plans on using $250 million in federal “Race to the Top” federal money to boost school funding in some districts. But when the “Race to the Top” [...]
The effort to change Wisconsin’s tax code to match the federal tax code regarding IRA conversions has been getting some favorable editorial support. Today it was the Wisconsin State Journal:
The federal government is making it easier for more people to convert their traditional retirement accounts to Roth IRAs.
Wisconsin needs to quickly adjust its law [...]
The House of Representatives recently passed the Tax Extenders Act of 2009 that extends over 30 tax breaks. Extends, not creates, as I point out this week at the MacIver Institute.
However, even though the tax breaks were pre-existing, Congress has decided that the tax breaks must be “paid for” through higher taxes elsewhere. The [...]
In my never-ending quest to give you more of me more of the time, I wrote an op-ed piece for the MacIver Institute regarding the budget situation for the City of Appleton. Despite a huge hit in shared revenue and an increase in tipping fees and garbage collection costs, Appleton’s proposed budget does not [...]
