by Dan Mitchell | Feb 16, 2025 | Big Government, Blogs, States, Taxation
California’s top fiscal problem is an ever-growing burden of government spending. In case anyone thinks that is just empty rhetoric, the state budget over the past three decades has risen at twice the rate of inflation. One consequences of ever-expanding...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 6, 2025 | Blogs, States, Tax Competition, Taxation
I’ve written countless times about how taxpayers “vote with their feet” against high taxes and big government. Most recently, I wrote about rich people escaping Norway because that country’s left-wing government dramatically boosted its...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 23, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending
Part I of this series looked at unfunded pension debt of states and Part II examined the unfunded pension debt of cities. In Part III, let’s look at the degree to which state taxpayers are exposed to big unfunded liabilities for “Other Post-Employment Benefits” such...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 21, 2024 | Blogs, States
The ideal pension system for workers is defined-contribution accounts – such as IRAs or 401(k)s – which is why it is so encouraging that many nations have moved in that direction. One advantage of that approach is that, by definition, there are no...
by Dan Mitchell | Dec 20, 2024 | Big Government, Blogs, Government Spending, States
During Trump’s first term, he was a big spender. He even wound up increasing domestic spending at a faster rate than Barack Obama. What can we expect in a second term? A week after the election, as part of my “Second Edition of Trump” series, I speculated...
