Free Republic

New York State is famous for so many things; Niagara Falls, The Empire State Building, Erie Canal and Montauk Point just to name a few. But for many of us who live in the Empire State the most famous part of our home State is the oppressive tax burden. A new study shows that from 2000 to 2008, New York experienced the nation's largest loss of residents to other states—a net domestic migration outflow of over 1.5 million, or 8 percent of its population at the start of the decade. Households moving out of New York State had average incomes...

HealthCare Reform Will Ruin Your Insurance And Your Job The healthcare reform that is being pushed by the President and Democrats in Congress is a terrible bill. It's purpose is very clearly designed to end private insurance and move everyone in the country towards the public option, socializing healthcare in effect, while pretending that choice is still an option. It would be one thing if Obama and Reid and Pelosi came out and said they liked socialist healthcare, and thought the country should move in that direction. If they admitted the expense, and the likely destruction of private insurance, you...

Sweden's high tax regime is counterproductive: rather than focusing on the improvement of core services, it has led to a bloated bureaucracy and an inefficient welfare state... Sweden is a nation with extraordinarily high tax rates. The average worker not only pays 30 percent of income in visible taxes, but also close to 30 percent in hidden taxes... Some level of taxation is of course required to fund the public sector. At the same time, a high level of taxation does not necessarily translate into an equally high level of welfare: - High taxes do not always mean high tax...

California voters Tuesday put the truth to the lie that the tax rebellion has come to an end. Almost two-thirds of the electorate (65.4 percent) cast ballots against Proposition 1A, a measure which would have increased taxes in the cash-strapped "Golden State" by $16 billion. Voters in the state that, in 1978, gave birth to the modern tax revolt proved once again that the political pundits who the Republicans need to give up their anti-tax stance in favor of a platform that acknowledges the need for expanded government services that appeal to constituencies like those that shop at "big box"...

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Biggest brain drain from UK in 50 years By Robert Winnett, Deputy Political Editor Last Updated: 2:08am GMT 21/02/2008 Britain is experiencing the worst "brain drain" of any country as highly qualified professionals settle abroad, an authoritative international study showed yesterday. Record numbers of Britons are leaving - many of them doctors, teachers and engineers - in the biggest exodus for almost 50 years. Over a quarter of qualified professionals who have moved abroad had health or education qualifications There are now 3.247 million British-born people living abroad, of whom more than 1.1 million are highly-skilled university graduates, say the...

The mortgage crisis in America has deepened so much that family homes can now be bought for less than £15,200 - the price of a new car. A four-bedroom home near the original Motown recording studio in Detroit recently sold for £3,700 ($7,000), less than most used cars. A boarded-up bungalow fetched £685, and a three-bedroom house listed for £276,000 attracted just £69,000. Detroit, which made its fortune on the back of the car industry, now holds a more dubious distinction: the capital of home repossessions. The decline of its main industry has seen Detroit suffer more than other areas...

Business at Weidmann Electrical Technology in St. Johnsbury is booming. So much, the company is looking to expand its operations. But that expansion will not take place in Vermont due to high taxes and a strong impression by investors that Vermont is unfriendly to business, according to a letter sent April 2 by John Goodrich, vice president and general manager of Weidmann Technology. "The paradox of the situation is this: we are extremely busy but are unable to expand in Vermont," ... Vermont needs to decide if it indeed wants to encourage in-state businesses to expand and new industry to...

Benedikt Thoma recalls the moment he began to think seriously about leaving Germany. It was in 2004, at a New Year’s Day reception in nearby Frankfurt, and the guest speaker, a prominent politician, was lamenting the fact that every year thousands of educated Germans turn their backs on their homeland. “That struck me like a bolt of lightning,” said Mr. Thoma, 44, an engineer then running his family’s elevator company. “I asked myself, ‘Why should I stay here when the future is brighter someplace else?’ ” In December, as his work with the company became an intolerable grind because of...

New England is losing young adults at an alarming rate, according to a recently published report from the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute. The study found that each state in New England has experienced at least a 20 percent decline in its population of 25-34- year-olds between 1990 and 2004. Massachusetts is at the low end of the spectrum and has lost 20 percent of its young adults. Rhode Island has lost the same proportion, while Vermont and New Hampshire have lost 27, Maine 29, and Connecticut 30 percent during the period. "The decline of the young adult population...

Mounting population losses are all but certain to cost Massachusetts one of its 10 congressional seats after the 2010 Census, two new studies have projected. However, Secretary of State William F. Galvin has already begun a campaign to keep all the US House seats, focusing on making sure all students and immigrants get counted to boost Massachusetts' sagging population

Chuck swung by the Daily News for an editorial board meeting this morning, which you'll be able to read more about in tomorrow's News. A couple of tidbits from his broader discussion (forthcoming in book form) of how he sees the shifting terrain and the Democrats' edge struck me: "We're in better shape than [Republicans] are, because they don't realize that Reaganomics is dead, that the Reagan philosophy is dead," he said. "We realize that New Deal democracy, which is still our paradigm, which is sort of appeal to each group ... that doesn't work any more." He had said...

The City Council is considering whether to use the property to build affordable housing, a condominium complex called Los Portales for families earning up to $160,000 a year. Now, "it's hard to get sympathy for people making $160,000 a year if you're down in Texas or something," said Bill Watkins, head of the UC Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project. Any household with that kind of money is in the nosebleed section of American earners, and "most of the country would think, 'You're going to subsidize that person's house? You're kidding me.' " But in this city — where the median...

New Jersey is the perennial loser in the student migration wars: more of its residents leave the state to go to college than anywhere else in the country. On the other end of the spectrum, so many students have decided that sunshine, mosquitoes and the Marlins are the essential elements of the college experience that Florida is the state with the highest “net migration” (the number who enter minus the number who leave). Source: Interstate Commission for Higher Education; number of students in 2005 and 2015 are projections based on 2001-2 data... The swelling population of 18-year-olds — members of...

While the latest performance of Albany lawmakers was breathtakingly destructive on its face, the damage is even worse when compared to fiscal policies in other states. Rarely inclined to remember - or even to care - that the Empire State must compete economically with 49 other states, New York lawmakers have once again failed to improve the state's attractiveness for taxpaying individuals and businesses. Little wonder why New York is losing more residents than any other state - and why businesses are fleeing, upstate especially. Other states are only too happy to woo New Yorkers and New York businesses... Albany...

Boston, as well as the state, has been losing population in the past few years. If those numbers are confirmed by the 2010 federal census, Massachusetts could lose up to two congressional seats, as well as federal money for highway, education, and development programs that are tied to population. Responding to concerns raised by the state's congressional delegation, local mayors, and Secretary of State William F. Galvin, lawmakers included $100,000 in the $25.7 billion state budget last week to pay a University of Massachusetts think tank to start researching the numbers to make sure that as many residents as possible...

May 01, 06 fairfieldcountybusinessjournal.com Dems choose high taxes while working families struggle http://www.fairfieldcountybusinessjournal.com/archive/050106/0501060019.php DebraLee Hovey For all their high-minded rhetoric about supporting middle-class and working families in Connecticut, when helping them involves easing their tax burden, the liberal Democratic majority in the General Assembly almost always come down on the side of higher taxes. Their reflexive opposition to cutting taxes was on display for all to see recently when they killed a Republican measure that would have lowered electricity bills for most ratepayers. Their timing could not have been worse. In addition to shouldering one of the highest overall tax...

Single-family home sales and prices in Massachusetts fell 1.5 percent in March, capping a first quarter in which sales slowed dramatically from the previous year... ''Inventory is at record highs, so buyers are taking their time," said David Wluka, president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors. ''They can pick among several houses so they don't feel the pressure." The slowdown in Massachusetts' housing market ran counter to a surprising pick-up in March in nationwide sales of homes, condominiums, and townhouses. Analysts had predicted that strong February sales... The housing market in Massachusetts ''simply isn't as strong as it is in...

New York State is losing more residents than any other state in the country, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics released early today. Based on surveys taken between 2000 and 2004, the figures show that New York replaced California as the net migration outflow leader, with an average of 182,886 people leaving a year, nearly double California's average for the same period. California led the nation between 1990 and 2000. The findings track the state-to-state movement in America. They do not include international immigration numbers. The New York City metropolitan region - which includes Long Island and parts of New...

Cook County lost more people between 2000 and 2005 than any county in the nation, according to Census Bureau estimates released Thursday that also show continued gains in suburban and exurban counties across the region and portions of the nation. The new figures--based on administrative records and estimates for births, deaths and net migration--show the county lost more than 73,000 people, or 1.4 percent, since the last official count in April 2000. The largest-loser designation can partly be attributed to Cook County's massive size, because raw numbers were used for the rankings. Still, among the nation's 10 largest counties, Cook,...

A $59 million jail featuring art and flat screen TVs in Portland, Ore., has been sitting unused for more than a year as the city can't afford to open it. The Wapato Facility took two years to construct and can house 525 inmates at a cost of $20 million per year, .... The county spent more than $600,000 on art for the jail, including a sculpture out front by the circular driveway. There are 30-foot vaulted ceilings and private showers. "I love coming to an empty $59-million jail," Giusto told the Los Angeles Times. "I get tired of telling people...

....This state of beautiful mountains and popular ski resorts, once a magnet for back-to-the-landers, is losing young people at a precipitous clip.... Vermont, with a population of about 620,000, now has the lowest birth rate among states....The total number of 20- to 34-year-olds in Vermont has shrunk by 19 percent since 1990. [CLIP] While Vermont's population of young people shrinks, the number of older residents is multiplying because Vermont increasingly attracts retirees from other states. [CLIP] Fewer babies are being born in part because Vermont has few immigrants, who tend to have larger families...There is also a serious housing shortage,...

Gas Prices for [zip code] 96740 Detailed Pricing Information...Every night MSN Autos receives pricing data from over 90,000 gas stations across the nation...

827 Seattle students informed they will be freshmen again... Nearly one in four Seattle Public Schools sophomores is missing required credits and has been reclassified as a freshman, potentially delaying graduation. The move, effective this semester, was part of a package of changes the district announced in October to help better prepare high school students to pass the Washington Assessment of Student Learning and graduate. Under district policy, high school students have to complete five credits a year to advance to the next grade. At some schools, the rate was far higher than one in four students. At Rainier Beach...

From 2000 through 2004, a net 1.3 million people moved out of states with taxes on ordinary income and into those without such taxes... Quietly, without banners or raised fists, they are packing up their families and belongings and moving from high-tax states like California and New York to lower-tax locales like Florida, Nevada and Texas. While climate clearly has played a role in the moves -- fed up with giving an ever-growing share of their riches to the state tax man. Many are upset at moves by New York, New Jersey and a number of other states to squeeze...

Hawaii residents paid more state taxes in 2004 than residents of any other state in the country... Hawaii residents paid an average of $3,050 per person in 2004, while Texans paid the least — an average of $1,368. Every state but one collected more taxes per person in 2004 than it did a decade earlier... State taxpayer burdens increased by an average of 41 percent from 1994 to 2004. Only Alaska saw the amount it collects per person decline. Even when the numbers are adjusted for inflation, the individual tax burdens increased in 43 states. Rising education and Medicaid costs...

Taxes were up in the past 10 years for Maryland and Virginia residents, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, disappointing both lawmakers and anti-tax advocates. The tax burden in Virginia increased by 55 percent in that period, with a per capita amount of $1,903 in 2004. In Maryland, the tax burden increased by 46 percent, with an individual tax burden of $2,214 in 2004. The District's tax statistics are computed with cities' and local governments' financial data, which won't be available until April, the Census Bureau said.

Posted on Fri, Jan. 27, 2006 Corzine advisers calling for taxes Their transition report has outlined unpopular budget solutions. N.J. lawmakers joined in a chorus of boos. By Kaitlin Gurney Inquirer Trenton Bureau TRENTON - Expand the sales tax to include clothes and online purchases. Tax 401(k) retirement accounts. Raise the gas tax. Consider a temporary increase in the state income tax. With New Jersey's finances "perilously close to ruin," Gov. Corzine's budget advisers have recommended these unpopular solutions and more to fill what they estimate to be a $6 billion hole in the state's budget. The grim transition report...

Chancellor Angela Merkel has pushed Germany's low birth rate to the top of the political agenda for the first time since the Nazi era as an expert said the nation could die out if the trend continued. A third of German women are not having children, a remarkable figure even compared with low birth rates in the rest of Europe. Among graduates the figure is as high as 40 per cent. Every year 100,000 more Germans die than are born and each generation is shrinking by about a third. Even in the poverty and despair after the Second World War,...

IT IS AN axiom of commerce that economic development follows Interstate highways. Except in Vermont. A new study by University of Vermont economist Arthur Woolf has found that development that should have come along I-91 up the Connecticut River instead came across the river — in New Hampshire. The reason? Higher taxes and regulations in Vermont. “We’re seeing the gap grow larger and larger each time we do the study,”... “Those communities along the river are really feeling the impact now.” They are feeling the impact of taxes and regulations imposed in the 1960s and ’70s... Vermont border counties had...

Where you live can have a big impact on how much you pay in taxes each year. The spread, according to numbers crunched by the nonprofit Tax Foundation, might not be enough to make you pull up stakes and move to a new state, but it can give you a case of tax envy. The state and local burden ranges from 6.4% (Alaska) to 13% (Maine).

Colorado businesses might think that with the Colorado fiscal crunch eased thanks to Referendum C, now might be the perfect time to sell tax breaks that stimulate industry in the name of job creation. Actually, say political observers, the exact opposite is true for the 2006 legislative session - and perhaps several sessions thereafter. "The political dynamic is such that no tax-reduction or relief measures would have any chance of passage for the next five years," said Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Auto Dealers Association. "It's just a fact of life." Freed from TABOR restraints Ward said the chamber...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans are leaving their country in record numbers but unlike previous waves of migrants who fled 19th century poverty or 1930s Nazi terror, these modern day refugees are trying to escape a new scourge -- unemployment. Flocking to places as far away as the United States, Canada and Australia as well as Norway, the Netherlands and Austria more than 150,000 Germans packed their bags and left in 2004 -- the greatest exodus in any single year since the late 1940s. High unemployment that lingers at levels of more than 20 percent in some parts of Germany and...

Massachusetts has lost thousands in population over the last two years, according to newly released U.S. Census numbers. But the numbers do more than signal an...exodus from the Bay State... It puts Massachusetts in danger of losing yet another congressional seat after 2010, when the House of Representatives is reapportioned. "It's discouraging," said Phil Johnston, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "It means we're losing political clout with the Congress, and it's not good." Since 1920, when Massachusetts had 16 representatives, the state has seen a steady decline, down to the current 10 representatives... "It would be likely we would...

Markos Moulitsas Zúniga the man that runs the most successful political blog in America can't afford the Blue state of California: "So I'm getting a little frustrated with the Bay Area real estate market, and for the first time in years I'm casting about the rest of the nation to see if there's anywhere else where I could possibly live." How ironic,a guy who supports a party that promotes Fannie Mae,Freddie Mac,land-use restrictions,zoning,open space laws,and unions is unable to buy a house in the very Blue area of Northern California. All this from a guy who's got a law degree......

BOSTON New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were the only states to lose population from 2004 to 2005. The U-S Census reports that New York lost 26-thousand residents, a tenth-of-a-percent decrease. Massachusetts also had a tenth-of-a-percent decline, losing 8-thousand. Rhode Island lost about 3-thousand, or three-tenths of a percent. Experts attribute the trend to soaring housing costs, a stagnant job market and the arrival of fewer immigrants. Most of the states with the largest population growth are in the South and West. Nevada, with an estimated population increase of 3-point-5 percent, was the fastest growing state for the 19th consecutive...

Increase of 2.8 cents a gallon will begin Jan. 1 -- the biggest one-time jump in nearly 20 years, the N.C. Department of Revenue told the Observer Thursday. The latest tax increase, to 29.9 cents a gallon, will push North Carolina from having the nation's eighth-highest state gas tax to the sixth. "They're imposing a higher tax when the pain will be getting worse," said Mark Cooper, research director for the Consumer Federation of America. Republican state lawmakers proposed capping the gas tax at 24.6 cents to ease the pain of pump prices that passed $3 after Hurricanes Katrina and...

More than 17 million individuals and families could start the new year facing higher taxes because of a provision unfamiliar to most taxpayers -- the alternative minimum tax. The new year means the expiration of a temporary fix that prevents the alternative minimum tax from hitting millions of people this year on taxes due next April. But if Congress doesn't act, the additional tax will return for the 2006 tax year. Originally designed to make sure wealthy individuals paid some tax, the alternative minimum tax reaches further into the middle class every year as inflation pushes more and more people...

We've just released a new study on corporate taxation around the globe. Bottom line: the U.S. is a global leader in yet another area—high corporate tax rates... The United States has the highest overall corporate income tax rate (39.3 percent combined federal and sub-federal) among all countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) (see table below). Japan (39.0 percent) and Germany (38.9 percent) have the second and third highest corporate income tax rates. The nation with the lowest corporate income tax rate in the OECD is Ireland (12.5 percent).

LONDON, England. From the time of the Thatcher reforms in the early 1980s, Britain has been the star economic performer among the major European nations. The British went from having the lowest per capita income of the European big four (Germany, France, Italy and Britain) to having the highest one, but now there are signs the economic sickness in "old Europe" is beginning to infect the British. The British economy had been growing an average of almost 3 percent yearly for the last two decades, which is quite respectable, given that French and German economies have grown much more slowly....

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) -- A national advocate against taxes brought his message to Kentucky Thursday with a twist - casino gambling is not covered by the anti-tax pledge. Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform said his organization has signed pledges from 34 Kentucky House members and 17 senators against raising taxes. Gov. Ernie Fletcher, too, has signed the pledge. Norquist said Fletcher's pledge is intact as long as any tax proposal he makes does not raise any more money than it cuts. "So long as it's revenue neutral, it is perfectly consistent with the governor's pledge," Norquist said.

President Pataki? Cannot be. With 2008 just four years away, it's not too early to rule New York governor George Pataki unfit for the GOP nomination. Republicans should study his record and keep him as far from their party's ticket as Albany is from Albuquerque. After ten years as governor, Pataki's legacy rests on three legs: an anemic economy, a listless state Republican party, and a deteriorating ethical climate. The Pacific Research Institute recently measured economic freedom in all 50 states. While PRI ranked Kansas No. 1 overall, New York State was dead last at No. 50. It was rated...

PHILADELPHIA - Romualdo Rivera arrives at the emergency room with what seems to be a complaint of chest pain. But it's hard to be sure — he doesn't speak English.

More on Environmentalism Science, Politics and Deathby Arthur B. Robinson & Jane M. OrientEnvironmental extremism kills. Millions die annually because of restrictions on DDT, and imposing the "Kyoto" regulations would kill many more.Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, a professor of chemistry, is the founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and editor of the newsletter Access to Energy. Dr. Jane Orient, a specialist in internal medicine, has a private practice and is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Easily usable energy is the currency of human progress. Without it, stagnation, regression and untold...

WSLS TV has just published a new online poll that asks 3 questions...about your support/approval for a: - Sales tax hike - Cigarette tax hike - Car Tax hike Please visit and vote NO. http://vagenassembly.mgnetwork.com/index.cfm?siteid=sls&packageid=28 You can vote 1 time per hour per IP address.

House Finance Committee Votes on Tax Increase on Tue. ACTION. If you get this in time, please contact members of the House Finance Committee before 2 PM, Tue, Apr 6th. Some Republican Delegates plan to introduce a bill to increase taxes by close to $1 billion by increasing the sales tax from 4.5% to 5%, the cigarette tax and other fees. Tell the Finance Committee if you want the tax increase – or not. If it passes the Finance Committee, it goes to the whole House the next day. To send a message to all House Finance Committee members, you...

Norfolk’s Mayor has scheduled a Town Hall Meeting on the state budget for Wednesday, April 7, 2004 from 7-9 PM at Northside Middle School, 8720 Granby Street near Ocean View. Please understand it is crucial for you to attend this meeting and express your feelings about a tax increase. Just to say, “I do not want my taxes raised.” If you want to say more, you can but we need as many people there as possible to show their support. Remember, the teacher's unions, gov't employee unions and other special interests always pack these meetings to make it appear that...

Budget Parable: The Tale of the Thrifty Wife BILL JANIS RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH Thursday, April 1, 2004 A husband and wife sat down on a Saturday afternoon for their monthly meeting to discuss the family finances. The wife, the bookkeeper of the family, was thrifty, prudent, and frugal. She began to outline, in brief and business-like fashion, the family's balance sheet - noting her husband's salary, the interest earned on their savings, the dividends from their modest family investments, and her fees collected for helping prepare tax returns for friends and neighbors. As she began to outline, as was her custom,...

Fellow VA Freepers....please attend these remaining budget hearings to speak AGAINST the tax increases...get their EARLY and sign up to speak. See the note below the VEA teacher's union is sending to their minions..... ***************************************************** Date: Monday 3/29/04 Time: 6-8:00 PM Place: Rockbridge Regional Library, Lexington Legislator: Delegate Ben Cline Date: Tuesday 3/30/04 Time: 5-7:00 PM Place: Amherst County Courthouse Legislator: Delegate Ben Cline Date: Tuesday 3/30/04 Time: 6:30 PM Place: L. C. Bird High School, 10301 Courthouse Road, Chesterfield County Legislators: Senator Steve Martin (invited House and Senate leaders & conferees) Date: Tuesday 3/30/04 Time: 7:00 PM Place: Godwin...

Democratic Party of Virginia Kerry J. Donley, Chairman -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- March 16, 2004 Dear Virginia Democratic Friend, The Republicans have asked the people of Virginia to entrust them with the mantle of leadership, to give them the reins of state government. But they have betrayed the trust of the people of Virginia and dragged that mantle of leadership through the dirt. Sixty-three days and counting...and still, Republicans cannot agree on a common sense spending plan for our Commonwealth. Let me be very clear: The legacy of the House Republican leadership is chaos, gridlock and failure. If the voters of Virginia elected...