It may seem a trivial thing, but a battle for “bed taxes” that has been brewing between state and local tax collectors and the online travel industry for the better part of a decade shows no signs of slowing. Recent actions in Montana, Oklahoma, New York, California, Maryland and elsewhere join four or five dozen [...]
Connecticut is cracking down on unemployment insurance fraud. The state is partnering with the federal government to recover an estimated $2.5 million in restitution from hundreds of people who fraudulently filed unemployment insurance claims. The state will be going after all or part of their federal income tax refunds as a means of recovering the [...]
The Illinois Governor’s Office of Management and Budget has put its statement of revenue and expenditures online. The statement outlines all of the state’s significant financial activities for fiscal year 2010 and the first quarter of 2011. The statement is the most comprehensive financial overview of agency and fund spending available before annual reports are [...]
A handful of governors spoke out Wednesday to lend their support to President Barack Obama’s compromise with Congressional Republicans to extend a number of tax breaks, including controversial cuts for those who make above $250,000 per year. In most statements, governors commended the compromise, while highlighting those cuts that are meant to help the middle-class.
Increased Medicaid enrollment and the end of Recovery Act funding are the leading challenges facing state governors and their budget officers as they look to 2011, a new report indicates. In their twice-annual Fiscal Survey of States, the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) say that most states [...]
For the past several months, I have been privileged to be one of 19 people chosen to serve on the Bipartisan Policy Center’s U.S. Debt Reduction Task Force. The Task Force was chaired by former U.S. Senator Peter Domenici, who led the Finance Committee during his 36 years in the Senate, and Dr. Alice Rivlin [...]
According to an announcement late last week, Facebook Inc. has decided to build a $450 million data center facility in Rutherford County, North Carolina. Through a combination of tax incentives, public-private partnerships and meteorological endowment, the state is making a play to become a data center Mecca. Update: This Monday, Gov. Purdue announced that Wipro [...]
Since 2004, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has made a dozen trips abroad, looking to attract money to the state economy. During her weekly radio address, Gov. Granholm said her “investment missions” have netted the sate nearly $2 billion, creating or retaining more than 20,000 jobs.
In an effort to help states build and maintain a workforce tooled to work in a clean energy economy, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices has released a new issue brief. Higher education systems, training programs and private industry will have to work in tandem to develop a clean energy workforce, the brief [...]
According to the Intelligent Community Forum, a New York City-based think tank that studies the economic and social impacts of broadband, six US cities and counties are leading the way in healthcare delivery through innovative IT and telecommunications strategies. The US honorees join fifteen others from Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia as part of the [...]
