On the bright side: Though Louisiana is facing a $1.4 billion budget hole in the coming fiscal year, it isn’t among the six states expected to fall short on its revenue targets. According to a new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, Alaska, Arizona, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan and Vermont are all expected to miss their revenue forecasts. New Mexico and Indiana are lagging slightly. And some states, such as Virginia and Maryland, have lowered their revenue forecasts, as well, while Kansas, Louisiana, Montana and Wyoming have trimmed their forecasts for severance tax collections. As Reuters reports, all states except Vermont must end their fiscal years with balanced budgets, and so states that bring in less money than expected could have to cut spending, use savings or raise taxes to end the shortfalls. Read the full story.
Any way the wind blows: President Obama’s push for a new “middle-class economics” may go nowhere in Congress, but his ambitious array of proposals to raise stagnant incomes and provide more government support for struggling working families will frame his last two years in office and help make the politics of rich and poor a central issue in the campaign to succeed him. With the economy finally on more solid ground, The New York Times reports that even leading Republicans—both those on Capitol Hill and on the 2016 presidential campaign front—are tempering complaints about overall economic growth and refocusing on the more intractable problem of income inequality. So far, Republicans have embraced few policies to address the issue, but the Democratic focus has prodded conservative economists into action. Read the full story.
Calling on Congress: Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is dismissing efforts in Congress to overhaul the nation’s tax laws by lowering the top income tax rate paid by individuals, saying lawmakers should instead focus on simplifying taxes paid by businesses. Lew says Democrats and Republicans are far apart on how much wealthy individuals should pay in federal income taxes, adding that there are more areas of agreement on business taxes. “I don’t think that there’s any advantage in pretending that there aren’t big disagreements on the individual tax side,” Lew says. “We had a national debate just two years ago about the top rate. We’re not looking at the kind of negotiation to go back to lower the top rate.” The Associated Press has the full story.
