Category Archives: Budgets

Barry Smith reports for Carolina Journal Online that the Senate budget plan includes a new fee for drivers of electric and hybrid vehicles. Kristen Blair’s Daily Journal questions the wisdom of allowing young children to spend lots of time with iPads and other digital devices.

John Locke Foundation researchers offer this initial assessment of the state Senate’s budget plan: RALEIGH — Spending slightly less than Gov. Pat McCrory’s General Fund budget plan, the N.C. Senate’s $20.56 billion proposal would move state government spending in the right direction. The John Locke Foundation’s chief budget analyst offers that assessment. She says senatorsContinue Reading

Gene Epstein warns readers of his latest “Economic Beat” column in Barron’s that those who misinterpret the latest 10-year projections from the Congressional Budget Office are in for a “rude awakening.” Bad news for debt-deniers: Despite media coverage to the contrary, the updated 10-year projections of the Congressional Budget Office, released on Tuesday, confirm thatContinue Reading

Many members of Congress have yet to read the memo about the problem of government overspending. The National Taxpayers Union Foundation offers this week a list of the most expensive measures included among the 1,900 House and 900 Senate bills filed to date during the 113th Congress. Of course, other members of Congress are pursuingContinue Reading

Senator Pete Brunstetter said in a news conference today that the Senate would be releasing their tax plan on Sunday.  He didn’t give any specifics of the plan because all senators haven’t been briefed on the details of the plan yet.  The tax plan which was discussed earlier this month has not yet been seenContinue Reading

Steve Forbes warns readers in the latest issue of Forbes magazine that the federal government has several ways to target your retirement savings in the future. When the Cyprus bank crisis hit, this column warned that the precedent set by seizing people’s savings would not be lost on Washington politicians. Hardly had the digital inkContinue Reading

After reading and hearing comments by legislators about virtual charter schools, there appears to be a lot of confusion about funding. First, how much does it cost to operate a virtual charter school?  According to iNACOL, the average per pupil expenditure is $6,500, but it may be slightly more depending on various factors.  This is lessContinue Reading

Coming up with new ways of wasting money is a long-standing Pentagon tradition. Two cases getting national press attention: • The Littoral Combat Ships. Bloomberg describes problems with the Navy’s new types of ship that’s suppose to be able to do, well, everything, in coastal waters: U.S. Navy leaders were warned last year that aContinue Reading