Joseph Coletti

While the House continues to work on its budget in committee and on the floor, we are analyzing what is in it. Spending would increase 3.1 percent the first year and 4.0 percent the second year, which raises questions on future sustainability, but would remain less than revenues and availability…

Andrew Klavan provides a stirring apology of Christianity at City Journal. He critiques those who think materialism is all we need and those who act “as if there were a God” but cannot bring themselves to belief. Klavan echoes G.K. Chesterton that “Christianity has not been tried and found…

It’s generally accepted that hybrids and fully electric vehicles make the gas tax regressive because buyers tend to have higher incomes and the cars use less gas. Tax incentives for electric vehicles skew the tax burden further onto people with lower incomes. Authors of a new working paper find the…

World events from the failed Arab Spring to the elections of 2016 “should have mugged” conservatives to question the post-War “secular-liberal-technocratic consensus,” says New York Post Op-Ed Editor Sohrab Ahmari. In his First Things review of Max Boot’s memoir The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right, Ahmari sees parallels…

A new working paper’s conclusions make sense if you believe the data that a higher minimum wage makes it harder to find low-skill jobs. The impact is significant Our results provide no evidence that minimum wage increases reduce crime. Instead, we find that raising the minimum wage increases…

Governor Cooper’s $3.9 billion bond proposal for schools and water systems is the fourth entry in the contest to use state government debt capacity. The State Capital and Infrastructure Fund (SCIF) already dedicates 4 percent of General Fund revenue to debt service and new capital projects. The Debt…

Unfunded pension liabilities are driving up the cost of state government borrowing. For states, there may not be much difference between Republicans and Democrats. But for local governments, Democratic control means more unfunded promises. When people voter with their feet, the problem gets worse: Today’s public-sector employees…

Andrew Biggs provides a reminder that governments are the main source of concern for future retirees’ incomes. while household retirement savings are growing, government retirement plans—Social Security, government employee pensions and the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.—are underfunded by up to $26 trillion. The World Economic Forum estimates that…