Clashing tax policy models
At our annual dinner this year, economist Rick Evans spoke about open source tax policy models. (We excerpted his talk for an episode of Policy Today.) He noted that there are three groups at the federal level who estimate the effects of tax policy changes: the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Tax Policy Center, and […]
June 17 , 2015 - Emily Makings
June 10 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
Taxes influence international migration of star inventors
On Monday I posted on a paper by Enrico Moretti and Daniel Wilson that state taxes influence the interstate migration of scientists who are prolific patenters. A paper by economists Ufuk Akcigit, Salomé Baslandze, and Stefanie Stantcheva finds a similar impact of national taxes on international migration: Taxation and the International Mobility of Inventors Ufuk […]
June 09 , 2015 - Emily Makings
June 08 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
A new paper shows that low taxes attract star scientists
Over the last 20 years, growth in Seattle has been driven by the high technology and biotechnology sectors. Both of these sectors depend heavily on highly compensated, highly skilled workforces. An important new paper by economists Enrico Moretti and Daniel Wilson indicates that Washington state’s lack of an income tax has contributed to the area’s […]
June 08 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Getting closer to an operating budget resolution
On Friday Senate and House budget negotiators agreed on an overall spending level for 2015-17. But there’s still a lot to do — the caucuses must agree to the figure (which hasn’t been disclosed) and then they must decide how to apportion the spending among programs. Austin Jenkins quotes Office of Financial Management Director David […]
June 05 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
More on tax extenders and shakedowns
In this week’s InFocus podcast, I mentioned a post by Howard Gleckman on TAXVOX, which is the blog of the Urban Institute/Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. Gleckman notes that there are a number of formally temporary provisions of the federal tax code which are de facto permanent because Congress regularly extends them. The magic number […]
June 02 , 2015 - Emily Makings
June 01 , 2015 - Emily Makings
New House and Senate budget proposals are $633 million apart
Earlier I wrote about the 2015-17 operating budget proposal that the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed last week. Rep. Ross Hunter has now released his new proposal. It would spend $38.5 billion — $633 million more than the new Senate proposal, and $450 million less than the version passed by the House in April. […]
June 01 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Sundry links
The Puget Sound Business Journal reports that Gardner Economics of Seattle was asked by the Coalition for Housing Solutions to study Seattle’s proposed linkage fee (a tax on new development to fund affordable housing). Matthew Gardner said, “I believe as do many (others) that the biggest consequence is going to be that people are going […]