It’s Friday!
– Today is your last chance to support the Foundation and earn a 2010 tax deduction for yourself. Every dollar you invest today will be quickly put to work to blanket the state with a prosperity agenda for Georgia’s future. Your investment allows us to hold more events, brief more legislators, educate more young people and provide more “intellectual ammunition” to win the important debates at the Capitol to ensure a thriving free enterprise system so that every Georgian has the best opportunity for success.Invest in ideas for Georgia before midnight! Click on this link: http://tinyurl.com/3y27zfm.
Quotable
– “The census shows there are more than 308 million people living in America. The amazing part is: More than half of those people are Americans.” – Jay Leno
– “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” – C.S. Lewis
– “We have managed, in about the last thirty years of relative peace and unprecedented prosperity, to pile up a debt that rivals the one we piled up while winning the Second World War, the most disastrous and largest war in human history. And this debt is of a different character. The Second World War was going to end at some point, and we were either going to win and go back to living and working and pay off the debt – which is what happened – or else we were going to lose and then the debt would never be paid. In contrast, our debt today has become the ordinary way our government and our country operate. As my father … used to say, it is the kind of debt that means it really doesn’t matter how rich we’ve become, because we can waste money faster.” – Larry P. Arnn, president, Hillsdale College
The economy and taxes
– Tax increases on the “rich” backfire. Oregon raised its income tax on the richest 2 percent of its residents last year to fix its budget hole, but now the state treasury admits it collected nearly one-third less revenue than projected, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Eugene Register-Guard newspaper reports that after the tax was raised “income tax and other revenue collections began plunging so steeply that any gains from the two measures seemed trivial.” Source: Wall Street Journal
– The census clearly shows that growth tends to be stronger where taxes are lower, says Michael Barone, senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner. Seven of the nine states that do not levy an income tax grew faster than the national average. The other two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, had the fastest growth in their regions, the Midwest and New England. Altogether, 35 percent of the nation’s total population growth occurred in these nine non-taxing states, which accounted for just 19 percent of total population at the beginning of the decade.
Regulation
– And you thought the Sunday sales ban is nanny government? Find out more from the Competitive Enterprise Institute about some of the illogical and inexplicable alcohol regulations around the nation. For example, in Pennsylvania, rather than allowing adults to purchase wine in grocery stores, the state has devised a “technological workaround” by placing kiosks in select stores that carry a limited variety of wines for purchase: Each machine is connected to a state employee in Harrisburg, via video-camera. Customers choose their wine, swipe their ID, puff into a breathalyzer and face the camera. The state employee checks that the ID matches the person and, if not already intoxicated, the person is allowed to buy the wine.
What’s happening at the Foundation
– If you haven’t already joined The Forum, register today at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org/ so you will be ready to join our discussion of the recommendations of the Georgia Council on Tax Reform and Fairness in early January.
– Visit www.georgiapolicy.org to read the Foundation’s commentaries.
– Remember, to receive a 2010 tax deduction, you must make your contribution to the Foundation before midnight today. Please don’t wait! Every dollar counts in the fight for liberty!
Have a great week and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Kelly McCutchen
FRIDAY FACTS is made possible by the generosity of the Georgia Public Policy Foundation’s donors. If you enjoy the FRIDAY FACTS, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to help advance our important mission by clicking here. Visit our Web site at www.georgiapolicy.org. Join The Forum at http://forum.georgiapolicy.org/. Become a fan of the Foundation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gppf.
