States

It's no surprise that the economy was the top issue for Mississippi voters in Tuesday's Democratic primary, but health care still resonated. Just over half the voters surveyed by network exit polls cited the economy as their top concern. But one in five said health care was their number one issue -- the same number as the Iraq war. (We would argue that health cost and coverage can be a component of economic anxiety as well). Voters who cited health as their main concern voted for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton by a nearly two to one margin (64 to 35 percent).

Welcome to the New America Foundation’s Climate Program Blog. This weekly snapshot will offer insights into the most effective climate solutions around the U.S. and the world. We’ll also ask guest bloggers to give us their analysis and provocative suggestions for getting these solutions into practice -- before it’s too late.

You might be asking yourself why I would mention “U.S.” and “climate solutions” in the same sentence, considering that while we are 5% of the world’s population and generate over 25% of the world’s greenhouse gases, we are the only industrialized nation that has refused to ratify the Kyoto accord. The good news is that the U.S. contribution to battling climate change is taking shape in municipal, state, and regional governments, despite the lack of any contribution by our federal leadership.

A common practice in state tax reform is to create a commission to study the problems and identify solutions. Often the commission is also required to get comments from the public. A recent example is Massachusetts where Governor Patrick and legislators formed a 15-member commission to study ways to improve the corporate income tax. This group has a short timeframe in that it was created on April 29, 2007 and the report is due June 15, 2007.

Apparently, the Governor believes there are loopholes in the state's corporate tax system and closing them could improve the business climate and possibly lead to a tax rate reduction.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/04/30/patrick_legislative_leaders_agree_
to_study_corporate_tax_code/
http://www.boston.com/business/taxes/articles/2007/05/12/patrick_state_may_cut_firms_tax_rates/

For a list of some of the reports of various tax reform commissions created by states over the past few years, see the state reform link at:
http://www.cob.sjsu.edu/facstaff/nellen_a/txrefupd.html