Voters in Arizona, Colorado, Maine and Washington approved ballot questions seeking to raise minimum wages in those states to $12 an hour or more, and then lock in those higher levels in real terms by binding future increases to the cost of living. And in two states, the provision also guarantees sick leave to workers.
The best way up for people is — and always has been — the capacity to participate in the economy as an employee, entrepreneur, or owner. No amount of redistributive policy can achieve the same result. The safety net, as the name implies, is to prevent downward mobility; it has never been a very good trampoline.
Okay, maybe that’s not the biggest draw today. Perhaps that honor belongs to Oregon Measure 97, or Maine Question 2, or Louisiana Amendment 3, or California Proposition 55. But just on the off chance that these aren’t the headlines on the election coverage you’re following, here’s a quick guide to some of the major tax-related ballot issues voters will see today
Fresno is No. 7 on the 19-city list for cost-burdened renters, with 57.75 percent percent of renters paying more than 30 percent of their income on rent. The Stockton-Lodi region comes in at 56.84 percent for the No. 9 spot, while Modesto ranks 16th with 54.37 percent.
It’s a fight happening within the left, and like a great many such fights in US politics these days, it reveals sharp differences over how to make progress in the face of Republican intransigence. In this case, the subject is climate change policy, but the fissures being exposed are relevant to all of left politics in an age of hyperpolarization.
While commentators tend to focus on the unemployment rate—which is moderate at 4.9 percent—the employment-population ratio is arguably more informative. After long spells out of a job, people may become discouraged and give up looking for work altogether. A large group of working-age, able-bodied individuals outside the labor force is a sign of major weakness in the economy.
The new West Coast Model is higher taxes on the rich, higher spending by the state and wide-scale efforts to lift the working poor, all in the pursuit of stronger and more evenly shared growth. It is on the ballot in three states: Californians are set to essentially make permanent an income tax surcharge on millionaires in order to fund education. Washington voters appear likely to raise their minimum wage statewide to $13.25 an hour, and to mandate paid sick leave for workers. . . The booms, though, have been slow to spread beyond major metro areas. Lawmakers have struggled to balance their budgets, slashing aid to higher education and straining to fund schools at what they consider to be adequate levels — a challenge that is often felt acutely in their vast, slower-growing rural regions, and among the poorest residents of the high-cost metro centers.
The U.S. trade deficit contracted sharply in September as foreign companies snapped up American-made goods, helping the economy rebound from an ugly first half of the year.
California exports sagged in September, deflating momentum and optimism prompted by a strong rally in Golden State shipments abroad in August.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 161,000 in October from the prior month, following September’s upwardly revised gain of 191,000, the Labor Department said Friday. . . The unemployment rate, derived from a separate survey of American households, ticked down to 4.9% last month from 5% in September because the labor force shrank. The labor-force participation rate edged lower, to 62.8% in October from 62.9% the prior month, but remained elevated from its October 2015 level of 62.5% .
The two annual time changes have a net negative effect on consumer spending, according to a report the JPMorgan Chase Institute released Thursday. . . The new report confirms U.S. consumer habits may be swayed by sunlight, in some cases. But the reduction in spending when most of the country “falls back” to shift daylight an hour earlier, as will occur this weekend, is larger than the boost in spending that occurs in the spring.
A federal trial court in West Virginia, in a case called Murray Energy Corporation v. EPA, recently found that EPA failed or refused to implement a statutory requirement to continuously evaluate job losses and shifts in employment caused by its regulations. The court ordered EPA to fully comply with the law. The court further found that due to the impact of its regulations on our economy, and the undisputed widespread employment effects suffered by the coal industry, it would be an abuse of discretion for EPA to refuse to conduct the job loss impacts on the coal industry resulting from its regulations.
The consumption of U.S. finished motor gasoline reached a new high of 9.7 million barrels per day (b/d) in June 2016, surpassing the previous one-month high of 9.6 million b/d set in July 2007. U.S. gasoline consumption during summer 2016 (June through August) increased by 169,000 b/d, or 1.8%, relative to the same period in 2015. . . Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) were also high in summer 2016, setting a new record in June. From summer 2015 to summer 2016, VMT grew by 9.3 billion miles per day, an increase of nearly 3.0%. This is slightly more than the 1.8% growth in gasoline consumption over that period. Compared to summer 2007, summer 2016 VMT increased more than 6.4%, while gasoline consumption only increased 0.5%.
Removing wind and solar power from priority dispatch may be intended to help reform the capacity market system, which currently pays gas generators to remain idle. Ironically though, it could lead renewable generators to demand an extension of the same mechanism to their own sector.
To experience America’s crumbling infrastructure firsthand, look no farther than San Francisco and Oakland — ranked this week by a transportation research group as being home to the worst roads of any large urban region in the country.