The Public Purse offers you serious thinking about economic, financial and political trends at the U.S. state and local level with a focus on municipal credit risk
TAG | direct democracy
30
No tax cap on sea cucumbers
0 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in Voter initiatives, municipal bonds, states
As this article from the Tax Foundation states, you can’t make this stuff up…
18
Menlo Park pension initiative vs. union
0 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in Taxpayer v. union, pensions
See highlighted article about the struggle among a group promoting an initiative to curb costs: covering pensions for new employees’, raising the new employee retirement age and capping the pension formula. The initiative also would prevent the city council from passing retroactive increases (which is what Detroit did in the middle of its fiscal mess). Looks [...]
9
Municipal Market Meltdown? Response to Bookstaber
5 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in Budget and Finance, Voter initiatives, bankruptcy and default, bond insurance, housing mess, municipal bonds, pensions, securities lending, states
We have two opposing camps in the muni-market at the moment: those who say it is the next systemic shoe to drop and the rating agencies that are systemically raising ratings.
Which is right?
We have moved from a market that has had heavy intermediation from the bond insurance companies to one where investors are on their [...]
25
Direct Democracy and Ballot Initiatives
0 Comments | Posted by Natalie Cohen in Voter initiatives, migration, states
Midterm congressional elections will be lively this year. Conditions are ripe for tax and spending initiatives and numerous recall elections are also on the popular agenda. Budget deficits, rising taxation and runaway spending are factors leading to tax and spending limitations. Anger at the federal government sometimes gets played out at the state and local level [...]