{"id":1931,"date":"2009-04-16T16:41:18","date_gmt":"2009-04-16T20:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/?p=1931"},"modified":"2009-04-16T17:10:46","modified_gmt":"2009-04-16T21:10:46","slug":"sales-tax-revenue-housing-starts-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/16\/sales-tax-revenue-housing-starts-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales Tax Revenue & Housing Starts Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t have any particular comments I just wanted to point out two stories that may have slipped under the radar, the first from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlights the sharp decline in state and local sales tax revenue<\/a> in four quarter of 2008:<\/p>\n

State and local sales-tax revenue fell more sharply in the fourth quarter of 2008 than at any time in the past half century, and has continued to erode through the beginning of 2009, according to a report released Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The report by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York underscores how swiftly the consumer slowdown has eaten into municipal budgets. The drop in tax revenue has forced cities and towns of all sizes to cut everything from police to summer pool hours, and has sent legislatures scrambling for federal economic-stimulus funds to help ease budget gaps.<\/p>\n

“The sales tax has been absolutely hammered,” said Don Boyd, senior fellow at the institute.<\/p>\n

State and local sales taxes, among the largest sources of revenue for municipalities, fell 6.1% in the fourth quarter of last year, as consumers bought fewer clothes, ate out less and canceled vacations. Revenue from personal income taxes was down 1.1% in the fourth quarter; corporate income taxes dropped 15.5%, reflecting weaker profits.<\/p>\n

The declines have continued through the beginning of this year. In the first two months of 2009, the 41 states that have reported tax revenue saw total receipts decline 12.8%, versus the same period a year ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The second is an AP story on the larger than expected decline in housing construction<\/a> in March:<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AP) — Housing construction plunged to the second lowest level on record in March, reversing a big jump from the previous month. Economists, however, were heartened by indications that the long slide in single-family construction could be coming to an end.<\/p>\n

The Commerce Department said Thursday construction of new homes and apartments dropped 10.8 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 510,000 units. That was the second lowest construction pace in records that go back 50 years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Suffices to say I’m skeptical of all the “signs of recovery talk” we’re starting to hear from the White House and various commentators. When you combine these reports with the reported 1.1 percent drop<\/a> in retail sales in March you have to believe any meaningful recovery is still a long ways off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t have any particular comments I just wanted to point out two stories that may have slipped under the radar, the first from yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlights the sharp decline in state and local sales tax revenue in four quarter of 2008: State and local sales-tax revenue fell more sharply in the fourth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[603,1365],"class_list":["post-1931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-economy","tag-housing-starts","tag-taxes","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfpI7-v9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2252,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/27\/democrats-considering-a-national-sales-tax\/","url_meta":{"origin":1931,"position":0},"title":"Democrats Considering a National Sales Tax?","author":"Jeff","date":"May 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"It looks like the cats out of the bag... With the Federal Government now borrowing nearly 50 cents of every dollar spent it looks like the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are considering a national sales tax or \"Value Added Tax\" (VAT) to pay for their out of control\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4158,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/13\/the-fallacy-of-the-101-mix-of-spending-cuts-and-tax-hikes-question\/","url_meta":{"origin":1931,"position":1},"title":"The fallacy of the 10:1 Mix of Spending Cuts and Tax Hikes Question","author":"Jeff","date":"August 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I suspect most of you have seen or heard about this exchange during the Republican Presidential Debate in Iowa last Thursday night: http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ASQNITVweLo&feature=player_embedded It was a bullshit question, first of all unless those spending cuts are immediate they'll never materialize... particularly when the baseline for negotiations is that the taxes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/ASQNITVweLo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4249,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/03\/democrats-to-push-tax-hikes-first-in-deficit-talks\/","url_meta":{"origin":1931,"position":2},"title":"Democrats to Push Tax Hikes First in Deficit Talks","author":"Jeff","date":"October 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Reuters: Democrats want tax hikes to be the first item negotiated in \"super committee\" deficit-reduction talks, trying to force Republicans to confront an issue at the heart of this year's budget fights, sources told Reuters. The tough stance by Democratic members of the powerful 12-member congressional panel reflects the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2565,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/03\/tax-revenues-continue-to-plunge\/","url_meta":{"origin":1931,"position":3},"title":"Tax Revenues Continue to Plunge","author":"Jeff","date":"August 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"From the Associated Press: The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation's plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab. The numbers could hardly be more stark:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2185,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/14\/ap-stimulus-not-stimulating\/","url_meta":{"origin":1931,"position":4},"title":"AP: Stimulus not Stimulating","author":"Jeff","date":"May 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The\u00a0 AP's Matt Apuzzo yesterday examined Vice President Joe Biden's first quarterly report of the Stimulus plan and found the picture to a bit more cloudy than the White House claims: Capturing the full effect of the stimulus at this early stage is difficult, but the administration has set high\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3090,"url":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/2009\/12\/22\/commerce-department-revises-3rd-quater-gdp-downward-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":1931,"position":5},"title":"Commerce Department Revises 3rd Quater GDP Downward… Again","author":"Jeff","date":"December 22, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Two months the media and Obama Administration were trumpeting the announcement that third quarter GDP had grown at an annualized rate of 3.5%. Unfortunately, their celebrations were a bit premature the Commerce Department today announced their final estimate of third quarter GDP... Not surprisingly third quarter GDP was a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/category\/economy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1931\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasetaro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}