Free Republic

Scores of criminals might have eluded immediate capture had a controversial new plan to limit Houston police vehicle chases been in effect in the past 18 months, department records show. Police Chief Harold Hurtt's proposal, set for a hearing Monday at City Hall, would restrict his officers from engaging in lengthy pursuits when a fleeing motorist's only known crime is a Class C misdemeanor, such as a traffic violation. That was the reason officers gave for almost half the chases recorded in the past year and a half. Yet when those chases ended and suspects were questioned, 40 percent said...

Suspect expected a 'free pass' from officers Deputies say he mistakenly thought HPD's no-chase policy would let him flee A driver trying to evade authorities thought a recent change in the Houston Police Department's chase policy would help him get away, authorities said. But he was running from a different agency. Regardless, the controversial HPD policy restricting when officers can chase fleeing suspects has been put on hold. "I think this is an absolute perfect example of the mind-sets that are out there," warned Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, a vocal opponent of the proposed policy...

City Council members have so far managed to keep Wal-Mart out of the city, but they can't stop New York City residents from shopping at Wal-Mart. The nation's largest retailer will announce today that city residents are heading to suburban Wal-Mart stores in record numbers - spending 30% more at the region's half dozen or so Wal-Mart stores last year than they did in 2004. The retailer hopes these statistics will persuade City Council members to approve Wal-Mart stores within the five boroughs. Using credit card data, the company says city residents spent about $128 million in 2005 at stores...

Not particularly important, but very funny. Simon Thompson was issued a ticket for flipping the bird to a speeding camera manned by traffic police. Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

Ronald Reagan once said an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders if it would work in theory. So why is it that when confronted with a concept that works in both practice and theory, so many people refuse to believe it? The Laffer Curve, popularized by economist Arthur Laffer, says the government can maximize tax revenue by setting the tax rate at ... The logic is obvious on the ends of the spectrum: if the tax rate is 0%, the government collects no money. If it is 100%, people have no reason to earn,...

Invented by Arthur Laffer, this curve shows the relationship between tax rates and tax revenue collected by governments... as taxes increase from low levels, tax revenue collected by the government also increases. It also shows that tax rates increasing after a certain point would cause people not to work as hard or not at all, thereby reducing tax revenue. Eventually, if tax rates reached 100% , then all people would choose not to work because everything they earned would go to the government.

Numbers renew the debate about whether tax cuts pay for themselves [Grapic below] WASHINGTON - An unexpected surge in tax revenue that could narrow the federal budget deficit by almost $100 billion has rekindled a Reagan-era debate about whether tax cuts ultimately help pay for themselves. The Bush administration Wednesday lowered its estimate of the federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2005, which ends with September, to $333 billion, $94 billion less than what was forecast last February. A 14 percent spike in tax receipts caused the revision, the first improvement in the deficit since President Bush took office. Josh...

For the first time since President Bush took office, an unexpected leap in tax revenue is about to shrink the federal budget deficit this year, by nearly $100 billion. On Wednesday, White House officials plan to announce that the deficit for the 2005 fiscal year, which ends in September, will be far smaller than the $427 billion they estimated in February. Mr. Bush plans to hail the improvement at a cabinet meeting and to cite it as validation of his argument that tax cuts would stimulate the economy and ultimately help pay for themselves. Based on revenue and spending data...

WASHINGTON - The government has hit a financial milestone — taking in more money in tax revenue in a single day than ever before. After totaling it all up, the Treasury Department announced Thursday that it had collected $61 billion on Wednesday. That surpassed the old one-day record of $56 billion set on Dec. 15, 2000. The bulk of the revenue — $49 billion — came from corporate tax payments, also a one-day record for such receipts. The old mark was $46 billion set last Dec. 15. Wednesday's date, June 15, and Dec. 15 are both deadlines for corporations to...

Some 2,000 undocumented students will graduate from Florida high schools this year and be prevented from going to college through no fault of their own. That's both unfair and unwise policy. Decency and common sense demand that these students be allowed to pay the less-costly in-state tuition that is paid by other state residents to attend Florida colleges and universities. Currently, undocumented students may attend Florida schools but must pay the out-of-state tuition, which is about five times more expensive than the in-state rate. At Florida International University, for example, annual in-state tuition is $2,913 compared to $15,420 for out-of-state...

Income tax burden rises A 10% tax advance will paid on the 15th of every month. Zeev Klein 12 Feb 03 17:34 The Ministry of Finance and National Insurance Institute (NII) are further burdening tax-payers, in an effort to avoid a total collapse of tax revenues. In early January, the Income Tax Commissioner issued two new instructions on the tax advance calculations for 2003. The first instruction allows the collection of a higher tax advance in 2003 than in 2002, based on the rise in the Consumer Price Index. The second instruction stipulates that tax-payers pay an advance of at...

Slumping tax revenue and a rapid expansion of state spending have left Maryland facing a shortfall of more than $1 billion in the next budget year, the largest one-year deficit in state history, according to tax officials. Comptroller William Donald Schaefer announced the news yesterday as he officially closed the books on the fiscal year that ended in June. Schaefer (D) said a dramatic drop in capital gains taxes tied to the weak stock market is the primary cause of the shortfall. But he argued that the drop would have been less troublesome if Gov. Parris N. Glendening (D), who...

<p>When Gov. Gray Davis releases his revised budget plan this week, a bus load of Bay Area leaders plan to be there with a message: Don't solve the state's problems by seizing local dollars.</p> <p>Government officials say basic services like health care, libraries and street maintenance are at risk if the state relies on local money to fix an estimated $20 billion budget shortfall -- California's worst deficit in a decade.</p>