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	<title>The Palmetto Insider</title>
	<link>http://palmettoinsider.com</link>
	<description>The blog of the South Carolina Policy Council</description>
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		<title>How to Raise Taxes (Kansas-Style)</title>
		<description><![CDATA[We’ve written before on how at least one state—Rhode Island—managed to slash taxes during the current recession. On the other end of the spectrum is Kansas, which recently passed a “temporary” one-cent sales tax increase. (Neighboring North Carolina has had a “temporary” sales tax on the books for years.) Kansas, like South Carolina, has a [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2255&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/28/how-to-raise-taxes-kansas-style/</link>
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		<title>June Employment Numbers: Total Employment Falls, Local Government Hiring Continues to Grow</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A shrinking labor force and increased government hiring are making the job numbers look better than they really are, according to a new policy brief from the South Carolina Policy Council. Despite a decline in the state unemployment rate from May to June (11.1 percent to 10.7 percent)—something typically viewed as a good thing—there were [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2251&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/28/june-employment-numbers-total-employment-falls-local-government-hiring-continues-to-grow/</link>
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		<title>Harvard Study: Pork Barrel Spending Hurts Private Sector Investment</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As we wrote last week, public sector hiring is hindering a private sector recovery. (See here for our recent analysis of why South Carolina’s unemployment rate is declining—even though there are fewer private sector jobs available overall.) Now, a study from Harvard Business School provides additional evidence that government spending reduces private sector investment. The [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2241&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/27/harvard-study-pork-barrel-spending-hurts-private-sector-investment/</link>
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		<title>Government Jobs Are Not the Solution</title>
		<description><![CDATA[A job is a job. That’s what you sometimes hear. And it’s marginally better for an unemployed worker to get a job with the government, or paid for by government, than to have no job at all. After all, a government worker is earning wages—and not drawing unemployment. And government employees pay taxes—in effect, subsidizing [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2237&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/26/government-jobs-are-not-the-solution/</link>
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		<title>TRAC Strategy Clear: Bait with Tax Cut, Switch with Tax Hike</title>
		<description><![CDATA[By now it’s become clear what TRAC is about. Not fundamental tax reform, but a tax hike on fundamentals—that is, the bare necessities like food, water and fuel. Meeting this week, the Tax Realignment Commission unanimously approved a plan to lower the state’s overall sales tax rate from 6 percent to 4.96 percent: a reduction [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2223&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/23/trac-strategy-clear-bait-with-tax-cut-switch-with-tax-hike-2/</link>
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		<title>State Hiring Increases While Private Sector Shrinks</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over on the Policy Council site, we’ve just released a report questioning the notion that a decreasing unemployment rate means the economy is improving. As indicated in our analysis, there are two factors that can magically make a state’s employment rate improve. (For instance, from a high of 12.5 percent in January 2010 to the [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2217&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/21/state-hiring-increases-while-private-sector-shrinks/</link>
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		<title>Government Jobs and Shrinking Labor Pool Hide Unemployment Reality</title>
		<description><![CDATA[New government unemployment statistics paint a misleading picture of an economic recovery for South Carolina. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says unemployment in South Carolina fell to 10.7 percent for June—down from a record 12.5 percent in January. But the way government counts unemployment figures fails to account for tens of thousands of workers [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2214&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/20/government-jobs-and-shrinking-labor-pool-hide-unemployment-reality/</link>
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		<title>Taxpayer Funded Lobbyists: Consider the Source</title>
		<description><![CDATA[CHE is lobbying the General Assembly, using taxpayer dollars, for more taxpayer dollars. A February 1 article in The Nerve explored the hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars being spent on lobbying by educational institutions. And a Policy Council report in January revealed that overall taxpayer funded lobbying in South Carolina increased dramatically between 2008 and 2009.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2204&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/16/taxpayer-funded-lobbyists-consider-the-source/</link>
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		<title>How Big Is Big Government in Your County?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As part of its ongoing commitment to help small, independent businesses in South Carolina, the Policy Council is examining the impact of big government, state and local tax burdens, the regulatory environment and other policy issues in counties statewide. Recent reports include: Federal Spending in South Carolina: How Does Your County Rank? County Tax Burdens [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2188&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/14/how-big-is-big-government-in-your-county/</link>
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		<title>Rhode Island Bucks Trend by Cutting Taxes</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Having just passed the largest budget in state history—$20.887 billion—after the governor’s budget vetoes trimmed $261 million, it seems certain that lawmakers will raise taxes and fines/fees once they reconvene in 2011. And so the cycle begins anew: higher spending fuels tax increases when revenue drops, while economic boom times fuel ever higher spending. In [...]<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=palmettoinsider.com&blog=8817643&post=2178&subd=palmettoinsider&ref=&feed=1" />]]></description>
		<link>http://palmettoinsider.com/2010/07/08/rhode-island-bucks-trend-by-cutting-taxes/</link>
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