Budget & Taxes LANDLESS TRIBE SEEKING CASINO IN OK: Construction was halted on the Kialegee tribe's Red Clay Casino in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma last month after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in response to a lawsuit claiming the tribe doesn't have a legal right to build...
Budget & Taxes TAX DODGERS DOGGING CA: California's budget is so in the red that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has placed a multi-billion tax measure on the state's November ballot to try to avoid having to make deep cuts to education and public safety funding. But one reason the state is in...
Budget & Taxes TAX DODGERS DOGGING CA: California's budget is so in the red that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has placed a multi-billion tax measure on the state's November ballot to try to avoid having to make deep cuts to education and public safety funding. But one reason the state is in such...
Budget & Taxes STATES TURNING TO TOLLS: With the federal gas tax not having budged in 20 years and Americans driving less and in more fuel-efficient vehicles, states are increasingly turning to an alternate revenue source to pay for road construction and maintenance: tolls. Forty-two states...
Budget & Taxes AL BOND SALE MAY ESTABLISH BANKRUPTCY TEMPLATE: Jefferson County, Alabama sold $1.8 billion in bonds this month. What's particularly noteworthy about that is the county has been in bankruptcy since November 2011, after defaulting on $3.1 billion in sewer-revenue debt. The bond...
Budget & Taxes FL HURRICANE BONDS ON RISE: Six years ago, Florida's government-run property insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., paid Warren Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. $224 million in exchange for a guarantee that the company would buy bonds issued by...
Budget & Taxes FEDERAL HIGHWAY FUNDING BOTTLENECK FORCES STATES TO HIT BRAKES ON ROAD PROJECTS: With the specter of an empty federal Highway Trust Fund looming, states — which count on that fund for 15 to nearly 60 percent of their transportation budgets (see Bird's eye view) —...