The Blog at MSPC

Featuring research and recommendations from MSPC's policy experts, the second edition examines some of the most pressing issues facing Idaho, Montana, Washington, and the nation, offering practical, fact-based alternatives to government expansion and excessive regulation.

If you distrust government with spending and tax decisions, why would you put politicians at your state capitol in charge of more of it? That's the question at the center of Idaho's current debate over property taxes. There is no statewide property tax in Idaho, but local governments can collect property tax revenue. Property taxes frustrate homeowners for understandable reasons. Paying off your mortgage does not end the annual bill. A rising home value does not put cash in y

The check engine light for Washington’s business climate is flashing. Lawmakers have passed a series of massive tax increases and regulations that have caused companies in Washington to financially suffer and some leave the state altogether.

Behind arguments about appropriations, statutory interpretation, and injunctions are real families trying to find an education option that works for their children.

Jennings' advertisement is so demonstrably false it raises a larger question: why is Jeopardy! allowing him to sully its reputation?

Under the proposal, homeowners would need to have lived in Wyoming for at least one year and occupied their primary residence for at least six months of the previous tax year. The exemption would apply to the residential structure, excluding land.

The study highlights a distinction voters should understand: the $1 million exemption is established in statute, rather than protected by the state constitution. Lawmakers could change that exemption through future legislation, potentially extending the tax to additional taxpayers.

With the federal rules now on the table, Washington's remaining question is no longer how the program will work. It is whether the state will participate. Taxpayers and students in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming are already set up to benefit from the new federal Education Freedom Tax credit.

Politicians and the media are claiming approval of Initiative 645 will "cut funding" for public schools, higher education and health care. There's only one problem - it's not true.

The study finds a statewide, one-size-fits-all solution would be especially difficult because Idaho counties have vastly different property values and retail economies.

“Medicare For All” has an estimated cost of $32 trillion dollars for the first ten years. Tax increases would be in the neighborhood of 20 percent, with a serious detrimental impact on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

You may have heard objections to Governor Gianforte’s proposal to move Montana to a flat income tax. We’ve heard those objections before. Experience proved that they were wrong then. And they are wrong now. Here are the facts.

By adopting I-645, voters would have the opportunity to restore the state’s “competitive advantage” of no personal income taxes while working to increase faith in Washington’s business climate.

Open collective bargaining should be the default when government officials are negotiating public services and government salaries with taxpayer dollars. Especially when those dollars are already stretched thin.

Supporters are free to make their case. They can argue that only a small percentage of Washingtonians will pay the tax. They can argue that its revenue is necessary to pay for government services and tax reductions elsewhere. But the media has a different job. It shouldn't make the branding decision for voters.

The direction of the evidence is remarkably consistent. Lower and flatter income taxes are associated with faster growth, higher incomes, improved compliance, stronger competitiveness, and greater protection against future tax increases.

If states want tax relief that does more than provide temporary relief—if we want a tax cut that changes the state's long-term economic trajectory—then reducing the individual income tax should be near the top of the list. And Montana is front and center in the current conversation.

The underlying study explains that lower marginal rates can encourage additional economic activity as businesses invest, employment expands, wages rise and personal income grows.

Seattle’s threat of an illegal strike should be a warning. Washington’s education system should put children at the center of every spending decision.

Had the bit tax been adopted, what was once framed as a trivial tax—half a cent to download a photo, or a cent to send 100 emails—would now cost the average American household an estimated $784,000 per year.