Economy, Taxes | featured news

In a recession, state lawmakers are taxing personal vices. It’s good for you, they say, but it’s really better for their budgets.

Authorities in Europe and the U.S. are turning to “stealth taxes” to avoid drawing attention to the tightening fiscal noose.

The U.S. economy is no longer on the edge of collapse, but Americans must reduce the budget deficit, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

The anemic economy decimated state tax collections during the first three months of the year, according to a report released Friday by the Rockefeller Institute of Government. The drop in revenues was the steepest in the 46 years that quarterly data has been available.

Facing shrinking revenues, some local governments are raising their bed tax or proposing changes. Among the recent examples: In the Florida Keys, hotel guests starting on June 1 will pay more in bed taxes, a Miami Herald story says. The...