Here’s more evidence the economy is coming back: State tax collections reached a record in 2012, totaling $794.6 billion. The tally breaks the previous mark of $779.7 billion set in 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Many states attributed...
Read more »
Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Storage tanks stand near a Lufkin Industries Inc. Mark II Unitorque electric pumping unit as it removes crude oil from a Fidelity Exploration & Production Co. well outside South Heart, North Dakota.
State Tax Revenue Hit Record in 2012
Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Demonstrators in favor of the Affordable Care Act hold up signs outside the Supreme Court building after the court's ruling in Washington on June 28, 2012.
Last Chance: States’ One Shot at Exchange Control Looms
This week will be the last opportunity for states to retain some control over the new health insurance markets being readied for 2014 as part of the U.S. Affordable Care Act. States still on the fence about building the exchanges...
Read more »
Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The Washington monument stands as pedestrians walk ahead of the presidential inauguration in Washington, DC.
Washington’s Economic Confidence No. 1
Who says Washington is dysfunctional? Washington is downright happy with the way things are going. Of all the places where the Gallup organization has polled people about their confidence in the economy, Washington, D.C., stands out as most confident. The...
Read more »
Photograph by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
An inmate at a prison in Chino, California.
America’s Great State Pay Give-Away
Think you’re in the wrong line of work? Try becoming a state worker in California, where it’s possible to collect more than $200,000 in overtime pay in a single year or retire with a “boat check” as large as $609,000...
Read more »
Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
A delegate sits in the Google Inc. photobooth during day two of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Charlotte.
Obama’s Google Edge on Romney — in Swing States: Six to Four
We noted last week that more people are Googling President Barack Obama than those searching for Mitt Romney online. Yet now a deeper-diving Bloomberg analysis of this 47-percent Google edge for the president is generating its own sort of Google...
Read more »
Photograph by Julianna Goldman/Bloomberg
Go Nuts at the RNC — Kukui Nuts, That Is
Jon Brovold is an Andover, Minnesota, small business owner who wants visitors to the Republican National Convention to go nuts. Kukui nuts that is. He’s set up a tent at the Channelside Bay Plaza, just outside the convention’s perimeter, selling...
Read more »
Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images
People with disabilities, their family members and allies during a rally against possible cuts to Medicaid on the Capitol.
Less is Not More in Medicaid Managed Care
Remember the old Mr. Goodwrench commercials? “You can pay me now,” intoned the narrator, “or you can pay me later.” That’s the dilemma states are facing as they put more Medicaid patients into managed-care plans to cut costs. Bloomberg Government...
Read more »
Photograph by Michael Williamson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
President Obama figurines at the famed 'South of the Border' stop on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. It's not a big seller according to one cashier.
Obama Excludes Seven Republican States in Nationwide Travels
When President Barack Obama makes his inaugural trip to Vermont tomorrow he’ll be checking off one of eight U.S. states he has yet to visit since taking office. In an election-year presidents want to show they’re connected to their constituents by telling voters...
Read more »
Photograph by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Newt Gingrich supporters before at an election night party on March 13, 2012 in Birmingham, Alabama.
More Religious = More Republican?
The more religious a state’s residents, the more Republican-leaning a state tends to be, Gallup data show. In the 2008 presidential election, McCain won 17 of the 19 states where at least 43 percent of respondents said they were “very...
Read more »
Contributors
-
Al Hunt
is a columnist for Bloomberg View and host of the weekly show "Political Capital with Al Hunt" on Bloomberg TV. -
Mark Silva
is deputy managing editor for government news in Washington and editor of Political Capital. He has covered the White House and national politics. -
Emma Fidel
is political editor for Bloomberg.com in Washington. She previously covered financial regulation as a Bloomberg intern. -
Don Frederick
edits political and government coverage for Bloomberg News. He previously worked for more than a decade at the Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau. -
Gregory Giroux
analyzes elections, financing of congressional and presidential elections, political advertising and demographics in Bloomberg's Washington Bureau. -
Julie Bykowicz
covers the influence of money and lobbying in Washington, and covered the state legislature and city crime for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years. -
Jonathan Salant
covers campaign finance and lobbying in Washington. He was president of the National Press Club and started in Washington in 1987. -
Richard Rubin
covers federal tax policy. He worked at Congressional Quarterly and The Charlotte Observer before joining Bloomberg News in 2010. -
Julie Hirschfeld Davis
is a senior political reporter for the Washington Bureau. She covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News and previously covered the White House for the Baltimore Sun. -
Lisa Lerer
covers the White House and covered the 2012 campaign for Bloomberg News. She covered Congress, lobbying and the 2008 campaign for Politico. -
John McCormick
is a national political reporter looking forward to the 2016 presidential campaign, which will be the fifth he's covered. He's also reported for The Des Moines Register and Chicago Tribune. -
Julianna Goldman
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Hans Nichols
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Television. -
Margaret Talev
covers the White House for Bloomberg News and covered the White House for McClatchy Newspapers. She has covered California and Florida politics. -
Cary O'Reilly
is Editor at Large at Bloomberg First Word and is Washington Daybook columnist for Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg News.
