State tax revenues continue growing in third quarter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - State tax revenues have grown for more than two years, but they are still suffering the effects of the 2007-2009 recession, according to a report released by the Rockefeller Institute of Government on Thursday.
Using preliminary data, the New York research group found that collection from major taxes increased in 47 states in the third quarter of 2012 from a year before, marking the 11th straight increase.
The recession caused states' revenues to plummet to lows not seen in decades over the course of five quarters. That forced almost all states to make emergency spending cuts, raise taxes, borrow and turn to the federal government for help just as the newly jobless and homeless increased demand for their services.
While revenues have been growing, the increases have been small. According to the institute, revenues "are still far below where they would have been in the absence of the Great Recession." Moreover, when adjusted for inflation, revenues are 5 percent below the peaks they reached in fiscal 2008, the last year before the recession devastated their budgets.
Rockefeller found that personal income tax collections were up 4.5 percent in the quarter ending in September, and sales taxes grew 3.1 percent. Corporate income taxes, which provide only a sliver of revenues, fell 0.5 percent.
In the third quarter of 2011, personal income tax collections surged 10.2 percent.
Delaware had the largest increases in overall tax collections in the third quarter, 11.7 percent, followed by Colorado, 10.3 percent.

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Muni tax break under threat from bipartisan scrutiny in congress

The tax break that U.S. states, cities and counties get on the bonds they issue is in growing jeopardy now that Republicans, in addition to Democrats, are considering limits on the exemption.
As part of the "fiscal cliff" negotiations to raise more federal government tax revenue, Republican lawmakers have joined Democrats in reevaluating the costly tax break, said Republican congressional aides and lobbyists.
Municipal bonds issued by states and localities are a $3.7 trillion U.S. market underpinned by a law that exempts their interest income from taxation. This allows states and localities to tap capital markets more cheaply than private-sector borrowers such as banks and corporations.
"The muni bond exemption is on the table, not only during tax reform, but also during the 'fiscal cliff,'" said Mike Nicholas of the Bond Dealers of America, a lobbying group for fixed-income securities dealers and banks.
That the tax break - deeply embedded in the economy and vital to state and local governments - would draw the interest of Republicans shows how far Washington has come in a short time in considering potentially dramatic tax-and-spending changes.
As the United States grapples with a huge budget deficit and a complex tax code that has not been revamped in 26 years, even once politically untouchable tax breaks are being questioned.
The "fiscal cliff" refers to sharp tax increases and spending cuts that take effect in 18 days unless Congress intervenes soon.
Some lawmakers from both parties are calling for a comprehensive tax code overhaul in 2013 and groups concerned with the muni bond exemption are worried.
"We have not felt this threat level being this real in a long time," said David Parkhurst, legislative director with the National Governors Association, which represents the leaders of U.S. states that rely heavily on the muni bond tax exemption.
SUBSIDIZING STATES, LOCALITIES
The exemption benefits bond investors on one side of the market and state and local governments on the other. Effectively a subsidy for states and localities, the muni exemption cost U.S. taxpayers about $26.2 billion in 2011.
President Barack Obama in 2011 included the exemption among items subject to his proposed 28-percent cap on deductions and other tax breaks for individuals earning more than $200,000.
That proposal alarmed muni bond issuers and investors, who were already on edge because of a proposal to kill the exemption entirely in 2010's Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan.
Now, Republicans are rethinking their traditional reluctance to tinker with muni bonds, largely because they want to find ways to increase federal revenues without raising tax rates.
Phasing out the muni bond tax break for individual taxpayers earning more than $200,000 could raise about $10 billion a year - or about $100 billion over a decade - Republican aides said.
In the fight over the "fiscal cliff," Republicans hope to refute Obama's argument that real deficit reduction cannot be achieved without raising tax rates on high-income Americans.
Senator Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said tax breaks of all sorts need to be weighed in the effort to raise revenue and cut the deficit, but that "they are not easy to get rid of."
FROM STATES TO SCHOOLS
New issuance of tax-exempt bonds is expected to hit about $400 billion in 2013, up from about $370 billion this year, according to investment bank Loop Capital Markets LLC.
Jurisdictions that issue tax-exempt bonds range from states to cities, counties and school districts. They defend the bonds as vital to transportation, infrastructure and other public projects, which would be threatened by an exemption roll-back.
"It certainly couldn't come at a worse time," New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli told Reuters last week, referring to the devastation the region suffered during Hurricane Sandy.
"Even before the storm, we had tremendous infrastructure needs that localities were trying to address and now we're going to have even more."
It is unclear exactly what sort of limitations Republicans have in mind. The Obama proposal would apply to all bond issues.
Citigroup Inc muni bond strategist George Friedlander has estimated that Obama's cap, if enacted, would raise state and local government borrowing costs.

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Boehner plan would bring top U.S. income tax rate to 39.6 percent: source

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's latest "fiscal cliff" proposal to President Barack Obama would see the top income tax rates rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent for those with net incomes above $1 million a year, according to a source familiar with the talks.
The source, who asked not to be identified, emphasized that the income tax rate increase would be in exchange for "significant entitlement reforms/spending cuts." Entitlement programs include Medicare and Medicaid healthcare for the elderly and poor and Social Security retirement benefits.
The White House has not accepted Boehner's proposal, according to another source. Under current law, the top tax rate is scheduled to rise to 39.6 percent on January 1, unless Congress extends the current 35 percent, as Republicans had been urging.

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House Republicans eye limited fiscal cliff bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With time running short before a Dec. 31 deadline, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner will begin work on legislation that simply would extend current low income tax rates for all families with incomes below $1 million a year, according to an aide.
Negotiations will continue with the White House on a broader tax and spending deal, the Boehner aide said.
Boehner is presenting the plan to rank-and-file Republicans in a closed-door session.
On January 1, income tax increases for most Americans will begin unless Congress acts.
Last July, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed a bill to extend the current low rates for all families with net incomes below $250,000 a year. The House Republican proposal, if passed by the House, would require agreement by the Senate or force a round of negotiations on a compromise between the two chambers.
In excerpts of remarks Boehner was delivering to his Republican members Tuesday morning, the speaker complained that "the White House just can't seem to bring itself to agree to a 'balanced' approach" to deficit-reduction in negotiations. At the same time, Boehner said Republicans were "leaving the door wide open for something better" than just the limited extension of current low tax rates for most Americans.
"Current law has tax rates going up on everyone January 1. The question for us is real simple: How do we stop as many of those rate hikes as possible?" Boehner said.
For months, Democrats have been urging House Republicans to pass a bill protecting middle-class taxpayers from a January 1 rate increase.

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Senator Reid rejects Boehner "fiscal cliff" backup plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker John Boehner's backup plan that would simply extend low income tax rates for households with incomes below $1 million a year "cannot pass both houses of Congress," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday.
Reid, a Democrat, said Boehner instead should focus on reaching a broad deficit-reduction deal with President Barack Obama. "Now is the time to show leadership, not kick the can down the road," Reid said.
Last July, Reid's Democrats passed a bill in the Senate that would have continued low tax rates, which are set to expire on December 31, for families with net incomes below $250,000.

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Column: Seattle isn't just sleepless, it's loud!

That dull roar still rumbling between your ears a day later is not your imagination.
It's the echo from the 49ers-Seahawks game Sunday night, when an already notoriously loud hometown crowd outdid itself. How?
Start with CenturyLink Field, a U-shaped stadium with cantilevered roofs extending over most of the 67,000 seats in the grandstands, a configuration designed to bounce back sound. Then throw in some fans presumably hopped up on espresso and, thanks to a later starting time, some more who stopped at Safeco Field on the way over to quaff 24-oz. beers offered through a promotion at a mere $4.50 each.
Next, mix in their dislike for a nasty NFC West rival and especially coach Jim Harbaugh, who smacked the Washington Huskies every chance he got when he was at Stanford and has been tormenting Seahawks coach Pete Carroll ever since.
Finally, throw in that early, unexpected lead and — voila! — a near-perfect sound storm.
Just know it could have been worse.
"Obviously, they were jacked up last night," said Fred Gaudelli, the innovative producer of "Sunday Night Football" on NBC. "But in my mind, it's one of the underrated sports towns in America. Actually, the special challenge there is always to convey how loud it actually is.
"We knew that going in, plus we knew the 49ers were the team their fans hate the most. So at Wednesday's regular 'brainstorming session,' we turn to our head audio engineer and said, 'How do we make viewers understand you can't hear the person next to you most of the time, even if he's yelling?' We wanted to be ready."
Gaudelli knows what can happen to a team that ventures into Seattle without preparing for the wall of noise.
In 2005, the visiting New York Giants collected 11 false-start penalties in a single game, the start of a five-year span when opponents piled up league-leading totals, averaging twice as many there as the Seahawks. The Carolina Panthers once practiced for a game there by dragging loudspeakers down to the practice field and simulating the sound of a jet engine. If that sounds over the top, it is, by about 18 decibels. Jets are routinely measured at around 130, Century Link's best is only 112.
Gaudelli and his crew hatched a plan to demonstrate that by having sideline reporter Michele Tafoya speak into a microphone as the sound reverberated, then take a step back and try again. When they ran through it before the game, he had a stadium staffer simulate the crowd noise over the PA system. At the point Tafoya's words were drowned out the system was cranked to 50 percent of volume.
"So I asked the guy, is it really going to be that loud? He looked at me," Gaudelli chuckled into the phone, "and said, 'Double it.'"
The guy was right. That much was apparent at the start of the broadcast, when Tafoya interviewed Carroll — remember, the game hadn't even begun — and didn't dare stand anywhere but uncomfortably close.
Uncomfortable might be the right word to describe the 49ers as well, at least in the early going, when they had to burn timeouts as relatively inexperienced quarterback Colin Kaepernick was having trouble getting the play calls from his sideline. Right about then, he probably wished the 49ers had devoted more time to mastering their silent snap counts.
"The crowd's explosive, it really is," Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson said. "They love us so much, and it brings so much energy to our football team. They keep us in the game, obviously, and they keep us alert."
Experts have been arguing over the worth of home-field advantage for decades. Most concluded that in those places where it's statistically significant, it's usually because of a number of factors and not just one, such as noise. Since CenturyLink opened up in 2002, Seattle is 58-29 at home, a 67 percent winning clip that ranks the Seahawks sixth in the NFL over that span. That's a far cry from New England's league-best 72-15 record (83 percent).
But the Seahawks haven't had Tom Brady at quarterback, and their road record is dismal enough (33-55) that the boost the fans at CenturyLink have provided might be best measured by their last four playoff appearances. If that's not exact enough, try this: After a 2001 earthquake shook a viaduct that runs along the water and near the stadium, the University of Washington set up a lab to track future "seismic events." One of them actually occurred during Marshawn Lynch's thundering, winning, 67-yard touchdown run in a memorable upset of the then-defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints on Jan. 9, 2011.
Yet while we know how Seattle fans make so much noise, why remains the subject of much speculation. Gaudelli, like a lot of people, blames coffee. But I'm going with a theory advanced Sunday night by announcer Al Michaels, who suggested the locals roar non-stop because showcase games gives them a rare chance to remind the rest of the country they're there.
"For media people on the East Coast," he said half in jest, "Seattle might as well be Bulgaria."

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Manning, Peterson, Pagano: 2012 a year to remember

From Peyton Manning overcoming four neck surgeries to Adrian Peterson's rebound from a shredded knee to Chuck Pagano's fight with leukemia, this has been the Year of the Comeback in the NFL.
A season besmirched by tragedies, replacement officials and a bounty scandal also will go down as one in which some of the game's greats not only regained their old form but somehow surpassed it.
There are always feel-good stories about those who overcome long odds and broken bodies to regain at least a sliver of their past glory. This season provided an abundance of them.
When the season started, who could have expected Manning to recapture his MVP play so quickly with a new team? Or for Peterson to come back less than nine months after shredding his left knee. Or for Jamaal Charles to return better than ever after suffering a similar injury.
Then there's Pagano beating the biggest opponent of his life.
A year ago, Manning was in the midst of four neck operations to fix a nerve injury that had caused his right arm to atrophy and had sidelined him for an entire season. Soon, he would say a tearful farewell to Indianapolis, a city he'd put back on the NFL map, and hook up with John Elway in Denver.
Peterson's left knee was still swollen after he'd shredded it on Christmas Eve, an injury similar to the one Charles suffered earlier last season. Yet both would defy medicine and conventional wisdom alike to rebound as better runners than they were before getting hurt.
Pagano's fight started three months ago when it was disclosed he had cancer, forcing the first-year Colts coach to take time off for chemotherapy treatments. He returned to work this week, taking the reins from assistant Bruce Arians, who guided the team to a surprising playoff berth in his absence.
"When I asked for Bruce to take over, I asked for him to kick some you-know-what and to do great. Damn Bruce, you had to go and win nine games?" Pagano said. "Tough act to follow."
If all goes well at practice this week, Pagano will be on the sideline for the regular-season finale against Houston. That's a final tuneup for the AFC wild-card playoffs that nobody saw coming for the Colts so soon after cutting ties with Manning, who switched teams, coaches, cities and colors and didn't miss a beat in 2012.
Despite a new supporting cast and a 36-year-old body he insists continues to confound him, the quintessential quarterback has had one of the best seasons in his storied career. Manning set franchise or NFL records just about every week while completing 68 percent of his passes for 4,355 yards with 34 TDs and just 11 interceptions.
And yet, he insists he's not anything close to what he used to be, that all he can do is maximize what's left in a body that's been slowed by so many surgeons' scalpels, and trips around the sun.
"I know you don't believe me when I say this; I'm still learning about myself physically and what I can do, it's still the truth," Manning said after guiding Denver to its 10th straight win. "I still have things that are harder than they used to be, so (there's) things I have to work on from a rehab standpoint and a strength standpoint. That's just the way it is and maybe that's the way it's going to be from here on out, I don't know."
Maybe Manning's being modest, maybe he's suckering opponents into blitzing him more often so he can burn them again. Either way, it's a remarkable rebound for a man whose right arm was so weakened after one of his neck surgeries that he could hardly throw the football 15 yards.
Long before Manning ever dreamed he'd be wearing the orange-mane mustang on his helmet instead of the blue and white horseshoe, Manning met up with college buddy Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies for a workout during last year's NFL lockout. They retreated to an indoor batting cage at Coors Field with a trainer in tow, and Manning's first pass nose-dived so badly that Helton told him to quit goofing around.
Manning wasn't messing with him. He was dead serious. His arm was shot, his future in football in doubt. A few days later, he underwent spinal fusion surgery and would miss the entire 2011 season.
If doctors had told him that was it, Manning said he would have called it a career without regret. But they gave him a bit of hope and that's all he needed to embark on his comeback in Colorado.
Coach John Fox, never one to lobby for awards, suggested this week that Manning deserves a fifth MVP honor for the numbers he's put up, the obstacles he's overcome, the shift of culture he's engineered.
Manning isn't interested in talking about MVPs or comeback awards. He just wants enough wins to get a shot at hoisting another Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans in six weeks.
Peterson, on the other hand, is unabashedly clear in his desire for some recognition after overcoming torn anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee, requiring the kind of reconstructive surgery that usually turns dominant players into ordinary ones.
There's a long, long list of players who had shortened careers because of such injuries. But Peterson returned to the Vikings lineup less than nine months after his operation, and with a league-high 1,898 yards, he's 207 yards shy of Eric Dickerson's single-season record. He can topple it with another big game Sunday when Minnesota faces Green Bay with a playoff berth on the line for the Vikings.
With typical unflinching confidence, Peterson said in a recent interview with The Associated Press he's expecting to win the comeback award.
"I kind of have that in the bag, especially how I've been telling people I'm going to come back stronger and better than ever," he said.
Carrying the Vikings to the playoffs without a potent passing game in a league dominated by strong-armed, accurate quarterbacks would only burnish the credentials of this thoroughbred throwback.
In any other year, the zenith of comebacks might be that of Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis, who battled back from three torn right ACLs — in 2009, 2010 and 2011 — to be a major contributor to the Panthers this year. No player in NFL history has returned after tearing the same ACL three separate times.
Charles missed nearly all of 2011 with a torn left ACL. Yet the former All-Pro running back has run for 1,456 yards, the seventh-best season in franchise history. He can break his single-season-high set in 2010 with 12 yards against the Broncos on Sunday.
Charles ran for 226 yards last weekend, when he surpassed 750 career carries, which also qualifies him for the NFL record for yards per carry. Charles is averaging 5.82 yards on 770 attempts, which far surpasses the 5.22 yards that Hall of Famer Jim Brown averaged in 2,359 attempts from 1957-65.
Charles, Peterson and Davis are all better than ever. Manning might be, too, but he'll never say it.
"I'm trying to be as good as I can at this stage," Manning said. "A 36-year-old quarterback coming off a year and a-half off, playing on a new team, I'm trying to be as good as I possibly can in this scenario.
"It's a different kind of body I'm playing in and just a different kind of quarterback play for me."
Yet, as transcendent as ever.
"If he's lost anything, I can't see it," said Broncos receiver Brandon Stokley, who played with Manning in his prime in Indianapolis. "I'm sure in some ways he's better than he ever was. And he's always been great."

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Soccer-Del Piero dismisses Sydney exit talk

Alessandro Del Piero's uncertain future in Australia could be close to being resolved, with the former Italy striker pledging his support for struggling Sydney FC.
The 38-year-old former World Cup winner arrived at the club to much fanfare this season but has failed to prevent Sydney's plummet to the foot of the A-League.
But with negotiations to take up the option to extend his lucrative one-year deal dragging on, Del Piero appeared keen to dismiss rumours he would leave at the end of the season.
"Everything is clear for me and the club," the former Juventus forward, who has struggled recently with a hamstring tweak, told local media on Wednesday.
"We can do earlier than we think about the contract. It's not a stress here for me. I want to put all my knowledge and my heart into games."
Del Piero asserted his management team, including brother Stefano, were working hard on negotiating a second season at the A-League side.
"My brother talks about that," he said of his contract.
"It's his problem, not mine.
"I've spent a really good time here. At the moment the best thing for me, the club and for teammates and everyone here is to concentrate about the games.
"We have to put all of our energy, mentally and physically (into games)," added Del Piero, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006.
"Not about other things. I'm really enjoying it here. Now we have to win a couple of games for more enjoyment."
Del Piero's signing was hailed as ground-breaking for the A-League but the expectations heaped on the club as a result led to the resignation of former manager Ian Crook.
Sydney have won just three times this season but Del Piero, making A$2 million ($2.07 million) a year, vowed to fight on.

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Del Piero dismisses Sydney exit talk

REUTERS - Alessandro Del Piero's uncertain future in Australia could be close to being resolved, with the former Italy striker pledging his support for struggling Sydney FC.
The 38-year-old former World Cup winner arrived at the club to much fanfare this season but has failed to prevent Sydney's plummet to the foot of the A-League.
But with negotiations to take up the option to extend his lucrative one-year deal dragging on, Del Piero appeared keen to dismiss rumours he would leave at the end of the season.
"Everything is clear for me and the club," the former Juventus forward, who has struggled recently with a hamstring tweak, told local media on Wednesday.
"We can do earlier than we think about the contract. It's not a stress here for me. I want to put all my knowledge and my heart into games."
Del Piero asserted his management team, including brother Stefano, were working hard on negotiating a second season at the A-League side.
"My brother talks about that," he said of his contract.
"It's his problem, not mine.
"I've spent a really good time here. At the moment the best thing for me, the club and for teammates and everyone here is to concentrate about the games.
"We have to put all of our energy, mentally and physically (into games)," added Del Piero, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006.
"Not about other things. I'm really enjoying it here. Now we have to win a couple of games for more enjoyment."
Del Piero's signing was hailed as ground-breaking for the A-League but the expectations heaped on the club as a result led to the resignation of former manager Ian Crook.
Sydney have won just three times this season but Del Piero, making A$2 million a year, vowed to fight on.
"This is our moment," he said. "We have to jump over this moment with heart, with fight and pressure and a little luck for us."

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Fans’ support brought tears to my eyes: Tendulkar

Calcutta: Overwhelmed by the tributes that have poured in ever since he announced his retirement from one-day cricket, Sachin Tendulkar, on Tuesday, said that the “love and support” of fans brought tears to his eyes.

The 39-year-old, who retired from the limited-overs format last Sunday, is in Mussourie for holidays, after announcing his decision.

Opening up on his Twitter page after the decision that left quite a few surprised, Tendulkar said the emotional reaction to his retirement left him overwhelmed.

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“Words are not enough to express my thanks to each of you for all the love & support I have received over the years...& especially now in the last couple of days. Your expressions have brought joy to my heart...& at times a tear to my eye!” Tendulkar wrote.

“... Those magical moments of our ODI journey will stay with me for the rest of my life. Thank you so much :-),” he added.

Tendulkar retired from the one-day format at the top of the run-getters’ list with 18,426 runs, which included 49 hundreds and 96 half centuries.

The Master, who played six World Cups, was also the first batsman to score a double hundred in the 50-over format.

Considered the most complete batsman in modern cricket, Tendulkar celebrated the biggest moment of his ODI career last year when India won the World Cup for the second time in the history of the competition.

Tendulkar remains active in the Test arena where he has 15,645 runs from 194 matches, including 51 hundreds.

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