Taxachusetts

Q: This morning I heard on the radio that Vermont and Maine have the highest levels of combined local and state taxation. On the other hand, if you exclude Alaska, which reduces the net taxes on residents by sharing its oil revenues, New Hampshire has the lowest level of combined local and state taxation. That is of course why the radio hosts were making such a big deal out of this. But it’s also interesting to see Massachusetts below the mid-point; I’ve heard of this for years, but never had the real data before.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/335.html

The section of the chart that adds in the federal taxes doesn’t really surprise me – the federal taxes are directly related to the relative level of income, so they are about what you’d expect.

The web site also has some other interesting data, such as, which states pay more than they receive, and vice versa.

So much for “Taxachusetts” and other over-quoted misperceptions about taxation within the states!

A: Look at the chart from 1970-2007 http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/460.html, and you can see how the Taxachusetts label got stuck based on the experience of the 1970s and early 1980s. What you see now is certainly better, the result of Proposition 2.5 and some would say 16 years of Weld/Celluci//Swift/Romney. And what happened when Deval Patrick showed up on Beacon Hill and mumbled the words “fiscal discipline.” He was raked over the coals about his Cadillac and his drapes and his wife’s aide – by his fellow Democrats and the liberal press.

In the Midwest, the state with the high tax reputation was Minnesota, and that has remained true. More recently, Ohio has joined the high tax list. Perhaps Lydenberg has some insight into that. But there’s more to it than taxes. Massachusetts has a median household income of $52,354, compared to $48,508 for Vermont and $57,323 for New Hampshire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States#Income_by_state

Settle a bet

Q: You need to settle a bet. I think that Mormonism is a real liability for Mitt Romney. I said Iowans would vote for a Jew before they would vote for a Mormon.
So in a head to head vote, who carries Iowa, Joe Lieberman or Mitt Romney?

A: That’s a tough one, but I think you need to pay up.

(1) Joe Lieberman got no delegates at the 2004 Iowa caucuses. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/states/IA/

(2) Iowa is one of the states (then a territory) the Mormons crossed on their great migration from Illinois to Utah. There could very well be more Mormons in Iowa than Jews. I can’t find the stats on that.

(3) In a ranking of "Family Values", based on marriage rate, divorce rate, suicide rate, AIDS rate data from the World Almanac of the U.S.A. Utah was ranked 4th highest in the nation (with statistics most indicative of traditional family values). The states that ranked higher by this cumulative score were Iowa, Idaho, and South Dakota. http://www.adherents.com/largecom/lds_dem.html. It’s been observed that between Romney and McCain (one divorce) and Guiliani (two divorces) it’s ironic that Romney the Mormon is the only monogamist.

(4) The religious affiliation of Iowa though largely Christian tend toward the more tolerant mainstream denominations:

Roman Catholic – 23%
Lutheran – 16%
Methodist – 13%
Baptist – 5%
Presbyterian – 3%
Pentecostal – 2%
Congregational/United Church of Christ – 2%
Other Protestant or general Protestant – 11%
Other Christian – 1%
Other Religions – 6%
Non-Religious – 13%
Did not answer – 5%

2008 is starting to get interesting

I went to a John Prine show at Sanders Theatre on Saturday night. He performed the song “Grandpa was a Carpenter” that has the famous “voted for Eisenhower” line. He told the audience that someone is trying to do a political parody on his song. I did some research and found this http://www.myspace.com/americanmusicman.

February Concert Report

Here’s the concert report.

Po’ Girl – I saw them last Thursday at Club Passim, the night after the big storm we had Valentine’s Day. A guy named JT Lindsay from Chicago opened, and he was pretty good. I got seated at a table right in front of the stage. They are Canadian, from the Vancouver music scene, and touring in a big white SunSeeker RV from Canadream.com. They said they’ve been getting lots of “You should go to Florida” as they tour around storm-ridden Canada and New England. (Alas for you, they are not going to Florida.) They played a lot of good stuff from their new CD (it was their CD release show for Home to You) and some old favorites. The band has a lot of chemistry and brings a range of instruments to play. I love their folksy bluesy sound.

Band notes: Po’ Girl is Allie, Awna, Trish, John and Diona. John, the drummer drew some comments. While hey were setting up, one of the women I was seated with remarked, “I wonder what it’s like to be the only male drummer in an all girl band. That must be interesting.” Knowing glances with her friends were exchanged when John and Awna gave each other a quick squeeze before back going on stage after the setup. Jolie Holland is not in Po’ Girl. She was in The Be Good Tanyas and then went off on her own. Trish Stein of Po’ Girl is still in The Be Good Tanyas.

Rickie Lee Jones – She played Sanders Theatre at Harvard on Saturday. She mostly did new material from her new CD, The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard. A religious theme, and very soulful. She was cool as ever. She opened alone at the piano, then brought out her full seven person band, and ended with a duo, her partner playing what appeared to be some sort of Macintosh laptop enhanced guitar. No encore. I love that she doesn’t save material for the contrived spontaneous encore.

Band notes: People commented on the hand and verbal directions Rickie Lee Jones was giving her musicians and sound guy throughout the show. It’s clear who is in charge. She reminds me of the old time band leaders, like Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller.

Night Wanderings

From one of our flutist correspondents:

If anyone likes interesting contemporary music... Thought I'd let you know about a cd that was just released that features as a soloist a flutist you all know!... See link.

Uncle Shaker on iTunes

I was browsing iTunes with my new iPod this weekend and saw that the Uncle Shaker CD is available to download from Apple. And that “1987” was listed as the most requested download.

Sarah Borges up for Boston Music Awards

News from Sarah Borges:

We're back from tour, and even after some great shows at the Americana Music Conference in Nashville and a stint on Robbie Fulks' Secret Country show for XM radio with Dave Alvin among others it's still great to see Boston again.

We're (it's reallly me and all the band men even though it's under my name) nominated for some Bsoton Music Awards this year.

If you have a few spare seconds, please cast your vote for 'Silver City' for Local Debut Album, nd for me as Local Female Vocalist, and Female Singer/Songwriter. I think today (Tuesday 9/27) is the deadline.

We'll play this Wednesday at Avalon at the awards thingy and also at the Cambridge Elks, 55 Bishop Allen Drive in Central Sq Cambridge this Friday at 9:50pm with Dennis Brennan, Todd Thibaud, Christian McNeill and many others.

See you then.
SB