Alaska and the Oil industry

United States citizens residing in Alaska receive government money every year, but not in the traditional manners, such as social security, or tax refunds. Some of the money made in Alaska’s booming oil industry is put into a special investment account, and this account pays out dividends to the Alaska residents.

Every year, these dividends seem to be getting higher, and the Alaskan economy itself is getting stronger and stronger. This has a lot to do with the state of international trade. On a global scale, the supply of Oil is limited and always becoming more limited. In Alaska, the supply of Oil is still rather large, with copious amounts of it still yet untapped. In Alaska, due to the rather low population, the demand for Oil is rather low. It is still somewhat significant, but mostly because of the oil industry itself. The Demand in Alaska for oil is still lower than the demand in the contiguous forty-eight states, as well as the rest of the industrialized world.

One of the major results of the economic boon of the oil industry, is that the economy of Alaska has avoided the severe downturn of the economy that has so affected the rest of the nation. Expansion of the oil industry in Alaska, as currently planned, will prove to benefit the state at a great level, allowing it to grow economically, and become a larger factor in United States politics.

State Tax Shifts for 2012

With the beginning of every New Year, there are changes in the laws of each state, including changes in taxes. Some states are looking to increase taxes, some are looking to lower them, and this is in a broad range of taxes, including sales taxes, excise taxes, and income taxes, both on the personal and corporate levels. Other states, such as Connecticut and California are looking to increase income taxes. What makes these tax changes extra interesting is due to the fact that they are occurring in an election year. The republicans are looking to take over the Executive branch of the government, and will point towards the lowered taxes in certain states as backing their economic programs. On the other hand, the Democratic Party will point towards the tax raisings to back them up. In the current uncertain economic climate, no one can be sure of what effect any of these changes in taxation will have on the U.S. economy. Lowered income taxes for individuals could bolster the economy more, but there can be no guarantee. I think this is because of the way the individual spender. For example, in Massachusetts, the personal income tax is going to decrease from 5.30% to 5.25%. This decrease of 0.05% is seen as incredibly minor to most normal individuals, especially those who have no background in economics. To them, this might be seen just some way of the government trying to gain some more approval from the citizens. Since they see this change as quite marginal, it probably will not cause any real increase in spending.

The new taxes that could help bolster the current economic state are some of the new excise taxes being introduced throughout the country. These excise taxes are mostly focused around tobacco and alcohol, which are goods that tend to see high demand no matter the price or taxation on them. Some states are hoping to combine these excise taxes with increases in legalized gambling and casinos. Casinos make significant amounts of money off of alcohol as well as their gambling revenues, so if the states increase alcohol taxes, and see success in organized gambling, the economic benefits could be doubly helpful for the states.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/21/news/economy/state_taxes_2012/index.htm?iid=SF_PF_River