Show Me the Money! Dividend Payouts after the Bush Tax Cut

The centerpiece of President Bush's tax cut in 2003 was a sharp reduction in the individual dividend tax rate. The dividend tax cut was designed to spur investment and boost the stock market by increasing the after-tax return on corporate earnings, thus raising stock valuations. The tax cut also reduced the tax bias against dividends to spur larger payouts to shareholders. That reduces the amount of discretionary cash available to executives and will likely reduce the number of Enron-style corporate financial scandals. This study examines the impact of the dividend tax cut after one year. We gathered data on dividend payouts before and after the 2003 tax cut for all Standard & Poor's 500 companies. We found a highly positive response to the tax cut: Annual dividends paid by S&P 500 companies rose from $146 billion to$172 billion, an increase of $26 billion.In addition, special dividends of$7 billion have been paid, raising the total first-year dividend increase to $33 billion.Thus, dividends increased 18 percent without special dividends and 23 percent with special dividends.Twenty-two companies that did not previously pay dividends have initiated regular dividends.Equity values rose more than$2 trillion after the tax cut.The large and positive response to the dividend tax cut, which is scheduled to expire at the end of 2008, suggests that Congress should make it permanent

States Face Fiscal Crunch after 1990s Spending Surge

Across the nation, large budget gaps are forcing state governments to make tough policy choices. While some states are trying to control spending, others are turning to tax increases to balance their budgets. Some state officials are trying to pass the buck for their poor fiscal management by pleading for a bailout from Washington. But a bailout would encourage states to continue overspending, which is the source of the current fiscal mess. The states' mistake was to allow rapid tax revenue growth during the 1990s to fuel an unsustainable expansion in spending. Between fiscal years 1990 and 2001, state tax revenue grew 86 percent--more than the 55 percent of inflation plus population growth. If states had limited spending growth to that benchmark, budgets would have been $93 billion smaller by FY01--representing savings roughly twice the size of today's state budget gaps. If revenue growth higher than the benchmark had been given back to taxpayers in permanent tax cuts and annual rebates, rebates could have been temporarily suspended during FY02 and FY03 to provide a cushion with which to balance state budgets. Current budget gaps provide policymakers an opportunity to weed out the budget excesses built up during the past decade. Yet overall state spending continues to grow. After soaring 8.0 percent in FY01, state general fund spending has not been cut in FY02 or FY03 even as large budget gaps have appeared. States should impose tax and spending growth caps to prevent budgets from growing too quickly during the next boom. Revenue growth above a benchmark would be given back in tax cuts and tax rebates. That would prevent spending from increasing too quickly and provide the option of suspending rebates during slowdowns to close budget gaps without the damage caused by tax rate increases

‘We planned a dispute by Blackberry’: The implications of the Trade Union Bill for Union use of social media as suggested by the BA-BASSA dispute of 2009–11

The Trade Union Bill 2015–16 was expected to receive royal assent by May 2016. The Bill enshrines the Conservative Government’s plans to reform trade unions and ‘to protect essential public services against strikes’. Following the Government’s climb-down on changes to union checkoff arrangements and to the operation of union political funds and facility time, central features are the proposed changes to thresholds for industrial action in strike ballots, to the notice period for strike action and to the time limit in which industrial action can be taken. In parallel with the introduction of the Bill, the Government published an eight-week public consultation which asked whether statutory measures should be taken to tackle the intimidation of non-striking workers during industrial disputes. In the Consultation, the Government stated its intention to reform and modernise the rules relating to picketing, including the possible extension of the Code on picketing to protests linked to industrial action which may encompass the use of social media. The Consultation found little support for Government proposals and in particular the suggestion that unions give two weeks’ notice of plans for picketing and protests, including the intended use of social media and this proposal was subsequently dropped. However, the government has stated that it will update the Code of Practice on Picketing to include guidance on the use of social media. This paper draws on our research on the 2009–11 British Airways strikes to consider the Government’s aspiration to widen the definition of industrial action to include protests away from the workplace, particularly organised by, or involving, social media. It will reveal how social media was used by BASSA (British Airways Stewards and Stewardesses Association) during the industrial action at British Airways (BA), when it became an additional site of conflict between the union and employer. In the light of these developments, the paper will also consider the potential consequences of the inclusion of measures on unions’ use of social media in the Code of Practice

Higher Education outreach to widen participation: toolkits for practitioners. Overview

The toolkits are a distillation of the learning, methods and resources developed by Aimhigher and the Lifelong Learning Network programmes to support the effective strategy, management and delivery of outreach work to encourage progression to higher education for under-represented groups. The toolkits recontextualise the learning from these programmes to fit the current higher education environment. The toolkits form a suite of four (see links to right). They include: • Toolkit 1 Partnership • Toolkit 2 Targeting • Toolkit 3 Programmes • Toolkit 4 Evaluation • Resources and glossary.This is the second and updated edition, the first edition of the Toolkits was published in December 2012.Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE

Identifying sub-tropical grass seedlings

There is considerable interest in growing sub-tropical (or warm season) perennial grasses for out-of-season green feed, especially on the south coast and in the northern agricultural region (NAR). They consist of two types: creeping grasses, which spread by either above ground runners (stolons) or below ground runners (rhizomes) and bunch grasses, which are tufted and do not spread by runners. The main species sown include Panic grass, Rhodes grass, Kikuyu, Setaria, Signal grass, Digit grass, and Bambatsi panic and are often sown as a mixture, comprising 2 or more species. This bulletin describes how to identify these grasses at the seedling stage.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1203/thumbnail.jp

Shoo-Shoo Baby

No cover arthttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/10271/thumbnail.jp

There\u27ll Be A Jubilee

Men, women, and children dancing with balloons, flags, books, and bellshttps://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/cht-sheet-music/11153/thumbnail.jp

“It Sounds Like a Drama:” Hearing Stories of Chronic Low Back Pain Through Poetic (Re)presentation

A poetic voice develops in different ways and from different sources. In this paper, a poetic voice is brought to the experiences of patients and family members as recounted in the first phase of a UK National Health Service funded Q-methodological study, the key outcomes of which are summarized. Their stories are presented as a single poetic performance text crafted from the analysis of combined transcripts of three focus group discussions. The performance bears witness to the sadness, frustration, and resolve of those living with chronic low back pain, and offers an additional hearing to that provided by the main study

Establishment guide for sub-tropical grasses : key steps to success

Sub-tropical perennial grasses are now widely sown in the Northern Agricultural region (NAR) and on the south coast of Western Australia (WA). Since 2000, more than 50 000 ha have been sown to perennial grasses in the NAR and about 150 000 ha on the south coast, mainly kikuyu.https://researchlibrary.agric.wa.gov.au/bulletins/1034/thumbnail.jp