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Frequently in Error But Rarely in Doubt

January 2, 2019

In my economic presentations I often say that I am ‘frequently in error but rarely in doubt.”  Still, when in error I admit it, it’s a sign that I am willing to ask myself “why” in order to improve my methodologies.  I was wrong when I predicted NH’s job growth would be under 1% in 2018 (it is double that), largely because the labor force was able to grow more than I had forecast (see my previous post on net in-migration to the state).  In a letter to Congress over 100 economists asserted that “the macroeconomic feedback generated by the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” would be “more than enough to compensate for the static revenue loss,” implying that the bill would be deficit-neutral over time. Federal revenues have a seasonal (monthly) variation, with some months bringing in more revenue than the government spends and vice versa.  Comparing similar months over time thus offers some insights into the deficit trends over time and in different economic conditions.  As the chart below shows, the November 2018 monthly deficit (the most recent data available) show that during a period of solid economic growth the U.S. ran the highest November monthly deficit in its history.

november deficits

 

Proponents of the bill also claimed that we would see enough additional investment to boost growth by 4% per year. That implies an increase in annual investment of roughly $800 billion.   But, as this post noted, investment has not jumped to that level, nor does it show signs of doing so anytime soon.  The economists who predicted that tax cuts would spur a rapid increase in investment and higher revenues have been proven wrong.   They have also remained silent, which suggests that they are not at all surprised to see revenues and investment fall far short of what they promised.  Many, if not most, will dismiss the rising deficit (see below) during times of solid economic growth as a function of rising spending.

Deficit nov 2018

Rising spending is, in fact, a major but not unexpected contributor to the deficit problem.   Stagnant or declining revenues in a strong economy are not the norm, and are the kind of pro-cyclical fiscal policy (cutting taxes in a strong economy instead of filling coffers during a strong economy so that taxes can be cut to stimulate the economy when it is weak) that is going to make the next economic downturn much more difficult to combat.

Categories: Federal Deficit, Federal Spending, Fiscal Policy, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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Where is the Boom in Business Investment?

December 21, 2018

Federal corporate tax revenues have fallen about 30 percent on a year-over-year basis since the tax rate w as lowered from 35% to 21% in January.

Investment

A lower tax rate increases the return on investment and should provide an incentive to investment. That was the rationale for the recent tax cut. Business investment increased some after the cut but has barely increased (1% not annualized) in the most recent quarter. But here is the thing, businesses won’t make investments if they don’t see profitable opportunities. There are likely to be fewer opportunities for profitable investment as the economic expansion ages. So while a corporate tax cut was needed, the stimulus value of a large tax cut late in the business cycle was questionable.

BG SMPS NE Presentation

Enacting some smaller cut, helping the government avoid depleting its coffers during a period of solid economic growth, and saving any additional cuts for a time when the economy is weaker, would have been a better path. For the same reason that very low interest rates in a strong economy limit the ability of the Federal Reserve to stimulate the economy as growth weakens, so too does a large corporate tax cut in an economy with near full employment and with solid economic growth.

Categories: Fiscal Policy, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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“How Did You Go Bankrupt?”

August 13, 2018

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”   Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

This is the literary version of a concern issued many times by the noted economist Rudiger Dornbusch, who liked to say: “The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.”

Last Friday’s release of the U.S. “Monthly Treasury Report” shows a continuation of the twin trends of declining revenue and increasing expenditures.

corp taxes and deficit

This is the sort of fiscal stimulus that so many lawmakers argued against as the economy was being pummeled during the “great recession.”  Why is this pro-cyclical rather than counter-cyclical policy now a good idea for those same lawmakers?  Historically the U.S. fills its coffers during good times so we are better able to deal with bad times.  Rising deficits in a strong economy should be more upsetting than the latest presidential tweet. What makes the current situation so unusual and more worrying is the low short-term interest rates and the high (and rising) level of federal debt.  As interest rates rise the high levels of federal government, corporate and household debt will reveal the folly of credit-inflated growth.

July 2018 Deficit

Categories: Debt, Federal Deficit, Federal Spending, Fiscal Policy, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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Where is the Surge in Corporate Tax Revenue?

July 31, 2018

Conservative orthodoxy says that tax cuts always pay for themselves. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence to support that. Other than ideologues, few economists believe that recent U.S. tax cuts will pay for themselves. Solid, empirical research suggests that perhaps 35%-40% of the revenue lost from rate cuts could be offset by growth effects. Again, as I have said in prior posts, the best that can be said is that corporate tax cuts lose less money over time.

Change in Corp taxes since tax cut

There are good reasons for cutting taxes and the U.S. corporate rate needed to be cut. But the case for setting tax rates at their lowest possible levels to maximize economic growth, while not increasing public debt, and still providing needed tax funded services is weakened, I believe, when ideologues argue that tax cuts always increase revenues or pay for themselves. Ideologues argued that the recent federal corporate rate cut would pay for itself and incentives to “repatriate” overseas profits would offset the rate drop. Six months into the rate cut corporate tax revenues are down 20% to 30% depending on the metric used, with no signs of improving, and with the U.S. deficit hurtling toward $1 trillion faster than expected.

Categories: Federal Deficit, Fiscal Policy, tax cuts, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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The Fed’s Revenue Loss is NH’s Revenue Gain

May 24, 2018

Federal corporate tax revenues have been on a downward trend since 2016.  That is unusual in a recovering and growing economy.  The recently enacted corporate tax rate cut from 35 to 21 percent has accelerated the downward revenue trend, a result expected by everyone with a thought process more guided by empirical evidence than  ideological orthodoxy.  The figure below shows how much more sharply corporate tax revenue has been declining since the recent cut in the U.S. corporate tax rate.  Each point on the graph’s line shows the sum of the prior 12 months of U.S. corporate tax collections. Thus, the large recent drop in the 12 month sum of corporate tax collections (as of April 2018) includes only a few months of the new lower rate, yet it still shows a precipitous decline in annualized revenue.

Fed corp tax revenue

I would like to have seen more real “reform” along with a more gradual corporate rate cut (along with some spending reforms to limit impacts on federal deficits) but the U.S. and New Hampshire business tax rates were too high and needed to be cut.    Still, no one who has even a cursory knowledge of the research and evidence on corporate tax cuts expected that such a large rate cut from 35% to 21%  would actually increase corporate tax collections. The best that can be said about the impacts of a large corporate tax cut is that it will lose less revenue over time. That doesn’t mean that a tax cut will always result in an absolute decline in revenues, although that has clearly been the case with the recent U.S. tax cut.  Revenue can still increase with a small rate cut even though revenues may be lower than they would have been had rates not been cut .  That is the case with New Hampshire’s very modest, recent cuts in business tax rates.  Business tax revenues (for the most part) continued to increase in NH but at a slower rate of growth  after the cuts where enacted.

New Hampshire is expected to have a more than $100 million budget surplus by the end of fiscal year 2018.   New Hampshire risks drawing two inaccurate conclusions from this  surplus and the recent sharp increase in business tax collections that is largely responsible for it.   First, that the small drop in 2017 in the state’s business profits tax (BPT) rate from 8.5% to 8.2%, and business enterprise tax (BET) from 0.75% to 0.72%, is responsible for the recent large increase in NH business tax revenues and subsequent state surplus.  Second, that a larger rate cut would produce even more business tax revenue and perhaps an even larger budget surplus.   Again, the rate cuts were needed but NH should understand that the rate cuts have not, and will not in the future, lead to a surge in business tax revenue.  If NH’s business tax cuts had actually produced more revenue (than if rates had not been cut) the growth rate of business tax revenue would have increased following the rate cuts.  In fact, the growth rate in business tax collections declined after NH’s rate cut took effect for tax periods beginning after December of 2016. That is until the federal government lowered its corporate tax rate.  Again, it’s not that business tax collections actually declined, the U.S. and NH economy were strong and profits were increasing,  it’s just that NH, by marginally lowering tax rates, decided to capture a little less of those profits and thus the growth rate of business tax revenue declined.

NH Business and other source Revenue Growth

The figure above shows that the annualized growth rate in NH’s business tax revenues declined throughout much of 2017 (although the final months showed some modest reversal of the trend). Annualized revenue growth jumped dramatically, however, in the first four quarter of 2018, after the cut in the federal corporate tax rate.  The chart also shows that the growth rate of NH’s seven largest sources of general revenue – other than the BPT and BET – that are dependent upon economic conditions and economic activity in the state (meals and rentals, liquor commission revenues, tobacco, real estate transfer, communications services, interest and dividends, and insurance taxes) are growing much more modestly, below the trend from recent years, and certainly not enough to produce a $100 million plus budget surplus.

Clearly business tax collections are responsible for NH’s large budget surplus, but it  is not accurate to say that the increase in business tax collections reflects a “booming NH economy” as many in the state argue.   NH’s economy is strong but not exactly “booming” (1.3% year-over-year job growth ranking 21st nationally, and 1.9% GSP growth ranking 26th) and not nearly strong enough to produce the kind of business tax revenue growth that the state has seen in recent months.  Excuse this brief sidetrack (it is a pet peeve) but don’t assess growth in NH’s (or any state’s) economy  on the basis of a state’s unemployment rate.  Hawaii, at 2.1%, currently has the lowest unemployment rate in the nation followed by NH and North Dakota tied at 2.6% – but here is the thing, over the past year the North Dakota economy has lost 1.3% of jobs (the worst growth rate in the nation), while NH added 1.3% more jobs (21st among all states).

State Unemp. and Job Growth

The same is true when state unemployment rates and the annual growth in state gross state product (the broadest measure of economic growth) are plotted (chart below).  In 2017 NH tied with Michigan for 25th among states for growth in gross state product (at 1.9%),  despite NH having a 2.6% unemployment rate while Michigan’s rate is 4.7%.  The scatter plots above and below urge caution in using unemployment rates to gauge economic growth in a state,  especially now that slow labor force growth is contributing to low unemployment rates and acting as a binding constraint on economic growth in many states.

State GSP Growth and Unemp

Growth in NH’s business tax revenue has historically tracked private sector employment growth in the state.  To show just how unusual the recent growth in NH’s business tax revenue is in relation to job growth in the state look at the following chart which shows how far, by historical measures, the recent growth in revenues has outpaced NH’s private sector employment growth.

Nh Business Taxes and Emp. Growth

Private sector job growth has picked up in recent months (defying reported growth in the size of NH’s labor force –  and suggesting to me that NH may be (re)capturing some of the state’s labor that has been working outside of NH – but more about that in a future post).  However, growth in business tax revenue has far exceeded that which historically accompanied similar rates of job growth.  Changes to federal corporate tax laws are a primary reason for the out-sized boost in NH’s business tax revenues, so whatever you think of the recent federal tax reform you can thank the feds for their role in creating NH’s current budget surplus.  The NH Department of Revenue provided lawmakers with a briefing on what tax reform could mean to NH’s revenues but they were rightly cautious in making a dollar forecast of impacts.  But a summary of their analysis of impacts suggests that more of the provisions of federal tax law will increase rather than decrease NH revenues.

The impact on NH revenues of federal corporate tax collections is also apparent when comparing annualized growth in federal corporate and NH business tax revenue in recent years.  The chart below shows how dramatically different are the most recent trends in business tax revenue growth at the federal and NH state level.  In addition,  surprisingly (to me at least), this inverse relationship seems to occur over the longer-term as slower growth in federal corporate tax collections since the recession are associated with higher growth in NH state business tax collections (and vice versa), despite the fact that economic growth in NH lagged U.S. growth during much of the recovery from recession.

Federal and NH Business Tax Growth

I have argued in prior posts that lawmakers should be cautious in budgeting because revenue growth in NH, although growing, was growing  more slowly.  I did not foresee a $100 million budget surplus but who did, and who knew what the impact of federal tax reform would be.  No public hearings or discussion of the federal tax reform proposal were held and in any case nobody was certain whether changes in corporate tax laws would pass.  Growth trends in most of NH’s key sources of state revenue have been modest even as federal tax reform quickly and dramatically altered NH’s business tax revenue trends, greatly improving the state’s fiscal position in the process.   I believe that fundamental underlying revenue trends still argue for caution in state budgeting, but when the federal government’s actions contribute to a state surplus NH is happy to say “yes please and thank you.” Lawmakers would be wise , however, not to assume that cuts in the state’s business taxes are responsible for the growth in state tax revenues or that larger cuts will add to the surplus.

Categories: Fiscal Policy, NH Economy, tax cuts, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

February 16, 2018
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The U.S. economy is currently in the third longest period of uninterrupted expansion in its history, soon to be the second longest, and there is a better than even chance it will become the longest in history 16 months from now.  Even without the recently enacted deficit-financed stimulus (tax cuts and expenditure increases) the U.S. economy was on solid ground, with growth forecast to be stronger in 2018 than it was in 2017. That is what makes lack of concern over the projected increase in the government’s annual deficit from about $700 billion to $1 trillion especially troubling.

Expansion

The current economic expansion is exceptional in duration and atypical in gaining strength late in the economic cycle.  But it is also about to become notorious for producing a burgeoning federal deficit during a period of solid economic growth (annual federal deficits are generally inversely related to economic conditions).  So the price of  stronger growth and a longer expansion is looking like higher annual budget deficits (forecast to grow from 3% of GDP to 5% just by 2019) and a national debt that will grow from about 76% of GDP to 97% over 10 years, risking longer-term economic growth.  It is a high price to pay for a small increase in economic growth and a fiscal policy gamble to add stimulus to an economy near full employment but it is  price that the administration and congress are willing to pay without hesitation.

Annual deficits declined between 2012 and 2016 as the economic recovery strengthened and costs associated with the “stimulus” eroded.  But since early 2016 deficits have been increasing.  The difference between monthly revenues and expenditures over the most recent 12 twelve months (between February 2017 and January 2018) shows that the annualized federal deficit stands at $682 billion compared to $585 billion for the February 2016 to January 2017 time period, a 17% increase over the year and up from a low of $405 billion early in 2016.

Deficit

The increase in the deficit results from both higher spending and a slowing rate of revenue growth (chart below), and it comes before the impacts of recently enacted tax cuts and the two-year spending agreement take effect that will both lower revenues by about $1 trillion over the next decade (even after accounting for growth effects) and increase spending by about $300 billion just over the next two years.

Spending and revenues

The U.S. has had higher annual deficits in the past, but always during a period of weak or negative economic growth.  Increasing deficits and greatly adding to the nation’s debt in the absence of an economic downturn should have been a giant caution sign for lawmakers.  If  $400 billion annual deficits were “crippling” our economy in 2016 (as some lawmakers suggested) how are $1 trillion deficits in a growing economy not of more concern?  Debt is often the match that lights the fire of economic crisis, whether the fault was with politicians, central bankers, overzealous consumers, businesses, developers, bankers, credit rating agencies, regulators, or any combination thereof, all true crises involve too much leverage.

With that admonition (screed?), reducing the corporate tax rate was still a good idea, the U.S. rate was too high. And yes, a lower corporate tax will raise wages eventually (lower taxes increase capital investment and improve productivity – raising wages), but only after years, and certainly not in the time frame suggested by the White House. But just as important (and largely a missed opportunity in the legislation) was the need to eliminate targeted and industry-specific preferences that direct too much investment to tax-favored activities rather than to their most productive uses.  Many of the agreed upon expenditure increases also have merit.  Overall, however, the combination of tax and spending policies recently enacted seems poorly structured and ill-timed.  If we enact a deficit funded stimulus when we are near full employment and when the economy is already poised to grow more rapidly, what will we be able to do when the next recession arrives?

Impact on State Finances

The New Hampshire economy is fundamentally strong, our industries are as vibrant and innovative as ever and the state’s economy would be growing and producing more if the supply of labor could accommodate more growth. It can’t, labor force growth is not keeping pace with labor demand and economic growth has been slowing in New Hampshire for at least two quarters. It will continue to do so in 2018. So too will state revenues.

Job and LF Growth

State-level GDP estimates produced by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis are reported with a long lag and are not a very timely indicator of current state growth trends.  A useful proxy for assessing growth trends in state-level GDP is aggregate hours worked in the state (employment times the average number of hours worked) which correlates well with changes in the state’s total output of goods and services (GDP).  Adding current estimates of U.S. productivity growth (there is no similar state-level measure) provides a high-frequency estimate of the state’s GDP growth trend.  As the chart below shows, the growth rate of NH GDP is declining, again, primarily because the rate of employment growth is declining.  When you are adding fewer workers the output of the state’s economy will grow more slowly unless there is a significant increase in productivity (it has increased some but not significantly).

Aggregate Hours Worked

Slower employment and economic growth in NH (along with changes in revenue policies) have slowed the rate of revenue growth in the state since 2016.  There has been a bump in the past few months but how the recently enacted tax cuts at the national level will affect the trend is uncertain.  What is certain is that the growth constraints NH faces will make it difficult to accelerate economic growth in the state and thus state revenues.

Looking at annualized revenue growth (summing any 12 month period), the chart below shows that revenue from NH’s nine largest sources of general revenue (and the sources most affected by economic trends) hit a plateau in 2016, at a time when employment growth was at its post-recession peak.  Since that time, annualized growth in the revenue sources most affected by economic conditions has slowed.

Revenue

 Looking at the rate of change in annualized state revenues illustrates the longer-term slowing of the rate of annualized growth.   The chart below shows how significantly the growth rate in revenues has slowed since 2016.

Revenue Growth Rate

Expenditure Pressures Will Mount

The impact on state revenues of recent changes in federal policies may be uncertain but their impact on state and local government is likely to add to the state’s fiscal pressures.  A great deal of uncertainty exists over how funding for state-operated programs that share costs with the federal government will be affected but most signs point to less funding for programs like Medicaid and infrastructure.  The administration’s recently announced $1.5 trillion infrastructure proposal actually reduces funding for states while calling for greater state commitments.  Proposals to cap or block-grant Medicaid funding would significantly add to the fiscal pressures facing all states.  At the same time mandatory spending on things such as government pensions are poised to increase significantly in coming years.

Other recent federal policies will affect states and localities by increasing the cost of borrowing.  One change eliminated the tax-free status of “advance refunding bonds” that allow states and communities to refinance debt at lower interest rates well before their call date in order to free-up funds for other purposes.  The prospect of annual deficits of more than a trillion dollars (placing greater demands on credit markets) during a strong economy when deficits typically fall, has also increased expectations of higher interest rates, increasing the cost of borrowing by governments, households and businesses.  How fast and how much rates rise is not certain but they have already increased significantly this year (albeit from low levels.)

Less directly, federal tax law changes will affect the borrowing costs of state and local governments by making municipal bonds less attractive (relative to other loans and investments).  Banks and insurance companies are big buyers of municipal bonds – lending money to state and local governments.  The interest rate that governments have to pay on those bonds is lower than on other types of loans made by banks because banks and insurance companies do not have to pay taxes on the income they earn from loans to governments.   The drop in the corporate tax rate reduces some of the advantage of the tax- free bonds and makes other loans/investments made by banks and insurers more attractive relative to municipal bonds.  Interest rates on municipal bonds will have to rise to remain competitive with other loans.

Along with slower growth in state revenues there are enough spending pressures building along with potential impacts from recently enacted federal policies to suggest  lawmakers in the state would be wise to be cautious in the next budget cycle that begins in the fall of this year.

The divergence between economic and fiscal conditions doesn’t seem to be troubling to many policymakers at the federal or state level.  With apologies to Dickens, it does feel like “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Let’s hope that it isn’t also becoming “the age of foolishness.”

Categories: Debt, Federal Deficit, Federal Spending, Fiscal Policy, NH Economy, State budget, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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Great Expectations

June 6, 2017

“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”        

    Mr. Jaggers to Pip,  in Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations”

Optimism in the U.S. economy has been high for most of 2017.  Consumer and small business confidence are both higher than they have been in a decade  and according to the Business Roundtable the CEO’s of America’s largest corporations haven’t been this optimistic in eight years.

Sentiment

From survey data alone the U.S. economy appears to be booming.  But the hard, quantifiable data (1.2 percent GDP growth in the first quarter of 2017) tells a story of more tepid growth.  The degree of divergence between soft (survey and sentiment data) and hard economic data is striking and either consumer and business sentiment will lead to higher rates of growth or sentiment will begin to wane – something has to give and my money is on the latter.

The divergence between sentiment and actual economic performance can be especially problematic for lawmakers crafting state budgets.  With so much economic optimism it is easy for those urging caution in budgeting (based on expected revenue) to be the skunks at the garden party. I don’t know who has the best revenue estimates on which to base NH’s next budget but the trends I see (and present later in this post) urge caution in assuming current levels of consumer and business optimism will be matched by revenue growth.

Still, the economic recovery remains on track (albeit at a modest pace by historical standards) and it has a better than 50/50 chance of becoming the longest expansion in U.S. history by lasting into the middle of 2019.

Length of recovery

The current expansion is getting old but expansions don’t die of old age; something kills them (think the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s, the dot com bubble in the early 2000s, and the mortgage and financial crisis of the recent recession).  Right now, the economy does not seem to be harboring the kinds of excesses and imbalances or overindulgence that have presaged sharp slowdowns or recessions in the past. There are some areas of concern; at more than 20 times earnings, stock market valuations (depending on which index is used) are well above the 15-17 time earnings that is the historical average, but this is not at the “irrational exuberance” stage.  Economists tend to write-off or disbelieve negative economic data as statistical anomalies or due to temporary factors prior to slowdowns and lately a bit more of that has been occurring than I am comfortable with.  But even as there are some unflattering economic indicators that should be acknowledged they are still too new to be trends.  No one is saying the “r-word” and the best we can say today is that we are one day closer to the next recession.

There is no more important task for policymakers than estimating revenues. Underestimating state government revenues results in more needs being unmet than is desirable, while overestimating revenues can lead to difficult and painful spending cuts in later years. So why should NH lawmakers be cautious in their revenue estimates in a time of optimism and apparent abundance?   As Dickens (Mr. Jaggers) would say “take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence.”   In the case of state government revenue the “looks” are reports of a booming economy and high confidence while the “evidence” is real trends in revenue growth.   Analysis and empirical evidence are not currently in favor as tools for governing, at least at the national level, but the great majority of lawmakers in NH value data and evidence and do their best to employ rigor in the budgeting process.  But a focus on monthly revenue reports and numbers can sometimes make it difficult to separate the signal from the noise in the revenue trends. In addition, while it is important to note how actual revenues compare to “planned” revenues on a monthly basis, revenues can meet “planned” expectations at the same time they are signaling a weakening trend.  Thus it is possible that lawmakers can be optimistic that revenues meet or exceed expectations in any month at the same time revenue growth is slowing.  Which is the more important trend?  When I look at the larger trends in state revenue collections from NH’s nine largest sources of own source, general revenue, I see a slowing growth trend even as revenues have generally met monthly expectations.  The chart below shows the year-over-year percentage change in annualized (sum of prior 12 months) state revenue collections.

Annualized NH revenues

Examining NH business tax collections reveals a similar trend of a declining rate of growth.   The chart below shows the rate of change in annualized (sum of the prior 12 months) business tax collections, along with the trend in rate-adjusted revenue to control for the impacts of rate changes on growth rates.

Annualiz NH Business Taxes

The growth rate of meals and rental tax collections in NH (more commonly called meals and rooms) has also slowed.  The chart below shows annualized growth in spending on meals and rooms in NH.  Because the data shows spending on meals and rooms rather than tax collections the data is free from any changes related to tax rates.

Meals and rooms trend

Many factors influence rooms and meals and hospitality expenditures in the short-term (weather, gasoline prices, etc.) but the most fundamental factor that determines longer-term (longer than month-to-month) trends in meals and rooms expenditures are employment and earnings trends in the state and New England region.  Employment continues to grow but at a somewhat slower rate as the nation and the region confront full-employment and labor shortages. Wage growth is occurring but prices are also rising and as the figure below shows, real (inflation adjusted) earnings growth has been trending downward in the U.S. and New England (the same is true for NH).  The result is that the rate of growth of consumer expenditures, in almost all expenditure categories, has slowed.  The chart below presents an estimate of trends in the growth of real earnings (employment times the average hourly wage times average number of hours worked and adjusted for inflation) in the U.S. and New England.  The earnings of New England residents and their ability and willingness to spend have a significant impact on several NH revenues.

Real Earnings Growth

The relationship between spending on meals and rooms in NH and real earnings in New England (lagged) is evidenced in the graph below.

M&R and NE Earnings

I don’t know who is more accurate in estimating revenues in the current debate over the state’s next budget.  There is a case to be made for different expectations.  As long as policy decisions are made based on some empirical interpretation of trends in the economy and revenues rather than an ideological push for more or less spending I think the state will be fine regardless of what lawmakers decide.  I am frequently in error but rarely in doubt and I’ve presented one of what are many interpretations of revenue trends in NH.  Despite what I see as a lot of unmet needs in the Granite State, the trends highlighted in this post urge caution in pillorying anyone who argues for fiscal restraint at a time of so much economic optimism.

Categories: Fiscal Policy, NH Economy, State budget, Tax Revenue, Uncategorized
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The Business Tax Discussion NH Should Have

June 23, 2015

What to do about New Hampshire’s business taxes is near the top of lawmaker’s agenda in the Granite State. Many policymakers are concerned that the business tax climate is contributing to a fundamental erosion of New Hampshire’s business climate that is reflected in lackluster employment and revenue growth. Reports that NH has recently outperformed  New England and the U.S. in gross state product (GSP) growth highlight the disconnect that can occur between economic metrics of output (GSP) and measures that more directly affect individuals in their daily lives, such as employment and wage growth. Better than regional or national average growth in GSP is good but state-level GSP numbers are relatively imprecise and should not obscure the fact that employment, wages, and state revenue growth have all been disappointing in NH by the standards of the past few decades. Sustained, disappointing employment and revenue growth since the end of the recession have prompted well-meaning lawmakers in NH to consider a number of policies to accelerate growth in the state.

NH and US emp Growth

Business Taxes Seen as Key

Business tax rates impact business decisions but I don’t believe they are the fundamental factor behind NH’s disappointing economic performance. Lawmakers should consider “what to do about business taxes” but that consideration should go well beyond current tax rates and regulations. Lawmakers should also be concerned with the long-term prospects (revenue yield) of business taxes because business taxes are the largest source of general revenue supporting state government.  New Hampshire’s fiscal structure is fundamentally tied to the performance of the state’s business taxes.  As importantly, lawmakers should be concerned with how NH’s business taxes will interact with key economic and demographic trends to influence the state’s future economic performance. The chart below shows combined quarterly business profits and business enterprise tax collections on an annualized basis and illustrates that nearly six years post-recession and more than seven past their high mark, business tax revenues in NH have not fully recovered. Some of the failure of revenues to rebound following the recession is a result of changes in the state’s business tax rules and some is the result of total private sector wages and salaries (the largest portion of the BET tax base) that declined in  2009 and 2010. Whatever the reason it highlights concerns about the viability of business taxes as the primary source of support for state government. I don’t believe that either raising or lowering rates is likely to improve the performance of business tax revenue enough to alleviate those concerns or even result in revenue gains that match those seen in the first half of the 2000s.

NH Business Tax Revenue

The Business Tax Burden in NH

Using tax rates to measure burdens over time is not a true measure of the impact that business taxes have on companies. Comparing state business tax climates using rates is problematic because of the various provisions of each state’s tax code that affect nominal rates. Here I assess business tax “burdens” using an economic measure – business tax collections as a percentage of private sector gross state product (GSP). This metric documents the state’s business tax burden placed on the total value of private sector goods and services produced in a state. Even using this measure of “burden” is problematic because it does not include all of the taxes, fees, and charges that may apply to a business in each state. Nevertheless, when it comes to addressing the primary sources of tax burden and the ‘headline taxes” that are identified with a state’s business climate, it is a better measure than looking at just business tax rates.

As the chart below shows, as a percentage of GSP, business tax burdens have nearly doubled in New Hampshire since the early 1990’s. Much of that is the result of the addition of the Business Enterprise Tax in 1993, as well as increases in the BET’s rate from 0.25% to 0.50% in 1999, to 0.75% in 2001. But some is also the result of increases in the rate of the business profits tax (BPT) which began the time period shown at 8.0% (from FY 92 through FY 93), dropped to 7.5% in FY 94 and hit a low of 7.0% (from FY 95 through FY 99) and finally rose to its current rate of 8.5% in FY 02. Importantly, the chart also shows that business tax revenue as a percentage of private sector gross state product has fallen since the recession and is now at a level seen at the beginning of the last decade. Again, changes in rules and a decline in wages and salaries both play a role in that decline. For comparison purposes the chart also shows the percentage of GSP that corporate income taxes take in Massachusetts, however, as noted, a number of other taxes are applied to or affect business in addition to corporate income taxes.

Taxes as a pct of GSP

What’s Ailing the NH Economy?

I don’t believe there has been a substantial, fundamental erosion of the ‘business climate” in NH. Slow labor force growth is by far the largest factor contributing to New Hampshire having gone from a leader to a laggard in job growth. That labor force issue is much broader and more complicated than the simplistic and too often noted “young people moving out-of-state.” The chart below shows that labor force growth has slowed more in NH than nationally in recent decades. Where once NH enjoyed a significant advantage in labor force growth, the state now lags the nation as a whole. Above average labor force growth is what allowed NH to have exceptional job growth in the 1980’s and much of the 1990’s.

lf growth 3 time periods

Labor force growth (largely via in-migration of skilled, educated individuals and families from other states) provided NH with a resource advantage for decades. Slow labor force growth is now capping the amount job growth that is possible in the state. Some believe the state’s labor force would experience stronger growth if more job opportunities existed in NH and that simply reducing business taxes will make that happen. While that is true to a degree, today, businesses rarely locate where there is not clearly a sufficient supply of needed labor. A sharp rise in help-wanted advertising in NH in recent years even as private sector employment growth has remained relatively constant and disappointing (chart below) shows that in the near-term at least, demand for labor does not necessarily increase its supply.  Significantly, the chart also shows that after a rapid rise in help wanted advertisements that was not accompanied by a noticeable increase in the rate of private sector job growth, help wanted ads have begun to decline in what may be a sign that employers, because of labor supply constraints, are increasingly looking  elsewhere for labor.

help wanted june 2015

The demand for labor does generally increase the supply of labor but when the supply is growing slowly everywhere (especially in the Northeast where NH has typically attracted much of its increase in labor force), supply will respond accordingly. Increasingly businesses follow labor rather than the other way around and they do not rely on their demand to increase labor supply.  Looking ahead, population and demographic projections show that both nationally and in NH, the working age population (defined here as age 18-64) will show almost no growth over the next 25 years. Competition for labor among businesses will become more intense and to keep and attract a labor force businesses will have to offer more than just the promise of a paycheck. I would argue that states and communities will also have to offer more (in terms of amenities – natural, social, civic, cultural, and services) to attract and retain the labor force needed for employment and economic growth. Evidence of the importance of amenities to labor supply (and employment growth) can be seen in the differential employment growth between some of NH’s regions such as the Seacoast (which has had higher population, labor force, and employment growth and which has several high amenity communities) and other regions of the state.

New Hampshire can improve its business taxes and business climate but whatever reforms are enacted, alone, are not going to overcome demographic and labor force imposed constraints on employment growth in the state. Lawmakers should, however, seek to assure that business taxes do not worsen key constraints on the NH economy moving forward.

The Longer-Term Problem

NH’s combination of a traditional tax on the profits of business profits (the business profits tax or BPT), along with its “business enterprise tax” or BET (on the combined compensation, interest, and dividends paid by businesses) may well exacerbate some of the disadvantages the state’s economy will face as a result of national and state demographic trends, making it more difficult for NH to overcome key constraints on employment growth in the state.

Reducing business tax rates that many see as too high is a near-term solution to a longer-term problem. The longer-term problem is slow or no labor force growth nationally and in NH in the coming decades that will limit profit growth everywhere but which will also place additional burdens on NH businesses. The labor force problem and NH’s reliance on business taxes will present NH businesses and state government with challenges that are unique to the state.

Wages and salaries are generally lower for comparable positions in NH than they are in Massachusetts. At one time it was easy to justify that wage differential because of large differences in the cost of living between the two states. Today, the cost of living differential between the two states has narrowed and NH is considered a high cost-of-living state. The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) produces a “regional price parity index” Regional Price Parities (RPPs) measure the differences in the price levels of goods and services across states for a given year. RPPs are expressed as a percentage of the overall national price level (100). As the chart below shows (apologies for the poor quality – I lifted it directly from a BEA publication), NH (seen in red) has become a high cost state (largely because of housing costs), nearly as costly as Massachusetts.

price parityIn a state (NH) with living costs that are increasingly comparable to Massachusetts, workers in NH can be expected to seek wages nearly comparable to wages available in Massachusetts. For the most part, however, NH employees do not receive wages comparable to wages in Massachusetts and that contributes to some of NH businesses inability to hire needed workers and to NH’s modest job growth, despite increased job openings in the Granite State.   It may also be a contributing factor to NH’s significant drop in its unemployment rate with only modest job growth (the unemployment rate is a residency-based measure that considers only whether or not a resident of NH has a job or not, regardless of where that job is located).  Little or no growth in the labor force in the coming decades will increase competition for workers and will put more pressure on NH businesses to narrow wage and salary differentials with other, higher-cost states, if higher-skill jobs located in NH are going to grow. The catch 22 is that higher wages increase the BET liability of businesses at the same time they can reduce profitability (if productivity isn’t rising along with wages). A growing disconnect between the profitability of businesses in NH and the tax burden placed on them is not likely to be an incentive for businesses to compete for labor in a era when it is ever more scarce.

Higher wages would not be a problem as long as productivity increases justify wage growth. When workers produce more they should see higher wages. Productivity growth has been modest over the past decade and shows little sign of accelerating. Thus increasing wages will likely mean slower profit growth for businesses in NH and elsewhere. I think we have seen the high mark nationally for corporate profitability for some time. But in NH, the higher wages needed to attract labor will also increase the business enterprise tax (BET) liability of companies. If profitability is indeed more modest because of faster wage growth and modest productivity growth, the BET liability of NH businesses relative to their business profits tax (BPT) liability will increase. An ad valorem tax on a resource (labor) in short supply with a rising price and that is paid regardless of the profitability of a business may increase (or cushion from decline) state revenue for a time but it also seems like a disincentive for businesses to pay the wages necessary to compete for labor and to hire in New Hampshire over the longer term.

New Hampshire’s tax structure has never really been a boon or an advantage for business but it has been attractive to large numbers of individuals and families over the years and it contributed to growth in the state’s labor force via inter-state migration into NH. Growth in key demographic groups within the labor force – skilled individuals with higher levels of educational attainment  and regardless of their age ( two wage-earner, college educated, married couple families with children characterized the typical inter-state migrant to NH) made New Hampshire a much more attractive place for businesses to operate. The in-migration of “talent” fueled the state’s transition to a more sophisticated, technology dependent economy. But there is less state-to-state migration everywhere today and national and regional population, demographic, and labor force growth make it much less likely that NH will continue to realize those benefits from its fiscal structure. In the coming decades as competition for labor increases because of limited growth in the labor force, stronger wage growth will be needed to attract a limited pool of labor. Taxing compensation (as NH’s BET does) will increase tax liabilities for many NH businesses even as higher wages limit their profitability.

It is time for a discussion of NH’s business taxes, but that discussion needs to involve a lot more than just tax rates, credits, and how the rules apply to publicly traded companies.

Categories: corporations, job growth, Labor Force, New Hampshire, NH, Tax Revenue
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“Honest Brokers” and Revenue Estimates

May 14, 2013

Unlike the federal government, states can’t easily budget and spend more money than they take in revenue so revenue estimates play a much more important role in state budgeting than they do  in federal budgeting.  I don’t know how anyone can accurately forecast revenues when the revenue yields are based on negotiations, lawsuits or other non-economic variables but that seems to be the basis  of much of the disagreement among budget writers in New Hampshire. When a comparatively large percentage (compared to many other states) of your revenues are derived from a “Medicaid enhancement tax”  and “tobacco settlement”  money budget writing can become even more politicized than usual.

I don’t pretend to know what these non-traditional sources of revenue will yield in the coming years but I get a sense that those who do are fitting their forecasts to their meet their budgetary goals.  I  don’t think revenue forecasting is that difficult as long it is based on real economic data and trends and it minimizes the use of assumptions about changes in the performance of the economy.   I make forecasts with assumptions all the time but  minimizing their use  in revenue forecasts will mean that even if the forecast is wrong, it won’t appear as though the error resulted from a desire to “coax” a specific result from the forecast.   In January I presented my outlook to the NH House Committee on Ways Means.  At that time I said I thought revenue growth from major, “own-source” revenues would average about 2% each year of the biennium and that businesses tax revenue growth would be a bit higher, but with even modest economic improvement could average 5-6% annual growth.  Now, several months later, based on recent revenue performance, and making  no assumptions about significant changes in economic conditions, I see growth at about 3% in FY 2014 from the eight largest sources of general revenue, and just under 5% in 2015.  Those numbers don’t count the “non-traditional” revenue sources but I think they are important in reflecting the fundamental underlying growth in the state’s economy and a better assessment of  general revenue trends.

NH General revenue forecast

Clearing out some old boxes from my attic  I came across a number of old college tests and papers.  One was from a graduate school class on public finance where I argued that all federal budgeting and budgeting  debates should proceed from a common economic and revenue forecast.  I also found one from an undergraduate class on the philosophy of Marxism in which I wrote phrases like “man should never be a means to end but only an end in himself ” so clearly I was prone to a lot of bad and muddled thinking back then.  In the 1990’s I wrote a column in a publication arguing for a non-partisan revenue estimating committee in NH.  That was a pretty good idea  and it did happen – although my prompt had nothing to do with it –  and it was enacted largely absent the “non-partisan” aspect (or at least “unbiased”).  I still think a true, non-partisan, representative revenue estimating panel would be a good thing for NH, not to bind any actions but simply to serve as a baseline scenario that any policymakers who wishes to deviate from would have to offer solid reasons for doing so.  Some group in the budget debate has to serve as the “honest broker”  but the honest broker role won’t happen if the group is loved too much by some or hated too passionately by others.   The current estimating panel has some of the best and most qualified people I know to do revenue estimating .  It just doesn’t have the  credibility among many policymakers that it could have  if  no one loved or hated it too much, but instead almost everyone complained a little (or a lot) about  it.  It is too bad because we are still going to need an “honest broker” when the NH House and Senate begin negotiations on the next budget.

Categories: Fiscal Policy, New Hampshire, State budget, Tax Revenue
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Getting What You Want But Not What You Need

April 10, 2013

Business taxes are about one-quarter of NH state government revenues and an even higher percentage when you take out sources such as the statewide property tax which is largely an accounting fiction that really does nothing to support state services.  That is a higher percentage than any state with the exception of some states that get oil, gas and mineral extraction revenues.

When business taxes are that important to a state’s fiscal health it better make sure that it takes care of its businesses and its business climate because if and when they go south (or south and west just as more people have) it becomes very difficult for the state to produce a budget.   The chart below shows how NH’s “own source” general and education fund revenue from the nine largest sources of revenue (exclusive of the statewide property tax) have grown comparatively since 2003.  I think the chart shows how important trends in business tax revenues are to overall revenue trends in the state.  The bad news is that revenues from the business profits and business enterprise tax are still more than 20 percent below peak.  The good news is that they are growing.

Growth in Own Source Revenue

The chart also says a few other things to me.  First, a strong and dynamic business climate is the best fiscal policy for the state.  Second, if you are going to cut business taxes you had better be certain that it is a good way produce a strong and dynamic economy because if not, the fiscal health of the state will suffer.  Third (and related), if revenues rise in response to cuts in business taxes great, it will be evidence of a stronger economy and healthier state finances, but if revenues  fall you better be sure that the service and spending reductions that result don’t affect those things that most contribute to a strong and dynamic economy because economic growth (and thus revenues) will be at risk for falling further.   All businesses want lower taxes and it that is the quickest and easiest way for policymakers to demonstrate how much they love  businesses.  But businesses also need and want a lot of other things to prosper and, like lowering taxes, they aren’t shy about asking for them.  Unfortunately, in a state so dependent on business tax revenues businesses getting what they want can sometimes make it more difficult to get what they need.

NH lawmakers, like lawmakers in most other states, want prosperity and opportunity for residents .  Most  also recognize that a strong and dynamic economy is the way to assure that.   So unless you are big financial institution, a big oil company, or just about any business or industry that is prefaced by “big,”  it’s a pretty good time to be in business because almost everyone wants to show you some love, they just can’t agree on how to demonstrate it.  Right now a lot of ideology and little evidence is being brought to bear on the question of “what policies are most helpful in producing a strong and dynamic NH economy.”   That makes it a lot harder to see that we all have a common interest in a strong economy and even more difficult to agree on what to do about it.

Categories: Fiscal Policy, New Hampshire, Policy, Tax Revenue
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