THE TIESA BLOG

        Welcome to TIESA’s website.  Here, you will find insightful and unconventional commentary on a wide array of public policy questions.  Those issues include, in addition to matters of great interest in TIESA’s home base, the U.S. State of West Virginia, those of broad interest throughout the United States, and, indeed, the world. 

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        The common theme of the essays and other commentary here is, as TIESA’s above-quoted credo asserts, the power of free market capitalism to improve the condition of mankind.  To that end, the interplay of systems of taxation, being the price we pay for a civilized society, with private enterprise, will be an area of primary focus.  Likewise,  the structure of the public institutions funded by tax revenues, along with the substantive policies and procedures governments employ to foster a civilized society, will be examined from many perspectives.

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        Furthermore, many societal trends powerfully influence the nature and degree of the economic and personal freedom and opportunities for self-reliance which we all strive to experience,and will, thus, be another area of comprehensive review and comment.  

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        In reviewing all of those broad policy areas, and the specific essays and other commentaries addressing each of them, you will find earlier writings spanning more than twenty (20) years of impressions of the evolving debate on many of them.   In addition, under many of them, there are many other topics identified as a preview of essays which are "Coming Soon." 

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      TIESA ’s Current Essay  entitled, “Tax Reform in West Virginia – The Saga Continues”,  reprinted by permission, from Tax Notes: State, Vol. 101, No. 1, July 5, 2021, pp. 11-15, reports the latest developments in the multi-decades-long legislative effort to reform West Virginia’s tax system.  It describes the Governor’s proposal to the recently concluded 2021 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature to improve the State’s economy and attract new residents by reducing the personal income tax, while raising the rates of and eliminating a number of exemptions for the State’s consumers sales and use tax and certain other excise taxes to offset the income tax revenue lost.  The article then describes the entirely separate responses to the Governor’s plan from each of the two houses of the Legislature.  Unfortunately, with a few exceptions described in the article, the 2021 session ended without anything resembling the comprehensive reform we need.  Thus, after analyzing the merits and limitations  of each of the three versions of the tax reform proposals (including the few steps in the right direction)  the article then describes the merits of TIESA’s FAIR 55 TAX REFORM PLAN as an alternative which addresses the tax policy omissions and shortcomings inherent in those proposals.  

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      Finally, we strongly urge all our readers to provide  your thoughts on any of the matters discussed here.  Thank you for your interest and constructive input.  Food for thought serves its most valuable purpose when it is consumed and used for improved understanding and the progress of mankind.  If what you read here  is appealing, and you would  want to consider engaging TIESA to provide insightful, well-researched, well-reasoned written commentaries or other analysis on an ad hoc or periodic basis, please click the following link.  There, we can discuss how our experienced and published commentary services can be provided to your organization at reasonable and competitive rates. 

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        NOTE: Except where expressly indicated otherwise, all the views expressed in this website are exclusively those of TIESA and Michael E. Caryl, and are not to be attributed to his law firm, his family or any other person or organization.