Free Republic

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-21/gore-to-stand-in-at-udall-fundraiser

Recently, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein ruled that the city of Stockton, California could reduce the amount it was obligated to pay in pension costs and could even leave the state’s retirement system (CalPERS). The significance of this decision is difficult to overstate. Pensions were long thought to be absolutely sacrosanct and unable to be cut, even in bankruptcy, especially since pension obligations are specifically protected under state law. Judge Klein’s ruling has highlighted the fact that political promises must bend to the reality of numbers. The impetus for this ruling was another creditor of the city of Stockton that,...

---SNIP--- What’s the draw at this Bensalem store? Cigarettes, some priced at under $6 a pack. No more than a mile away in Philadelphia, the same cigarettes cost more than $8. “We used to get between 300 and 400 cartons of cigarettes every other night. Now, we’re getting about 1,500 cartons. I would say sales have gone up from about 2,000 packs a day to between 4,000 and 4,500 packs daily,” inventory manager Jim Watson said. That adds up at least $24,000 a day in sales, an increase of $12,000-plus since nearby Philadelphia increased its tax on a pack of...

Tens of thousands of federal workers are being kept on paid leave for at least a month — and often for longer stretches that can reach a year or more — while they wait to be punished for misbehavior or cleared and allowed to return to work, government records show. During a three-year period that ended last fall, more than 57,000 employees were sent home for a month or longer. The tab for these workers exceeded $775 million in salary alone. The extensive use of so-called administrative leave continues despite government personnel rules that limit paid leave for employees facing...

The good citizens of Denton will be voting on Nov. 4 whether or not to ban hydraulic fracturing. They have been told by former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Tom Phillips the ban on fracturing is unconstitutional. “Under the Texas Constitution, I do not believe that a municipality may ban all oil and gas drilling within its borders,” former Chief Justice Phillips said during a hearing before the Denton City Council on July 15. He said the ban is incompatible with state law, and it amounts to a government taking of private property of many mineral interest owners and operators....

Government overspending, gleefully celebrated by record tax collections of your hard earned dollars. The rapacious government needs to be fed. This Washington Times piece did an nice overview of FY2014: The Treasury Department unveiled its Fiscal Year 2014 numbers, which showed that the government’s revenue, for the first time ever, hit the $3 trillion mark. However, the government still overspent its revenues, leaving a $483 billion deficit. Supporters of President Obama are touting the “success” of a $483 billion deficit by pointing out its the lowest deficit since 2008. A “mere” $483 billion deficit is not something to be celebrated....

The questionable accounting gimmick countries are using to claim economic progress. Calculating the economic output of hookers, gunrunners and drug dealers to boost GDP Karl Marx was wrong about virtually everything, but he was spot on when he said, “history repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” For the third time in six years, the European Union (EU) is on the verge of recession, a tragedy fueled by slow or non-existent growth, a strong possibility of continent-wide deflation, and debt burdens that remain onerous, if not catastrophic. Enter farce: the economic doyens of the EU have determined that Italy...

Reparations will amount to a transfer of wealth from the more powerful to the more powerless. This is the closest approximation of justice that I would imagine is possible. We will now engage in some purposely simplified back-of-the-envelope math. Imagine a nationwide, one-time infusion of wealth to those who live at the lower end of America's economic pyramid. Let's take as our starting point that Black households have roughly 60% of the income and 5% of the wealth that White households do. (Hispanic households have just a tiny bit more wealth than Black households. Median household net worth is about...

Most voters in Tennessee pay no income or payroll taxes. Next month, they will decide whether they want that to remain that way. A state ballot referendum, Amendment 3, would write prohibitions of both income and payroll taxes into the state constitution, pushed by anti-tax advocates who are worried about previous government efforts to add an income tax. For the foreseeable future, there is little chance of either tax being added in the Volunteer State. The Republicans control both the statehouse and the governor's mansion, and no one expects them to endorse either levy. Nevertheless, anti-tax advocates are concerned that...

So now the federal health bureaucrats in charge of controlling diseases and pandemics want more money to do their jobs. Hmph. Maybe if they hadn’t been so busy squandering their massive government subsidies on everything but their core mission, we taxpayers might actually feel a twinge of sympathy.

You work hard. You pay what you think is more than enough in taxes. The economy hasn’t really felt good since 2008, but you managed to get by. If you’ve got a 401(k), it’s grown in the past few years – but the real estate bubble burned you, and the dot-com bubble burned you before that. You know that nice sum in your 401(k) could plummet without warning. What you would really like is a nice better job, so you could feel better about the amount of income coming in every month. You’re trying to play all of your roles...

While it may seem unfair to pay income taxes twice, Maryland residents have been doing so for years. That’s because unlike most other states, Maryland’s tax code does not provide a full tax credit for taxes paid to other states. This means anyone in Maryland who earns money in another state will pay that state’s income taxes, only to have Maryland levee county-level income taxes, without credit or deduction, on the same income. The result is that Maryland residents are unfairly double-taxed on income they earn out-of-state. Fortunately, one couple in Maryland has had enough. The Wynnes, part owners of...

Universities dodge the mandate by cutting back student work hours. Liberals are rebuking businesses for cutting the hours of workers to skirt ObamaCare’s employer mandate. Lo, the people’s republic of Boulder, otherwise known as the University of Colorado, has announced that it too is capping the hours of undergraduate workers to avoid the mandate. ... Undergrads will now be limited to 25 hours of university-provided employment per week, though students can work additional hours at off-campus jobs. Under ObamaCare, large employers must provide health benefits—including free contraception—to all employees who work more than 30 hours a week on average. Otherwise,...

World economic leaders are being urged to rally around a plan to let government do what it does best - spend money - in an effort to buoy a global economy that remains slack and slowing. The effort comes as six years of crisis fighting have lapsed with little guarantee the world economy is on a stable footing. Germany is in danger of slipping into recession, China has slowed, and U.S. policymakers are concerned a fresh bout of global weakness will stymie the U.S. recovery as well. International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde issued a blunt call on Thursday...

Santa Fe Public Schools is among three school districts suing the state of New Mexico and its Public Education Department in an effort to force an increase in funding for public schools in a state that perennially scores near the bottom in national ratings. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in state District Court in Santa Fe, asks the court to declare that current funding levels violate the New Mexico Constitution and asks the state to change its funding formula to offer equal support for students who are English language learners or living in poverty.

LAS VEGAS — Proponents of a ballot measure that would remove a mining-tax cap from the Nevada constitution said the industry has a sweetheart deal that keeps it from paying its fair share, while opponents said the measure is the first step toward raising taxes and discouraging mining companies from doing business in the state. The remarks came during a debate on Question 2 that was scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Thursday on Vegas PBS. Passing the measure would repeal a 150-year-old constitutional provision that applies a 5 percent cap to taxes on the net proceeds of minerals and...

An Ohio Democrat argued that “the real issue” with the Ebola crisis is “a disinvestment in the pubic health infrastructure in the United States.”“This is a very difficult task and I find it very ironic that the very political party and politicians who are criticizing every single step, every single move that’s being made as I said by some of the best public health officials in the world are the same people that voted to cut, you know, over $500 million from the Centers for Disease Control budget over the last four or five years, over $440 million from the...

In a stunning move that could reshape the face of city schools, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted Monday to unilaterally cancel its teachers’ contract. The vote was unanimous. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers was given no advance word of the action — which happened at an early-morning SRC meeting called with minimal notice — and which figures to result in a legal challenge to the takeover law the SRC believes gives it the power to bypass negotiations and impose terms. Jerry Jordan, PFT president, called the move "cowardly" and vowed to fight it strongly. "I am taking nothing off...

Colorado Democrat Mark Udall has taken the unprecedented step of refusing to debate his Republican opponent on statewide television, so the voting public’s insights into his views generally come from one of three sources: (1) His voting record, which backs Barack Obama 99 percent of the time, (2) his ads, a ludicrous percentage of which obsess and mislead over birth control, and (3) clips from untelevised candidate forums and interviews. On that last front, Udall has uncorked some real head-turning quotes over the last 48 hours. In an exclusive sit-down with KDVR television, Udall said he doesn’t regret any...