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Activists plan repeat of Mag Mile Black Friday protests Brigid Sweeney For the second year in a row, protesters are planning to block shoppers from entering stores along North Michigan Avenue on the day after Thanksgiving, the busiest shopping day of the year. The effort, planned by a diffuse network that includes Black Lives Matter, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression and area churches, seeks to draw attention to a wide range of issues, including police shootings, racism and economic inequalities that keep Chicago's South and West sides mired in poverty and violence. The organizers say they hope...

Nothing is certain but death, taxes, and Obama whining President Obama has no intention of fading away as Republican presidents typically do when they leave office. Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush completed their presidencies and were then more or less silent on their successors’ performance in office. However, Democrat former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are constitutionally incapable of shutting up and Americans have long suffered their bloviations.

A rare point of agreement between President-Elect Trump and Congressional Democrats is that America has an infrastructure deficit: The nation’s transportation, power, water and sewerage facilities are too often outdated and unable to reliably serve a growing population. But while the diagnosis crosses party lines, solutions are more controversial. Democrats may not be too worried about the recent increase in federal deficits, but Republicans who have made an issue of the national debt will be reluctant to produce more red ink. Likewise, tax increases to pay for new federal construction spending are off the table under Trump and a Republican-controlled...

Eric WorrallNovember 19, 2016 A group of researchers in Oxford University, England have suggested that imposing a massive tax on carbon intensive foods – specifically protein rich foods like meat and dairy – could help combat climate change. “ Pricing food according to its climate impacts could save half a million lives and one billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions Taxing greenhouse gas emissions from food production could save more emissions than are currently generated by global aviation, and lead to half a million fewer deaths from chronic diseases, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change. The...

IRS data show the average income of taxpayers leaving Illinois surpassed the average income of taxpayers entering the state by $20,000 in 2014, a record loss for Illinois in the wake of the 2011 income-tax hike. Politicians enacted Illinois’ 2011 income-tax hike during a late-night legislative session in January 2011 and raised the state’s personal income-tax rate to 5 percent from 3 percent. This 67 percent income-tax hike lasted for four years, during which time Illinois experienced record wealth flight. IRS data reveal what happens when politicians choose short-term tax revenue gains over long-term stability. The short-term increase in tax...

In this episode, I debunk liberal, media-driven myths about the Reagan and GW Bush tax cuts. I also address the potential effects of a Federal Reserve interest rate hike on the economy.

The far left nonprofit Progress Michigan is on the road with a “MI Big Rig Tour” of seven Michigan cities. Progress Michigan states, “The tour is an effort to educate voters about how Michigan Republicans have rigged the economy in favor of their corporate donors and against working families, seniors and students.” During its Grand Rapids stop, the group posted this on Twitter: “GOP cut higher ed by $1B to cut taxes on corporations. Funding has never been fully restored.” ForTheRecord says: Progress Michigan’s claim to “educate voters” on education funding gets an "F." According to the Michigan Senate Fiscal...

Southeast Michigan voters shot down a $4.6 billion, 20-year mass transit plan for the Metro Detroit region, largely thanks to grass roots opposition to the proposal. The ballot measure, which would have imposed a 1.2-mill property tax increase on property owners in Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and Washtenaw counties, was defeated by 912,033 to 893,798 according to MLive. (The only precinct without 100 percent of votes reported is in Wayne County with 99.9 percent reported.) No Massive Transit Tax, a group opposed to the Regional Transit Authority’s plan, spent $53,751, according to campaign finance reports. Citizens for Connecting Our Communities, which...

The Wayne County Regional Educational Service Agency is seeking voter approval of a property tax increase for school operations. As part of its pitch for the question that will be on the Nov. 8 ballot, the government office distributed a campaign flier that stated: “A recent study has confirmed that districts across Wayne County have been drastically underfunded by the state in recent years.” The proposed 2 mill tax increase would, if approved, extract $80 million from county property owners in the first year alone. It would be levied for six years, beginning this year. ForTheRecord says: Michigan Capitol Confidential...

An economic adviser of President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday that the transition team was working on plans for a tax code overhaul that would be “the biggest tax changes since Reagan.” Steven Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs banker who is considered a leading candidate for Treasury secretary in the Trump administration, told reporters at Trump Tower in New York that the team was hard at work on an economic plan. “We’re working on the economic plan with the transition, making sure we get the biggest tax bill passed, the biggest tax changes since Reagan, so a lot of exciting things...

A Nov. 8 Kent County ballot proposal would impose an annual $9.2 million property tax to subsidize the Grand Rapids Public Museum and the John Ball Zoo. Voters may not realize that the proposal also distributes new tax revenue to other government entities, too. Kent County’s “animals and artifacts” have already been subsidized by taxpayers and officials want more, even though the museum already has an endowment fund worth nearly $40 million. While the ballot question is being sold as a way to support these cultural institutions, some of the tax hike will go to “local authorities for authorized purposes.”...

I’m an Enrolled Agent tax pro based in California with clients all over the country. Recently, the son of a client who had moved to a more free state than ours asked whether I thought he should move back here to start a business. I suggested not. Why? While California suffers from the highest income tax rate in the country and mountains of regulations that cause everything from housing costs to the price of power to be among the highest, the most destructive regulation of all is arguably an up-and-coming one. It mandates annual increases to the minimum prices of...

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - The Harris County Toll Road Authority collected about $760 million in tolls the last fiscal year, yet it is improbable that any Harris County toll road will ever be “paid off,” Channel 2 Investigates has learned.   “Not with system financing, which allows us to borrow money at a favorable rate to build new projects,” said Patti Evans, the authority’s assistant director of communications.In other words, tolls collected today are not only used to pay down system-wide debt, but to construct more toll roads in the future.    “I think it is important to say —...

MANCHESTER, N.H. —New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte conceded the Senate race to Gov. Maggie Hassan Wednesday evening. he concession announcement comes after Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan declared victory in the closely-watched U.S. Senate battle against the Republican incumbent. "I just spoke with Gov. Hassan to congratulate her on her election to serve in the U.S. Senate," Ayotte said in a statement. "I wish Gov. Hassan, her husband, Tom, and their children, Ben and Meg, the very best." Hassan is pledging to work with President-elect Donald Trump "when it's in the best interest of New Hampshire and the country," and she...

Earlier this year, some Michigan newspaper columnists, editorialists and politicians complained about a new law prohibiting local governments and school districts from publishing material referencing tax increase proposals they place on the ballot 60 days before an election. The law was passed in response to an extensive record of taxpayer-funded electioneering in favor of votes to raise taxes. Yet cities, school boards and their allies argued the new law was a disservice to voters, who could not receive “factual” information sent to them by the same government entity that placed a particular tax hike measure on the ballot. In the...

It was disappointing, but not surprising, to learn from the Indianapolis Business Journal (Oct. 10-16) that both John Gregg and Eric Holcomb endorse public-private partnerships (P3s). These candidates for governor are experienced in the ways of our Indiana government. Mr. Gregg has served at the highest level of the legislature while Mr. Holcomb is our Lt. Governor. P3s are agreements between governments (national, state, or local) with private companies to assume control, but not ownership, of public assets. Hoosiers know them in the form of the new bridge over the Ohio River, connecting the east end of Louisville with Clark...

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After the election of Ronald Reagan in 1981, the U.S. Economy experienced one of its greatest booms in history. The growth rate averaged nearly 4 percent for seven years 1982–89. And the stock market rose from less than 1,000 on the Dow to more than 10,000 over the next two decades. This was a period of wealth and job creation that the nation and middle class had seldom seen before. All the liberal critics wrongly said it could not and would not happen. Now the question is: Could it happen again in this era of massive government debt, meager growth,...

Dive Brief: The Illinois Tollway announced Thursday that it had set a preliminary budget for 2017 that includes $951 million for Move Illinois projects, as well as $336 million for a maintenance and operation program, according to Equipment World.Major Move Illinois capital initiatives planned for next year include the Illinois Route 390 Tollway ($374.5 million), SmartRoad upgrades to I-90 ($163.5 million), reconstruction of I-294 ($56.5 million) and expansion and maintenance of the I-PASS system. The remaining funds will go toward development, repair and maintenance.Move Illinois is a 15-year, $12-billion capital project program financed by bonds and tolls. The Illinois Tollway,...