Free Republic

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani unveiled a new budget that taxes the rich, forgoes a property tax hike, and depends on the generosity of Gov. Kathy Hochul to fill a budget gap Mamdani called historic. Mamdani's gap reprieve came in the 11th hour. The mayor was unrepentant in his determination to tax the rich and create a city that is more hospitable to working New Yorkers. The lingering question is whether it will drive businesses out and hurt the tax base. Mamdani said his preliminary budget proposal released 12 weeks ago, "reflected a straightforward reality. New York City was...

He’s being placeholder-ed in an awkward position. Mayor Zohran Mamdani could be forced to release his executive budget Tuesday with “placeholder” estimates on key sources of revenue, after he tried to rely on dysfunction-riddled Albany to reach a deal on its own spending plan and bail out the Big Apple, insiders revealed. The potential fill-in-the-blanks city budget plan is exactly what Mamdani tried to avert when he delayed its release from May 1 in hopes that Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers would reach a deal on its own long-delayed budget and give the city a windfall of new tax...

San Francisco's BART rail system is facing the possibility of sweeping station closures and potentially an even wider shutdown, as officials warn the cash-strapped transit agency is running out of money. The Bay Area network, which operates 50 stations across five counties, is confronting a projected budget deficit of roughly $376 million next fiscal year as ridership remains far below pre-pandemic levels and federal relief funding expires. The cash-strapped transit agency is hurtling toward a financial cliff as ridership remains far below pre-pandemic levels and emergency federal funding dries up. Under a proposed emergency service plan, BART could eliminate rail...

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. Postal Service on Friday reported a net quarterly ​loss of $2 billion as it faces a growing financial crisis and has ‌warned it could run out of cash as soon as February. USPS said mail volumes fell another 6.3% in the three months ending March 31 as operating revenue rose 2.3% to $20.2 billion ​over the same quarter last year. USPS last month said it would temporarily ​suspend employer payments for a federal pension program to conserve cash ⁠and plans to raise the price of first-class mail stamps to 82 cents ​from 78...

As the Trump administration continues its effort to root out federal funding for diversity initiatives, the National Institutes of Health has modified its grant review process to identify research that contains words associated with race or gender, which has held up some grant disbursements and forced scientists to rewrite proposals. “I feel that this kind of censorship is making the path forward to support narrower and narrower research only to include, for example, white, straight, cisgender men,” said a program director at one of NIH’s institutes. “Any other population is being scrutinized, which is highly, highly, highly problematic for a...

Omar explains how New York City's newly elected leadership is confronting a multi-billion dollar budget hole that threatens the very affordability programs that fueled their historic campaign. From free childcare and rent freezes to universal transit, Omar argues that these ambitious policies are colliding with a structural reality: a city budget dependent on state intervention and a foundation already showing dangerous stress fractures... also highlights the growing political tension between the city's executive branch and the state leadership in Albany, including figures like Governor Kathy Hochul and Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado. Mamdani LOSES ITAfter Hochul OFFICIALLY REJECTS$5.4B NYC Bailout For...

On the 76th day since Department of Homeland Security funding lapsed, Congress passed a bill Thursday restoring the flow of federal dollars to most of its agencies — without solving any of the policy disagreements that led to the record-breaking shutdown. The House approved by voice vote the partial DHS funding measure the Senate passed more than a month ago. President Donald Trump is expected to swiftly sign the bipartisan legislation, fully funding the Coast Guard, TSA, Secret Service, FEMA and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, along with other offices within DHS that don’t deal with immigration enforcement. Now...

The House on Thursday passed a bill to fund the bulk of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), minus Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a major step toward ending the record-breaking, 10-week shutdown. The bill passed by voice vote less than an hour after Republican leaders sent out a notice that the chamber would consider the legislation amid increasing pressure from the White House, Senate, and Republican rank-and-file. The bill passed the Senate last month and now goes to President Trump’s desk for his signature. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had sat on the bill for weeks, but...

NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani declares a “budget crisis,” seeks a state bailout, and delays the deadline for finalizing the city budget by at least 10 days.

A Maine city councilor will face an ethics board review after he was heard complaining about 'illegals' in his community. Bangor City Councilor Wayne Mallar, 81, discussed a proposed budget increase for multilingual services in schools at a Board of Ethics meeting on March 31. 'The school department's asking for a 10 percent increase. As far as I'm concerned, they get no increase,' he said - seemingly unaware his comments were being picked up by a microphone. 'They can't speak English, read English or write English. It's not a disability. We do not have to furnish. They're probably all illegals...

We're not quite to the ultimate goal yet, but the momentum is there to get the employees of the DHS back to receiving their paychecks. On Wednesday, the House passed a procedural vote on funding for the Department of Homeland Security and FISA along party lines, after removing a third component of the package: House Republican leaders on Wednesday cleared a major hurdle when they corralled members into adopting a rule to tee up consideration of two major pieces of legislation: reauthorization of the nation’s foreign spy powers and a budget blueprint to fund immigration enforcement. The House voted 216-210...

ALBANY- Poor us! A Democratic state lawmaker in the highest paid chamber in the nation pitched a bill that would allow her and her colleagues to skirt paying their utility and internet bills as Albany struggles to reach a budget deal. Assemblywoman Larinda Hooks (D-Queens) is pushing proposed legislation that would force energy companies to keep the lights on for legislators even if they don’t fork over their dough while they aren’t getting paid due to a late budget. “New York State employs over 130,000 individuals whose compensation depends on timely budget enactment,” a memo accompanying the bill said. “When...

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) is pushing back on a Republican proposal to spend up to $400 million in federal funds on President Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom, citing the nation’s mounting debt and deficit spending. Scott’s comments came after Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) announced legislation Monday that would help finance the ballroom project with federal dollars. Graham argued the facility would serve security and operational purposes beyond hosting events. “Underneath it will be a lot of military stuff. There will be a Secret Service annex, and we pay for it by offsetting it with customs fees,” Graham said at...

A ratbag group of cop-hating Black Lives Matters activists were handed the floor at City Hall as they launched a campaign to block extra funding to hire more police in Los Angeles. Everyday Angelenos were left frustrated as they were locked out of the first public budget hearing — while lefty activists led by Black Lives Matter–Los Angeles and People’s Budget LA were given 20 minutes to air their radical views. At stake is the city’s $14.9 billion budget, the single most consequential decision City Hall makes each year. The group, led Friday by Melina Abdullah, demanded the council shift...

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is handing out $500 vouchers to migrants so they can enjoy haircuts, massages and other self-care benefits, despite the city's budget plunging nearly $50 million short. Applicants who are 'low-income, isolated queer and trans migrants, asylum seekers and refugees' are prioritized for the 'wellness allowance.' The initiative, called 'Boston Matters', was created by OUTnewcomers, a nonprofit that advocates for LGBTQ+ migrants in Boston alongside the Mayor's Office for Immigrant Advancement, Mass Daily News reported. Applicants get $250 to $500 toward 'non-clinical care' completely funded by the city agency, which is run by the Democrat's administration. They...

Instead of taxing the rich, Mayor Zohran Mamdani could fill nearly half of NYC’s projected $5.4 billion budget gap by simply collecting unpaid taxes and fines from deadbeats. As of Feb. 28, the city was sitting on $1.1 billion in uncollected property taxes, according to the city Comptroller’s Office. And it has also been unable to collect another $1.3 billion in Environmental Control Board fines usually issued for construction, zoning, and safety code violations, the Finance Department said. In all, the uncollected taxes and fines total an astounding $2.4 billion. That’s 44% of the amount Mamdani claims he needs to...

On March 18, 2026, the House of Representatives voted on H.J. Res. 139, a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget. The roll call was 211-207. Every Republican voted yes. Every Democrat voted no, save one — a defection that will presumably not be celebrated at the next caucus retreat. Under suspension of the rules, passage required 291 votes. The final count was 80 votes short. This is not a near miss. It is a structural diagnosis rendered as a procedural vote.AdvertisementThe same week, gross national debt crossed $39 trillion — $39,016,762,910,245.14 on March 17. That milestone arrived five months...

ALBANY – State lawmakers will blow past Wednesday’s deadline to pass Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $263 billion budget plan, as negotiations drag on over her push to delay green energy mandates and her bid to lower car insurance premiums. Democrats in the state Assembly and Senate passed a one-week stopgap measure Tuesday keeping the government funded through next week amid the largely-stalled discussions between Hochul and legislative leaders. “We’re still at the beginning of the middle, as it turns out,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (D-Westchester) said, using a stale Albany adage to indicate the discussions have not moved much since...

The Trump Administration has been clear that its national defense strategy is to defend the homeland and deter China. To achieve these goals, the new funding made available in the FY 2027 defense budget should be focused on expanding capacity across the services—especially in sea power and airpower with large procurement orders for existing programs and investments in next-generation capabilities like the B-21 and F-47. America’s long-neglected strategic deterrent needs funding to defend the homeland, to include necessary support for programs like the Sentinel missile and Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine. New spending needs to prioritize the Indo-Pacific and the Western...

We have long heard about the financial plights of solidly blue states. Places like New York and California have the highest taxes and the highest costs of living in the country. But there is a new blue state story where Democrats refuse to back off their ideological insistence that high taxes will get their state to the fiscal promised land. That place is Massachusetts. Massachusetts is on the verge of a financial implosion. The reason: Massachusetts Democrats' grand plan to replace the state's taxpayers with migrants is not the grand plan they expected it would be, and the state is...