Free Republic

The new "EV Tax" is the highest in the nation and will likely put the brakes on EV adoption in the Garden State. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the stroke of a pen, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has unplugged the state's pro-electric-vehicle position, signing into law a new EV road tax that is the highest of its kind in the nation. Starting in July, New Jersey EV owners must pay an annual $250 road tax fee in an effort to offset the state's loss in fuel tax revenue. The new fee will increase by $10 each of the next four years until...

10-cent plastic bag fee goes statewide soon by: Gabrielle Franklin Posted: Dec 16, 2022 DENVER (KDVR) — The new year comes with a new fee in Colorado. Those who live in Denver, Boulder or Fort Collins are no strangers to this fee, but other municipalities should prepare to bring their own bags starting on Jan. 1. “Here in Colorado, we have a big plastic pollution problem,” said Danny Katz, executive director of CoPIRG, a public interest research group. “We estimate that before the pandemic, Colorado was going through about 4.6 million single-use plastic bags a day. When you think about...

Tourists who do not stay overnight in hotels or seek other accommodation, will have to sign up online for the day of their visit and pay a fee that ranges from between $3 and $10.50 per day, city officials said. Those who ignore the new rules will risk fines of more than $300. More than 80 percent of visitors to Venice arrive just for the day — more than 30,000 to 40,000 people per day, Bloomberg reported. In 2019, there were more than 19 million “day-trippers” to the city. Last year, Italy’s government approved measures last year to ban large...

On Sunday, the Senate released the final text of the so-called bipartisan (but really liberal) infrastructure bill — all 2,702 pages. According to Breitbart, the huge bill was written in secret for months outside the normal legislative process. Buried in the measure is a pilot program for a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee (MBUF) which is basically a long-term plan to make it too expensive to drive a car. One of the “fun” parts of the supposed bipartisan bill (fun for believers of the climate change hypothesis) can be found on page 511 of the measure, which you can...

With the 2021 Colorado regular legislative session concluded, lawmakers have approved tax and fee increases on Coloradans of up to $617 million annually without voter consent. The new revenues are enough to give every schoolteacher in Colorado a $11,343.65 per year raise. The tax and fee increases amount to an average of $430 per year for a family of four. New and Net Revenue.. This session, 83 bills passed by the legislature would increase state revenue. Senate Legislative Council (SLC) included revenue projections for 45 of these in fiscal notes for each. Some fiscal notes provide an estimated range rather...

Let’s see if you can find a common theme of what the Colorado State legislature thinks of you and the will of the voters. Voters soundly rejected Prop 112 which would have created large setbacks for oil and gas operations, enough to chase the industry out of Colorado. The legislature’s and governor’s retort was to pass Senate Bill 181, which was even more brutal to Colorado’s oil and gas industry. And yes, the industry is leaving. It’s one of the reasons Colorado’s unemployment is worse than most all other states. Just last November voters passed Prop 117 to end the...

Democrats in the General Assembly have managed to give every explanation imaginable for why you have to pay more — during an economic crisis — for what should have been a top spending priority for Colorado lawmakers over the last decade. They’ve done a fine job at gaslighting the people of Colorado into believing that not only is there no other solution to funding our roads and bridges than Senate Bill 260, but that the shortage of funds we’re experiencing today is indeed your fault. It’s not the only solution, and it is not your fault that our roads and...

Wear a mask, pay a penalty. That's the unusual message a Mendocino restaurant owner is offering his customers.Signs posted in the windows and at the register of Fiddleheads Cafe on Lansing Street read: "$5 FEE ADDED TO ORDERS PLACED WHILE WEARING A FACE MASK." And in the fine print below that message, it adds that anyone overheard boasting about receiving a vaccine would get another $5 surcharge.Owner Chris Castleman told NBC Bay Area some customers have paid the $5 fee while others have expressed shock and outrage. He says the "fee" ultimately is an optional donation as it goes to...

The raids constituted a horrific, shameful episode in American history, one of the lowest moments for liberty since King George III quartered troops in private homes. Friday, January 3, 2020 Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons | Public Domain (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en) Lawrence W. Reed Lawrence W. Reed Politics History Woodrow Wilson First Amendment Communism World War I Police State Exactly a hundred years ago this morning—on January 3, 1920—Americans woke up to discover just how little their own government regarded the cherished Bill of Rights. During the night, some 4,000 of their fellow citizens were rounded up and jailed for what amounted, in...

SAN FRANCISCO — Patrons of restaurants and coffee shops in Berkeley, California, who don't bring a reusable cup for their beverage will have to pay a 25-cent fee for a disposable cup as part of an ordinance approved by city officials to reduce restaurant waste. Berkeley's City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the fee on single-use cups that will take effect January 2020.

HARTFORD >> Gun owners will see huge increases in permit fees that would raise millions of dollars to help the state combat its two-year, $3.6 billion deficit. As part of his budget, Malloy is proposing to increase the state portion of the pistol permit fee from $70 to $300. He also is proposing the cost of the initial 5-year pistol permit fee from $140 to $370.

Since the election, several people have privately asked me, "Well, whatever you think about Trump, don't you at least enjoy the attendant outrage of the left? At least that must make you happy, right?" In my misanthropic youth, the answer would have been a resounding yes. But in all honesty, I put away such childishness years ago. I have a rich, full life that affords me ample opportunities for pure joy. I have no need to seek out joy sullied by anger. And again in all honesty, I wish everyone else felt as I do. Living through this disgraceful election,...

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has claimed that the project has encroached on its land, damaged sacred sites and would potentially harm a major source of their drinking water by going under Lake Oahe. [snip] But what continued to throw a wall up in the discussions was the tribe's demand to receive a fee for shipping the oil. "Even though the pipeline never crosses the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, [snip] "But time and again the tribe rebuffed or ignored the company's offers demanding, instead, a toll on the crude that passed through the pipeline, an ultimatum that showed the tribe's...

<p>A private college in Arizona is charging students a fee to fund a scholarship for illegal immigrants, a controversial move supporters say gives a hand to those who need it but anti-illegal immigration advocates call irresponsible.</p> <p>Prescott College is tacking a $30 annual fee onto its $28,000 annual tuition to establish an annual scholarship for “undocumented” students, as part of a policy first proposed by students and faculty from the undergraduate and Social Justice and Human Rights Master of Arts divisions. While students can opt out of paying the fee, if they do nothing it will be automatically imposed. Backers say it helps reverse what they call Arizona’s reputation as a “national example of discriminatory politics.”</p>

The liberty movement must help elect Senator Ted Cruz the next President of the United States. Many of us in the liberty movement saw the handwriting on the wall some time ago, as far as the Rand Paul campaign was concerned. He came in a distant fifth in Iowa, a state many thought he would win a year ago. His polling looked bleak in the other early states, and he was short on resources. He likely could have gone on, but instead, suspended his campaign Wednesday morning. He'll focus on securing re-election to the Senate, which he should easily accomplish....

Plastic bags will soon be free again in Dallas. In a vote of 10 to 4, Dallas City Council members voted to repeal the bag fee passed in 2014. Grocery Bag Makers File Lawsuit Over Dallas Fee Last year's resolution added a $.05 fee for each single-use plastic bag used by shoppers to encourage people to use reusable bags and to reduce litter. The ban went into effect Jan. 1. "We're gonna take this nick on the chin," said Dallas City Councilman Dwaine Caraway, who originally pushed for the ban, after Wednesday's vote. "Y'all celebrate. Just celebrate. But when it's...

Under the false pretense of calling for new and tougher so-called fiduciary standards for financial brokers, advisers and retirement plan representatives, the White House once again horned in on Wall Street’s compensation formulas. However, what the president surely knows is that a vast majority of retirement plans — IRAs and 401(k)s — are in simple fee-based products like mutual funds. The commission-based accounts are for those who prefer to direct their brokers in certain purchases inside some of their retirement products. The key to the White House’s interference is in its nuanced language. Currently, a broker may make a recommendation...

The federal judge who oversaw Detroit's historic bankruptcy case ruled on Thursday that the nearly $178 million charged to the city by law firms and consultants for fees and expenses was reasonable. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Steven Rhodes said he based his decision mainly on the complexity of the bankruptcy case filed in July 2013 as well as substantial reductions that the firms agreed to make in their bills. "The city is now on a path to success precisely because of the expertise, skill, commitment, endurance, personal sacrifice, civility and proficiency of all of the professionals in the case, including...

Public education has been a slowly degenerating disaster throughout the West, and now it seems we’re exporting it to the rest. At a United Nations meeting 15 years ago, the world’s governments agreed on the goal of enrolling every child on the planet in primary schooling by this year. Indeed, they have nearly succeeded, with 2014’s reports indicating that 90 percent of children in developing regions now attend primary school. Presumably, the numbers for developed countries are above 95 percent. But strangely, this lofty plan did not say anything about the quality of the schooling into which we have now...

Taxes are bad enough when you know they’re coming—and much worse when they arrive unexpectedly. As the Affordable Care Act enters its second year of operability, a key and controversial element of the plan will begin to affect several million Americans for the first time. People who didn’t have health insurance during 2014 may soon have to pay a penalty fee that starts at $95 and goes up based on how much you earn. Some Americans know about the penalty, and they’ve budgeted for it or at least accepted its inevitability. But several million others could be in for a...