Free Republic

A Democratic proposal to raise taxes on the private partnerships that are behind buyout mania on Wall Street has a good chance of passing because legislators plan to couple it with an extension of Alternative Minimum Tax relief — a combination President Bush would have a hard time vetoing. The higher taxes would be imposed on private equity and hedge funds — and possibly real estate and other private partnerships — to generate as much as $80 billion in revenues that could pay for two years of relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, investment analysts estimate. AMT relief...

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. Martin O'Malley said yesterday that the state will make available an additional $5 million to Marylanders struggling to pay their electric bills, after a 50 percent rate increase by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, said the money will enable 3,000 more families to receive assistance. The state's energy-assistance program has been increased to $57 million for people who meet the income-eligibility requirement of 175 percent of the federal poverty line. Mr. O'Malley said that equates to roughly $40,000 in annual income for a family of four. "There are very few issues that are...

Anyone who looks closely at the fiscal implications of the Senate immigration bill owes a debt of thanks to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. Mr. Rector is light years ahead of everyone else in carefully examining the assumptions of the bill -- particularly as they apply to millions of low-skilled illegals (50 to 60 percent of whom are high-school dropouts) who would be permitted to remain indefinitely in the United States. Heritage Foundation research methods are identical to those used by the National Academy of Science a decade ago in a study, "The New Americans," which found that low-skill...

A Virginia lawmaker wants to pull the plug on musicians who bill themselves as legendary bands like the Drifters when no original band member is part of the group. "A lot of these old performing artists from the 50's and 60's are not that rich and people are making money off their image and their songs by using their name and these guys are getting nothing for it," said Delegate David B. Albo, Fairfax County Republican. "That gets under my skin."

No clear link exists between the D.C. government's rising salaries and the performance of city executives enjoying higher wages, city records show. For example, Lee E. Williams had earned $103,318 a year as the head of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, overseeing 15 employees. The city government boosted his salary by 3.5 percent, to $106,934, last year — just before Mr. Williams was fired for incompetence.

The D.C. Department of Mental Health in fiscal 2005 spent more than $30,000 on hand-held BlackBerry technology, prompting criticism from a D.C. Council member who says the money could have been put to better use. "I understand everybody likes these gadgets," said D.C. Council member David A. Catania, at-large independent and chairman of the council's Committee on Health, which oversees the mental health department. "I wouldn't buy myself a BlackBerry," he said of the wireless e-mail devices. Speaking at a council oversight hearing of the department last week, Mr. Catania told mental health officials he had concerns about several other...

Hawaii residents paid more state taxes in 2004 than residents of any other state in the country... Hawaii residents paid an average of $3,050 per person in 2004, while Texans paid the least — an average of $1,368. Every state but one collected more taxes per person in 2004 than it did a decade earlier... State taxpayer burdens increased by an average of 41 percent from 1994 to 2004. Only Alaska saw the amount it collects per person decline. Even when the numbers are adjusted for inflation, the individual tax burdens increased in 43 states. Rising education and Medicaid costs...

Taxes were up in the past 10 years for Maryland and Virginia residents, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, disappointing both lawmakers and anti-tax advocates. The tax burden in Virginia increased by 55 percent in that period, with a per capita amount of $1,903 in 2004. In Maryland, the tax burden increased by 46 percent, with an individual tax burden of $2,214 in 2004. The District's tax statistics are computed with cities' and local governments' financial data, which won't be available until April, the Census Bureau said.

Two people pleaded guilty to stealing money from immigrants who wanted to get papers to stay in the country legally. Bemilda "Linda" Ruiz of El Cajon and Jose Ceseña Sotomayor of Chula Vista agreed to pay $72,648 to their victims by Dec. 14, when a judge is scheduled to sentence them. If they complete the payments, Ruiz will serve a year in County Jail and Ceseña six months, according to an agreement with prosecutors. Otherwise, the judge can sentence Ruiz to four years in state prison and Ceseña to 16 months. As part of the plea bargain, prosecutors dropped charges...

A small-town accountant in northern Minnesota is locked in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over whether taxpayers are owed hundreds of millions of dollars in capital-gains tax refunds. Charles Ulrich believes the IRS was wrong when it told certain insurance policyholders how much federal tax to pay on stock they received from mutual insurance companies that went public — a process called demutualization. He hasn't been shy about letting the IRS — or anyone else, for that matter — know that he wants those taxes refunded to consumers. So far, the IRS hasn't budged. It's estimated that 15...

http://www.newschannel5.com/content/investigates/2894.asp You Paid For It: Lawmakers' FedEx Bills A NewsChannel 5 "You Paid For It" investigation has already sparked an internal review at the legislature. Every year, lawmakers spend thousands of dollars to send packages overnight. But it's not always state business. NewsChannel 5's chief investigative reporter Phil Williams discovered that sometimes anything goes. When it comes to the spending of Tennessee's universities, state lawmakers have been outraged. But those same lawmakers have set up secret long-distance accounts so no one can trace how they're spending your money. And how they use the state's postage is anybody's guess, according to...

A budget deal that would increase taxes and fees in Pennsylvania by $1 billion proposes to spend as much as $200 million in grants on pet projects in legislators' districts. The threefold increase in what used to be called "walking-around money" is intended to entice lawmakers to do what they haven't done in more than a decade: raise the state's personal income taxes. It is part of a budget deal worked out last week by Gov. Rendell and House leaders. Government watchdog groups have criticized the grants in the past, saying they are handed out as political rewards for tough...

Guns and gore are big business for video game makers. They can be big a headache for parents. War games and gangster-glorifiers like "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" dominate store shelves, making child-friendly titles hard to find. With "Toontown Online," Disney steps in to plug the shortfall. Violence in the multiplayer Internet game, set in a vibrant and persistent cartoon world, is rarely much worse than a pie in the face, though anvils sometimes fall from the sky. In Toontown, players must keep the streets safe from Cogs, drab corporate types who want to stifle fun and remake the town's...

Of course it was a disappointment that Houston's bid for the 2012 Olympics came to an end yesterday. To have gotten this far, and making the "Final Four" with three other such great cities, was itself a fine accomplishment. I salute our 2012 Committee for the thousands of hours of work they put into the effort. No question about it: This effort put Houston in the national spotlight -- and at a good time considering some negative events that made national news. From the very beginning of our Olympic bid, I thought Houston was the appropriate city to host the...

Porn operator accused of duping ArmyBy Reuters March 7, 2002, 3:40 PM PThttp://news.com.com/2100-1023-854943.html A computer specialist was charged Thursday with operating a sex show Web site on a high-speed line which he got the U.S. Army to pay for by telling them it was used for communicating with forces in Bosnia. Gilbert Benjamin, 49, was arrested at his Neptune, N.J., home by special agents of the Army Criminal Investigation Division and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service. A 68-count indictment charges him with mail and wire fraud and submitting false claims with the intention of defrauding the government, said assistant U.S....