Free Republic

State Farm is evidently not satisfied with an emergency 17% rate hike for homeowners in California, and intends to ask for 11% more, adding up to a total of nearly 30% — despite failing its obligations to consumers. As Breitbart News reported earlier this month, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara granted State Farm’s requested rate hike, despite protests from residents affected by the recent California wildfires. Victims of both the Eaton and Palisades Fires have complained that State Farm engages in “lowballing” estimates of compensation for damages — a practice that, Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) reported last week, the company...

Americans lambasted President George H. W. Bush for infamously vowing on stage at the 1988 Republican National Convention not to raise taxes on Americans, then supporting a tax hike as president two years later. History could repeat itself as President Donald Trump this week signaled his support for congressional Republicans raising taxes to accomplish the ambitious goals of his "big, beautiful bill," according to experts. "My opponent won't rule out raising taxes, but I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I'll say no. And they'll push and I'll say no. And they'll push again, and...

A Long Island suburb voted to wallop homeowners with a 87% property tax hike— with local officials saying the insane increase was necessary because of a years-long administrative goof. Atlantic Beach’s village board of trustees told residents the big number was needed because of how taxes were assessed by the county in recent decades but officials refused to give The Post further information or answer any questions. The Nassau County assessor said it was the village government that was improperly billing commercial properties. ... Though village officials blamed assessment quirks, some residents said part of the hike is to cover...

Residents in Seattle, Washington, plan to stop tipping as a minimum wage hike in the Democrat-run city looms. The city’s minimum wage is supposed to go from $19.97 to $20.76 an hour on January 1, the Daily Mail reported on Friday. Tipping workers on top of the approaching hourly rate hike does not appear to be a popular idea with some residents who have said they will no longer be shelling out the extra money for workers. The Mail article continued: One user who shared a Reddit post on the wage hike, which has picked up steam in the local...

The new leftist Labour Party government in Britain announced plans to slash winter energy benefits for around 10 million pensioners while preparing massive tax hikes to fund soaring spending driven largely by mass migration. ... Rachel Reeves — the head of the Treasury Department — claimed that she “did not want to have to do this” but asserted that the previous Conservative government of Rishi Sunak had left a £22 billion “black hole” in Britain’s finances... This deficit was exacerbated by illegal immigration and the asylum system, the overspend on which rose to £6.4 billion this year alone. The chancellor...

Warren Buffett, the billionaire Oracle of Omaha, says that Washington will likely "take a larger percentage of what we own ... Joe Biden .. won't push to extend the Trump tax cuts next year ... if Congress fails to extend the Trump-era tax cuts, it means an average American family of four making $75,000 will get hit with a $1,500 tax increase. “Main Street businesses will face a 43.4 percent tax rate” and “working parents will suffer from a Child Tax Credit slashed in half” along with the standard deduction every taxpayer is due. Remember Biden's promise not to raise...

resident Biden vowed Friday that former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts would lapse next year if he’s re-elected and “stay expired” — meaning higher taxes for middle class and low-income Americans — prompting a hasty walk-back by aides. Biden, 81, lambasted Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which permanently lowered corporate taxes from 35% to 21% and temporarily lowered personal income tax rates through 2025, as a giveaway to the rich in a speech to electrical union members in Washington. “[Trump] was proud, very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut when he was president that overwhelmingly benefited...

Officials say a woman has died after she fell during a hike in Sedona, Arizona earlier this week. Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said they got a call Monday morning about a woman who had fallen off a 140-foot cliff on Bear Mountain. The woman was hiking with her 1-year-old child and her husband. Other hikers in the area stopped after hearing yelling and found that the woman had been seriously injured, the sheriff’s office said. One of them called for help while another hiked down to the woman. The woman was still breathing when the hiker got to her, but...

They are ringing in the new year with a resolution for more revenue. A 63-cent hike on the current toll rate for The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey crossings takes effect on Sunday. The toll for E-ZPass users will increase by 4.3% to $15.38 from $14.75 during peak hours — 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday, the first time in nearly two years that the central bank paused rates over the course of two consecutive meetings. Since March 2022, the Fed has hiked the federal funds rate from near-zero percent to a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent in an effort to curb rampant inflation. Price growth upeneded the economy in the wake of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which helped push volatile energy prices higher.

In addition to the off-year elections to be decided this November in Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi, a number of ballot initiatives will be voted on in other states. Perhaps the most consequential measure appearing on the November 2023 ballot, at least when it comes to fiscal policy, is found in Colorado, where voters will be asked whether they want to weaken the nation’s strongest tax and expenditure limit in exchange for property tax relief. Proposition HH, which was referred to the November ballot by Colorado lawmakers with the support of Governor Jared Polis (D), would weaken the state’s Taxpayer’s...

Former President Bill Clinton and former senator, Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton were a little distant as they went on a hike in the Hamptons just after Bill's 77th birthday. The New York destination is about 115 miles east of the Clintons usual Empire State haven in Chappaqua. Hillary wore a kaftan style top, denim jeans and walking sneakers as they went on their walk on Sunday.

President Joe Biden on Thursday proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent, a scheme that will likely burden both large and small businesses. While the term “corporation” is widely used to depict large companies such as Microsoft, Walmart, and McDonald’s, C-corporations are both small and large businesses, the most prevalent of corporations. Individual shareholders of C-corporations already have profits taxed both on a corporate and personal level (double taxation). In addition, small businesses account for 65.1 percent of net new jobs created from 2000 to 2019 and comprise 99.7 percent of firms with paid employees,...

Xcel Energy-Colorado has filed a request for a new electric rate increase, which follows a recently approved natural gas rate hike and a $182.2 million jump in revenue for electric service that took effect in April. The request submitted to regulators Wednesday proposed a $312.2 million revenue increase. ... Critics of Xcel’s recent rate cases have accused the utility of “a pancaking” of increases. The PUC approved a $64.2 million rise in the utility’s natural gas rates in October. Regulators slashed the utility’s original proposal by $138 million. ... If the increase is approved, the typical residential bill would rise...

Food stamp benefits are increasing by 12.5 percent as families grapple with grocery prices that have skyrocketed under President Joe Biden. Under the maximum benefit, a family of four on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will see their payments increase from $835 to $939 per month.

Connecticut’s Department of Revenue Services this week announced a coming tax hike on diesel fuel, resulting in a nine cent increase. The current tax in the state is 40.1 cents on diesel fuel, but it will increase to 49.2 cents per gallon in about two weeks, beginning July 1.

Seniors and other people who rely on Social Security benefits could next year see their biggest cost-of-living adjustment since 1981, with an advocacy group for older Americans forecasting an 8.6% hike. The typical monthly Social Security check is about $1,658, which means beneficiaries could see an increase of $142.60 per month in early 2023, bringing the average check to about $1,800, according to a new forecast from the Senior Citizens League.

The Federal Reserve is racing to get inflation under control and pull back stimulus for an overheated economy with a double dose of rate hikes expected on Wednesday. The Fed’s monetary policy panel is expected to announce a 0.5 percentage point rate hike Wednesday, twice the size of a typical interest rate increase, as the bank rushes to get in front of rising prices.

Workers in Los Angeles will earn about a dollar more per hour after Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Thursday that the minimum wage will be bumped up to $16.04 beginning in July. The hourly increase from the $15 per hour rate follows the city’s municipal code that states wages will be increased annually.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Wednesday that he opposes a short-term debt hike being hashed out by Senate leadership and that Republicans shouldn't be "held hostage" due to concerns that Democrats could change the filibuster. Graham, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, is the first Senate Republican to speak out against the tentative deal that is still being worked out by Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). "I do not support the Democrats’ reconciliation package and I do not support raising the debt limit to make that level of spending possible....