Free Republic

*** A full 59 percent of Americans aren’t in a position to use their savings “to pay for a major unexpected expense, such as $1,000 for an emergency room visit or car repair,” said a Jan. 23 report from the company.This is up from 56 percent a year back. “We are essentially a paycheck-to-paycheck nation,” said Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate. *** To help alleviate the financial crunch, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for*** “emergency price relief” for families and tackling the cost of living crisis facing America on his first day in office. The 12-month...

California Proposes Sales Tax Hike To Fund Transport, Government Services July 18, 2008 11:32 a.m. ESTVittorio Hernandez - AHN News WriterSacramento, CA (AHN) - To close California's $17.2 billion budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger considered on Thursday hiking the state sales tax and using funds intended for transportation and government services.State legislators proposed the two measures, which the governor initially described as bad ideas, but he did not rule out adopting the measures to avoid a cash crisis in California.The lawmakers plan to close the budget gap by collecting $5.6 billion income tax increase on the rich and borrowing $1.1...

Clemson Lawsuit by: Louisa Tavlas, January 31, 2008 A lawsuit filed by a former Clemson University advisor alleges that he was fired after raising questions over the school’s increased tuition, according to The Tiger Town Observer, Clemson’s Conservative Journal of News and Opinion. Chalmers Eugene Troutman, who in May 2005 was named Executive Secretary of the Board of Trustees, claims that marked tuition increases since 2000 are not only unnecessary, but have overstuffed a rainy day fund that has grown to 80 million dollars. Troutman also accuses select University officials of corrupt business practices and mismanagement of the school’s financial...

State legislators have gone home. That's a good thing.The session began in May with much hope that with better economic times, lawmakers would seize the opportunity to give taxpayers a much-needed break and repeal the "temporary" taxes enacted during the 2001 recession. Many hoped that the General Assembly would also seize the opportunity to adopt a constitutional amendment protecting property owners from eminent domain abuse. Instead, the General Assembly made half-hearted attempts to appease taxpayers and property owners. Lawmakers trimmed back those tax increases, but wouldn't eliminate them altogether. As far as protecting property, the General Assembly repealed legislation that...