Free Republic

Earlier this month the California Democrat Party held a vote to endorse the California billionaire tax which is on the ballot in November. As I described here, it was a surprisingly close vote which failed when it first came up and barely passed on a second attempt.The pitched and often emotional vote over Proposition 40 exposed deep fissures in the state party over how to respond to growing grassroots anger over wealth inequality. And the endorsement, which narrowly failed to clear the 60% threshold on its first vote, only occurred after two delegates switched sides on a subsequent round. Delegates...

A sanctimonious liberal like any other respectable 16-year-old, I made a seminal lurch to the right the first time I opened a pay slip. I was manning the register weekends for the Ice Capades Chalet in Atlanta and made about $40 a week. Or so I imagined. Then where the hell was it? The significantly lighter payment was my rude introduction to taxation at source. Indignation at being fleeced at a minimal income persisted into my adulthood. I lived on a wing and a prayer for decades, and having to pitch anything whatsoever in the communal pot was consternating. I...

Staten Island judge on Monday temporarily blocked New York City’s rollout of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s pied-à-terre tax, pausing enforcement while a lawsuit brought by a group of homeowners moves forward. Under the temporary restraining order, the city must take down the public tax roll and is barred from issuing any additional notices while the order is in effect. The next hearing is set for 2:15 p.m. August 31. The judge said from the bench that the notices caused irreparable harm because they did not explain why recipients had been flagged for the surcharge and warned that homeowners who failed to...

Scott Galloway is a marketing professor at NYU and was a big supporter of Zohran Mamdani. Because of course he was. All the Best™ people were, because Zohran is so dreamy and wants the best for everybody, unlike the meanies. He was also a big supporter of the pied-à-terre tax, which imposed a substantial annual fee on valuable "second homes" in New York City. You know the ones that gazillionaires have because they are super wealthy and don't care about the homeless and struggling people in New York City. They need to pay their fair share. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani...

At least 88 of the largest corporations in America paid no federal corporate income taxes in their most recent fiscal year despite enjoying substantial pretax profits in the U.S. While the biggest U.S. corporations have avoided taxes in this way for decades, it appears that corporate tax avoidance has increased in the most recent year. This is at least in part due to two separate packages of corporate tax cuts pushed through by the Trump administration: last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” and the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). These tax-avoiding corporations represent a variety of industries...

The Florida Legislature has passed a bill including tax holidays for firearms accessories, and hunting, fishing, and camping supplies. Firearms silencers/suppressors are included as firearms accessories. If Governor DeSantis signs the bill, most of the act will take effect on July 1, 2026. The sales tax holiday for firearms, ammunition, and listed firearm accessories would run from September 1 through December 31, 2026.The Florida Legislature passed HB 7031E, as amended by the Conference Committee Report, YEAS 29 to NAYS 6, on May 29, 2026. The bill passed the House a couple of hours earlier, 88 YEAS to 11 NAYS. The...

HISTORY LESSON ON YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY CARD: Just in case some of you young whippersnappers (& some older ones) didn’t know this. It’s easy to check out, if you don’t believe it. Be sure and show it to your family and friends. They need a little history lesson on what’s what and it doesn’t matter whether you are Democrat or Republican. Facts are FACTS. Up until the 1980's, Social Security cards expressly stated the number and card were not to be used for identification purposes. Since nearly everyone in the United States now has a number, it became convenient to...

Key PointsState lawmakers passed a tax on nonprimary residences in New York City in order to help close the city's budget gap.The so-called pied-a-terre tax will be imposed on second homes valued at $1 million or more and will take effect in two different phases. Billionaire and Citadel CEO Ken Griffin became the face of the tax after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a video in front of Griffin's penthouse apartment announcing the tax.New York City's new tax on second homes will more than double property taxes owed by many wealthy luxury apartment owners, according to tax experts.State...

SACRAMENTO, California — Gavin Newsom vowed Wednesday to tax any payouts that California residents receive from a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that Donald Trump secured in a settlement with his own Justice Department, as Democratic lawmakers in states across the country ramp up efforts to counter the president on the measure.

New York lawmakers are debating whether to offer a sweet taxpayer-funded wedding gift to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, The Post has learned. State Assembly Democrats on Tuesday discussed adding a $250,000 item in New York’s overdue budget to provide security for the Swift-Kelce nuptials, which will take place in the Big Apple on July 3. But an Assembly insider said the funding — sure to be politically controversial — was then pulled from the agenda. Discussions centered on whether to use state troopers to provide security for the wealthy, celebrity power couple, who can afford to pay for their...

WEEEEE!Oh, muh gosh, this is going to be so much fun, I can hardly stand the thought.What I especially love about the whole concept is being able to turn the progressive mantra about 'paying your fair share' right on its ear and right back at them. blockquote>Electric car owners could be forced to pay as much as $150 annually under a new tax that is being proposed by bipartisan leaders of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.A new proposed EV fee that will start at $135 annually beginning in October 2026 is included in a new bipartisan draft of...

Key FactsNew York lawmakers are planning the tax, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the state budget negotiations who noted the proposal would be levied at 1% of the buying price and be paid by buyers. The legislators are also considering expanding the tax to $1 million or more cash purchases in the state that would incorporate the suburbs and upstate New York, Bloomberg added. The tax in New York City alone could generate up to $160 million, according to the unnamed sources Bloomberg cited. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., told Bloomberg she “announced a general agreement...

On April 10, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion in Morris v. DOJ, reinforcing a longstanding constitutional limit on Congress’s taxing power: it may impose taxes that raise revenue, but it cannot simply prohibit conduct under the guise of taxation.The reasoning and precedents cited in Morris could bolster challenges to the constitutionality of the NFA’s registration scheme for suppressors, SBRs, SBSs, and AOWs now that the making and transfer tax on those items has been reduced to zero.The case in the Fifth Circuit is Morris v. DOJ. It concerns the federal ban on home distilleries,...

San Diego is one of the nation’s hottest housing markets, with average home prices hovering around $1 million and rents for a one-bedroom apartment topping $2,000 a month. Yet city officials estimate that more than 5,000 properties sit empty most of the year, which some advocates argue worsens the city’s housing shortage and affordability crisis. So California’s second-largest city is set to take dramatic action. In a few weeks, San Diego voters will decide whether to become the latest California municipality to tax vacant homes

Imagine a small concert venue, hosting 900 people, give or take. That’s about the number of passengers and crew on a small cruise ship, or of students attending the average U.S. public high school. A group that size collectively holds more wealth than the bottom half of the country combined, because that’s roughly how many billionaires live in the U.S. But a new bill is asking the people in that hypothetical cruise ship, concert venue, or high school to chip in, and to bankroll multi-thousand-dollar checks for millions of middle-class Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Ro Khanna introduced the...

Us Hunter Biden now the sacrifiacl lamb for the Democrats to use?

Washington state Democrats are magicians! In the time it takes to say abracadabra, they made millions upon millions of dollars disappear just like that!As if it weren’t bad enough that Seattle is under the reign of a communist mayor, statewide radical Democrats passed a bill masquerading as a “millionaire tax,” ushering in the state’s first-ever income tax.As I reported in a recent West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, this "millionaire tax" was always going to change — POOF! — into a thousandaire income tax, and the Washington Policy Center has the email receipts. But now, as night follows day, as thunder...

The Florida House of Representatives approved a joint resolution on Thursday to put in motion a possible constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would completely end non-school property taxes for homesteaded properties beginning on Jan. 1, 2027. The final vote was 80-30, with all Republicans supporting the proposal and all Democrats opposing it. The chances of Floridians actually voting on the amendment are long, however. The Florida Senate has yet to propose any bill during this legislative session addressing property taxes. Joint resolutions can only be placed on the ballot if they are approved by a three-fifths majority in...

In the One Big Beautiful Bill passed in 2025, the National Firearms Act (NFA) tax for silencers/suppressors, short barreled rifles (SBR), short barreled shotguns (SBS), and any other weapons (AOW) was reduced from $200 (or $5 for AOW) to $0. The elimination of the tax took effect on January 1, 2026.According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, there were over 150,000 NFA applications submitted on January 1, 2026. We do not know how many applications were for which type of NFA item. An educated guess is that a majority were for suppressors, a significant minority for SBRs, somewhat less for...

1) Republican push: cut/suspend fuel taxes and “hidden” regulatory costsState-level GOP bills: Republican legislators have repeatedly introduced measures to suspend or roll back fuel-tax increases or reduce regulatory cost add-ons, but these efforts have generally failed in Democrat-controlled committees/chambers. Federal pressure: Some California Republican members of Congress have urged the Governor to suspend scheduled state fuel tax increases and pause implementation of certain CARB policies they argue raise prices at the pump. 2) Democratic/administration posture: don’t cut fuel taxes; manage markets + pursue climate policyNo major move to reduce state fuel taxes: Democratic leadership and the Governor have not pursued...