Free Republic

It looks like Congress is taking steps to end some of the special tax breaks and subsidies for major sports leagues in its tax reform package. Professional sports leagues like the NFL enjoy tax exemptions on the municipal bonds that are used to build their stadiums. A provision in Sec. 3604 eliminates this perk. If sports teams want to build new stadiums, they’re now going to pay federal taxes to do it.

Full title: Judicial Watch: FBI 2013 Interviews with Cincinnati Officials Reveal Orchestrated IRS Policy of Burying Tea Party Tax Exemption Applications Leading Up to Obama Reelection ‘DC is like a black hole.’ – Cincinnati Group Manager (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released 105 pages of newly obtained Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) “302” documents revealing that, beginning in 2010 and lasting through the Obama reelection campaign in 2012, the IRS orchestrated an apparently deliberate policy of burying conservative groups’ tax exemption applications in bureaucratic delays. Interviews with numerous Cincinnati IRS employees in mid-2013 reveal that “Tea Party” group applications...

Presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson wants the IRS to investigate the Council On American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The Saudi-funded, terror-tied CAIR may have jeopardized its non-profit status and violated the law by calling for Carson to step down and withdraw from the presidential race. Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR): CAIR was founded by two individuals with close ties to a Hamas operative. Hamas, according to its own charter, is the branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. In 2007, founder Omar Ahwad was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorist financing trial. In November 2014, CAIR was...

If there is one thing consistent about the tides of the culture wars, it is that whenever one side is emboldened, it inevitably leads to overreach. The secular Left is proving this point with gusto in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to nationalize gay marriage, calling for the removal of tax exemptions for churches and religious non-profits who continue to hold the tired old definition of marriage that existed all the way up until yesterday. This step, which would crush the budgets of many churches and non-profits, reveals an amusing hypocrisy of the modern Left’s turn against civil...

Puerto Rico’s Senate approved several measures late Thursday aimed at helping the U.S. territory take on new loans and better manage its ability to repay an existing $70 billion public debt, an issue that has worried investors. One measure would create a corporation responsible for issuing bonds to help pay and refinance some of the $590 million in debt held by the island’s municipalities. The corporation would use a portion of revenues generated through an existing sales and use tax to guarantee payment. As a result, municipalities would see a slight drop in revenues they receive through the tax. Another...

Via the folks at the Trinity Foundation/Wittenburg Door, there is a report that GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reached out to televangelist Kenneth Copeland for some fundraising help. Copeland is one of several televangelists under investigation by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and a proponent of the so-called "prosperity gospel." Trinity cites a blog post by former George H.W. Bush staffer Doug Wead to the effect that Huckabee called Copeland during a ministers' conference last week that Copeland was hosting. Wead reports: "Copeland, carefully observing all the laws governing non profits, as a private citizen, re-convened a private meeting, turned...

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- The city tax collector is ready to put a local church that has been in New London since 1835 on the auction block for payment of a $4,339 tax bill. At issue is a bill sent out last July for property that the Second Congregational Church rents to the nonprofit Drop-In Learning Center.

Prominent conservatives are warning that the debate over civil marriage could soon move into the religious arena and change the way churches treat marriage. Same-sex couples are already looking ahead to May when they can obtain civil marriage licenses in Massachusetts. And just in the last two weeks, officials in San Francisco have handed out marriage licenses to more than 3,000 homosexual couples - allegedly in violation of the California Constitution and a voter-approved referendum. Religious marriage poses a different set of circumstances since churches and similar institutions are protected by the Constitution. But conservatives of various religious denominations told...

Governor Bush Signs Bills Helping Florida Homeowners Gov. Jeb Bush at an AARP meeting for seniors. (BTW, GW won FL's senior demographic in Nov. 2000.) On Thursday, Governor Bush signed Senate Bill 2014 into law, which will help Florida's low-income elder homeowners. This bill will make it easier for Floridians who are 65 or older file for the additional property tax homestead exemption by eliminating some of the burdensome paperwork. It also eliminates the fee to file for this exemption. --------------------------------------------------- Gov. Bush with patriotic Americans. In addition, Governor Bush signed Senate Bill 148 into law, which guarantees homeowners'...