Free Republic

New IRS data shows California residents of all ages and incomes fled for more tax-friendly climatesCalifornia residents of all ages and incomes are leaving for more tax friendly climates, and they’re taking billions of dollars in annual income with them. The Internal Revenue Service recently released its latest taxpayer migration figures from tax years 2018 and 2019. They reflect migratory taxpayers who had filed in a different state or county between 2017 and 2018, of which 8 million did in that timespan. California, the nation’s most-populous state, lost more tax filers and dependents on net than any other state. Minus...

Democrats in the General Assembly have managed to give every explanation imaginable for why you have to pay more — during an economic crisis — for what should have been a top spending priority for Colorado lawmakers over the last decade. They’ve done a fine job at gaslighting the people of Colorado into believing that not only is there no other solution to funding our roads and bridges than Senate Bill 260, but that the shortage of funds we’re experiencing today is indeed your fault. It’s not the only solution, and it is not your fault that our roads and...

he Hyde Amendment must be repealed so that money taken from American taxpayers can be used to pay for abortions through Medicaid and that he will create a “public option” health care plan that also covers abortions. “The Affordable Care Act made historic progress ensuring access to free preventive care, including contraception,” says a page on Biden’s campaign website entitled “The Biden Agenda For Women.” “The Biden Plan will build on that progress,” it says. “Vice President Biden supports repealing the Hyde Amendment because health care is a right that should not be dependent on one’s zip code or income.

President Biden's $1.9 coronavirus relief package offered a major tax break for millions of Americans who collected unemployment aid last year, but more than a dozen states aren't following suit. The American Rescue Plan waives federal income taxes on up to $10,200 in 2020 unemployment insurance benefits for individuals who earned less than $150,000. Workers can exclude the aid when calculating their modified adjusted gross income meaning that an individual who earned $140,000 last year but collected $10,200 in jobless aid is still eligible to take advantage of the tax break. The break applies to this tax-filing season, which began...

In many school districts across the nation, public school teachers still don’t want to go back to work. Private sector workers have long been hard at work in kitchens, at construction sites, and in hardware and grocery stores. Meanwhile, from Seattle, to Los Angeles, and to Berkeley, California, Teachers' Union representatives insist they simply can’t be expected to perform the on-site work in the expensive facilities that the taxpayers have long been paying for... This week, for example, some schoolteachers in Colorado’s Jefferson County turned out to protest the district’s plan to return to limited in-person learning later this month....

Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs and a group of 29 other state financial officials recently sent letters to six of the nation’s largest private sector money managers in a transparently partisan attempt to bully them out of supporting Republicans. The effort is a misuse of the power that adheres to managing billions of dollars of taxpayer money and sets a dangerous precedent that might well invite retaliation in the same form by Republicans holding similar offices or from a Republican successor to Frerichs. It’s an attempt by incumbent officeholders to control much of the money that controls politics. Unfortunately, the effort...

Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham reportedly used thousands in taxpayer funds to purchase groceries, liquor, and dry cleaning for her personal use. Grisham racked up a $13,500 tab during the last six months of 2020, according to financial disclosures reported on by the Sante Fe New Mexican. Her bill allegedly included $6,500 in luxurious groceries such as Wagyu beef and tuna steaks, as well as bottles of tequila, vodka, gin, wine, and beer. Grisham or one of her surrogates allegedly spent $200 on alcohol during one visit to Sam’s Club and also used tax dollars to pay for...

In Naperville, Illinois, the school board announced it would distribute $10 million back to taxpayers this year. Yes. A tax refund. In a news release, Superintendent Dan Bridges told residents that he "understands the great burden many of our families have faced during the COVID-19 Pandemic and hopes that this reimbursement lessens that burden." The typical family will receive a refund of $200 to $500. Good for Naperville. The 10-month pandemic shutdown generated a savings of roughly $20 million, or about 6.5% out of a $300 million school budget. The Naperville Sun reported that the district's expenses for everything from...

Accountants along Colorado’s Front Range are telling CBS4 that dozens of clients who paid their 2019 taxes are nonetheless getting menacing letters from the IRS. Those letters are threatening late fees, penalties and in some cases, property seizure. “Well they’re frightened,” said Denver CPA William Fraser, “They don’t understand why the government, the IRS, would be chasing after them when they’ve paid their taxes.” Fraser said he has about 30 clients who paid their 2019 taxes but are still getting the intimidating letters from the feds. He says his clients are “frightened, angry, stressed, worried because the letters say they’re...

San Francisco District 9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen was elated when Joe Biden signed an executive order last week that opens the door taxpayers to foot the bill for the cities homeless problems. Biden signed an executive order that was designed to increase reimbursements and other assistance to states to help cover costs related to the pandemic. The order states, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) shall “make available under Category B of the Public Assistance program such assistance as may be required by States (including territories and the District of Columbia), local governments, and Tribal governments to provide for the...

Gov. Andrew “Grandma Slayer” Cuomo (D-NY) is threatening to sue American taxpayers if we don’t pay for his well-documented ineptitude. Andrew Cuomo had one overriding message Tuesday as he delivered his annual budget address from New York’s state Capitol: If Washington doesn’t send New York $15 billion as part of a pandemic relief package, he’ll have no choice but to slash public payrolls, cut services and raise taxes on the rich.

That was fast. Last Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio ­informed the United Federation of Teachers that the city couldn’t afford a $900 million bonus for union members. It took 24 hours for the union to knock this threat down — and wring a better deal from out-of-work taxpayers. The state must step in. How did New York City end up on the hook for a near-billion-dollar payment during the worst fiscal crisis ever? You can thank de Blasio. In Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s final term, the global economy melted down — and Bloomberg told teachers that if they wanted raises, they...

Taxpayers spent nearly $66 million fashioning McCormick Place into an emergency coronavirus hospital with 2,750 beds this past spring amid fears that COVID-19 patients would overwhelm hospitals in the Chicago area. Those fears turned out to be unfounded. Just 38 patients were transferred to the sprawling convention center — meaning taxpayers’ cost for the makeshift hospital turned out to be more than $1.7 million per patient, on average. But top aides to Mayor Lori Lightfoot say her decision to initiate the project with the federal government and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority was an important “insurance policy” at a...

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a $4.5 million settlement payout to a convicted child molester who was held in a state hospital for 17 years awaiting trial on whether he could be committed as a sexually violent predator. George Vasquez pleaded no contest in 1995 to four counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and was sentenced to 12 years in state prison. The case involved boys ages 6 to 8 years old from his South Los Angeles neighborhood. After Vasquez had served his time, in September 2000, the District Attorney’s Office...

Gun control legislation has been all the rage in Richmond since Democrats took over the Virginia General Assembly last November. The Democratic majority teamed with Gov. Ralph Northam in their ambitious efforts to cross items off the gun control checklist, such as enacting a “red flag” law, banning private firearm transfers, reviving a handgun purchase limit, and even implementing a modern sporting rifle ban that was thankfully defeated in committee — for now. It should come as no surprise, then, that the governor who wouldn’t let his past use of blackface stop his political pandering would also not let a...

With so many needing help after the one-two punch of the virus and attendant economic woes, universities, which have already drained trillions without fulfilling their promises, should be at the back of the line. Even before the coronavirus crisis, universities were living large on taxpayer largesse. The entire foundation of their business model is the government-backed student loan. More than 90 percent of the dollars that trundle freshmen to their institutions each September originate with or are owned by taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Education.If, as projections suggest, enrollment takes a nosedive this fall due to changing financial situations...

Behind the scenes, congressional Democrats’ main priority is bringing back a big tax loophole for rich people in high-tax blue states: their donors. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has political priorities. During negotiations over the three Wuhan coronavirus stimulus bills, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to include loans for abortion providers, as well as a bailout of the Obamacare exchanges that would end up funding abortion.That led to some bad PR for Pelosi, but the House speaker may be a glutton for punishment. If there’s one thing Democrats are beholden to more than the abortion lobby,...

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and baby Archie made a last minute dash from Canada to the US this week to start their new life in LA Questions are now being asked about who will foot the bill for their new Hollywood lifestyles A royal source said the couple will need to ask for 'special help' from President Trump if they want Secret Service protection in the USHarry will no longer be entitled to diplomatic protection in the US, because he is not an 'international protected person' after Megxit Angry Canadians on social media seemed glad to see the back of...

Thirty million dollars would make anyone sit up and pay attention, especially when the words following include “the government” and “taxpayers.” But is $30 million each year what it costs to maintain the protection of a federally designated national forest? Surprisingly, no. This average annual loss of $30 million stems not from protecting the forest, but logging the forest, Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest in particular. That’s equivalent to over $100,000 per timber job in the area.When the current administration announced its intent to modify the protections of the “Roadless Rule” that restricts logging in over 9 million acres of...

If elected, Bernie Sanders would crush American families with bloated bureaucracy, explode the national debt, and drastically raise taxes on middle class Americans. Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Brian Riedl has calculated that all of Sanders’s proposals could cost up to a staggering $97.5 trillion over the next decade, and total government spending would bloat to 70 percent of GDP. The ten-year budget deficit would be nearly $90 trillion, and the government would employ nearly half of all Americans.Sanders would fund his radical proposals by raising taxes on you and everyone you know. Sanders has openly admitted that he wants to...