Search Results for: gas tax

Commentary: Governor Shapiro’s First Budget Falls Short

RealClearWire

Gov. Josh Shapiro’s first state budget proposal perpetuates unsustainable spending and fails to address the most promising ideas he put forward during his campaign. For starters, his budget calls for $45.9 billion in ongoing General Fund spending – but the state has only $43 billion in net revenues, so the governor is positioning us for a nearly $3 billion annual deficit.

Spending that exceeds revenue is unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible for individuals, businesses, and certainly for government.

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‘Sustainable’ Electric Cars Are Getting Junked Over Minor Damage

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Insurers are being forced to write off many electric vehicles with only minor damage to battery packs, sending the batteries to scrap yards and hindering the climate benefits of going electric, Reuters reported.

Battery packs typically represent roughly half the cost of an electric vehicle, sometimes costing tens of thousands of dollars, often making it more economical for insurers to consider a car as totalled than replace a battery pack, according to Reuters. While many carmakers, including Ford and GM, told Reuters that their battery packs were repairable, many are unwilling to share key data with third-party insurers to help assess damage.

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Conservative Duo Vies for Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Commission

Bradley Vasoli

As recently as the mid-2000s, row offices were unwinnable for Democrats in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania — a GOP stronghold for over a century. By 2011, the Democrats would take over the Board of Commissioners. They now enjoy a three-to-two voter-registration advantage.

But now some Republicans sense voters are wearying of what the Democrats have overseen during their dozen-year ascendancy, including a “bail reform” measure that has unsettled local police. The commissioners also frequently increase property taxes, most recently by eight percent in 2022. 

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Commentary: Michelle Obama Is Not Coming to Save the Democrats

Admin

I love a good conspiracy theory. Aliens, ancient builders, Bigfoot—I will absolutely click on that headline and read the latest conspiracy, no matter how fanciful or ludicrous. Everyone has a harmless personal foible, right? And in the times we live in now, shadowy government conspiracies and UFOs are no longer just for “The X Files.”

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Former President Donald Trump Stumps in Iowa, Vows to Evict Biden from the White House and ‘Prevent World War III’

M.D. Kittle

Former President Donald Trump was back in Iowa Monday night and he was loaded for bear, taking aim at woke liberals, the mainstream media, the Deep State, “Paul Ryan RINOs” and the current unpopular top resident of the White House. 

And Trump, arguably the leading contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, made the crowd packing Davenport’s 2,400-seat Adler Theatre some big promises. Chief among them:  He’ll always have Iowa’s back and he’ll “stop World War III.” 

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Shapiro Says Pennsylvania Republican Lawmakers ‘Are Praising’ His Budget Proposal While Omitting Criticisms

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) is already claiming high-ranking Republicans “are praising” his first budget. Those Republicans’ actual remarks tell a different story.

A press release from the governor selectively quotes eight GOP state lawmakers’ reactions to the budget he unveiled last week. While the snippets accurately capture areas of agreement, they leave out decidedly negative sentiments the Republicans voiced about the $45.9 billion plan which would hike state spending by about four percent over the current level. 

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Oil CEOs See Massive Bonuses amid Record Profits

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The pay packages for the chief executives of British oil giants BP and Shell skyrocketed in 2022 after the oil titans posted record profits off the back of high gas prices last year, Reuters reported Friday.

The salary of BP CEO Bernard Looney climbed to roughly £1.3 million, while performance-related bonuses and stock awards climbed to £10.03 million, to a total of £11.33 million in compensation, more than two and a half times the £4.46 million he earned in 2021, the company announced Friday. BP —which lagged behind its American competitors in 2022 despite a record profit of roughly $28 billion — has drawn criticism from activists for cutting its green investments and reinvesting in gas and oil, Reuters reported.

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‘Corporate Bailouts Must End’: 2024 GOP Candidates Weigh In On Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse

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The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has sparked comments from 2024 GOP candidates and hopefuls about why the bank failed and what the government should do in its wake.

Declared candidates, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump, as well as contender Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have spoken out about what might have led to SVB’s collapse and against government bailouts. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of SVB after its Friday shut down when their stock plummeted following mass withdrawals.

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General Motors to Offer Buyouts of U.S. Employees

The Center Square

General Motors announced Thursday it’s offering voluntary buyouts to some salaried U.S. employees.

The automaker is looking to cut $2 billion in fixed costs by 2024 as the company transitions its manufacturing operations to produce electric vehicles.

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Mastriano Bill for Train-Wreck Emergency Grants Passes Pennsylvania Senate Committee

Bradley Vasoli

Legislation to aid Pennsylvanians affected by the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment and chemical incineration passed a state Senate panel unanimously last week. 

Senator Doug Mastriano (R-PA-Chambersburg) authored the bill and chairs the Senate Veterans Affairs and Emergency Preparedness Committee which approved it. His measure would establish the Train Derailment Emergency Grant Program to cover impacted individuals’ medical bills, income losses, small-business expenses, property-value depletions, decontamination costs and relocation expenses. The policy now awaits consideration by the full Senate. 

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Tennessee Firearms Association Director Richard Archie Says Changes in State Law Are Needed

Julie Carr

Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee Firearms Association Director Richard Archie to the newsmaker line to discuss protecting Tennessee’s gun owners’ Second Amendment rights as it pertains to the Bruen case.

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Shapiro’s Planned Spending Increase Alarms Pennsylvania Budget Hawks

Bradley Vasoli

Pennsylvania Josh Shapiro asked the state General Assembly members on Tuesday to support his requested $45.9 billion budget, which would increase spending by approximately 4 percent over current outlays. 

The governor insisted he based his plan for Fiscal Year 2023-24 on “conservative” revenue estimates. And he did include some provisions appealing to anti-taxers and free-marketers including nixing the state cell-phone tax, a move he estimates would save Pennsylvanians $124 million annually. 

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Florida Lawmakers to Tackle School Choice Expansion in New Session

The Center Square

Florida’s Legislature will be serving up a smorgasbord of issues during the upcoming 60-day regular session that begins on Tuesday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said many times that Florida is the place where “woke goes to die” and passage of laws to stop it tops the agenda for the Republican supermajority in 2023.

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Commentary: The World Bank Takes a Wrong Turn

RealClearWire

President Biden’s nomination of Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, to succeed David Malpass as World Bank president suggests that the Biden administration is prioritizing climate change over the World Bank’s founding mission of poverty eradication and economic development. This was made clear in the president’s statement singling out climate change as the most urgent challenge of our time. 

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The World Bank’s New Focus on Climate Threatens World’s Poorest Nations, Researchers Say

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The World Bank’s plan to focus future efforts on climate change will have a disproportionately negative impact on its poorest client nations, despite those same countries having repeatedly reported that they would prefer the bank focus on other issues, researchers at the Center for Global Development (CGD) reported Thursday.

The Biden administration named former MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga as its nominee to replace the outgoing Trump appointee David Malpass as president of the World Bank Thursday, a key step in the administration’s efforts to refocus the agency from poverty prevention and take more climate action. However, just 6% of public and private representatives from 43 client nations listed climate change as one of the top three issues facing their country, according to a review of surveys conducted by the World Bank in 2020 and 2021, the GCD researchers reported.

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American Idol Alum Taylor Hicks Releases New Single, ‘Porch Swing’

Bethany Bowman

Season 5 American Idol Winner Taylor Hicks debuted his newest single, “Porch Swing” on the Bobby Bones Show on President’s Day.

But before that, we sat down to catch me up on what had been going on since he won American Idol in 2006.

Hicks said he always wanted to be an entertainer.

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Michigan Gov. Whitmer 2024 Budget: $10 Million for State Fleet’s Electric Vehicle Transition

The Center Square

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed $79 billion budget aims to allocate $10 million to transition the state’s automotive fleet to electric vehicles.

The governor budgeted $318 million on EV incentives: $150 million to help school districts buy 500 electric school buses; $65 million for EV charging stations; $48 million over two years for an EV sales and use tax exemption; and $45 million for local governments and businesses to transition their fleets to EVs.

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Commentary: The Libertarian-Socialist Axis

Admin

On the surface, it might seem ridiculous to suggest libertarians and socialists work to further the same political agenda. Their ideologies are diametrically opposed. The extreme version of a socialist system is for all property to be owned and controlled by the government. The extreme version of a libertarian system is for all property to be privately owned. And yet the extremes meet. 

The unwitting consequence of socialist and libertarian movements in the United States has been to assist in the formation of an unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a corporatist elite that has perfected its ability to manipulate both movements.

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Tennessee Revenues for January $212.9 Million over Budget

Laura Baigert

State tax revenues for the month of January exceeded budgeted estimates by $212.9 million, according to the monthly revenue announcement released Wednesday by Department of Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson.

The state’s surplus in year-to-date tax collections is $1.17 billion through six months.

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Florida’s DeSantis Wants to Restrict Politically Motivated Investment Policies

The Center Square

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the Legislature to restrict politically motivated banking and investment policies with taxpayer funds and protect Floridians from discrimination from the banking industry in the upcoming session.

DeSantis held a news conference in Naples Monday to discuss legislative proposals to address environmental, social and governance investment policies. While ESG was prohibited in investment decisions for the state’s pension program through the State Board of Administration last year, DeSantis wants more restrictions.

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Evers Looks to Freeze Wisconsin’s Popular School Choice Program in Latest Budget

M.D. Kittle

Governor Tony Evers is getting pushback again for his latest plan to freeze out Wisconsin’s popular parental school choice program. 

The Democrat, as he did in his last budget plan, is proposing to freeze enrollment in schools participating in private school choice program beginning in the 2024-25 school year at 2023-24 levels.

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Whitmer’s 2024 Budget Eyes $318 Million in Subsidies for Electric Vehicles

The Center Square

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed $79 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 aims to require taxpayers subsidize electric vehicles and chargers with $318 million.

Whitmer’s mobility budget includes $160 million for capital investments in rail, bus, and marine transit service expansions, $65 million for EV charging stations, and $48 million over two years for an EV sales and use tax exemption.

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Commentary: The Left’s Little Financial Engine That Could Change the World Radically

RealClearWire

Amalgamated Bank, with just five branches across three cities, and a market value lower than the net worth of many an individual hedge fund honcho, would seem an unlikely mover and shaker in the world of Wall Street, let alone Washington, D.C. 

Yet last fall, it successfully pressured colossal credit card companies Visa, Mastercard, and American Express to use the financial system to track and report gun purchases. Amalgamated is “more than a bank,” says Michael Watson of the Capital Research Center. “It’s a bank for an ideological movement.” 

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Commentary: Black Reparations Inspiring a Multicolored Pandora’s Box of Intersectional Demands

RealClearWire

Until a few years ago, the idea of paying financial reparations to descendants of African slaves was dismissed as a fringe idea.   

Now a notion that President Barack Obama once rejected as impractical is becoming public policy. California offers a dramatic example as officials there review a proposal that could pay in excess of $1 million each to some black residents, while more than a dozen U.S. municipalities are moving ahead with their own race-based programs to redress the legacies of slavery.  

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Commentary: The Government Wants Your Raincoat

Admin

Two recent proposals that the federal government are considering in the name of consumer safety have Uncle Sam coming after products millions of Americans use every day. While a potential gas stove ban has received several headlines in recent days, millions of Americans may not know that the government has also had a role in beginning the phasing out of a chemical that is a component in so many products that it will likely impact every American in the country.

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Commentary: Sunshine Might Be Free but Solar Power Is Not Cheap

RealClearWire

Mississippi residents are consistently told that renewable energy sources, like solar panels, are now the lowest-cost ways to generate electricity, but these claims are based on creative accounting gimmicks that only examine a small portion of the expenses incurred to integrate solar onto the grid while excluding many others.

When these hidden expenses are accounted for, it becomes obvious that solar is much more expensive than Mississippi’s existing coal, natural gas, and nuclear power plants and that adding more solar will increase electricity prices for the families and businesses that rely upon it. One of the most common ways of estimating the cost of generating electricity from different types of power plants is a metric called the Levelized Cost of Energy, or LCOE.

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Tennessee Airports Continue Request for $125 Million in Annual State Funding

The Center Square

Tennessee’s airports came to a Senate committee Wednesday again asking to receive $125 million in annual state funding as the state continues to lower the fuel taxes that once funded those airports.

The state has put an individual company cap on annual fuel tax payments starting at $10.5 million in 2015 and dropping to a $5 million cap in 2023. That means that funding in the state Transportation Equity Fund dropped from $56.6 million in 2018 to $14 million in 2023.

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Commentary: EV Mandates Could Mean California-Style Backouts in Minnesota

Admin

California recently announced a ban on all gas-powered vehicles by 2035. This is a decision that will have wide ranging negative implications for Minnesotans.

Residents in the Gopher state may be curious how an administrative decision made halfway across the country will affect them, but the answer is relatively simple: last year Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) unilaterally finalized a rule to cede their regulatory authority over automobile emissions to regulators in the Golden State. 

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Economic Experts Weigh Youngkin’s Decision to Halt Virginia Ford Plant

The Center Square

Growth in plants connected to electric vehicles has roared across the country.

Not everyone, however, is quickly jumping in.

When Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said last week that he stopped efforts to establish a Ford Motors battery plant at a megasite in the state due to its Chinese partner, it was the first time University of Texas professor Nathan Jensen could recall a state rejecting an economic incentive deal for a battery plant.

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Liberal Professor at Western Kentucky University Fired after Protesting His School’s DEI Dogma

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Former Western Kentucky University English instructor Ryan Hall said he was fired after canceling his classes in protest of his school’s political bias to embrace and enforce diversity, equity and inclusion above free speech and academic freedom and discourse.

Hall, who describes himself as a liberal who has never voted for a conservative, said he risked his two-decade career in academia to defend the principles of classical liberalism the university “abandoned” in its pursuit of a DEI dogma.

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Youngkin Felt Rejected Ford Battery Plant Deal Was ‘Deceptive’ Effort to Dodge Intent of Inflation Reduction Act

Eric Burk

RICHMOND, Virginia – Governor Glenn Youngkin said Thursday that he felt that Ford’s partnership with Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Ltd. (CATL) to build a battery factory potentially sited in Virginia seemed like an effort to dodge the intent behind the Inflation Reduction Act, and accused The Richmond Times-Dispatch of ignoring facts in reporting on his decision to block the economic development opportunity from going forward in the Commonwealth.

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Soros and Bezos Back Initiative to Raise $3 Trillion Annually to Fight Climate Change

Admin

Left-wing billionaire George Soros and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are helping a World Economic Forum (WEF) climate financing program that aims to raise $3 trillion annually to help slash emissions and restore “nature loss” by 2050.

The WEF and the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations and Bezos Earth Fund, along with more than 43 other nonprofits, businesses and academic institutions, will become part of the “Giving to Amplify Earth Action” (GAEA) initiative that will fund efforts intended to limit global warming, according to a Tuesday WEF announcement. GAEA and its partners will finance charitable partnerships between public and private entities while identifying where the $3 trillion in funding is most needed.

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Hunter Biden in 2018 Claimed Ownership of Delaware Home Where Classified Documents Were Found

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by Debra Heine   Hunter Biden claimed in a 2018 document that he owned the Delaware mansion where Joe Biden kept classified documents in his library and alongside his Corvette in the garage. In a “background screening request,” the younger Biden listed his rent as whopping $49,910 a month and his residency there from March 2017 to February 2018. He signed the document on July 27, 2018. As Breitbart reported, Joe Biden listed only $19,800 in “rents received” on his 2017 tax return. On his 2018 tax return, he listed no rents received. The document was recently shared on Twitter by the New York Post reporter Miranda Devine. Hunter listed his law firm Owasco PC on the document as a company associated with the address in 2018. House Republicans have been investigating Owasco PC’s involvement in many of Hunter’s suspicious wire transfers that have been flagged as “suspicious” by U.S. banks, according to Breitbart. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has requested that Hunter’s personal wealth manager turn over  any suspicious bank records connected to the Biden family business schemes. For years, wire transfers have been the tool of choice for money launderers. To mitigate the risks to the financial institutions, suspicious wire transfers over…

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Appeals Court Reinstates Fulton County Counterfeit Ballot Case After Georgia Supreme Court Confirms VoterGA Has Standing

Susan Berry, PhD

The Georgia Court of Appeals reinstated the 2020 Fulton County counterfeit ballot case of VoterGa without further briefs, setting up a reversal of its prior lack of standing ruling against the nonprofit coalition of citizens working to restore election integrity in the state.

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Commentary: The Coming Dark Age, Courtesy of our 21st Century Government

Admin

Certain basic functions of everyday life distinguish us from animals. Our use of fire is among them. We cook with it, heat with it, and light the darkness with it. In many ways, fire on the stove is the center of our family life. In days of our ancestors, we even kept wild animals at bay with torches burning hot with the rendered fat of animals.

Now the United States federal government is coming for our fire. It’s to protect the children, the federal government says, through an unelected bureaucrat who wants to regulate gas cookstoves out of existence.

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Nonprofit Says Georgians Are Still Hurting from Inflation

The Center Square

While the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers dropped 0.1% in December and the year-over-year inflation rate stands at 6.5%, a Georgia nonprofit says Peach State residents may not be feeling the good news.

“We keep seeing positive headlines about the inflation rate, but that good news is lost on average Georgians who are continually pinched on the cost for everyday necessities like groceries and gas,” Erik Randolph, Georgia Center for Opportunity’s director of research, said in a statement. “Although there was some positive news in the December numbers, it’s important to keep in mind that core inflation remained elevated, including for food. If policymakers in Washington truly want to help the most economically vulnerable in our country, they must return to fiscal sanity and rein in the spending.

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Sex, Alcohol and Drugs: Migrants ‘Destroy’ New York Hotels

ADN America

A New York luxury hotel is being “vandalized” by immigrants, who have been accused of drinking all day, smoking marijuana, having sex on the stairs and starting fights, an employee told Fox News on Thursday.

“The chaos we see on The Row today is [caused] by immigrants who are drunk, drinking all day, smoking marijuana [and] doing drugs, ” Row NYC employee Felipe Rodriguez said of what he called “shameful.”

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Michigan Legislature Sets Stage for Policy Battle

The Center Square

Michigan Democrats filed bills aiming to fulfill a 40-year pending wishlist, which include restoring the prevailing wage and repealing right to work.

Other bills filed include repealing the retirement tax, boosting the earned income  tax credit, and repealing the 1931 abortion ban despite a constitutional amendment voiding the law.

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Youngkin Makes Legislative Pitches During State of the Commonwealth Address

Eric Burk

RICHMOND, Virginia — Governor Glenn Youngkin continued his call for tax cuts, changes to education policy, and increased funding for law enforcement as part of his Wednesday State of the Commonwealth address; he described his first term as a reversal after his Democratic predecessors, and called on legislators to “press the accelerator.”

“I am here this afternoon to communicate that the state of our Commonwealth is substantially better than it was last year,” he said to applause. “We are still a great distance from our destination. A destination where Virginia truly is the best place to live, work, and raise a family. I’m here this afternoon to urge us to accelerate our efforts to get more done and to get it done faster.”

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Mass Transit Could Be Expanding in Georgia, but Critics Say Costs Aren’t Justified

The Center Square

Atlanta once had a robust transportation network, with streetcars rumbling along the city’s streets and interurban lines connecting suburbs like Marietta and Stone Mountain.

But 75 years ago, the lines shuttered, replaced by new forms of transportation: Automobiles.

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Three General Assembly Special Elections for Tuesday

Eric Burk

Senate District Seven voters are voting Tuesday to fill the vacancy left now that Jen Kiggans is representing the region in Congress; while the SD 7 race is the most competitive on Tuesday, there are also elections in House Districts 35 and 24.

In SD7, Republican Kevin Adams, a Navy veteran, is running against Democrat Aaron Rouse, former Virginia Beach City councilman and a former NFL player. Senate Democrats see the special election as a chance to expand their narrow 21-seat majority, which leaves them vulnerable to tie-breaking votes from Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears. For Republicans, keeping a Republican in the seat is important if they hope to see even minor changes on issues like education and abortion.

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Commentary: An Agenda for the GOP House

Admin

Hopefully, it will prove easier for House Republicans to govern than it has been for them to elect a speaker. There is good reason for such hope because the enemy no longer will be Kevin McCarthy and the Ghosts of Republican Speakers Past but instead Joe Biden, the Ghost of Nancy Pelosi, and the specter of a Diversity-Equity-Inclusionary BIPOC-LGBTQIA+ Kamala-Buttigieg ticket. That should end the GOP divisions and even restore amicable relations between Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

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Youngkin at 52 Percent Approval in VCU Poll

Eric Burk

Governor Glenn Youngkin is at 52 percent approval, 32 percent disapproval in a Virginia Commonwealth University Poll that comes as he makes a pitch for tax cuts and business incentives ahead of a General Assembly session beginning January 11.

“Poll respondents feel that inflation needs to be dealt with and democracy ensured for our future,” former governor L. Douglas Wilder said in an announcement of the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs poll.

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Audit: Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency Couldn’t Support $10.2 Billion of Payments

The Center Square

An audit released Friday from the Office of Auditor General Doug Ringler marked 11 “material conditions” – the most severe rating – for how the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency operated during the pandemic, which resulted in losing billions of taxpayer dollars.

The audit found the UIA couldn’t support the appropriateness of $10.2 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments, mostly because it added invalid eligibility criteria in the PUA application and didn’t require some PUA claimants to certify they met federal eligibility criteria. 

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Connecticut Lawmakers, Top Statewide Officials Receive Significant Salary Hikes

Susan Berry, PhD

Members of the Connecticut General Assembly and top-level statewide officials receive significant pay raises Wednesday that include a jump in base salary for the part-time lawmakers from $28,000 to $40,000.

State lawmakers voted last May to approve the legislation that grants the pay hikes for themselves and other specified leadership positions.

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Governor Mike DeWine Signs 19 Bills into Ohio Law

Hannah Poling

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed 19 bills into law on Monday, the start of the new legislative session, that lawmakers approved during the lame duck session last year.

On December 22nd, DeWine’s office received a raft of 24 bills. He signed 18 of those 24 into law.

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