Providing financial relief to state residents is the focus of a tax relief plan introduced in the state Senate, Republican officials said.
The Connecticut Senate and House Republicans announced a $1.2 billion tax relief plan that would cut income taxes, reduce sales taxes, and extend the gas tax holiday.
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The U.S. Department of Interior announced it is making only 20% of eligible acreage for oil and natural gas production available for leasing on federal lands to comply with a federal court order.
In his first week in office, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters to be halted by the Interior Department. The agency was also tasked to review existing permits for fossil fuel development.
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Pennsylvania state Rep. Timothy O’Neal (R-Washington) has indicated he’s drafting legislation to bestow tax credits on power plants to cover costs of complying with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
Pennsylvania is among eleven northeastern and mid-Atlantic states to have joined RGGI, a compact to levy de facto taxes on electricity-generation facilities for emitting greenhouse gases — chiefly carbon dioxide and methane — which are associated with global warming. Because Keystone State legislators have balked at the program, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) announced in 2019 that he would enter the state into it using his own regulatory authority. Earlier this month, Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled Commonwealth Court blocked the state’s entry into RGGI, insisting that Wolf breached the limits on his executive power, but the ruling is not ironclad as the Democrat-run state Supreme Court could reverse it.
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The White House said Americans should pay higher taxes to ensure a rapid green transition away from fossil fuels in a report on President Joe Biden’s economic record.
The federal government can encourage such a shift through carbon taxes or a cap and trade system forcing an emissions limit on companies, said the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) report released last week. The White House added that consumers would continue purchasing “artificially inexpensive, carbon-intensive goods” without proper government policies in place.
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Georgia is rolling in the dough.
State officials said net tax collections for March exceeded $2.7 billion, an increase of $862.9 million, or 45.5%, over last March. So far this year, net tax collections topped $22.5 billion, an increase of nearly $3.6 billion, or 18.9%, compared to last fiscal year.
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed David Williams, head of Taxpayer Protection Alliance to discuss out-of-control inflation and who is responsible for it.
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The “Gasoline Misery Index” from the Metro Business Daily Network details the direct impact record-high gas prices have had on consumers across the United States.
Since President Joe Biden took office, prices of gas and other goods and services have continued to increase, as many peaked after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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The Virginia House Democrats announced a proposal to give a $50 tax rebate to Virginia car owners, up to $100 per househould — a counter-proposal to Governor Glenn Youngkin’s call for a months-long suspension of Virginia’s 26.2-cent gasoline tax.
“Unlike the plan proposed by Governor Youngkin and supported by Republican members of the General Assembly, the House Democratic plan will send funds directly to Virginia drivers and at less than one third of the cost,” the caucus said in a Friday press release. “Last week, Governor Youngkin said, ‘We can’t guarantee anything,’ when asked if his plan would pass savings to consumers. This matches criticism by legislators, business leaders, and economic experts who say that consumers would see little, if any, savings from such an action.”
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Thursday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host Fredericks welcomed House Delegates member John McGuire who is now running for the Virginia State Senate to talk about why his running and getting Governor Younkin’s tax cut passed through the Senate.
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Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court this week blocked the state’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), an 11-state compact requiring de facto taxation of power plants’ carbon emissions.
Gov. Tom Wolf (D) tried to effect Pennsylvania’s participation in the initiative by issuing an executive order in 2019, thus neglecting to seek approval of the Republican-led General Assembly. The court’s new opinion comes one day after the state Senate failed to override the governor’s veto of legislation letting the General Assembly end the state’s membership in the compact. Legislative leaders have argued that the governor’s unilateral action violated the state Constitution and were heartened upon hearing of the judges’ decision.
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Most state senators voted to end Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) on Monday but fell short of the two-thirds needed to succeed.
In 2019, Gov. Tom Wolf (D) initiated Pennsylvania’s entry into the 11-state compact to reduce carbon emissions by charging power plants for their discharge in hope of counteracting global warming. Unlike most of the other northeastern and mid-Atlantic states that participate in RGGI, the Keystone State’s governor could not get sufficient backing from state legislators for Pennsylvania’s membership and thus acted via executive order. Republicans and some Democrats have argued Wolf exceeded his constitutional authority in rebuffing the legislature.
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Americans have less money than they had last year — though taxes haven’t been raised. So what’s the problem? Inflation, which has increased at a 40-year high annual pace of 7.9%. It acts as a hidden tax because we don’t see it listed on our tax bills, but we sure see less money on our bank accounts.
In fact, inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings for private employees are down about 2.5% over the last year. This means a person with $31.60 in earnings per hour is buying 2.5% less of a grocery basket purchased just last year. “For a typical family, the inflation tax means a loss in real income of more than $1,900 per year,” stated Joel Griffin, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
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Connecticut Republican legislators said on Saturday they want the state to challenge a part of the American Rescue Plan Act which limits states’ ability to cut taxes.
GOP senators and representatives are calling for tax reduction beyond the targeted relief backed by Gov. Ned Lamont (D). A major roadblock to greater decreases will be the COVID-relief bill President Joe Biden signed into law last year. The act included $195.3 billion in recovery funds for states and barred states accepting allocations from using them to “directly or indirectly offset a reduction in net tax revenue… or delay the imposition of any tax or tax increase.”
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Inflation is running rampant, federal spending is out of control, gas prices are at an all-time high and Americans are pessimistic on the future outlook of the economy. So what is President Joe Biden’s solution?
He has released a budget proposal that includes 36 tax increases on families and businesses totaling $2.5 trillion over the next decade. Alarmingly, this includes 11 tax increases on the oil and gas industry, taxes that will put a burden on households.
The budget doesn’t even include all the tax increases being pushed by Democrats because the budget omits the cost of tax increases within their stalled multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better Act. Instead of detailing these tax increases, the Biden budget includes a placeholder asserting that any new spending will be fully offset.
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A U.S. Senator from Connecticut is falsely scapegoating oil companies for skyrocketing gas prices nationwide.
“Oil companies are exploiting Russia’s war in Ukraine to drive up gas prices to obscene levels. It’s time to end this corporate profiteering,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said Thursday. “We need a Big Oil Windfall Profits tax to take excess profits & deliver them to Americans getting stuck with the bill.”
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Live from Virginia Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820 / FM 92.7 – Richmond; WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia; WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 p.m.) Hampton Roads; WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke; and weekdays 6-10 a.m. and 24/7 stream – host Fredericks welcomed State Senator of Petersburg, (D) Joe Morrissey to discuss Governor Glenn Youngkin’s pressure on Virginia House and Senate members to pass a budget.
Fredericks: Joining us now is State Senator, Petersburg Democrat Joe Morrissey. Joe, great to have you with us.
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A bipartisan majority of a Pennsylvania House of Representatives panel Monday passed several measures to increase fossil-fuel development in and exportation from the Keystone State.
One resolution, sponsored by state Rep. Stan Saylor (R-Red Lion) would call upon Govs. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) and Phil Murphy (D-NJ) to terminate their states’ bans on the building of new conduits that could carry natural gas extracted in Pennsylvania. Other legislation offered by state Sen. Joe Pittman (R-Indiana) would ensure that legislators must approve Pennsylvania’s entry into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state pact to which Gov. Tom Wolf (D) has committed the state by executive order. Implementation of RGGI entails effectively imposing a tax on carbon emissions.
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Nearly a month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, for which Democrats blame skyrocketing gas prices nationwide, gas in Ohio remains at more than $4.00 per gallon on average.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), the average price for a gallon of gas in Ohio has climbed three cents in the past week, from $4.01 per gallon to $4.04 per gallon. That’s only about 10 cents less than the state’s record high of $4.15 per gallon, recording in May of 2015.
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In California, the state government is considering multiple options to provide relief for car owners who have to face the highest fuel prices in the nation, including handouts of up to $800 per person.
According to ABC News, Governor Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.) announced on Wednesday a new proposal to combat rising gas prices. In addition to giving out debit cards with as much as $400 for each vehicle, up to two vehicles per person, the proposal includes a tax break, free rides on public transit, and efforts to promote alternative methods of transportation.
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On Thursday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee announced in a press release his proposal for a 30-day suspension of state and local grocery sales tax to provide “direct financial relief to Tennesseans amid surging inflation nationwide.”
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a measure Wednesday to give a one-time tax refund to eligible Georgia taxpayers.
Taxpayers who are single or married and filing separately will receive a $250 refund under House Bill 1302. Heads of households will receive a $375 refund, while married taxpayers who file jointly will receive a $500 refund.
The Georgia Department of Revenue will credit taxpayers with the refund once they file their 2021 taxes, which are due April 18. Taxpayers who already have filed their 2021 taxes will receive a refund based on what they indicated on their tax returns.
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A power company that intended to build a natural gas power plant in Southeast Virginia will move the project to either West Virginia or Ohio, citing regulatory issues and opposition from environmental groups in the commonwealth.
Chickahominy Power LLC, which planned to build the plant in Charles City County, had been working on the project for more than five years, according to a company statement. The company has officially terminated its project.
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Connecticut’s gas prices have slowly dipped down after reaching historic highs following the decision from President Joe Biden to ban the import of Russian oil.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), drivers are paying $4.337 per gallon at the pump, compared to $4.465 one week ago.
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Businesses across Minnesota are expected to see an increase in their unemployment insurance taxes after lawmakers failed to come to an agreement on the issue before the automatic tax hike went into effect.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund was depleted, and the tax hike will go to replace the funds and repay the federal government for unemployment aid.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer vetoed a GOP bill that aimed to provide $2.5 billion in tax breaks by dropping the personal income tax rate from 4.25% to 3.9%, saying it would blow a “hole” in her $74 billion budget.
“It would force tax hikes on families or deep and painful cuts to services, hurt our children’s ability to catch up in school, force layoffs of cops and firefighters, and kneecap our ability to keep fixing crumbling roads,” Whitmer wrote in her veto letter.
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Last year, Arizona enacted historic tax cuts, changing the state’s tax code law to mostly a 2.5% flat tax rate. But opponents collected enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot this fall, Prop. 307, that would reverse the legislation. In response, Republican state legislators are working with Gov. Doug Ducey to pass legislation that would make the initiative null and void — and maybe implement even more striking tax cuts.
State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek), who sponsored legislation last year that would have repealed and replaced the historic tax cuts with an even more far reaching 1.5% tax rate, told The Arizona Sun Times, “I told the Governor’s office that the 2.5% tax rate he’s pushing for can only be the starting point. With yet another year of record budget surpluses of nearly $4 billion, the people of Arizona are being overtaxed. We must cut taxes even more during the budget process.”
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Public transportation funding has been a growing concern in some cities, and a proposed bill could give some Pennsylvania counties the authority to levy local taxes to support their transit systems.
Rep. Tim Hennessey, R-Chester/Montgomery, introduced HB2366 to grant Allegheny, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties the ability to levy taxes “for transit and transportation systems and transportation infrastructure.”
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Pennsylvania State Senators Doug Mastriano (R-Chambersburg) and Scott Hutchinson (R-Oil City) last week proposed a measure to lighten the tax and regulatory burden for fossil-fuel producers.
Their legislation, entitled the PA Energy Independence Act, would immediately pause income taxation for natural-gas developers, reduce state gas-extraction fees by 200 percent and end Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) moratorium on new state-land leases for fossil-fuel drilling. It would also suspend the state’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which would amount to a tax on carbon emissions.
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On Wednesday, Republican Party of Minnesota Chairman David Hann called out Governor Walz and the Democrats for their “continued political gimmicks regarding taxes on Minnesotans amidst rising energy prices and a historic state budget surplus.”
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The average price of gas in Wisconsin is over $4.00 per gallon and rising, but it’s not just the war in Ukraine that’s keeping prices in the state high.
Will Flanders with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty wrote an open letter Thursday asking Gov. Tony Evers to roll back the state’s minimum markup law as a way to help drivers better afford gas.
“[Minimum markup] requires that retailers increase the price of their gas by 9.18% over what they pay at wholesale. This means that gas stations are required to pass on price increases to consumers,” Flanders wrote.
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Amid high gas prices, Virginia Democrats are calling on Governor Glenn Youngkin to enact a state of emergency, which would cause an anti-price gouging law to take effect.
“Governor Youngkin has the power to act and help protect Virginians at the pump, but so far, has failed to do so. Instead, he continues to point fingers and waste precious time,” Minority Leader Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax) said in a Thursday press release. “Virginians do not need talking points and failed campaign promises—we need leadership and action.”
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Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Fox News contributor and financial expert Liz Peek to the newsmaker line to give her take on the current financial outlook for Americans and the world.
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A Georgia’s General Assembly prepares to eliminate the state’s gas tax to alleviate increasing prices at the pump, the state’s gas prices soared to a record high.
According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), Thursday’s average cost per gallon of gas was $4.29 in the Peach State, eclipsing its previous record of $4.16 per gallon on September 15, 2008.
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An Ohio U.S. congressman and U.S. Senate candidate has joined many of his Democrat counterparts in blaming Russia and its President Vladimir Putin for skyrocketing gas prices.
“Today I’ll vote to ban U.S. dollars from funding Putin’s war machine. Now we must do everything in our power to shield working people from Putin’s price hike at the pump by fully restoring America’s energy independence and passing a working-class tax cut,” Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH-13) said Wednesday on Twitter.
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As gas prices near record highs in Connecticut, the state’s Attorney General is warning gas distributors against price gouging.
“Gas prices fluctuate constantly, and price changes and price increases are normal. But what we have seen this past week is not typical, and we can expect even more volatility due to the unprovoked and unconscionable Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Attorney General William Tong (D) said in a Monday statement.
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According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), gas prices in Tennessee – and in other states around the country – have increased by a stunning amount in the past month alone.
In Tennessee, the number is 54 cents per gallon.
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At a Connecticut General Assembly hearing Thursday, state lawmakers clashed on visions of tax policy, with Republicans pressing for sales-tax reduction and Democrats advocating a mix of tax increases and targeted relief.
According to the nonprofit Tax Foundation, 12.8 percent of Connecticut residents’ income goes to government coffers, making the combined state and local tax take the second-highest in the U.S., just behind New York’s 14.1 percent overall burden.
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The Florida House passed HB 7071, which would codify four new sales-tax holidays for Floridians. The bill was passed unanimously and was championed by Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls (R-Palm Harbor) as the “coolest tax package.”
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Gas prices continue to rise throughout Connecticut, inflicting pain on residents throughout the state
According to data compiled by AAA, the state’s prices are above the national average, sitting at $3.75 per gallon. The number is an 8-cent increase from the previous week alone.
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Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) and House Ways and Means Chair Shaw Blackmon (R-Bonaire) on Tuesday announced legislation that would, if enacted into law, lower Georgia’s maximum income tax rate. Ralston and Blackmon want to reduce Georgia’s maximum income tax rate from 5.75 percent to a single and flat rate of 5.25 percent. They said at a press conference that state residents would save an estimated $1 billion per year if and when the proposed cut goes into effect for calendar year 2024.
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The joint Michigan House Appropriations and the Tax Policy Committee approved two bills aiming to provide a $1.7 billion tax break and spend $1.5 billion to pay down local government pension debt.
Rep. Matt Hall, R-Marshall, claims House Bill 5838 will grant relief to all Michiganders from 40-year-high inflation.
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On Tuesday, at the first Pennsylvania Senate hearing on next fiscal year’s budget, lawmakers considered the state’s slow economic recovery—and the state’s failure to attract new residents.
Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) Director Matthew Knittel testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee regarding the state’s fiscal, economic and demographic outlook. Particularly in that last category, the Keystone State doesn’t boast an envious position.
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Some Pennsylvania lawmakers are proposing that the commonwealth offset some of the inflationary burden on residents by pausing certain taxes.
One bill State Senator Lisa Boscola (D-Bethlehem) is currently drafting would stop sales taxation in June and July 2022 at a time the senator says the state can afford to do so. In a memorandum seeking co-sponsors for her bill, she cited Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) recent declaration that Pennsylvania will amass a budget surplus for Fiscal Year 2021-22 of over $2 billion and a similarly large surplus for the following year. Since budget years end on June 30, the legislation is thus timed to spread the financial loss to the state over both budget cycles.
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Governor Glenn Youngkin asked the administration’s finance team to perform a mid-session review which added another $1.25 billion to the Fiscal Year 2022 revenue forecast. Youngkin highlighted the additional expected cash in a Friday letter to Virginia’s top money legislators as part of his push to save his broad tax reduction plan.
Youngkin wrote, “[T]he bottom line is taxes paid to the government are soaring and the revised revenue forecast estimates the Commonwealth will collect $1.25 billion more in the current fiscal year. That, of course, is on top of the additional $3.3 billion added to the original forecast last December. This is a staggering number, the largest mid-session re-forecast in anyone’s memory. The stunning amount of money being collected from taxpayers is the direct result of over taxation. Put simply, without significant tax relief, the Commonwealth’s general fund collections will grow by over 40 percent between 2018 and 2024.”
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CHESAPEAKE, Virginia – The day after celebrating his first major legislative win, Governor Glenn Youngkin is anticipating a bigger battle over the budget. On Thursday, he began touring Virginia to tout his tax reduction plans and enlist locals across the commonwealth in an effort to woo legislators. He made stops in Leesburg, Chesterfield, and Chesapeake.
“Now, because we are where we are in our legislative cycle, now there’s another three weeks or so of work to be done. And I need your help,” Youngkin said at his Chesapeake stop to an audience of local politicians and business leaders.
“I need you to talk to your elected representatives. Talk to your delegates. Call your senators. Send them a note. We need to cut taxes,” he said.
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There are few more easily observable measures of the cost of everyday living than the price of gasoline at the pump. As has been widely reported, gas prices in the United States recently hit a seven-year high. The striking thing, however, is not just how high gas prices have gotten, but how fast and far they have risen.
Based on statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration—the statistical arm of the Department of Energy—weekly average retail prices for regular unleaded gasoline in the United States increased 94 percent in less than two years. Average gas prices rose from $1.77 per gallon during the week ending April 27, 2020, to $3.44 per gallon during the week ending February 7, 2022—nearly doubling in the process.
That was the largest percentage increase in gas prices within a two-year window since October of 2005, more than 16 years ago. In the election of 2006, Republicans—then the party in power—lost 30 House and six Senate seats, thereby losing control of both chambers, before losing the presidency two years later.
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The Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration announced Friday that overall January state tax revenues exceeded budgeted estimates. On an accrual basis, January is the sixth month in the 2021-2022 fiscal year.
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Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed State Representative Jerry Sexton from Bean Station in studio to talk about his district changes and State of the State Address.
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Florida TaxWatch, a non-profit taxpayer research think tank based in Tallahassee, Fla., predicted in one of their latest reports that the runaway inflation facing the United States could subsist by the end of 2022.
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The Metro Nashville Council has released their agenda for their February 1, 2022 meeting. $70 million dollars in taxpayer funds appropriations is on the agenda.
Other topics on the agenda include license plate readers, greenhouse gas reduction, zoning and more.
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