Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell will reportedly announce the full contents of his transit referendum, called “Choose How You Move,” on April 19.
O’Connell will outline his full plans for the future of transit in Nashville next week, with both the Nashville Post and the Nashville Business Journal confirming the April 19 unveiling will be held one week from Friday at the Southeast Community Center in Antioch.
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A report released on Wednesday claims Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is committed to funding his proposed transportation initiative with an increase to the city’s sales tax.
O’Connell and his administration are reportedly “leaning toward a half cent sales tax” as the primary funding source of the transit referendum he plans to take before voters in November, a News Channel 5 report claims.
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Florida’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund balance, drained during the COVID-19 pandemic, is expected to exceed its prepandemic level by March, two months earlier than expected, according to the nonprofit group Florida TaxWatch.
That will allow a decrease in state sales tax businesses must pay on payments made to rent or lease of commercial property. The 4.5% business rent tax will be lowered to 2% in June instead of August, according to the Florida Department of Revenue.
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Milwaukee’s new 2% sales tax has spawned a war of words between the city’s mayor and the county executive in Washington County.
It began New Year’s Day when Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann posted a message on social media welcoming people to shop in his county.
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Taxpayers in Milwaukee and Milwaukee County are going to start paying more for a lot of things in the New Year.
The city and county’s sales tax increases begin Monday.
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Every year around this time, Virginians get a sales tax holiday for one weekend before the start of school.
But this year, Virginia’s sales tax holiday for select school-readiness, hurricane preparedness and utilities items may itself be on holiday.
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Taxes are going up in Milwaukee County.
As expected, county supervisors on Thursday approved a 0.4% sales tax increase.
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Taxes are going up in Milwaukee.
The city’s Common Council on Tuesday approved a new 2% sales tax that is expected to bring-in $194 million next year.
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Proposition 400, a statewide sales tax set aside for local infrastructure projects, will expire in 2025 unless either lawmakers opposed to it and Gov. Katie Hobbs can agree on an extension or local leaders go around them and ask voters to approve it.
The Republican-led Legislature sent Hobbs a version of the sales tax originally approved in 1985 that restricts ways the tax dollars can be spent, including money going toward expanding the valley’s polarizing light rail line.
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Milwaukee’s mayor says a local sales tax increase should be enough to pay for the city’s pension problems, but he’s not sure about the Republican plan to have voters okay it first.
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Republican lawmakers this week unveiled a shared revenue plan that would boost state funds for counties and municipalities and give authority to fiscally troubled Milwaukee and Milwaukee County to set and boost sales taxes.
But will taxpayers around the Badger State be forced to pay for Milwaukee’s mistakes?
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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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Billing it a “breakthrough budget,” Governor Tony Evers rolled out a massive two-year spending plan on Wednesday that would dump billions more taxpayer dollars into a host of new programs, raise taxes by $1 billion-plus on businesses, deliver a sweetheart deal to the Milwaukee Brewers, and gobble up much of the state’s historic $7.1 billion surplus.
At approximately $104 billion, Evers’ budget proposal is the first to break the $100 billion mark and comes in at about $13 billion more than his 2021-23 plan and more than $16 billion higher than the current budget he signed into law in June 2021.
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In his fifth State of the State address Tuesday evening, Gov. Tony Evers began laying out how he plans to use Wisconsin’s $6.6 billion surplus, pitching a spending bender of big government initiatives already with a price tag to date of around $1.3 billion. But there’s more to come. Evers is still constructing his biennial budget plan, set for release in a few weeks.
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Virginia will reduce its grocery sales tax rate starting Jan. 1, resulting in a 1% tax on groceries and certain essential personal hygiene products.
Virginia will eliminate the 1.5% state retail sales and use tax on food and certain hygiene products, leaving a 1% local option sales tax.
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Tennesseans can expect to enjoy three tax holidays over the next several months, according to the state’s Department of Revenue (DOR).
Annually, Tennessee holds a sales tax holiday for the month of July, letting them off the hook for state and local sales taxes, which can be up to 10 percent.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an appropriations bill that includes $500 million toward a new Tennessee Titans stadium on Wednesday.
The bill is part of a $52.8 billion budget for the state. The $500 million in bonds for the domed stadium will require $55 million in annual payments.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed legislation that will repeal the tax on gold and silver sales in the state.
House Bill 1874, which was overwhelmingly passed by the state legislature during their session, will allow residents to purchase the metals without the added costs.
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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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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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RICHMOND, Virginia – Most of the action in the General Assembly is occurring in committees as legislators decide which bills will survive to be voted on by the full Senate and House of Delegates. House Republicans have advanced some key bills on local gun control repeals, elections reform, and school misdemeanor reporting. Senate Democrats have advanced some key bills, but much of their work has been in killing Republican-introduced legislation.
“What has not surprised me is there has been a conspicuous partisan divide with Democratic pushback against Governor Youngkin’s agenda, particularly in the area of tax reform and education reform, and masks,” Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment (R-James City) told The Virginia Star.
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A Pennsylvania lawmaker wants to allow counties to enact a 1% sales tax that local municipalities can use to shore up pension obligations, maintain core services or put to other uses.
State Rep. Michael Sturla, D-Lancaster, spelled out the proposal in a legislative memorandum.
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Georgia counties are asking lawmakers to expand the state sales tax during the 2022 legislative session to reduce their dependency on property taxes.
The ACCG, an advocacy group for Georgia’s counties, is calling on the General Assembly to tax Georgians for digital products such as videos and music, often purchased through a streaming service.
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Three Georgia laws go into effect at the start of the new year that impact juvenile justice, sales tax on vehicles and medical transactions.
House Bill 63 changes the way the fair market value of a vehicle is estimated. The value of a car will be calculated as the total depreciation, lease amortized amounts and down payments. Fair market value is how much a vehicle is worth for sale. The new bill excludes interest or finance charges in base or down payments.
Senate Bill 80 is aimed at improving medical billing transparency. It requires insurers to disclose their prior authorization policies online. The prior authorization process calls for health care providers to contact the insurer before providing a particular service to ensure it would be covered under a patient’s plan. It adds another layer of health care approval that critics said could prolong care.
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If the number of bills submitted in the Missouri House of Representatives and the Senate is any indication, lots of time will be devoted to debating taxes during the next legislative session starting Jan. 5, 2022.
Approximately 10% of the 1,020 bills filed contain the word “tax” in the description. Senators filed about 40 bills and joint resolutions while representatives filed approximately 60.
More than 50 bills cover taxation and general revenue.
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There is a growing list of people and groups who are not fans of the idea to scrap Wisconsin’s personal income tax.
Former Gov. Scott Walker, University of Wisconsin economist Noah Williams, and a host of conservative reform groups on Thursday proposed eliminating Wisconsin 6.27% personal income tax and replacing the lost revenue with a slight increase in the state’s sales tax.
Walker, and Williams’ analysis, say most Wisconsin taxpayers will save about $1,700 a year with that swap.
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Virginia’s Commission on School Construction and Modernization recommended actions for the General Assembly and the Governor to take to help fund upgrades and new construction in schools.
A June report to the Commission found that 41 percent of school divisions are at or above capacity, and 29 percent are nearing capacity. More than half of school buildings are over 50 years old, and divisions in Western Virginia, Southwest, and Southside have the oldest buildings with a median age of 58 years.
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The Michigan Senate will consider legislation to eliminate sales and use taxes from automotive manufacturer rebates, which could save new car buyers in the state an estimated $31 million annually.
House Bills 4939 and 4940 passed the Michigan House earlier this week. The bipartisan bills were sponsored by Reps. John Damoose, R-Harbor Springs, and Joe Tate, D-Detroit. The bills aim to take new vehicle customers off the hook for paying taxes on automotive manufacturer discounts.
Currently, Michigan car buyers incur a tax obligation for the full price of the vehicle they purchase, and no deductions are allowed for rebates offered by manufacturers. The bills under consideration would exempt rebates from state sales and use taxes.
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Danville voters resoundingly approved a referendum for a one percent sales tax increase to pay for school renovation projects 60.43 percent to 39.57 percent according to unofficial results. But their neighbors in Pittsylvania County may have barely killed a similar proposal; the sales tax referendum is losing by just 44 votes out of 25,404 — 0.18 percent. Elections officials are still counting mail-in ballots, according to Pittsylvania County Schools (PCS) Superintendent Mark Jones.
He said elections officials think there are more than 44 outstanding ballots, and final results will be certified Friday.
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School construction and renovation projects are on the ballot in local funding referenda across the Commonwealth. Voters in six localities will decide whether to approve taking on debt for the projects. In Danville and neighboring Pittsylvania County, they’ll vote on instituting one percent sales taxes to help fund the local projects.
“It’s very typical,” Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) said. “Localities are allowed to issue public indebtedness in order to build schools. And typically, in order to bind the taxpayer with what’s called a general obligation bond, they have to go to a referendum. I’d say ordinarily most school systems have a referendum eight to ten years. Now, smaller jurisdictions, like where I live in Fairfax City, which is 25,000 people, it usually is less likely to go to a referendum unless you’re building a new school altogether, otherwise they’ll typically pay for these projects out of operating funds.”
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Sales tax would no longer be collected on guns, ammunition and knives in Ohio if a bill planned for introduction in the state House of Representatives becomes law.
State GOP Rep. Al Cutrona recently announced he will introduce legislation that would exempt those items from sales tax, saying the move would help make gun, ammunition and knife retailers and manufacturers more competitive with neighboring states.
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New laws that will cut income taxes for Georgians and increase tax incentives for businesses go into effect Thursday with the start of a new fiscal year.
Dubbed the Tax Relief Act of 2021, House Bill 593, raises the standard deduction on state income tax returns for a single taxpayer by $800 to $5,400 and by $1,100 to $7,100 for a married couple filing a joint return, starting in the 2022 tax year.
HB 593 created the second tax cut of its kind in three years. It will cut income taxes by more than $600 million collectively over the next five years. The Georgia Legislature doubled the state’s standard deduction under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in Georgia in 2018.
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The microchip shortage responsible for bottlenecking the production of new cars has been a boon for the used car market.
However, the lack of available new vehicles also has created a greater demand and thus a scarcity of quality used vehicles.
This has driven up the cost of used cars and trucks, which has also increased the sales tax collected on used vehicle transactions. The national average increase in used car sales prices is 16.8% or $3,926 per vehicle sold.
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The Minnesota House voted 72-61 to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 and expunge minor marijuana convictions.
The Senate leader, however, designated the bill dead upon arrival.
“The war on drugs is a failed policy,” House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler said. “The harms caused by current cannabis laws cannot be allowed to continue. Minnesota’s illegal cannabis market creates bad outcomes for everyone. Responsible regulations and safeguards to prevent youth access are a better solution to address the harms our current laws fail to address.”
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Just before midnight Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed SB 50 instituting sales tax requirements for online retailers, into law.
The bill requires out-of-state online retailers to collect and report sales taxes on purchases made by Floridians. The tax will bring in an estimated $1 billion in revenue, as well as limit taxes paid by Floridians and Florida businesses.
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A bill passed by the Tennessee General Assembly last week reveals that in fiscal year 2019-2020 the Copeland Cap, at $629 million or 3.6 percent, hit its highest level in more than a decade.
The legislation, which passed as HB2819 in both chambers on March 19 with only one “no” vote by Democrat Representative G. A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), was one of the four bills addressed in an expedited fashion to enact a bare bones budget before lawmakers recessed until June 1 amid the COVID-19 health crisis, The Tennessee Star reported.
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by Todd DeFeo Levying a sales tax on transportation network companies in Ohio could have a potentially dangerous effect on the state’s residents, Lyft told members of the Ohio House Finance Committee. State lawmakers are looking to mandate ride-sharing companies such as Uber and Lyft collect a sales tax on the base fare or fees based on distance or time. Officials say the proposal could bring in more than $50 million over the two-year budget. But, in written testimony filed with members of the House Finance Committee, Lyft said the tax would be more harmful than helpful. “A sales tax – plus the recently increased gas tax set to go into effect this summer – could have (a) severe and disproportionate impact on those who can least afford it, not to mention the impact on Lyft drivers themselves,” the company said in its testimony. “Of additional concern, the sales tax being considered by the Ohio House of Representatives will force passengers to pay one of the highest sales taxes on ride-sharing in the nation.” Last month, Gov. Mike DeWine signed a bill increasing Ohio’s gas fuel tax by 10.5 cents per gallon starting July 1. DeWine originally asked for…
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News flash: People move out of states with high tax burdens, more regulations and fewer jobs to states with fewer taxes and regulations and more jobs. The former tend to be in Democratic-controlled states, while the latter tend to be in Republican-controlled states. That report comes last week from Mark J. Perry at AEIdeas, a public policy blog from American Enterprise Institute, a think tank. Perry is a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus. He is known as the creator and editor of the economics blog Carpe Diem. Perry refers to a Carpe Diem post he made last month in which he studied household moving data from North American Moving Services’ US Migration Report for 2017. Measures included economic performance, business climate (right to work, for example), business climate and individual taxes. The top five outbound states (where people leave) are: Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey, California and Michigan. Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey tied for the worst at 38 percent inbound but 62 percent outbound. The top five inbound states (which gain population) are: Arizona, Idaho, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee. For example, in 2017, Tennessee had an inbound rate of 58 percent…
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The Metro Council voted Tuesday to not disclose the true cost of Mayor Megan Barry’s light rail transit plan to voters on the May 1 referendum. Metro Councilmembers John Cooper and Tanaka Vercher had asked that the May ballot language include the full $9-billion-dollar costs. They proposed the amendment that Metro Council voted on Tuesday night during the plan’s second reading. The amendment is available here. The council voted 21-14 not to accept the amendment, according to a spokesman for NoTax4Tracks, a PAC that opposes the transit plan. There will be one final reading, but it is not immediately clear if amendments will be allowed, the spokesman says. That vote could come in as early as two weeks. Once the amendment failed, the council voted on the Barry administration’s favored language for the referendum, citing a price tag of just over $5.3 billion. The council voted 30-6, with three not voting, to create the ballot language, according to Barry’s Twitter feed. NoTax4Tracks PAC on Tuesday had announced their support for the proposed amendment’s effort to let voters know the full cost of the city’s light rail transit plan. “The city does not want voters to know the full costs of the light rail…
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From apparel to zip-up kitchen bags, merchandise sold in Nashville would bear some of the highest sales tax in the nation if the backers of the city’s proposed light rail system have their way, a PAC says. NoTax4Tracks is the PAC opposing the May 1 referendum in Nashville/Davidson County on a proposed increase in sales and hotel taxes. The organization issued a press release over the weekend criticizing Mayor Megan Barry’s plan to raise the state-city sales tax to 10.25 percent to help finance the transit plan. The PAC says 10.25 percent would give Nashville the highest sales tax in the nation. According to the Tax Foundation, two cities currently are tied for the dubious honor of highest sales tax, and both have rates of 10.25 percent: Long Beach, California, and Chicago. Nashville would tie for the top spot in the nation’s most expensive cities in which to shop. Nashville is currently tied in ninth place on the Tax Foundation’s sales tax list. The city’s sales tax would increase by 0.5 percent from 9.25 percent to 9.75 percent, NoTax4Tracks says on its website. By 2023 the tax will have increased to 10.25 percent. “Whether it’s a senior living off of…
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Early voting for the Williamson County referendum to raise the sales tax began Wednesday and will run through Thursday, February 1. On the ballot is a proposal that would increase the county’s contribution to the state sales tax by a hefty 22 percent resulting is a new tax rate of 2.75 percent: Shall Resolution No. 11-17-15, passed by the Williamson County Commission on November 13, 2017 published in the Tennessean, Williamson A.M., newspapers of general circulations, and as authorized by and be levied and collected pursuant to the Retailer’s Sales Tax Act and the 1963 Local Option Revenue Act under Title 67, chapter 6, Tennessee Code Annotated, which will increase the local option sales and use tax rate from 2.25% to 2.75% become operative? County officials and some business leaders support the measure and say the “modest” hike will generate about $60 million over three years. The money is slated to retire outstanding debt from new school construction. The Tennessee Star obtained two separate mailers, one sent by the National Association of Realtors Issues Committee. The other was by group calling itself “Citizens for School Funding” with the web address: voteforschools.tn A quick lookup shows Matt Largen listed as the group’s…
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Williamson County is scrambling to fund its fast-growing school district, and County Mayor Rogers Anderson said this week that raising the sales tax is a way to help get the job done. Anderson made his pitch Wednesday in delivering his annual State of the County address during a Williamson, Inc. luncheon at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs hotel. Raising the sales tax is “an alternative to relying solely on the residential property tax,” Anderson said. The county’s recently approved 2017-2018 operating budget did not include a property tax increase. The student population in Williamson County has skyrocketed by 32 percent since the 2007-2008 school year. The 44 current school sites, several of which have portables, do not have the space to meet the projected growth in the next 10 years, Anderson said. Anderson said county officials have been considering various sources of revenue. Last year, the county commission approved an educational impact fee to also help pay for schools. One-half of the fee went into effect in March, with full implementation set for September. The fee is assessed only to new home construction and is projected to generate about $25 million annually for new school construction. However, it has met…
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