After taxpayers spent more than $200 million on highway landscaping in the previous fiscal year, a report says Florida lawmakers might need to consider a cap on that spending.
Florida Taxwatch analyzed the Florida Department of Transportation’s spending on highway landscaping, which can provide benefits such as erosion reduction, safety enhancements and support of local ecosystems.
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As the disastrous impact of Hurricane Helene reverberates through the nation and the southeast braces for the impact of Hurricane Milton, many Americans are calling out the tepid federal response from the Biden-Harris Administration even as billions of taxpayer dollars are ushered to foreign countries or into programs for illegal immigrants.
Hurricane Helene, which devastated sixteen states in the southeast from Florida to North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee, has taken the lives of over 220 Americans, and left millions without food, shelter, or power.
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New York City officials are reportedly looking to keep thousands of hotel rooms available for illegal migrants as the crisis in the Big Apple rages on, according to the New York Post.
The city’s Department of Homeless Services is seeking a contract with local hotels to provide roughly 14,000 rooms in order to shelter migrants through 2025, according to a report from the New York Post. The city anticipates spending on migrants in need of housing for the current fiscal year and the past two years combined will surpass $2.3 billion, with a significant amount of these costs going toward hotel rent.
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The Wauwatosa School District is asking voters to approve a pair of referendums worth $124.4 million on the Nov. 5 ballot.
But a taxpayer advocacy group believes the district, with declining enrollment, should “right-size” its current budget rather than using a referendum to spend more taxpayer money. The group pointed toward a second planned referendum in 2026 as part of a cycle of tax increases that it believes needs to end.
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Ohio would need $1,600 from every taxpayer in the state to pay off all of its bills, a figure worse than a year ago, according to a new report released Thursday.
Ohio ranked 28th and was given a “C” grade with a $1,600 burden per taxpayer in Truth in Accounting’s Financial State of the States report.
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President Joe Biden has spent $225 million paying hundreds of White House staffers since the 2021 fiscal year, federal records show.
The president’s spending on staffers totaled $60.8 million for the 2024 fiscal year, marking the highest level adjusted for inflation recorded over the past two presidential administrations, according to an analysis conducted by Open The Books. Biden employed over 500 staffers in three of the four fiscal years he has been in office, including 565 during the 2024 fiscal year, a headcount benchmark not hit since the Nixon administration in 1971.
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Arizona continues to benefit economically from more people moving to the state.
Arizona gained a net of 36,841 people, adding $3,688,080 in gross income from those newcomers from tax years 2021 to 2022, based on new Internal Revenue Service data. Data from the IRS is typically delayed and compares filings done between states.
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Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said the Nashville Mayor’s $3.1 billion transit referendum is a “ripoff” of the taxpayers who are not given a proper voice in the media to express opposition to the transportation plan.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell unveiled his $3.1 billion transit plan, “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” last month.
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More than 124,000 people enrolled in Ohio’s Medicaid program were also enrolled in Medicaid programs in other states, a new report from state Auditor Keith Faber said.
The audit that examined four years’ worth of data also showed the state paid more than $1 billion to medical providers for services to people enrolled in multiple states.
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The Georgia Senate approved a measure Wednesday to lower the state’s income tax to 5.39% from 5.49%.
The state Senate voted 40-12 in favor of House Bill 1015, sending the measure to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, who is expected to sign it.
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Taxpayers provide it $1 billion annually, and for seven years running, AmeriCorps has failed to get a clean audit. A North Carolina congresswoman says that’s enough.
Identifying fraud risks, assessing inherent fraud risks, setting risk tolerance and consideration of existing controls were all cited in a scathing report of the Corporation for National and Community Service – aka AmeriCorps – from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says the proposed 2025 budget wouldn’t raise taxes but it would dump a 1,200% increase in trash fees onto local taxpayers.
The budget aims to raise the landfill tipping fee rate for state landfills from 36 cents to $5 per ton – a 1,288% increase.
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Act 10, the law that fundamentally weakened Wisconsin’s public school teachers’ unions, is headed back to court. And again there is an effort to save it.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Monday filed a motion to join the new case that seeks to end Act 10. That case claims there was “no conceivable rational basis” for Act 10 to begin with.
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The newly-inaugurated Governor of Louisiana has ordered all of the state’s agencies to start actively tracking the costs of illegal immigration, so the taxpayers of the state can know how much they are spending on illegals due to Joe Biden’s open-borders policies.
As reported by Breitbart, Governor Jeff Landry (R-La.) signed an executive order on Tuesday mandating such tracking efforts by every statewide agency, in order to better understand how to cut such costs. Every agency head must report their data directly to Landry’s office.
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The Biden administration spent millions on diversity trainings for federal agencies, including some for the armed forces, in 2023.
Taxpayers were on the hook for the more than $16.3 million the federal government spent on diversity trainings taking place in 2023, according to a government spending database. Past government diversity trainings have instructed federal workers that asking an Asian colleague for help with a math problem could be racist, that men can become pregnant and that “social pain” can be the same as physical pain.
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The Biden administration has outpaced other recent presidents in issuing significant regulations that place a financial burden on taxpayers, according to a report from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
Under President Joe Biden, the federal government completed 89 economically significant rules in 2022, defined as those with at least a $100 million economic impact, which is higher than any point in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations when deregulation is accounted for, according to CEI’s “Ten Thousand Commandments Report.” Regulations as a whole resulted in $1.939 trillion in added costs for the average American in 2022, exceeding every form of tax except income tax, which it rivals at $2.263 trillion.
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The Tennessee Titans have agreed to a 20-year naming rights deal with Nissan for the team’s new stadium, set to open in 2027, but did not disclose the amount Nissan is paying for those rights.
That will make the new stadium Nissan Stadium, just like the current stadium has been since 2015. The deal agreed to by Metro Nashville’s council allows the Titans to retain stadium sponsorship money and not disclose the price.
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Dr. Robert Trenschel, chief executive officer of Yuma Regional Medical Center l told the House Committee on Homeland Security in February that the influx of illegal immigrants seeking medical services has skyrocketed over the past two years.
Guess who’s picking up the tab for the uninsured patients, many of who arrive suffering from major illnesses or ailments?
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As the CEO of Resolve Diagnostics, a company dedicated to lowering patients’ costs and encouraging transparency in the health care sector, I feel compelled to speak out against a new development at the federal level that could jeopardize affordable health care for millions across America. The Senate Finance Committee, as well as other Congressional committees, are currently considering ‘delinking’ legislation targeting pharmacy benefit companies, which has the potential to wreck the fundamental economics of our nation’s health care sector.
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The influx of migrants across the country’s southern border could cost taxpayers $451 billion, a report released Monday by the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee says.
The fourth report released by the committee says that the tab includes housing, education, property damage done by migrants, law enforcement and health care costs.
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While America struggles to buy groceries, President Joe Biden has a green slush fund worth billions of dollars, and he’s not afraid to use it.
Recent revelations uncovered that the CEO and lobbyists of Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, held a quiet meeting at the White House with Biden’s Climate Czar, John Podesta. That’s right, the same John Podesta who served as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign before being pulled from the ranks of profitable green consulting to oversee distribution of $369 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Biden selected a political operative with green company ties to dole out the goodies from one of the largest slush funds in history. Now green CEOs who are hemorrhaging cash are beating a path to his White House office, presumedly with hat in hand.
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The U.S. government estimated unemployment fraud during the pandemic cost taxpayers up to $135 billion or about 11% to 15% of the total amount of unemployment insurance benefits paid during the pandemic.
That’s according to the latest report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which the U.S. Department of Labor disputes.
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A few weeks ago, I argued the Biden Administration would use the new SAVE plan to enact student loan forgiveness with or without the approval of the Supreme Court. Since then, the administration has announced details which highlight the SAVE plan offers even more generous forgiveness terms.
This talk about student loans has brought about a question for Ask an Economist this week. Garrett from Ohio says,“One of the most prominent arguments against student loan forgiveness is that the borrowers are forcing the greater population to pay off their debts for them.
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In signing Wisconsin’s new two-year spending plan Wednesday, Democrat Governor Tony Evers liberally applied his veto pen to the Republican-crafted biennial budget, gutting a $3.5 billion tax cut proposal that had reduced the state’s tax brackets and delivered relief for all taxpayers.
Republicans blasted the governor for his 51 partial vetoes, including a particularly sneaky one that changed the meaning of funding for schools to a four-century commitment.
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When government grows, taxpayers should ask why and what they’re getting from it.
A Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency report shows in fiscal year 2017-18, adjusted total appropriations equaled $55.8 billion. From fiscal year 2017-24, spending ballooned to $82 billion – a spending increase of $26 billion, or 47%.
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An expansion of federal student aid for the 2023-2024 academic year will cost taxpayers $130 million per year in grants to prisoners for higher education, according to The Associated Press.
The Biden administration’s expansion of the taxpayer-funded federal Pell Grant program, a program for low-income college students, will give 30,000 prisoners a total of $130 million in student financial aid for the upcoming academic year, according to the AP. The expansion is part of the Second Chance Pell Experiment from the Biden administration that is testing the benefits of providing Pell Grants to prisoners in order to reduce recidivism, according to a Department of Education (DOE) press release.
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As congress weighs another “deal” to raise the national debt limit, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is blasting the two leading contestants for the GOP nomination for their support of a “reckless” debt ceiling agreement in 2018.
The former South Carolina governor points out that Governor Ron DeSantis was a member of congress who voted for a 2018 bill to increase the nation’s debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion.
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A former employee says Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley has driven an unmarked city-owned police car since 2019.
The perk has cost taxpayers up to $41,000 in lease costs, auto insurance, maintenance, and gas.
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While project promoters in cities such as Nashville, Tennessee, and Tempe, Arizona, continue to push the narrative that professional sports stadiums with surrounding developments are economic stimulators, a new report shows professional sports stadiums and the surrounding developments do not bring the promised returns.
The academic paper, from the College of Holy Cross’ Robert Baumann and Kennesaw State University Economist J.C. Bradbury, looked at the promised returns of both The Battery outside the Atlanta Braves’ Truist Park and Polar Park in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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Georgia had more taxpayers move to the state than out between 2020 and 2021, new IRS data shows.
Federal tax forms filed in 2021 show Georgia welcomed 282,626 taxpayers and dependents, including 278,474 from other states. Conversely, 227,888 Georgians went elsewhere, including 224,629 to other states.
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A new report finds Badger State homeowners pay nearly a half-billion dollars annually in property taxes to fund Wisconsin’s technical colleges, a figure expected to grow in the next biennial budget.
But in Wisconsin there are no directly elected members to authorize these taxes, creating a system of “taxation without representation,” according to the study from the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL).
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Tennessee saw the fifth-largest influx of taxpayers in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to new data released by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
Tennessee saw 214,731 new taxpayers filing either a 1040 or W-2 that came from other states while it lost 152,716 for a net gain of more than 62,000 in new tax forms filed in 2021.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed Nashville mayoral candidate Jim Gingrich in studio to discuss his disfavor with the current Titans Stadium deal, Nashville’s growth, and the effect on taxpayers.
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Connecticut trucks hundreds of thousands of tons of solid waste to landfills in other states, which costs the state and taxpayers millions of dollars a year.
Gov. Ned Lamont has pitched a plan to reduce the amount of waste going to other states by increasing recycling and requiring manufacturers to reduce packaging materials, but the effort has faced pushback from the solid waste industry and some lawmakers.
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Secretary of State Doug La Follette’s sudden retirement from the post he’s held for nearly half a century raised questions, particularly when Governor Tony Evers swiftly appointed former state treasurer and Democratic Party political climber Sarah Godlewski to take La Follette’s place.
But it’s the millions of dollars La Follette — and his survivors — could take home in retirement benefits that may really raise eyebrows.
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Ahead of Tax Day on April 18, 73% of taxpayers said the government doesn’t use their taxes wisely, a new survey found. A separate report found that red states have the better taxpayer return on investment.
Wallethub’s “Taxpayer Survey” found that 28% of respondents said charities would better spend their money; 26% said local governments would best spend their money, followed by state government (22%), the federal government (16%) and religious groups (13%).
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On Wednesday March 8th, city leaders received an earful from local residents and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) when they took public comments about the city’s plan to build a $72 million municipal network through its electric utility Cleveland Utilities. TPA testified that the project is duplicative and unnecessary, and that there are numerous factors that raise concerns about its viability.
The city anticipates a take rate of 30 percent. In its research, including in the 2020 report “GON with the Wind: The Failed Promise of Government-Owned Networks,” TPA has found that expected take rate percentages rarely materialize when private providers respond to competition by adjusting pricing or services. This is particularly a concern in Cleveland, given that there are already several internet options in the city and Bradley County.
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The Michigan Legislature is supposed to make laws and spend taxpayer money wisely and transparently.
But a report from the Detroit News says the GOP-led Legislature gave $4 million to a for-profit company, with an unclear return on investment for taxpayers. The details of the corporate handout weren’t discovered until months after the appropriation.
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Connecticut saved taxpayers millions of dollars through a pandemic-related program that provided legal representation to low-income tenants facing eviction, according to a new report.
The report on the state’s right-to-counsel program, prepared by the independent consulting firm Stout, found that by preventing evictions or helping tenants find new housing before they’re evicted likely saved Connecticut taxpayers between $5.8 and $6.3 million from the end of January to the end of November 2022.
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It pays — twice — to be a recently retired employee of Metro Nashville.
The local government is paying about 200 people both for part-time work and monthly pensions, with double-dippers collecting up to $13 million from taxpayers.
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Taxpayers have until Dec. 12 to tell the Minnesota Department of Agriculture how they want it to distribute $3.16 million in grants through a community food procurement and distribution program.
In September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its Agricultural Marketing Service signed an agreement with Minnesota under the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The American Rescue Plan authorizes the program to maintain and improve supply chain resiliency, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s Sept. 7 news release said. The program’s goal is to buy local food from socially disadvantaged farmers and distribute it to the state’s underserved communities. Nationally, the USDA is awarding up to $400 million to states and Tribal governments to buy food from producers in the state or within 400 miles of delivery destination.
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A new report was released by the Beacon Center of Tennessee on Wednesday examining the return on investment for students and taxpayers at Tennessee’s public universities and colleges.
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Transit agencies could turn to taxpayers for more money when federal COVID-19 money runs out.
With federal money dwindling, some mass transit agencies are preparing to seek more tax dollars at a time when fewer people are riding, according to a report from a credit rating agency.
Some workers never plan to return to the office, creating uncertainties for mass transit agencies and the taxpayers who fund them, especially those more dependent on riders for fare revenue. A new report from S&P Global Ratings said transit systems could seek additional tax dollars when federal COVID-19 money runs dry in 2025.
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Taxpayers are being asked to fund the reopening of the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan through a federal grant.
When it was still in operation, Palisades provided more than 800 megawatts of of carbon-free power and employed 600 people. The plant’s former owner closed the plant on May 20 after the plant’s fuel supply ran out and the power purchase agreement with Consumers Energy expired.
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The taxpayer cost of the 2014 Flint water crisis litigation might grow to as much as $90 million after the Michigan Supreme Court rejected Attorney General Dana Nessel’s appeal of a decision that she must use a “taint team” to separate legal documents.
The court said justices were “not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court.”
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The IRS briefly made public the personal financial information of roughly 120,000 taxpayers, the agency announced on Friday.
Taxpayers’ Form 990-Ts were temporarily available to public viewing on the IRS website, but the agency has since removed them, according to the Wall Street Journal. Individuals file the form to disclose certain types of income within their retirement accounts.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
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President Joe Biden’s plan to forgive some federal student loan debt received a lukewarm reaction from some Georgia groups who say the policy is unfair and won’t help ease inflation.
“We’re disappointed to see yet another policy out of Washington that creates more problems than it solves,” Eric Cochling, the chief program officer and general counsel for the Georgia Center for Opportunity, said. “In addition to contributing to already runaway inflation, this plan from the White House doesn’t actually forgive debt, it simply transfers the burden to taxpayers.”
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President Joe Biden announced Wednesday his administration would “forgive” $10,000 in federal student loan debt for those making less than $125,000 per year. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the plan could cost taxpayers more than $200 billion.
The total income cap is expected to be higher for married couples, likely around double the $125,000 mark, though that has not been confirmed.
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Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed to the newsmaker line Jenny Beth Martin, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots and columnist for The Washington Times, to voice deep concerns with the IRS’s intent on auditing middle-class Americans and violating the rights and privacy of citizens.
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