Tag: taxes

Baltimore Creates $35 Million Reparations Fund But None of the Money Has Been Paid Out Because Everyone is Fighting For Control Of It

When the state of Maryland legalized the sale of marijuana a few years ago, they decided that they would set aside a few dollars from each sale to go into a reparations fund which would pay for all sorts of social programs.

Now the fund has $35 million in it but almost none of the money has been paid out because pretty much everyone involved is fighting for control of the fund. Who could have predicted that such a thing would happen?

It’s probably safe to assume that lots of people are going to be very disappointed when this is all finally sorted out and decided.

The Baltimore Beat reports:

Baltimore has received more than $35 million in cannabis reparations money, but none of it has reached residents

In the three years since Maryland legalized recreational cannabis, Baltimore has received more than $35 million in tax revenue to reinvest in communities devastated by the War on Drugs. To date, not a single dollar has reached the people it was meant to help, and the first round of funding may still be a year away.

At the center of the delay is an escalating dispute over who controls the money: City Hall or the Baltimore Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission, the 17-member body established in November 2024 to oversee how the funds are distributed. City Hall says the mayor has final say, while commissioners maintain the body was created to independently manage the funds.

That holdup means that while Maryland’s legalization of cannabis in 2023 led to over $1.1 billion in sales over the following year alone, even as Black communities continue to be targeted by the drug war, none of it has helped repair that damage…

State Senator Mary Washington, who sponsored SB0894, told the Beat that the law was not intended to give local elected officials control over how the money is spent, and argued Baltimore City’s interpretation is out of step with how the law has been understood elsewhere in Maryland.

“The money was never intended to be a slush fund for a county executive or mayor,” she said. Instead, she said, it was meant to reinvest in communities impacted by the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, which continue to face disparities in homeownership, wealth-building, and life expectancy.

This has disaster written all over it.

Keep reading

Public Attorneys Doing Way More For Illegal Migrants Than You Might Think

Criminal migrants across the country are increasingly avoiding deportation thanks to an unlikely source: public attorneys using local taxpayer dollars to represent them in immigration court.

Foreign nationals facing criminal prosecution have long been provided Supreme Court-mandated legal advice on the potential impacts of guilty pleas. However, public attorneys are more frequently representing non-citizens in deportation proceedings, sparking ethical concerns from immigration hawks who note that there’s no legal requirement for free lawyers in civil court.

“You don’t have a right to pay counsel in civil proceedings any more than you do in tenant-landlord court or divorce court,” Art Arthur, a resident fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Arthur — who previously served as an immigration judge — highlighted how government-funding for immigration attorneys is becoming more common across the U.S.

“If they’re going to provide free counsel to respondents — which is how we refer to them in immigration court — are they providing free counsel to people facing bankruptcy, to people who are facing eviction, to people who are attempting to get out of abuse of marriages?” Arthur continued. “I got a feeling the answer that probably no.”

Keep reading

Migrants ‘to be handed 40 per cent of new homes by 2030’

Nearly four in 10 new homes built by 2030 will be needed to accommodate migrants arriving in Britain, according to fresh analysis.

The research, conducted by the Conservative Party, draws on projections from the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

According to the OBR, net migration between 2026 and 2030 is expected to reach almost 1.2 million people.

Using ONS data on average household size, the Conservatives estimate this would require around just under 500,000 additional homes for new arrivals alone.

Britain is projected to deliver about 1.34 million new homes over the same period.

The Conservatives say this means 37.1 per cent of all homes built over the next five years would be needed to house migrants.

By 2030, that proportion is forecast to rise to 39.1 per cent.

Government figures also suggest migration-driven demand could increase property prices by around £9,489 per home.

Keep reading

California Attorney General Charges 21 Suspects in $267 Million Hospice Fraud Ring

Democrat officials in California are suddenly interested in prosecuting hospice fraudsters after the Justice Department created a division dedicated to arresting fraudsters.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) on Thursday announced his office charged 21 suspects in a $267 million hospice fraud ring in Southern California.

Five of the 21 suspects have been arrested so far.

“California Attorney General Rob Bonta, together with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), today announced charges filed against 21 suspects and the dismantling of a major hospice fraud scheme that defrauded California of $267 million,” Bonta’s office said.

“Operation Skip Trace resulted in the arrest of five people after ten different locations were searched in Southern California. In addition, two handguns and over $757,000 in cash were seized,” Bonta’s office announced.

“Investigators found that those involved purchased personal identifying information for people living outside of California on the dark web, then enrolled them in Covered California by posing as California residents,” Fox News reported.

“Straw owners” then bought a number of hospice companies and began billing Medi-Cal for services never provided to those stolen identities. The suspects used fake records, nonexistent offices, and fraudulent diagnoses to justify these claims, Bonta said.” – the outlet said.

Keep reading

Democrats Turn to Unconstitutional Exit Taxes After Their Policies Drove the Wealthy Out of Blue States

Democrats believe all our money belongs to them. They believe they have the moral and legal authority to take the money we earn and redistribute it to their preferred constituencies, while ignoring (or even facilitating) massive fraud and enriching themselves in the process. 

With the news of massive fraud scandals in Minnesota and California, it’s clear we don’t have a revenue problem; we have a fraud problem, and we’d bet the majority of our deficit could be erased if we eliminated fraud. But Democrats don’t have any interest in doing that. They just keep taxing people more and more to make up for their fiscal mismanagement. 

And when they raise taxes, the people who can afford to move from those blue states to tax-friendlier red states. That leaves the blue states with even more self-inflicted budget woes.

Rather than roll back wealth taxes, Democrats have decided to tax the people even more in the form of an exit tax, and that concept is gaining traction in blue states.

Keep reading

Mamdani’s Proposed Racial Equity Tax Targeting White Neighborhoods

The mayor of America’s largest city, socialist Zohran Mamdani, has a plan to tax white people more. This appears to be an egregious violation of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which calls for all races to have equal protection under the law.

On April 7, 2026, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released the Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan, described as the first government-wide racial equity framework in the city’s history, along with a “True Cost of Living” measure. The plan spans 45 agencies and includes more than 200 agency-level goals, over 800 strategies, and roughly 600 performance indicators.

The framework is inseparable from a property tax proposal Mamdani advanced during his mayoral campaign, in which he called for shifting tax burdens from outer-borough homeowners to “more expensive homes in richer and whiter neighborhoods,” arguing the current system undertaxes high-value real estate.

Keep reading

Far-Left Canadian MP Introduces Insane 15-Letter Acronym in Tirade at PM Mark Carney

A Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) has debuted an insane new acronym.

Leah Gazan, who is an MP for the far-left New Democratic Party, used the phrase “MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+” during a speech attacking Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Her specific gripe with Carney is over his cuts to various indigenous funding programs to make way for increased military spending, as President Trump demands NATO do more to shoulder the burden of international defense.

She ranted:

When the budget was released, I was shocked to find out that Prime Minister Carney is cutting $7 billion between Indigenous Services Canada and Crown Indigenous Relations. They provided zero dollars to deal with the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+.

This is abhorrent. This is callous. This is callous because the very Liberal government that has stripped organizations of life-sustaining funding has now promised, committed $13 billion, $13 billion on military spending.

Who is paying for it? Indigenous women across this country, Indigenous women, girls, 2SLGBTQQIA+, are not safe. In fact, rates of violence are increasing. And what is the Prime Minister doing? He is turning a blind eye on this violence.

You know, the Prime Minister talks a lot about projects of national interest. What is in the national interest are the lives, safety, security, and dignity, not in the national interest, of Indigenous women and girls, 2SLGBTQQIA+. Is the Prime Minister okay having Indigenous women, 2SLGBTQQIA+ family members and organizations coming to Parliament begging time and time again to see our humanity?

Is he okay with that? Well, clearly, with his behavior the other day, laughing at a woman from Grassy Narrows who is suffering from mercury poisoning, having her even having to beg for an apology, is an example of how this Prime Minister has turned his back on Indigenous peoples, particularly Indigenous women and girls, 2SLGBTQQIA+. And what does that look like? It looks like rates of violence increasing.

Keep reading

Fraud Task Force, DOJ Prosecute Half-a-Billion Dollars in Health Care, COVID Schemes

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced three separate criminal and civil actions on April 7 seeking to hold two individuals and two companies accountable for schemes to steal more than $500 million from taxpayer-funded programs.

The defendants are two companies implicated in an Affordable Care Act (ACA) fraud scheme, a California man pleading guilty to medication reimbursement fraud, and a Nevada woman sentenced to prison for COVID-19 tax credit fraud, the department said in an April 7 statement.

The DOJ said its efforts support President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, chaired by Vice President JD Vance, which aims to clean up federal benefit programs.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the Department, working closely with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is supercharging efforts to take down every fraudster and bring them to justice,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

“In one day, the Department prosecuted the theft of a half-billion in taxpayer dollars. All those ripping off the American people are on notice.”

Obamacare Scheme

One case involves insurance brokerage company AP of South Florida LLC (APSF), which is accused of fraudulently enrolling thousands of vulnerable people into fully federally subsidized ACA plans, also known as Obamacare. The scheme resulted in the federal government paying $141.5 million in unwarranted subsidies.

APSF targeted vulnerable, low-income people who were unemployed, homeless, or experiencing mental health and substance abuse disorders. Most of them did not meet the minimum eligibility requirements for ACA subsidies.

Keep reading

JD Vance’s Task Force Uncovers $6 Billion in Potential Fraud, Begins Taking Action: Report

Vice President J.D. Vance has reportedly uncovered over $6 billion in potential fraud after President Donald Trump tapped him to lead a nationwide task force meant to root out criminal activity.

The task force has identified $6.3 billion in government contracts linked to potentially fraudulent businesses, The Daily Caller reported Wednesday.

“The task force, alongside the General Services Administration (GSA), are beginning to send out letters to nearly 400 businesses with government contracts that they believe could be fraudulent,” according to the report. The investigation found 895 contracts awarded to 392 businesses, totaling $6.3 billion, “with $3 billion still left to be rewarded.”

These businesses will have 30 days to prove their legitimacy and must provide evidence of a real, physical location where their operations take place.

The task force was created shortly after reports circulated of mass fraud that was uncovered in Minnesota earlier this year, when multiple day care centers — many run by Somali immigrants — were found to have no children enrolled, yet were still receiving massive quantities of taxpayer funds.

The Department of Justice estimated that several billion dollars have been stolen by phony organizations in Minnesota alone. The DOJ cited examples of waste and mismanagement of social services programs meant to provide food and health care for the needy.

In his executive order establishing the task force, Trump wrote, “The staggering fraud and waste in Minnesota alone is a case in point. Federal prosecutors in the State estimate that Medicaid fraud in recent years could total in the billions. Nearly 9 percent of the roughly $866 million spent on food stamps in Minnesota each year is estimated to be spent in error.”

Keep reading

Coming Soon – Federal Red Ink Barfing Skyward Like You’ve Never Seen

Self-evidently, the news has been overwhelmingly focused on Washington’s current endeavor to unload $200 billion of imperial destruction upon Iran and its neighbors around the Persian Gulf. Well, and also upon all other users of petroleum products, LNG, LPGs, nitrogen fertilizer, food, helium, semiconductors, manufactured goods and most everything else anywhere on the planet.

Accordingly, comparatively scant attention has been given to another recent milestone on America’s headlong dash to fiscal disaster. To wit, the public debt crossed the $39 trillion mark and nearly in the blink of an eye, too. Just four years ago, we were at the $29 trillion level and nine years ago at the $19 trillion mark.

Needless to say, the “peacemaker” in the Oval Office has played no small role in this skyward ascent of the public debt. During his first term, the public debt grew by a staggering $8 trillion and already another $3 trillion has been racked-up during his second go-round.

Stated differently, the King of Debt has surely earned his place in the history books. The $11 trillion of new debt on his watch to date already accounts for 28% of all the public debt incurred in America since George Washington!

Then again, he still has got nearly three years to go, and the debt impact of both the OBBBA and the impending financial and human bloodbath in the Persian Gulf are just getting started.

Indeed, as to the latter it’s as clear as the orange glow around his cranium that the Donald is doing another round of fake rope-a-dope negotiations with the Iranians. That’s to buy time to get the 82nd Airborne, various amphibious landing ships and other invasionary forces in place for his next “win”.

That’s right.The fool in the Oval Office is actually going to attempt to seize the Alamo Kharg Island. That will mean military chaos in the Gulf, unprecedented turmoil in the global economy and soaring military expenditures, which will make the pending $200 billion DOD supplemental look like a mere down-payment.

Keep reading