Tag: taxes

Lawmakers Consider Hiking Fees for Filling Prescriptions

Legislation that would potentially increase New York’s pharmacy costs by hundreds of millions of dollars annually is moving toward final passage in Albany’s end-of-session rush.

The bill would require the companies that process prescription drug claims on behalf of most health plans – known as pharmacy benefit managers or PBMs – to pay pharmacies minimum prices for drugs, including a dispensing fee of $10.18 for each prescription filled.

That represents a roughly 400 percent increase over current dispensing fees, which average about $2, which would add about $570 million per year to drug costs for health plans, employers and consumers, according to an estimate from the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents PBMs.

Sponsored by Assemblyman John McDonald of Albany County, a former pharmacy owner, and Sen. James Skoufis of Orange County, the so-called Patient Access to Pharmacy Act passed the Senate last week by a vote of 58-2.

In the Assembly, the bill moved through the Ways and Means and Rules committees on Thursday, setting it up for a possible vote by the full house before lawmakers adjourn for the summer, which is scheduled to happen Friday.

The Senate previously approved the legislation at the end of last year’s session, but it was never taken up by the Assembly.

The bill mirrors a regulatory proposal put forward by the Department of Financial Services in the fall of 2023 – but which the department dropped in the face of widespread opposition from insurers, employers and labor unions.

In response to that opposition, the bill’s sponsors amended the bill to exempt the “collectively bargained” health plans covering union members. It also does not apply to Medicare or the “self-insured” health plans offered by most large employers, which are exempt from state regulation by federal law.

As a result, the bill primarily targets the health plans purchased from insurance companies by small and medium-sized employers – where it will add to premium costs that are already among the highest in the U.S.

Critics have also argued that the mandate would apply to the state-run Essential Plan and Child Health Plus, although Skoufis said that had not been the intent.

The bill would not affect the state’s Medicaid health plan for the low-income and disabled, because it already pays a dispensing fee of $10.18 – which is the basis for the fee in the McDonald-Skoufis legislation.

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Gabbard releases intelligence showing federal government has funded 120 biolabs in 30 countries

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard announced Friday that she is releasing never-before-seen documents concerning the U.S. government funding 120 biolabs in 30 countries, including Ukraine.

“In support of President Trump‘s Executive Order to end federal funding of dangerous gain of function research around the world, and increase transparency and accountability, ODNI [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] will continue working with partners across the administration to identify where these labs are, what pathogens they contain, and what ‘research’ is being conducted,” Gabbard said in X.

In Friday’s announcement, Gabbard said that the Intelligence Community had previously warned that a biolab funded by the U.S. existed in Ukraine and likely contained dangerous pathogens. As the war with Russia continues, the labs are vulnerable to Russian attack, seizure or damage.

Many of the 120 labs engaged in research involving highly contagious pathogens and gain-of-function research with little oversight, according to the ODNI release.

“Despite the obvious potential for catastrophic global impact research on dangerous pathogens in biolabs can have, politicians, so-called health professionals like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, and entities within the Biden administration’s national security team lied to the American people about the existence of U.S.-funded and supported biolabs, and threatened those who attempted to expose the truth,” Gabbard said in a statement.

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Jamaican National in North Carolina Indicted for Brazen Sham Marriage Immigration Fraud — Used Fake Union to Fast-Track U.S. Citizenship Then Scam VA Disability Benefits by Claiming Phantom Husband as Dependent

A 26-year-old Jamaican national living in Charlotte has been federally indicted for a calculated, multi-year scheme involving sham marriage immigration fraud, lying under oath to obtain U.S. citizenship, and then using that fraudulently acquired status to improperly claim VA disability benefits by listing her never-cohabitating “husband” as a dependent.

Britney Sherene Curry entered the United States on a six-month B-2 tourist visa on August 27, 2015 and promptly overstayed it by more than a decade. Rather than face deportation, she allegedly paid a third party to arrange a fraudulent marriage to a U.S. citizen.

According to the Department of Justice, Curry and her “husband” met for the first time on their wedding day and never lived together before or after the marriage.

After the sham marriage, Curry became a lawful permanent resident. That status allowed her to enlist in the U.S. Army, which in turn let her apply for naturalization almost immediately, bypassing the normal three-year waiting period for spouses of citizens.

She allegedly lied under penalty of perjury on immigration documents about the legitimacy of her marriage. Once naturalized, she even petitioned for her mother to receive lawful permanent resident status.

Less than two years after enlisting, Curry received a medical discharge from the Army. She then filed for VA disability compensation and listed her sham husband as a dependent to boost her monthly benefits, despite never having lived with him and not having seen him since before she joined the military.

According to the DOJ, “Under federal statutes, Curry is subject to a sentence of up to 20 years in prison on the wire fraud and mail fraud charges, up to 10 years in prison on some of the immigration charges, and faces the possibility of being denaturalized. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.”

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US Jewish leaders throw support behind bipartisan House antisemitism bill

New York Reps. Dan Goldman and Mike Lawler introduced bipartisan legislation Wednesday aimed at expanding federal support for securing Jewish institutions and combating antisemitism.

The bill, a House companion to the Jewish American Security Act in the Senate, would increase funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which helps secure religious institutions,  to $1 billion, extend funding to Jewish organizations, and allow additional funds to be directed toward law enforcement.

It would also mandate that the Department of Education appoint a dedicated antisemitism coordinator and force social media platforms to explain their handling of online antisemitism.

The bill received support from major national Jewish groups. On Wednesday, during a press conference in Washington, DC, Lawler and Goldman were joined by a host of Jewish leaders, including representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the American Jewish Committee, as well as organizations affiliated with the Reform and Orthodox movements.

“Jewish communities across the United States are facing a real and growing security crisis, and the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that all Americans can gather, worship, and live openly and safely as who they are,” Eric Fingerhut, the CEO and president of the Jewish Federations of North America, which has promoted the bill, said in a statement.

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California Gets 80% Of All Federal Cash For Illegal Immigrant Families: Report

California is home to the lion’s share of illegal immigrant families in the United States with children who received federal welfare assistance in 2024, according to a federal report published on June 10.

More than 80 percent of all nationwide cash assistance allocated to such households was spent in California. The report tracked $759 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) spent in 2024 on families headed by a parent living in the country illegally.

In those cases, the child qualified for federal welfare, even though the parent was excluded from the federal program because of immigration status.

“These cases receive relatively little public attention, yet … data show that they are far from a negligible part of the program,” wrote authors David Swegle, director of the Office of Family Assistance at the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Alex J. Adams, assistant secretary at the Administration for Children and Families, in the report.

Nationally, the federal government paid 85,000 households with qualifying children receiving assistance who were living with their illegal immigrant parents in the U.S. in 2024.

“Although the benefit is formally paid on behalf of the child, it still supports a household that includes an immigration-status-ineligible parent,” the authors stated. “The significance of these cases therefore cannot be judged solely by the fact that the adult is not the formal recipient.”

The cases are also significant because they don’t have to adhere to the TANF rules requiring work expectations, such as regularly applying for jobs, and the payments aren’t limited to the federal 60-month lifetime limit, according to the report. The illegal immigrant families, therefore, can receive federal welfare until the child turns 18 years old.

Low-income American families are held to the federal welfare restrictions that require work participation and are restricted to a 60-month lifetime limit, the authors said.

The number of TANF cases involving an illegal immigrant parent reached nearly 850,000—or 10 percent of all cases—in 2024, up from nearly 6 percent in 2001.

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NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani Announces Multi-Million ‘Investment’ in Gender Affirming Care, Weeks After Claiming City is in ‘Historic’ Budget Crisis

Back in April, New York City’s new Democratic Socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani declared that the city was in the midst of an ‘historic’ budget crisis. He framed it as a very serious problem and even claimed that unless new sources of revenue were found, people would be denied various services.

Now, the mayor is announcing that his administration is making a $15 million ‘investment’ in providing ‘gender affirming care’ a term that is flowery language used to describe genital mutilation and the prescribing of hormones.

So which is it? Is the city really that broke, or is there really enough money to spend a cool $15 million on trans drugs and surgeries? And since when was it the responsibility of a city government to provide ANY of this to the people who live there?

Mamdani made the comments at a ‘Pride’ party at city hall.

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Government facing up to $5 billion bill over carbon credits, Treasury reveals

The Prime Minister has doubled down on his insistence that the government will not spend billions of dollars offshore to meet New Zealand’s climate commitments.

Treasury estimates it could cost up to $5 billion to pay for the overseas carbon credits New Zealand needs to honour its Paris Agreement commitments.

An additional $1.6 billion may also be needed to pay for credits to meet a subsequent commitment, due by 2035.

The government was “gonna do everything we can” to honour the country’s Paris Agreement pledge to halve emissions by 2030, Christopher Luxon said.

“But just reassuring everybody, we ain’t shutting down farms and we certainly aren’t sending billions of dollars offshore.”

The Green Party said it was impossible for the government to meet the target with domestic climate policies alone.

It was time for Luxon be honest about whether the government was still committed to the Paris Agreement, and – if so – to explain how it would do that, co-leader leader Chlöe Swarbrick said.

“Are we genuinely, honestly going to meet the [target], do they genuinely, honestly commit us to doing that? Because if so, the reality is we will need to pay for offshore mitigation.”

New Zealand has the option of meeting its pledge to halve net greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 entirely with domestic policies.

However, the most recent analysis from the Ministry for the Environment showed that there was a shortfall of 84 million tonnes of emissions, that would need to be made up by paying other countries to offset their emissions instead.

Treasury has identified the potential cost of offshore credits to make up the gap as a specific fiscal risk to the government’s finances for several years now.

However, it has never put an official figure on the government books, because there was “no legal obligation” to meet the target and successive governments had not committed to any purchases.

A previous one-off analysis it prepared in 2023 put the cost at anywhere from $3 billion to $24 billion.

Last year, Treasury secretary Iain Rennie gave Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick an undertaking to update that analysis.

The new estimate narrows the range to $4.4b-$5 billion to meet the 2030 pledge, and $0.2-$1.6 billion to meet New Zealand’s next pledge to lower emissions by 51-55 percent by 2035.

That was based on the Ministry for the Environment’s 2025 emissions projections, with and without extra policies to reduce emissions.

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The Business Of Homelessness

Several months ago, I wrote an opinion piece questioning Miami Beach’s homelessness policies, the City’s compliance with state law, the effectiveness of taxpayer-funded programs, and the measurable outcomes residents were receiving for millions of dollars in public spending. The article was published by Miami’s Community Newspapers. Today, that article no longer exists on its website. Readers attempting to access it are greeted with a 404 error page.

I have no interest in speculating about who made that decision or why. What interests me is the larger question: why is there such resistance to a public debate about homelessness in Miami Beach? Because the questions raised in that article have never been answered.

For months, I have asked for a real discussion about homelessness in Miami Beach. Not a press release. Not a presentation. Not carefully crafted messaging. A debate. Policy against policy. Outcome against outcome. Fact against fact. Those opportunities have never been granted.

That alone should concern every resident and taxpayer.

When government is confident in its position, it welcomes scrutiny. It does not avoid it. It does not rely on talking points. It does not ask the public to accept conclusions without examining the facts. It engages, explains, and defends its decisions in full view of the people it serves.

Instead, Miami Beach continues to celebrate low point-in-time homeless counts as proof of success. That may make for a favorable headline, but it does not necessarily mean the problem is being solved. A point-in-time count is exactly what it sounds like: a snapshot. One night. One moment. It does not measure how many people return to the streets days later. It does not measure treatment outcomes. It does not measure recidivism. It does not measure whether people are actually escaping homelessness. It measures optics.

The uncomfortable reality is that Miami Beach has built a system that explains inaction instead of delivering results.

The City’s ordinance conditions enforcement on the availability of shelter and services. In practice, that means enforcement becomes optional. No shelter available means no enforcement. No enforcement means no compliance. No compliance means the problem continues. Florida law does not provide cities with an indefinite loophole to suspend action. The State made its expectations clear. Prohibit public camping. Enforce the law. Provide structured alternatives. Use available treatment resources. Intervene when individuals are in crisis.

More importantly, the State backed those expectations with funding, treatment programs, crisis stabilization resources, Baker Act authority, Marchman Act authority, and legal tools designed to address homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. The authority exists. The resources exist. The question is whether local government has the will to use them.

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These Are The Six States Celebrating America 250 By Raising Your Gas Tax

The final countdown for America’s 250th birthday is on. Families will be planning road trips, parades, vacations, reunions, and cookouts to celebrate the greatest nation in history. But in six states, politicians have a different idea for the party: raise taxes.

Beginning July 1, drivers in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi are scheduled to see higher state gas taxes. In other words, as the country prepares to celebrate casting aside a tax-heavy king in favor of freedom, these states will use the occasion to fatten government coffers one gallon at a time.

The worst offenders will be no surprise. California, Washington and Illinois  — we’ll call them the Axis of Glut.

Their governors are often the first to fake outrage when gas prices rise. They blame oil companies. They blame “price gouging.” They blame world events. They blame everyone except the politicians who keep piling taxes, mandates, and regulations onto every gallon drivers buy.

Yet these same states already have some of the worst gas prices in the nation, some of the highest gas taxes in America, and now they are getting ready to raise those taxes again.

California’s gas tax is already the highest in the country and is scheduled to climb again on July 1, from 61.2 cents to 63.4 cents per gallon, under the state’s annual inflation adjustment. The same report noted California’s average price for regular gasoline was nearly $6 per gallon in early June.

Illinois is no better. The state says its motor fuel tax will rise on July 1 because the law requires an annual inflation adjustment. Washington joined the club with a gas tax increase last year and then baked in automatic increases going forward. Starting July 1, 2026, the state’s fuel tax rises by 2% every year unless lawmakers change the law.

This is the dirty hustle behind inflation-indexed taxes. Politicians get to raise taxes without holding a press conference to admitting it. They pass the law once, then every year drivers get mugged by a formula.

As of June 8, the national average for regular gas was $4.164, down 38.2 cents in a single month. That is welcome relief for families, workers, small businesses and anyone trying to get through summer. But the national average would look even better if it were not being anchored down by tax-heavy states that treat drivers like a rolling ATM.

The problem is not limited to the six July 1 tax-hike states. Seven of the ten most expensive states for gas are run by Democratic governors. That is not a coincidence.

Taxes play a major role in the high-price reputation of many of these states. So do their regulatory regimes, special fuel rules, anti-energy policies and climate mandates that make fuel harder to produce, refine, transport and sell.

The result is predictable.

Families, small businesses, truckers, and farmers all pay more. Then the same politicians who helped drive up the cost pretend they are shocked by the bill.

That is not compassion. That is government gluttony.

Supporters claim the money goes to roads and infrastructure. But that excuse only goes so far. Every tax increase is sold as necessary. Yet somehow the burden always lands in the same place: on the people who drive to work, school, church, the grocery store or a summer vacation.

That is what makes the timing so perfect, and so insulting.

America’s 250th birthday should be a celebration of freedom, independence and the rejection of government overreach. The American Revolution was born from the idea that people should not be treated as endless revenue sources for rulers who never seem to have enough.

Nearly 250 years later, millions of drivers will pull into gas stations in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi and get a reminder that some politicians still have not learned the lesson.

The country is moving toward a better energy future: lower prices, more production, more reliability and less punishment for the people who keep America moving. But these six states are choosing a different path.

America 250 should remind us why this country was born: because free people eventually get tired of being treated like revenue.

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House passes GOP’s $70B border security and immigration bill

The House of Representatives officially passed a roughly $70 billion budget reconciliation package on Tuesday, securing a major legislative victory that guarantees three years of dedicated funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

Clearing the chamber in a razor-thin 214–212 party-line vote, the enforcement package bypassed traditional filibuster hurdles in the Senate through the reconciliation process, effectively cementing long-term fiscal resources for enhanced border operations, detention center expansions, and thousands of new field agents.

Having now successfully cleared both chambers of Congress following an intense final hour of floor debate, the spending bill officially heads to President Trump’s desk, where it is expected to be signed into law.

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