Tag: taxes

Chicago Claims Its Budget is Balanced. Independent Audit Shows a $41.1 Billion Deficit.

The city of Chicago exists on another plane of the universe than the rest of us. It’s a place where up is down, black is white, and the basic laws of physics are held in abeyance so that when adding one plus one, any number that’s convenient (and politically viable) can be the answer.

In Chicago’s budget, the “new physics” includes the caveat that nothing is real unless we (the aldermen and the city’s hapless Mayor Brandon Johnson) say it is. And even then, nothing is permanent in this alternate plane of the universe. An equation that’s “true” today may not be so “true” tomorrow.

Do you think I’m being facetious? 

“Chicago finished fiscal year 2024 with a $41.1 billion gap between the money it has available to pay bills and the obligations it owes, according to a new report from Truth in Accounting, placing the city among the worst financially managed major cities in the nation,” according to The Center Square.

That’s only half the story. The city denies there’s a deficit at all. City officials say (how can they not giggle when saying this) the budget is balanced.

Truth in Accounting CEO Sheila Weinberg clears up any ambiguity.

“They only include the expenses they’ve paid, not all the expenses they’ve incurred,” Weinberg said. “They also include loan proceeds as revenue and still claim the budget is balanced. In the real world, borrowing money to balance your budget would be insane. But in government budgeting, that’s how they do it.”

One person’s “insanity” is another’s denial of reality.

Keep reading

The Arrogance of Migrants Is Something to Behold

There are few things more natural than people from different places and cultures being suspicious of one another. Human beings are tribal by nature, and tribes have always been exclusive. 

As human societies grew larger, the “tribe” to which we are loyal has expanded, and the characteristics we use to identify who belongs to it can shift beyond mere proximity and familiarity. We can even have allegiances to different tribes at the same time. Texans tend to see themselves as members of their local community, Texas, the “tribe” of their favorite sports teams, and as Americans. Sometimes the tribal allegiances overlap, and sometimes not. 

I guarantee you that Floridians and Texans worry about the influx of people from Blue states changing their politics, so imagine what happens when a person from a different country, culture, religion, and who behaves very differently from you, horns in and demands that you change for their benefit. 

And, by the way, demands that you pick up the tab for their new lives. 

Keep reading

The Bigger Problem that the Tim Walz NGO Scandal Has Exposed 

The Minnesota nonprofit fraud scandal, now expected to cost taxpayers more than $9 billion, is being dismissed by many as an isolated failure. However, this is far from the case, and writing it off as such would be a colossal mistake.

What it actually revealed is a broader problem in the Swamp—that institutions claiming to represent others often operate with little accountability and then quietly drift away from the very people who are footing the bill.

In Minnesota, nonprofit organizations became the perfect vehicle for abuse—shielded from scrutiny, politically protected, and flush with public money. However, in Washington, trade associations operate in largely the same way. They collect millions in dues from American businesses while increasingly choosing to serve their own leadership’s personal and political interests instead of those of their dues-paying members.

Their members only care about being able to deliver good-paying jobs to their employees and securing a more favorable regulatory climate so they can deliver lower-priced goods for the American people; however, you’d never know that if you looked at the public policy priorities of their association leadership officials, who seem more interested in fitting in at woke radical leftist cocktail parties.

Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, has repeatedly broken with Republicans by sharply criticizing Donald Trump, including after January 6, when he called Trump’s actions “mob rule,” urged Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment, and faulted the administration’s handling of COVID-19. Despite that record, Timmons later congratulated Trump on his November 2024 victory and suggested they should “work together like we did before.” At the same time, Timmons praised and partnered with Joe Biden, backing the administration’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign and publicly supporting the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS and Science Act. In 2022, he also donated to Adam Kinzinger’s leadership PAC just days after Kinzinger was censured by the Republican Party.

If a presidency was truly so dangerous five years ago that it was deemed incompatible with democracy itself, it is fair to ask how the same association leadership can now claim alignment and cooperation without any explanation, accountability, or evident change in approach. That kind of abrupt pivot invites skepticism from dues-paying manufacturers who expect their trade groups to be guided by member interests, not political positioning or reputational hedging.

The problem is compounded by a reliance on press releases in place of real relationships. Press releases don’t move policy—relationships do. Manufacturers don’t pay dues for moral posturing, elite signaling, or ceremonial access; they pay for results. When leadership spends years attacking an administration only to reverse course once the election is settled—substituting optics for engagement—it raises a fundamental question about who the organization is really serving.

Keep reading

Zohran Mamdani Backtracks on Campaign Promise for Rental Assistance, Claiming it’s too Expensive

New York City’s new socialist mayor is already running out of other people’s money.

In addition to being unable to remove snow or get the trash picked up, Mamdani is now backtracking on a campaign promise to expand the city’s rental assistance program.

He just got grilled by New York lawmakers in Albany who are nervous about his ‘tax the rich’ policies and now this. How long before his base turns on him?

The Post Millennial reports:

Mamdani reverses campaign promise for rental assistance program—turns out it’s too expensive

Socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has reversed on one of his campaign promises to expand a rental assistance program in the Big Apple. The expansion has turned out to be too costly.

As the mayor is confronting a steep fiscal situation in managing the city during his second month in office, Mamdani does not intend to back the growth of a $1 billion-plus initiative known as CityFHEPS, per the New York Times. The plan to initiate the expansion of the program was previously upheld in court after being proposed by the city council.

Mamdani, during his campaign, had promised to expand the voucher program, but in a news conference on Wednesday, he suggested that the expansion of the program is too costly as the city is facing a budget deficit over two years that is around $7 billion.

His administration is now negotiating with activists to settle a lawsuit that sought to force the expansion of the program. The move may stir tensions between himself and his base of support from those in the Democratic Socialists of America, the organization he is also a part of.

No one seems very surprised by this news.

Keep reading

Treasury Sec. Scott Bessent Announces MASSIVE Cash Rewards for Insiders Who Expose Government Fraud – Promises 10-30% Cut to Blow the Whistle!

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has just declared open season on government waste, fraud, and abuse. The message to the swamp is clear: We are coming for you, and we are paying your colleagues to help us do it.

On Friday, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the launch of a new whistleblower initiative aimed at rooting out fraud, money laundering, sanctions violations, and abuse of government benefits.

As part of the program, Treasury will establish a dedicated website where whistleblowers can confidentially submit information about financial misconduct and taxpayer-funded fraud operations.

“Treasury is strengthening the fight against fraud, money laundering, and sanctions violations. Today, [Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)] launched a webpage to confidentially accept whistleblower tips, which may lead to financial rewards,” Treasury Department announced on X.

In a statement, Bessent said, “President Trump has been clear that Americans have a right to know that their tax dollars are not being diverted to fund acts of global terror or to fund luxury cars for fraudsters. At Treasury, we follow the money. We did it with the mafia, we have done it with the cartels, and we’re doing it with the Somali fraudsters. We are going to offer whistleblower payments to anyone who wants to tell us the who, what, when, where, and how this fraud and money laundering has occurred.”

Keep reading

Josh Hawley Calls For Indictment of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison over Alleged Ties to Somali Fraudsters

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) is calling for the indictment of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) over accusations that he accepted campaign contributions from Somali fraudsters for helping them evade investigation by state and federal officials.

During a Senate Homeland Security hearing on Thursday, Hawley grilled Ellison about a report from the New York Post published last year that accuses the top Minnesota official of taking campaign contributions from Somalis involved in the Feeding Our Future fraud scandal, where some $9 billion in taxpayer money was stolen under the guise of feeding needy children.

According to the report, Ellison accepted several $2,500 campaign donations from Somali fraudsters after they raised concerns that federal investigators were unjustly looking at their financials.

“You are familiar with the $9 billion in historic fraud out of your state, including the $250 million in the Feeding Our Future program alone?” Hawley asked Ellison, to which he responded, “I am familiar with it.”

“Because the people who ran the Feeding Our Future program came to you in your official office in the state capitol, December 11, 2021, and asked for your help in getting investigators off their backs,” Hawley said.

He continued:

They complained to you for upwards of an hour about state investigators going after them, and they begged you to help them, and you agreed to it amazingly, and we know you did. That’s because it’s all caught on tape …why’d you help them? [Emphasis added]

Ellison denied helping the fraudsters, to which Hawley said Ellison had accepted “$10,000 from them nine days after the meeting.”

Keep reading

Tim Walz Demands US Taxpayers Pay for “Damage” Caused by ICE in Minnesota – “You Don’t Get to Break Things and Then Just Leave… They Left Us with Serious Damage, Generational Trauma”

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Thursday demanded that the federal government now pay for the “damage” they caused in Minnesota following the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from immigration operations in the state.

First, he thanked the radical left-wingers in Minnesota for violently driving federal agents out of the state, which resulted in the death of two anti-ICE rioters. He then revealed that he plans to provide forgivable “$10 million one-time targeted loans” from the Minnesota small business emergency fund.

But Walz wants US taxpayers to foot the bill. “The federal government needs to pay for what they broke here,” Walz said. They are going to be accountability on the things that happen, but one of the things is the incredible and immense costs that were born by the people of this state.”

These costs reportedly include $1 million in rental assistance for those impacted by immigration raids and $4.3 million for police overtime pay while far-left Anti-ICE rioters took over the streets.

“They left us with serious damage, generational trauma. They left us with economic ruin in some cases. They left us with many unanswered questions,” Walz said during the press conference.

As The Gateway Pundit reported, rioters took over the streets of Minneapolis and lit a dumpster ablaze following the death of Alex Pretti, an armed leftwing agitator who had prior violent run-ins with federal agents.

Keep reading

Not Just California: Washington State and Illinois Eyeing Millionaire Taxes

Even as billionaires flee California to escape a potential wealth tax, proposals to raise taxes on millionaires are advancing in Washington state and Illinois.

Legislation to impose a new 9.9 percent tax on income above $1 million a year advanced this week in Olympia, Wash., passing the Senate Ways & Means Committee. The Evergreen State currently has a tax on capital gains and a 0.58 percent payroll tax dedicated to funding long-term care insurance, but no other tax on ordinary income.

The governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, has largely backed the tax increase, saying he would use the revenues to increase spending on K-12 education. The Washington Education Association, the teachers’ union, lists “[t]ax the ultra-rich” as its top legislative priority. The state is already in the top 10 in the nation in per-student spending, but in the bottom 10 in the nation in demographically adjusted results on standardized tests.

The Tax Foundation has warned that “the proposed tax would yield a top rate of more than 18 percent in Seattle when combined with two Seattle wage taxes and a statewide uncapped payroll tax, making it the highest rate on wage income in the country.”

“Fundamentally, whatever its finer points, this is a high-rate income tax in a state that already imposes aggressive taxes on businesses,” the Tax Foundation said. “With this legislation, Washington would double down on being a high-tax state, particularly for businesses and for some of its most mobile taxpayers.”

Meanwhile, in Illinois, the Illinois Federation of Teachers is planning to descend on the state capitol in Springfield on Feb. 17 for its annual lobby day. The union says it will give the state’s governor, Democrat J.B. Pritzker, a letter touting “Massachusetts’ early results from its millionaire’s tax.” In a Jan. 14 statement, Stacy Davis Gates, who is president of both the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, also cited the Bay State example, writing, “Massachusetts’s 4% surtax on millionaires generated nearly $6B billion for public services since its passage — Illinois can do the same.”

Massachusetts has been struggling with an exodus since its millionaires tax went into effect in 2023. Even Cape Cod Potato Chips left the state, and the Wall Street Journal devoted an entire recent article to the collapse of Boston’s luxury condo market.

A former governor of Illinois, Pat Quinn, a Democrat who served from 2009 to 2015, has been pushing a plan to add a 3 percent surtax for millionaires on top of the state’s existing 4.95 percent flat rate. The Illinois Policy Institute warns that the state already “has one of the highest total effective tax rates in the nation and the highest in the Midwest,” and that the existing high taxes are one reason the state is losing population.

Keep reading

Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Tax the Rich’ Agenda Runs Into a Brick Wall of Reality as He’s Grilled by NY Lawmakers in Albany

New York City’s new democratic socialist (communist) Mayor Zohran Mamdani was grilled by state lawmakers in Albany this week over plans to fund his agenda by taxing the rich.

This is the difference between campaigning and governing. Many, if not all, of Mamdani’s ideas sound great on paper to leftists. Implementing them in real life is a different thing, entirely.

Some of the people who questioned him are undoubtedly wondering why he can’t even seem to be able to get the snow removed or pick up the city’s trash.

WRGB News reports:

“Honeymoon is over” Zohran Mamdani grilled by lawmakers as he proposes to “tax the rich”

Mamdani is asking for a 2 percent raise in personal income taxes to the top one percent of New York City residents, arguing someone making $1 million can afford $20,000 in more taxes, and that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would deliver federal tax cuts to more than make up for that sum.

Lawmakers then had the opportunity to question Mamdani’s proposals on all of the above. Lawmakers from other cities shared concerns that if New York City received more money, they would receive less. Many asked about his proposal to increase taxes on the wealthy, and the impact it could have not just on New York City, but the rest of the State as well. Others questioned Mamdani’s actions in addressing antisemitism.

“Once the honeymoon is over, which I think you’ve just felt, you may well prefer three minutes to 10,” State Senator John Liu, Chairman of New York City Education Committee ( D ), told Mamdani at one point. “Speaking of which, you know, it’s mid-February, so I will respectfully say that the time for blaming past Mayors and Governors is passed. We need to hear the details of your plan. And it’s good to hear your revenue proposals.”

Keep reading

Illinois City Issues $25,000 in Cash to Black Residents for Reparations

More than a million dollars will soon be doled out to black residents of Evanston, Illinois, under the city’s reparations program.

Evanston’s Reparations Committee announced last week that 44 people will be getting $25,000 each, for a total of $1.1 million, according to the Chicago Tribune.

All 44 are descendants of individuals who qualify under the city’s program that pays out reparations to black residents who claimed they experienced housing discrimination between 1919 and 1969.

The payments are intended to be used for housing expenses, Cynthia Vargas, Evanston’s communications and community engagement manager, said.

Through Jan. 31, the city has received $276,588 for the Reparations Fund from its real estate transfer tax. The city’s Cannabis Retailers Occupation Tax, which by state edict does not share amounts, also kicks in to the fund.

No private donations have been reported to fund the program.

To keep the cash flowing, the city is debating putting a tax on Delta-8 THC products such as gummies or vapes.

Second Ward Councilmember Krissie Harris noted that the city is not holding back on cash to those who qualify, but it has to wait until it has the revenue to spend.

Evanston made history by being the first city to pass a reparations plan.

It set a goal of handing out $10 million over a decade to black residents, according to Fox News.

Judicial Watch has sued the city over the program, saying it violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

In its lawsuit, Judicial Watch argued that the “program’s use of a race-based eligibility requirement is presumptively unconstitutional, and remedying societal discrimination is not a compelling government interest.”

“Nor has remedying discrimination from as many as 105 years ago or remedying intergenerational discrimination ever been recognized as a compelling government interest,” the lawsuit said.

Keep reading