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NJ Transit wants to hike fares an eye-popping 15% but may still face a massive budget hole in a year – a dire situation that has the head of the MTA mocking the Garden State’s governor. MTA chairman Janno Lieber roasted New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday over his transit budgeting chaos, taking a dig at one of the most vocal critics of the planned congestion toll in Manhattan. “Phil Murphy said he was gonna fix New Jersey Transit if it kills him,” Lieber told New York state lawmakers during a budget hearing in Albany. “I’m not sure. He’s...

A new year will bring more pay for millions of Americans, according to a new study from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). On New Years Day, 22 states will raise their minimum wage, giving nearly 9.9 million Americans a pay raise. In total, workers will receive $6.95 billion in additional wages from the increases. In addition, 38 cities and counties will increase their minimum wages on January 1, rising above their state floors and adding to the number of workers who will see any increase in their paychecks.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her lefty Democratic Socialist comrades aren’t just targeting the 1 percenters anymore. The New York City congresswoman and her progressive posse are pushing to slam the “top 5%” of New Yorkers with a massive total $15 billion in state income-tax hikes that would hit households making just over $250,000 a year — well below millionaires’ row, an analysis says. The eye-popping proposed tax increase comes as a new study released Tuesday by Upgraded Points found that New York suffered the largest exodus of wealthy millennials ages 26 to 45 who made more than $200,000 than any...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a point, resuming its campaign to increase borrowing costs and crush inflation after a brief pause in June. The unanimous decision puts the key benchmark federal funds rate at a range of 5.25% to 5.5%, the highest since 2001, further restricting economic activity as the borrowing costs for homes, cars and other items march higher. It marks the 11th rate increase aimed at combating high inflation since policymakers began tightening in March 2022. Policymakers also left the door open to additional interest rate increases this year,...

The Federal Reserve voted to raise interest rates Wednesday by another 0.25 percentage points, brushing aside concerns about the financial sector and an expected recession later this year. The Fed’s rate-setting committee voted Wednesday to boost its baseline interest rate to a range of 5 to 5.25 percent, the point where Fed officials expected in March to stop hiking rates, according projections from the Fed’s last meeting. The latest rate hike is the tenth in a row since the Fed began its program of quantitative tightening in March of last year. Over the past 14 months, the Fed has boosted...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Sunday argued that the Federal Reserve should stop hiking interest rates in an effort to control high inflation. “I do not think he should raise rates,” Warren said of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I’ve been in the camp for a long time that these extraordinary rate increases that he has taken on these extreme rate increases are something that he should not be doing.”

President Biden is set to formally propose an array of tax increases on wealthy individuals and corporations in a budget plan that he says will reduce the deficit by $2 trillion over the next decade, setting up a battle royal with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Biden told lawmakers during his State of the Union address last month that his budget will lower the deficit and extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund “by making the wealthy and big corporations begin to pay their fair share.” The White House on Tuesday unveiled a proposal to raise the Medicare surtax on...

President Joe Biden will fight to force taxpayers to pay even more corporate taxes in next week’s 2024 proposed budget, which is likely to impact both large and small businesses. Although the business term “corporation” is widely associated with large companies like Chevron, Berkshire Hathaway, and McDonald’s, C-corporations can be both large and small businesses. According to the Small Business Administration (SBA), 31.7 million small businesses exist in the United States. Eighty-one percent, or 25.7 million, have no employees (run and operated by a single person) and 19 percent, or 6 million, have paid employees.

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday hiked interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, pressing even harder on the brakes of the economy in a scramble to slow inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), the panel of Fed officials responsible for monetary policy, boosted the central bank’s baseline interest rate range to a span of 3.75 to 4 percent. It is the fourth consecutive 75 basis point hike issued by the Fed and sixth interest rate increase since March.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday he expects the U.S. economy to slow under the weight of the central bank’s interest rate hikes to a point that could cause job losses. Speaking after the Fed issued another rate hike, Powell said the U.S. may be able to avert a full-blown recession but could not avoid hardship as the bank ramps up its fight against inflation.

Tesla is hiking its prices in the United States and China for the second time in a week amid high inflation. For all models in the U.S., Tesla’s website indicated that prices have risen between 5 and 10 percent, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Some of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made in China have increased roughly 5 percent. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said earlier this week that the companies were experiencing higher "inflation pressure."

The hottest debate among economists and investors is when central banks will back away from pandemic-era policies. After months of ambiguity, they finally have an answer — at least from South Korea. What's happening: The Bank of Korea raised its base interest rate from 0.5% to 0.75% on Thursday. The move is aimed at reining in inflation, a red-hot real estate market and high levels of household debt, which the central bank decided were more worrying than a spike in coronavirus cases. Citi's economists are penciling in another Bank of Korea rate hike in November and two more next year....

DENVER — Xcel Energy customers could see higher bills in 2022. The company submitted a proposal to raise rates to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. They say the increase will help fund “next-generation technology investments that expand and strengthen the reliability of the electric grid for customers, advance Colorado’s clean energy policies, and increase capacity to meet growing customer needs and expectations.” Xcel said that since 2019 and through 2022, it will spend for $4 billion on the investments. How much will my bill increase? Residential customers would see their bills increase by an average of $9.46 a month, or...

Stocks erased earlier gains to trade sharply lower after Bloomberg report Thursday afternoon that President Joe Biden would propose increasing the corporate tax rate on wealthy individuals. The Dow dropped 250 points, or 0.7%, following the report, after trading just slightly lower earlier. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq erased gains to trade at session lows. Biden's plan would involve increasing the capital gains tax rate on the wealthy to 39.6%, according to the report from Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter. This would apply to those earning at least $1 million. The current base capital gains tax rate is...

Late last summer, and with great fanfare, Xcel Energy announced its proposal to close the Comanche I & II power units in Pueblo a decade ahead of schedule. They offered as replacement the euphemistically titled “Colorado Energy Plan” , a massive $2.5 billion fuel-switching scheme to move its Colorado customers away from baseload, reliable hydrocarbons in favor of intermittent renewables. ... the Minneapolis-based monopoly utility will force captive ratepayers to cough up at least another $287 million. That’s on top of the modeling errors we already found in their accounting, and Xcel acknowledged. In other words, ratepayers will pay higher...

Submitted by John Kartch and Alexander Hendrie via Americans for Tax Reform, Hillary Clinton has made clear she intends to dramatically raise taxes on the American people if elected. She has proposed an income tax increase, a business tax increase, a death tax increase, a capital gains tax increase, a tax on stock trading, an "Exit Tax" and more (see below). Her planned net tax increase on the American people is at least $1 trillion over ten years, based on her campaign’s own figures. Hillary has endorsed several tax increases on middle income Americans, despite her pledge not to raise...

CKE Restaurants' roots began in California roughly seven decades ago, but you won't see the parent company of Carl's Jr. and Hardee's expanding there much anymore. Related Stories What's causing what company CEO Andy Puzder describes as "very little growth" in the state? In part it's because "the minimum wage is so high so it's harder to come up with profitable business models," Puzder said in an interview. The state's minimum wage is set to rise to $9 in July, making it among the nation's highest, and $10 by January 2016. In cities in other states where the minimum wage...

Since taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama has formally proposed a total of 442 tax increases, according to an Americans for Tax Reform analysis of Obama administration budgets for fiscal years 2010 through 2015. The 442 total proposed tax increases does not include the 20 tax increases Obama signed into law as part of Obamacare. "History tells us what Obama was able to do. This list reminds us of what Obama wanted to do," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform. The number of proposed tax increases per year is as follows: 79 tax increases for FY...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted along party lines Tuesday to reject a GOP effort that would have blocked the approved increase in the national debt limit. The chamber voted 54-45 against the GOP move to try to use a special "disapproval" process to block that increase. The move came as Senate Democrats proposed to avoid future showdowns over the so-called debt ceiling by giving the president authority to authorize additional federal borrowing unless Congress can muster veto-proof margins to block him. The move by Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is aimed at heading...

More taxing toons/humor at Reaganite Republican...