Free Republic

A new bill introduced by a Florida congresswoman aims to incentivize states to increase minimum teacher salaries as the country’s education system faces a growing need for educators. The American Teacher Act was introduced last week by Rep. Frederica S. Wilson, chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee. The bill would work to entice states to increase the minimum K-12 teacher salary to $60,000 through a federal grant program. The bill is an attempt to persuade educators to remain in the profession as a national teacher shortage impacts districts across the country — a problem that has been...

When millions of office employees started working from home in 2020, the plan for most was eventually to return to work, not stay remote forever. But two and a half years later, many workers really don’t want to go back to the office, and companies are struggling to figure out how to convince them to return, offering enticements like free food, prizes, and even alcoholic beverages to draw workers back. Some companies are getting more creative than that, as this person who wrote to me recounts: "I have seen a lot of lures, and none of them are working. Free...

Upon admission to a once-trusted hospital, American patients with COVID-19 become virtual prisoners, subjected to a rigid treatment protocol with roots in Ezekiel Emanuel’s “Complete Lives System” for rationing medical care in those over age 50. They have a shockingly high mortality rate. How and why is this happening, and what can be done about it?As exposed in audio recordings, hospital executives in Arizona admitted meeting several times a week to lower standards of care, with coordinated restrictions on visitation rights. Most COVID-19 patients’ families are deliberately kept in the dark about what is really being done to their loved...

“At some point, it dawned on me: this is not so much about health, but more about politics, money, power, and social manipulation.” – Doctor René de MonchyVeteran New Zealand doctor René de Monchy’s career came to an abrupt halt after refusing to be vaccinated. Wanting to remain “vaccine-free,” the physician of over 48 years was fired, banned from his hospital, and not allowed to say goodbye to his patients. The general practitioner and psychiatrist is shining a spotlight on the Globalist forces using Covid to help them seize control of New Zealand. The brave doctor questioned why doctors and...

Sen. Mitt Romney called the Biden administration’s immigration policy a “monumental disaster,” and said that alone would be enough to leave the federal government “hanging on by a thread,” even if there were not so many other disasters. The Utah Republican also condemned a Democratic proposal to send monthly checks to undocumented parents for each of their children, which he says would encourage more people to enter the country illegally. “It’s outrageous,” Romney said on Twitter. “I can’t think of a more enticing reason to enter our country illegally-at the expense of American tax payers.” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas...

Kentucky is offering travel incentives in an effort to boost vaccinations. The state launched the “Vax and Visit” initiative on Thursday, which offers the chance to win “safe-cations” at Kentucky State Parks for those who receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. Eligible residents will have the chance to win golf rounds, overnight lodging and campground stays at Kentucky state parks.

The oldest maxim in politics is “follow the money.” That maxim also applies to electric grids. Following the billions of dollars that have been spent on the Texas grid explains why the state continues to have electricity shortages. On Monday, ERCOT, the state’s troubled grid operator, asked Texans to reduce their electricity use. That request came exactly four months after Texas residents were asked to conserve electricity due to a massive winter storm. Before going further, I’ll give you the punchline: As I explained in these pages in April, about $66 billion was spent on wind and solar in Texas...

HONG KONG (AP) — Like many in Hong Kong, Jason Chan had no immediate plans to get vaccinated against COVID-19. For the finance professional, there seemed to be no pressing need, with travel restrictions still in place and no major outbreak at home. But Chan had a change of heart when he heard that one of the city’s property developers was offering a lucky draw with a grand prize of a one-bedroom condominium. The day the draw was announced, he went online and made a booking to get vaccinated. “It’s a chance to win a free apartment,” he reasoned. He...

Gov. Inslee on Thursday announced the state is incentivizing people in Washington to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The incentives announced include: — Lottery cash drawings, with prizes totaling $2 million — Higher education tuition and expense assistance — Sports tickets and gear — Gift cards — Airline tickets — Game systems and smart speakers Starting next week, the Lottery will conduct one drawing for $250,000 every week for four weeks for all vaccinated individuals. At the end of the four weeks, there will be an additional, final drawing for a $1 million prize. The program is retroactive. Washingtonians who are...

The incentives bureaucrats face may cause them to act in a way that is rational for themselves and their bureaucracies, but is not optimal from a social perspective.That America’s national debt now stands more than $28 trillion has done little to temper Democrats’ enthusiasm for more and bigger government programs, even as a 2020 poll by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation found that 73 percent of voters have become more concerned about the national debt.We might surmise that while most voters recognize the soaring national debt to be a problem, many are willing to accept budget deficits if the resulting...

Asia needs more transport infrastructure. More than the state, which finances the lion's share, can fund. So what more can be done to bring in increased private capital, when investors have so far been mostly disappointed by the returns? Is there a way of breathing new life into the public private partnership (PPP), the most common vehicle for private infrastructure investment? We think so. Governments need to offer private sector investors more than they can hope to earn from ticket sales on railways or motorway tolls. They should consider sharing the extra tax revenues generated from the increased economic activity...

A review of some of the bids to woo Amazon’s HQ2 to other cities and states shows it’s not all about the money. In some cases democracy itself is a bargaining chip. ___ Example: Chicago has offered to let Amazon pocket $1.32 billion in income taxes paid by its own workers. This is truly perverse. Called a personal income-tax diversion, the workers must still pay the full taxes, but instead of the state getting the money to use for schools, roads or whatever, Amazon would get to keep it all instead. “The result is that workers are, in effect, paying...

MADISON -- The state Department of Transportation has scrapped new bids on the massive Zoo Interchange project as lawmakers put the long-delayed state budget on the back burner and focus on Foxconn incentives instead.A special session will start at 11 a.m. Tuesday, August 1st on a bill that would extend $3 billion in tax breaks to the Taiwanese electronics company Foxconn, which has pledged to build a multi-billion dollar plant in southeastern Wisconsin and hire thousands of workers. A public hearing could happen this week.Meanwhile, Wisconsin's budget is a month late. Without funding, the state DOT has withdrawn three proposals...

Indiana officials agreed to give United Technologies Corp. $7 million worth of tax breaks over 10 years to encourage the company’s Carrier Corp. unit to keep about 1,000 jobs in the state, according to people familiar with the matter. The heating and air conditioning company will invest about $16 million to keep its operations in the state, including a furnace plant in Indianapolis that it had previously planned to close and shift...

The office of Connecticut’s governor says Sikorsky Aircraft has committed to keeping its headquarters in the state and adding jobs in an agreement that involves $220 million in state incentives. […] The deal calls for Sikorsky to build nearly 200 CH-53K King Stallion helicopters in Connecticut for the U.S. Navy until at least 2032. The incentives pledged by Malloy’s office include grants and tax exemptions. …

Nevada looks to be the winner for Tesla Motors’ (TSLA) new $5 billion battery factory, but the win comes at a cost for state taxpayers. Tesla is seeking up to $3 billion in new tax breaks to help fund about half of its cost for the new battery factory, which Tesla has already disclosed in regulatory filings would be located outside Reno, Nev., about 235 miles from its auto assembly plant in the San Francisco Bay area. “The total capital expenditures associated with the gigafactory through 2020 are expected to be $4-5 billion (sic), of which approximately $2 billion is...

None of this will come as a surprise to anybody who's been paying attention. The employer fine is light and ObamaCare exchange subsidies heavy... how else would it play-out, then... The companies can even raise salaries with some of the savings and everybody wins.... except the taxpayers of course, who will be covering the whole debacle with money we never had in the first-place: Trying to build their case that President Obama’s health care law will destroy traditional employer-sponsored insurance, House Republicans released a study Tuesday showing that the largest companies could save billions by kicking workers off their current health...

Hopes that a near-term extension of the production tax credit (PTC) for wind power would be included in legislation to extend the payroll tax cuts through the remainder of this year are nearly extinguished, as NAW has learned that congressional leaders have reached a tentative framework agreement on the payroll tax cut - but it does not contain a PTC extension. A House-Senate conference committee is expected to approve the deal, which will then go to the House and Senate as soon as today. Sources, who wished to remain anonymous, told NAW that both legislative bodies are expected to quickly...

< snip > ..... If Republicans have an opening this year, it is with the white working class, a crowd the Democratic Party has been hemorrhaging for decades. Barack Obama did better than John Kerry or Al Gore with these voters, though even he earned just 43% of their vote. ..... < snip > ..... The white working class will make up as much as 55% of the vote in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. ..... < snip > ..... And so at the heart of the Santorum agenda are policies designed to give special handouts to the working class,...

The state Assembly voted Tuesday to extend incentives for California's entertainment industry for five more years, approving up to $500 million in additional tax credits to help keep movie-making jobs in the state. The California Film and Television Tax Credit Program enacted in 2009 has already helped keep some $2.2 billion in film and television production and 25,000 crew jobs in California, said Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, a Sylmar Democrat, arguing for the extension. The Assembly voted 72-1 to extend the program from 2014 to July 2019. The bill goes next to the state Senate.