Does The New Federal Stimulus Law Rule Out State Tax Cuts? Patch 3/15/2021
By Laura Olson, Michigan Advance, March 14, 2021
WASHINGTON President Joe Biden’s massive pandemic stimulus law pumps a welcome infusion of federal aid into state and local government coffers but one brief section is raising questions about whether states are barred from cutting their own taxes if they accept the federal help.
The Senate added language to the COVID-19 relief package prohibiting states and local governments from using the $350 billion in direct federal assistance “to either directly or indirectly offset a reduction in the net tax revenue” or delay the imposition of any tax or tax increase.
On Wednesday, Republican delegates held a demonstration against the House version of police reform being debated. They were joined by over 30 police from mostly Republican counties. MarylandReporter.com photo
MIXED REACTIONS TO HOGAN’s SURPRISE REOPENING PLAN: Maryland’s swift and far-reaching plan to reopen businesses and public venues took many key stakeholders by surprise, interviews with officials, business and health leaders show, and went further than some industry representatives had requested, Rebecca Tan, Ovetta Wiggins, Rachel Chason and Erin Cox of the Post report.
Comptroller Peter Franchot slammed Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to lift capacity restrictions on restaurants, bars, and retail establishments, saying the decision was based on politics rather than science, Bryan Renbaum of Maryland Reporter reports.
(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Hopes of getting an increase to the piteously low federal minimum wage tucked into the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill were dealt a serious blow this week when the U.S. Senate’s Parliamentarian ruled that it couldn’t be included in the massive legislative package now moving through Congress.
The announcement that came Thursday night was widely expected, and the ruling from the strenuously nonpartisan arbiter threw a major roadblock into Congressional Democrats’ path to raising the current federal minimum from $7.25 an hour, where it has sat since 2009, to $15 an hour by 2025, the Associated Press reported.