As commercial vacancies increase, cities are feeling the pain of lower tax revenues. read more...

Technology Surprise - cyber-crooks are targeting Facebook. This is like shooting fish in a barrel, but Facebook participants won’t understand that until it’s too late. They are busy throwing up pages in a vain attempt to garner attention, and have to figure out that the barrel is already...

The state Division of Budget has confirmed that online pornography businesses in New York State will have to implement New York State taxes to New Yorkers making purchases on their Web sites. According to TopTenREVIEWS.com, online pornography made $2.84 billion......

Like a dumb old farmer who closes the barn door after the horse gets out, Council Member Wendy Greuel and Mayor Villaraigosa now are addressing the $10 million in fraud, waste and abuse going on with the city's fleet of "take home" vehicles following the releasing of a damning audit by City... [[ Th...

When I was a prosecutor striving to quarter rapists, lob the heads off of woman beaters and castrate child molesters, there was often a certain type of judge that did me a favor in achieving my goal. We called these jurists “paper due process judges." Although, if the scumbag defendant was found g...

Costa Rica's plan to change the tourism tax to a set fee on each airline ticket is sure to increase revenues, but it may also decrease tourism at a time when overall vacation travel is in a severe downturn. A family of four will now have to add $60 to their airfare upon entry to the country and that...

Back in February, when the Cook County board increased the county sales tax, residents and business owners' angst was detectable. When the increase went into effect the first day of July, tempers approached the boiling point. Officials from Palatine, the village that has been threatening to secede f...

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports on an nineteen state effort to start imposing local sales taxes on internet purchases: On Tuesday, Washington joins 18 other states that require some e-commerce businesses to collect sales tax. About 1,100 online retailers have volunteered to collect, and in re...

Rick Orlov has a piece on the Mayor's challenge to convince voters he deserves another term.  Though Antonio Villaraigosa is working hard to build momentum for next year's election battle, the shine is off the penny following the Mayor's previous mis-steps and lack of results.  Most... [[ ...

Not surprisingly, the citywide sales tax increase referendum passed. The vote was 979 YES and 525 NO. Very low voter turnout . County Commissioners will no doubt implement step two of the Plan B alternative countywide sales tax referendum in short order. [Plan A was the failed February 5 referendum ...