%1

New York Attorney General Accuses City of Inflating Taxi Medallion Values

Submitted by ckanon@abi.org on Fri, 2020-02-21 08:55

New York Attorney General Letitia James demanded $810 million from New York City on Thursday, accusing the city’s taxi regulator of playing a role in fraudulently inflating the value of taxi medallions, the Wall Street Journal reported. In a formal legal claim sent to the city’s comptroller, James said that the city made hundreds of millions of dollars marketing and auctioning thousands of medallions while helping to keep values artificially high. A medallion is a metal shield that serves as the city’s license to pick up street hails across the city. When medallion values plunged to less than $200,000 from a high of more than $1 million several years ago, many medallion owners filed for bankruptcy. Many drivers still struggle today. There are about 13,500 such medallions in New York City. James gave notice that she would sue the city if it didn’t meet her demands within 30 days. She said that the funds would pay for restitution and damages to medallion owners. (Subscription required.)

Article Tags

Fraud

Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity

Stays Are Automatic from Denial of a Motion to Dismiss for Sovereign Immunity

Courts are divided on whether the district court loses jurisdiction to stay proceedings in bankruptcy court after the filing of a notice of appeal.

U.S. Budget Deficit Running 11.8% Higher this Year

Submitted by ckanon@abi.org on Tue, 2020-01-14 08:56

The U.S. budget deficit through the first three months of this budget year is up 11.8 percent from the same period a year ago, putting the country on track to record its first $1 trillion deficit in eight years, The Associated Press reported. In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said that the deficit from October through December totaled $356.6 billion, up from $318.9 billion for the same period last year. Both government spending and revenues set records for the first three months of this budget year but spending rose at a faster clip than tax collections, pushing the deficit total up. The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the deficit for the current 2020 budget year will hit $1 trillion and will remain over $1 trillion for the next decade. The country has not experienced $1 trillion annual deficits since the period from 2009-12 following the 2008 financial crisis. The actual deficit for the 2019 budget year, which ended Sept. 30, was $984.4 billion, up 26 percent from the 2018 imbalance, reflecting the impact of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that President Donald Trump pushed through Congress in 2017 and increased spending for military and domestic programs that Trump accepted as part of a budget deal with Democrats.

Article Tags

Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity

Grassley Says He Wants to Rein in Trump Tariff Powers

Submitted by ckanon@abi.org on Thu, 2020-01-09 08:46

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) said Wednesday that he wanted to advance legislation reining in presidential authority on tariffs in 2020, The Hill reported. “That's been a goal of mine and is still a goal,” Grassley said of legislation to reform section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act, which President Trump has used to impose major tariffs on close U.S. trade partners. Section 232 gives the president authority to impose tariffs for national security purposes. Trump’s trade critics accused him of abusing the authority by imposing steep steel and aluminum tariffs on U.S. allies such as Canada, Mexico, the European Union and Japan. Trump later scrapped the tariffs on Canada and Mexico after they agreed to an updated North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump has also threatened to use the authority to impose tariffs on automobile imports from the European Union and Japan. Grassley has long discussed imposing Congressional oversight on 232 authority, and said he thought there was enough will to advance legislation this year. “It may be just the committee working its will, but I think that there’s enough desire in my committee to do something about 232,” he said yesterday. Grassley noted that he had yet to discuss the prospect with the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden (Oregon). Last month, Wyden said he was open to working out a response.

Article Tags

Govt. Claims/Sovereign Immunity