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The residents of Walker County, Ala., spoke at the polls yesterday narrowly failing to approve a one-cent sales tax needed to fund debt relief for the county and additional county services, WBRC.com reported. Officials in the county pleaded with voters ahead of the election to pass the increase saying that the county could be forced to file bankruptcy without the additional funding. That one-cent sales tax was projected to raise about $7 million per year that would have went toward debt payments, public safety, volunteer fire and rescue, and roads. County commissioner Jeff Burrough said that the tax structure in Walker County is outdated and hasn't kept up with the financial needs of the county. The county will now be forced to look for other ways to pay off $27 million worth of debt.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to know where the nation’s biggest banks stand on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s new rule banning companies from stripping consumers of their right to join class action lawsuits, The Hill reported today. Warren sent a letter yesterday to the CEOs of the 16 largest financial firms, including Bank of America and Wells Fargo & Co., asking whether they oppose the rule limiting use of language, know as arbitration clauses, in consumer contracts that force consumers to settle disputes privately with an independent third party. House Republicans passed a resolution late last month to repeal the controversial rule under the Congressional Review Act. Business and bank lobbying groups reportedly claim the rule limits consumer choices and makes it harder to collect from bad actors.

A Republican-backed effort to overturn a rule making it easier for consumers to sue banks has hit a snag: the Senate, the Wall Street Journal reported today. At issue is a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule approved in July barring fine-print requirements that consumers use arbitration to resolve disputes over financial services. The rule makes it easier for consumers to join class-action lawsuits against banks and credit-card companies. Though fiercely fought by the financial industry, it is set to go into effect in March. CFPB Director Richard Cordray pressed ahead with the rule despite opposition from Trump administration banking officials and Republicans in Congress. Republican lawmakers are targeting the CFPB rule with a legislative tool known as the Congressional Review Act. It allows lawmakers to overturn a newly issued regulation on an expedited schedule with a simple majority vote in Congress. The House voted 231-190 to overturn the rule in July. The Senate plans to act in September when it returns from a long recess. However, support in the Senate is uncertain. No Democrats are likely to back the effort, and Republicans, with their slim majority, can’t afford to lose more than two GOP votes. Several Republican senators have expressed reservations about voting to overturn the regulation, worried they may be portrayed as siding with banks and against consumers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell yesterday dismissed the idea that a bipartisan tax reform deal could be reached, and said that Republicans plan to go it alone with a 51-vote procedure to pass legislation and thwart a Democratic filibuster, the Washington Examiner reported. McConnell dashed the idea just as some Republicans and Democrats were talking about cutting a bipartisan tax deal, and suggesting the parties can work together if both sides are willing to drop the partisanship and cooperate. Senate Republican Conference Committee Chairman John Thune said the GOP would be willing to try negotiating with Democrats on at least some part of tax reform rather than use the reconciliation process to pass legislation unilaterally with 51 votes.

The Senate looks unlikely to vote this month on a resolution to block implementation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recently finalized rule on mandatory arbitration clauses in financial consumer contracts, MorningConsult.com reported. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) yesterday did not mention the measure in a floor speech outlining the chamber’s agenda for the next two weeks leading up to August recess. A Senate GOP aide said that supporters of the resolution do not have the votes needed to proceed on the floor, given the absence of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who has returned to Arizona to receive medical treatment for brain cancer.

Congressional Republicans’ big push to overhaul Obama-era health care laws appears to be dead, so are tax changes next on the agenda?, The New York Times reported today. Business leaders may be left scratching their heads about what those would look like — and how any overhaul would affect their ability to strike deals. Ask corporate chieftains, bankers and lawyers what is important for mergers, and they will probably say that the key thing is confidence, in the economy and in the regulatory environment. Confidence seems to be in short supply: The pace of deal activity in the first half of the year was moderate at best. The dollar volume of mergers announced worldwide during that time was up 2 percent compared with the same period last year, at $1.6 trillion, but the overall number of deals fell 4 percent, to 22,752. On Thursday, a group of Republican leaders announced their main principles for a tax initiative. They include no border adjustment tax; lower corporate taxes; a way to bring back money that companies currently hold offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes, an amount estimated at over $1 trillion; and any repeal of the Affordable Care Act, after a fractious process that saw Senate Republicans squabbling among themselves, raises questions about how any changes to taxes will proceed.