Hoboken Mayor-Elect: Tax Plan Is an Assault From Red States
New Jersey’s first Sikh mayor is preparing to take office on New Year’s Day and is already voicing his opinions about the new Republican tax law.
Ravinder Bhalla, Mayor-Elect of Hoboken, says that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is an assault from red states to blue states, on a national level. He claims that, at a local level, the attack is aimed at the residents of New Jersey. The state has a high tax rate, and the new plan limits deductions taxpayers can receive on state and local taxes up to $10,000. In the past, taxpayers did not have a capped limit.
“That’s going to have a huge economic impact on New Jersey, New York, California, and other states,” Bhalla said. “I am making sure I will do everything I can as mayor, to protect Hoboken residents where policies from Washington impact us, whether it's economic or otherwise,” he said.
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act goes into effect in the new year, but elected officials have already begun to take action. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo recently passed an “emergency executive action” plan that allows property owners to pay taxes ahead of the new legislation.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/hobokens-first-sikh-mayor-to-be-inaugurated).
Republican Tom Emmer abruptly abandoned his bid to become House speaker, withdrawing hours after winning the internal party nomination once it became clear he would not have enough support from GOP colleagues for the gavel.
Eighty-five-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz spoke of a “hell that we never knew before and never thought we would experience” as she described the harrowing Oct. 7 assault on her kibbutz by Hamas militants and the terror of being taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.
Jenna Ellis, an attorney and prominent conservative media figure, reached a deal with prosecutors Tuesday and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge over efforts to overturn Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia.
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez returns to court Monday to enter an expected not guilty plea to a conspiracy charge alleging he acted as an agent of the Egyptian government when he chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Hamas militants on Friday freed two Americans -- a mother and her teenage daughter who had been held hostage in Gaza since militants rampaged through Israel two weeks ago, the Israeli government said.