Latest news with #FASTAct
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Did Florida end HOV lanes? What to know about changes to the diamond lanes
Inside the more than 150 new laws that went into effect this month was one small line in one bill: "Section 316.0741, Florida Statutes, is repealed." And with that, Florida's HOV lanes were struck down. HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes are lanes in public roadways reserved for vehicles with more than one occupant, or for hybrid and low-emission vehicles that are registered with the state. HB 1662, a wide-ranging transportation bill, removed HOV lanes from state law along with a variety of other changes including giving disabled veterans more specialty license plate choices and adding a more robust state framework for space flight development. Here's what to know. HOV lanes are intended to encourage carpooling and reduce traffic congestion by providing highway lanes limited to vehicles with a certain number of passengers or more. Sometimes the restriction is only for certain high-traffic times of the day. HOV lanes have diamond symbols along their length and signage listing applicable times and occupancy limits. Driving in an HOV without anyone else in the car was a moving violation and law enforcement shared stories of catching people driving with mannequins, dolls, stuffed animals, inflatable people and other workarounds. More recently, electric vehicles were added to the HOV lane list if they meet standards and are registered with the state. Florida's first HOV lane arrived in 1976, a 14-mile segment of Interstate 95 that eventually expanded to 21 miles between I-395 and I-595, according to a Department of Transportation report on managed lanes. HOVs were included in the federal Interstate Highway System Policy in 1991 and a 30-mile stretch of I-4 received an HOV lane during the morning and evening peak times. In 2015, former President Barack Obama signed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which, among many other things, allowed authorities to offer HOV access to low emission and energy efficient vehicles such as electric cars and hybrids if the driver pay a toll. The FDOT started selling HOV decals for such vehicles to enable them to use HOV toll lanes. However, that provision in the FAST Act was scheduled to end on Sept. 30, 2025, unless it was renewed. Meanwhile, HOVs have been fading in Florida since the development of express lanes — toll lanes that run alongside highways to provide a smoother drive, for a price — started under former Gov. Jeb Bush and dramatically increased under former Gov. Rick Scott, according to the Florida Phoenix. From 2008 to 2015, the Florida Department of Transportation converted the single HOV lanes on South Florida into two high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes going either direction. In 2023, FDOT converted HOV lanes along portions of I-95 from Broward County to Palm Beach County into non-HOV express lanes. The state also has been reducing or removing incentives to use electric vehicles as part of Florida's energy policy, which continues to emphasize fossil fuels. In 2024, DeSantis signed a bill (HB 1645) removing references in state law to climate change or greenhouse gas, banning offshore wind-energy generation in Florida, blocked cities and counties from approving energy policy restrictions, and repealing the state's renewable energy goals. The bill followed up on former Gov. Scott's repeal of the state's carbon-reduction goals. "We're restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots," Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X. More laws passed this year prohibiting local governments from banning or restricting appliances or watercraft based on what fuel or energy source they use and blocked FDOT from providing funds to transportation-related entities for projects or programs that conflict with the state's energy policy. The bill repealed all HOV mentions in Florida statutes and repealed authorization for the FDOT to sell HOV decals. It also repealed the tax exemption for EV and hybrid vehicles, but the agency said existing decals will be active until they expire. 'With recent changes this legislative session, there are updates to the toll exemptions for electric vehicles, Inherently Low Emission Vehicles (ILEV), and hybrid vehicles,' FDOT spokesperson Guillermo Alberto Canedo told 'As a result, no new exemptions or renewals for these vehicles will be issued after June 30, 2025. All exemption decals issued prior to this date will remain active for one year from issuance of the decal.' This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida repealed HOV lanes. What does this mean?
Motor Trend
03-07-2025
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
Driven! The 2025 Morgan Plus Four Is an Exotic at a Much Nicer Price
Forbidden fruit no more! Morgan's defiantly anachronistic Plus Four roadster is now available in the U.S. The Plus Four is here thanks to a provision in the 2016 FAST Act (Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act). Under the provision, automakers building cars based on a licensed design that's at least 25 years old are now allowed to sell up to 325 replica vehicles a year in the United States without them meeting complex and costly modern U.S. safety regulations. The 2025 Morgan Plus Four, now available in the U.S. thanks to the 2016 FAST Act, offers a vintage style with modern features. Priced at $84,995, it combines hand-built exclusivity with a BMW turbo engine, delivering 255 hp. It's a unique, charismatic alternative to pricier sports cars. This summary was generated by AI using content from this MotorTrend article Read Next There are a couple of caveats: Only automakers building fewer than 5,000 cars a year are eligible, and the act requires their vehicles to have engines that meet current EPA emissions standards. The 2025 Morgan Plus Four easily qualifies on all counts. It looks as if it has driven straight out of the 1930s, with the same sweeping fenders, cutaway doors, flat windshield, and long louvered hood that four-cylinder Morgans have had for decades. It's hand-built at the factory on Pickersleigh Road in Malvern Link, England, where Morgans have been made for more than 100 years by a workforce that last year produced about 850 cars in total. And it's powered the same turbocharged four-cylinder engine that powers a range of BMWs currently sold in the U.S. Morgan has been selling its fun and funky Super 3 three-wheeler here since 2023 (and its predecessor for years before that). But it's been 20 years since American sports car enthusiasts have been able to buy a new Morgan with a full complement of wheels between their backsides and the bitumen. The good news is the new Plus Four, which sits between the Super 3 and the new six-cylinder Supersport in the recently modernized Morgan lineup, has been worth the wait. For all its vintage exterior style, the Plus Four is a modern car. It's built on the ultra-light CX bonded-aluminum chassis Morgan unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show and has a multilink suspension front and rear, ABS-modulated disc brakes all around, traction control, stability control, and a limited-slip differential. A Dynamic Handling package, which includes adjustable shocks and a rear axle roll bar, is available as an option. U.K. buyers can order a Plus Four with a six-speed manual transmission, but all U.S.-market models will be equipped with BMW's smooth eight-speed automatic with Comfort, Sport, Sport+, and Manual shift modes. The Plus Four comes standard with power steering and remote central locking, as well as a 36-month, 36,000-mile warranty. A Bluetooth-controlled Sennheiser audio system and air conditioning are available. The modern stuff you don't get is the modern stuff you won't miss, stuff like cruise control, lane keep assist, speed warning chimes. Even with that automatic transmission, the Morgan gives serious drivers plenty to play with. In Plus Four spec, BMW's versatile B48 2.0-liter turbo-four develops 255 hp at 4,000 rpm and 295 lb-ft of torque from just 1,000 rpm to 4,300 rpm. In a car that weighs less than 2,400 pounds, that's muscle enough to get it from 0 to 60 mph in a claimed 4.8 seconds on the way to a top speed of 149 mph. Those numbers don't tell the entire story, though. Torquey and compact—it's more than 20 inches shorter and 5 inches narrower than a base Porsche 718 Boxster, with a 13 percent better weight-to-power ratio—the Plus Four is exhilaratingly rapid on narrow, winding two-lane roads. Indeed, with the powertrain switched to Sport+ mode and using the fixed paddles behind the steering wheel to shift manually, with the wind in your hair and your elbows exposed by the cutaway doors, the Morgan feels almost as quick as a Porsche 911 Carrera from 45 mph to 100 mph. While it's quick between the corners, once you arrive at them, the Plus Four likes to be braked early, turned in early, and have the power fed in early. The stiff, relatively short-travel suspension and the BMW engine's insistent torque mean the Morgan can feel a little skittish if the road surface is lumpy and greasy and you're too eager with your right foot. That said, once your backside is calibrated to sitting barely a foot ahead of the rear wheels, the yaw motions feel relatively relaxed. The power steering is light and accurate, but the dialogue between the tarmac and those distant front tires is not particularly explicit. Learning to compensate for that is the key to getting the most out of this old-school roadster. It can be challenging to hustle hard, the Morgan Plus Four, but only in the sense that you must learn to work with its nuances. That said, the automatic transmission and easy torque make the Plus Four a breeze to drive around town. Punch the gas, and you'll easily plug gaps in the traffic drivers of wider modern sports cars won't dare contemplate, enjoying waves and grins from folks who wouldn't look twice at a Ferrari. The Plus Four comes standard with 15-inch wheels, the design of which has a faintly '60s/'70s vibe, but it can be ordered with classic wire wheels in a variety of finishes, from silver to chrome to colors ranging from black and blue to red and green. The wire wheels are genuine center-lock items that fit over splined axles, which means cars ordered this way are literally built from the wheels up. Fittingly, the standard 205/60R15 tires are by Avon, a niche British brand that started making auto tires in 1906, four years before Morgan was founded, and since 1997 has been owned by Ohio-based Cooper Tire. As the Plus Four is hand-built—each takes about a month to complete—it can be painted and trimmed exactly the way you want. For the U.S. market Morgan offers four standard solid colors, with 12 additional solid colors, 14 metallic colors, and three pearl finishes available at extra cost, all of which can be teamed with one of seven soft-top colors. And if none of those paint colors appeals, Morgan will do paint to sample. The seats can be trimmed in one of up to 18 soft- or pebble-grain leather colors or one of five two-tone leather combinations. You can have the dash painted silver, black, or body color and have matching leather or one of seven wood veneers put on the center console if you don't want it painted black or body color. At $84,995 (excluding import duty, sales taxes, and destination charge) the Morgan Plus Four is, in the context of a Mazda MX-5 Miata, an expensive four-cylinder roadster. But what your money buys you is an ultra-exclusive sports car from a specialist automaker that's been building cars like this for more than 110 years. In that context, this Morgan is a stone-cold bargain when compared with, say, an Aston Martin Vantage, let alone a $4.3 million Bugatti Tourbillion. Quirky and charismatic, the Morgan Plus Four is the antithesis of today's sanitized sports cars, and it's a sports car with an arguably more authentic pedigree than a modern Porsche 911. It's not for everyone. But you wouldn't want it to be.
Miami Herald
11-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
The $10,000 IRS Rule Most Taxpayers Don't Know About - Clear Start Tax Explains What Happens When You Cross It
Clear Start Tax Warns That Hitting $10,000 in IRS Debt Can Trigger Serious Consequences - Including Passport Restrictions and Federal Liens IRVINE, CA / ACCESS Newswire / June 11, 2025 / If you owe the IRS less than $10,000, you might think you're in the clear. But Clear Start Tax says crossing that five-figure threshold can quietly trigger a cascade of government actions - including federal tax liens, denied passport renewals, and enhanced IRS collection efforts. Most taxpayers don't realize that $10,000 is a critical line in the sand for several IRS enforcement triggers. In 2025, enforcement is faster and more automated than ever, meaning debts that creep over this threshold can lead to serious consequences before the taxpayer even receives a phone call. "The number isn't arbitrary," says the Head of Client Solutions at Clear Start Tax. "Once your tax debt hits $10,000, multiple systems within the IRS and State Department can flag your account for escalating enforcement - and that includes federal lien filings and passport holds." What Happens at the $10,000 Mark According to Clear Start Tax, several federal programs and IRS enforcement protocols use $10,000 as a key trigger point: Federal Tax Liens: Once debt crosses $10,000, the IRS may begin filing a public Notice of Federal Tax Lien, which attaches to property, credit, and Revocation: Under the FAST Act, the IRS can certify seriously delinquent tax debt over $59,000 (adjusted annually) to the State Department - but debts over $10,000 often trigger early scrutiny that can affect renewals or Filing Requirement: U.S. persons with more than $10,000+ in foreign accounts at any point in the year must file an FBAR - Failure to do so can result in steep civil fines and even criminal Readiness: Debts over $10,000 often place taxpayers in line for wage garnishments or bank levies, especially if no resolution plan is in place. "Crossing the $10,000 mark can quietly activate IRS systems that move fast and leave little room to react," said the Head of Client Solutions at Clear Start Tax. "By the time a taxpayer realizes what's happening, they may already be dealing with a lien, frozen accounts, or even passport issues." What You Can Do Before It Hits Clear Start Tax emphasizes that the best strategy is to act before your balance reaches - or exceeds - the $10,000 threshold. Early intervention opens the door to more flexible IRS programs, such as: Installment Agreements: Monthly payments that prevent liens and enforcementOffer in Compromise: A negotiated settlement for less than you oweLien Withdrawal Requests: Preventing or reversing lien filingsCurrently Not Collectible (CNC): A temporary freeze on collections for qualifying hardship cases These options are often more accessible and more successful when applied proactively, before enforcement action has started. How Clear Start Tax Helps Clear Start Tax takes a preventive and personalized approach to tax debt relief, beginning with a full financial analysis to assess each client's risk of enforcement. Their team communicates directly with the IRS to quickly halt any escalating actions and then builds a customized resolution plan tailored to the client's income, assets, and financial hardship. About Clear Start Tax Clear Start Tax is a full-service tax liability resolution firm that serves taxpayers throughout the United States. The company specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with a wide range of IRS and state tax issues, including back taxes, wage garnishment relief, IRS appeals, and offers in compromise. Clear Start Tax helps taxpayers apply for the IRS Fresh Start Program, providing expert guidance in tax resolution. Fully accredited and A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau, the firm's unique approach and commitment to long-term client success distinguish it as a leader in the tax resolution industry. Need Help With Back Taxes?Click the link below: Contact Information Clear Start TaxCorporate Communications Departmentseo@ 535-1627 SOURCE: Clear Start Tax
Indianapolis Star
11-06-2025
- Business
- Indianapolis Star
The $10,000 IRS Rule Most Taxpayers Don't Know About – Clear Start Tax Explains What Happens When You Cross It
Clear Start Tax Warns That Hitting $10,000 in IRS Debt Can Trigger Serious Consequences – Including Passport Restrictions and Federal Liens IRVINE, CA / ACCESS Newswire If you owe the IRS less than $10,000, you might think you're in the clear. But Clear Start Tax says crossing that five-figure threshold can quietly trigger a cascade of government actions – including federal tax liens, denied passport renewals, and enhanced IRS collection efforts. Most taxpayers don't realize that $10,000 is a critical line in the sand for several IRS enforcement triggers. In 2025, enforcement is faster and more automated than ever, meaning debts that creep over this threshold can lead to serious consequences before the taxpayer even receives a phone call. 'The number isn't arbitrary,' says the Head of Client Solutions at Clear Start Tax. 'Once your tax debt hits $10,000, multiple systems within the IRS and State Department can flag your account for escalating enforcement – and that includes federal lien filings and passport holds.' What Happens at the $10,000 Mark According to Clear Start Tax, several federal programs and IRS enforcement protocols use $10,000 as a key trigger point: Federal Tax Liens: Once debt crosses $10,000, the IRS may begin filing a public Notice of Federal Tax Lien, which attaches to property, credit, and assets. Passport Revocation: Under the FAST Act, the IRS can certify seriously delinquent tax debt over $59,000 (adjusted annually) to the State Department – but debts over $10,000 often trigger early scrutiny that can affect renewals or travel. FBAR Filing Requirement: U.S. persons with more than $10,000+ in foreign accounts at any point in the year must file an FBAR – Failure to do so can result in steep civil fines and even criminal charges. Levy Readiness: Debts over $10,000 often place taxpayers in line for wage garnishments or bank levies, especially if no resolution plan is in place. 'Crossing the $10,000 mark can quietly activate IRS systems that move fast and leave little room to react,' said the Head of Client Solutions at Clear Start Tax. 'By the time a taxpayer realizes what's happening, they may already be dealing with a lien, frozen accounts, or even passport issues.' What You Can Do Before It Hits Clear Start Tax emphasizes that the best strategy is to act before your balance reaches – or exceeds – the $10,000 threshold. Early intervention opens the door to more flexible IRS programs, such as: These options are often more accessible and more successful when applied proactively, before enforcement action has started. How Clear Start Tax Helps Clear Start Tax takes a preventive and personalized approach to tax debt relief, beginning with a full financial analysis to assess each client's risk of enforcement. Their team communicates directly with the IRS to quickly halt any escalating actions and then builds a customized resolution plan tailored to the client's income, assets, and financial hardship. About Clear Start Tax Clear Start Tax is a full-service tax liability resolution firm that serves taxpayers throughout the United States. The company specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with a wide range of IRS and state tax issues, including back taxes, wage garnishment relief, IRS appeals, and offers in compromise. Clear Start Tax helps taxpayers apply for the IRS Fresh Start Program, providing expert guidance in tax resolution. Fully accredited and A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau, the firm's unique approach and commitment to long-term client success distinguish it as a leader in the tax resolution industry. Need Help With Back Taxes? Click the link below: Contact Information Clear Start Tax Corporate Communications Department seo@ (949) 535-1627 SOURCE: Clear Start Tax View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
One year in, California's fast food wage hike brings higher pay, debatable job numbers
Edgar Recinos no longer has to choose between paying rent and buying groceries. As a cook at a Wingstop restaurant in Los Angeles, Recinos got a significant wage bump last year — one of half a million fast food workers taking part in a great labor experiment. California passed the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery (FAST) Act in April of 2024 amid vocal support and fierce opposition. The first-of-its-kind policy increased the starting wage for California fast food workers to $20 per hour, which is higher than the overall state minimum wage. It also established a statewide council that sets wage and safety standards at fast food restaurants with more than 60 locations nationwide, like McDonald's, Jack in the Box, Burger King and Subway. But one year later, the initial impact is a mixed bag. Economists are divided over the effect on employment. Workers do earn more, but many complain their hours have been cut. Fast food restaurant owners tell CNN they have been trimming employee hours and instituting hiring freezes to offset the cost of higher wages. Recinos, like many, says his regular hours have been cut. When he doesn't get to fill in to make up the time, he finds himself 'in the same situation before the (wage) increase.' As of March, employment at California's limited-service restaurants fell 3.1% from the year before, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve using seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's more than 22,600 jobs lost at fast food restaurants that both did and did not fall under the policy. While that drop is in line with losses in the broader leisure and hospitably sector in the state, it's a more pronounced downswing than the national trend for fast food restaurants, BLS data shows. Economists are clashing over whether the $20 wage is to blame. Christopher Thornberg of Beacon Economics, who published a two-page commentary about the sector's losses in March, wrote the findings 'undercut much of the recent analysis released by pro-labor groups which have been claiming that the Fast Act has had little impact on (the) limited-service restaurant industry in California.' While Thornberg told CNN it's premature to determine if the FAST Act is to blame for the job losses, he is seeing signs of negative cost. 'There is no such thing as a costless policy,' he said. 'Every part, every policy must, by definition, have some cost. And it's up to society to figure out if that trade-off is worth it, right?' But Michael Reich, chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at the University of California, Berkeley, told CNN there is no evidence the FAST Act is at the root of any job loss. Reich did his own analysis of the data, comparing jobs at California's large fast food chains to those in states where the minimum wage did not change, as well as California's full-service restaurants and smaller fast food chains not subject to the policy. He says he found 'no significant negative employment effect.' Instead, he points to California's population loss and slower economic growth compared to other states among the factors influencing job number fluctuations. 'If there are more people, there is going to be more demand for fast food. The different population growth is not because of minimum wage,' Reich said. 'So, if you don't control for that, you're looking at a correlation. That's not a causation.' California fast food workers are now the highest paid in the nation. Pay for impacted workers jumped 8% to 9% on average since April 2024, according to Reich. They also earn more than other Californians making minimum wage at $16.50 per hour. That kind of money has been life-changing for Selvin Martinez, who works at a Weinerschnitzel in San Jose. 'Before the wage increase, I struggled to keep up with expenses. I limited my purchases. I limited what I ate,' Martinez said through an interpreter. 'I have been able to cover all of my bills, help my family financially, my savings have grown, and I'm thankful to God, because life feels easier now that I'm not as worried financially.' Management did, however, shift the opening of Martinez's restaurant one hour later, cutting his weekly schedule shorter by a few hours. He's not alone. Some workers tell CNN they now work fewer hours. It's a hard metric to track as economists say there is no reliable data on work hours in fast food. But Recinos, who got a pay bump from $17.25 to $20 in April 2024, says he remembers working more back then. Recinos now works about 20 hours a week at Wingstop but fights to get more time on the schedule. He pads his hours by filling in for absent co-workers or during higher-demand periods like the Super Bowl. Recinos said managers blame the shorter hours on labor costs. 'It makes no sense. Because if you are cutting hours to your current workers, why are you hiring new people and blaming the increase of the wage?' he said. The Wingstop management where Recinos works told CNN they use a standard labor matrix to schedule employees based on business volume and location. Management added that it's not related to the FAST Act, and they're committed to providing a consistent schedule and paycheck for their employees. While the policy has helped some in the workforce, some owners face a different picture. Kerri Harper-Howie says she's had to dip into long-term savings for her 40-year-old family business to keep it afloat, with the account down 30% in just nine months. 'We have literally been like, 'Do we need to leave California?'' Harper-Howie said. The daughter of a social worker and a police officer, Harper-Howie watched her parents buy their first McDonald's franchise location in Los Angeles in 1984. Since then, she and her sister have grown the family business into 24 locations in Los Angeles County. Harper-Howie says sales growth has declined in every single McDonald's location they own since the FAST Act went into effect — something that has never occurred in the family's four decades in the industry. As a result of lower sales, Harper-Howie says they've streamlined job duties for employees and cut about 170,000 labor hours. She hasn't laid anyone off but just lifted a hiring freeze that was in place for the past year. 'We put (a supervisor) in charge of going to every restaurant and doing a food cost analysis. Are we giving out too many ketchups? Are we putting too much, too many squirts on the Big Mac?' Harper-Howie said. She also had to increase prices to offset costs. That's caused employees at neighboring businesses who earn a lower wage to buy less food. Fast food menu prices in California rose by 1.9% relative to the increases in other states over the first six months of the policy, Reich said. Sales are only now beginning to turn around for Harper-Howie due to a McDonald's partnership with 'The Minecraft Movie' for toys. 'The Minecraft Movie' is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN. Harper-Howie said her family will continue the business fueled on hope. 'Not 'hope' in like the 'racetrack hope,' but hope rooted in the fact that our family has weathered storms for 40 years,' she said. 'I do firmly believe in our brand. I love our brand, and so I'm just hopeful that something is going to get better.' Sign in to access your portfolio
