Continuing surge: Purchases of new vehicles continue to bolster the increase of combined city and parish tax collections, which rose some 22.4% to $18 million in November, up from $14.7 million for the comparable month one year ago. Vehicles tax collections increased nearly 140% in both the city and the parish combined to roughly $2.5 million for the month, up from about $1 million for the month one year ago. Residents of the city of Baton Rouge spent roughly $1.12 million on new cars, trucks and SUVs, that’s an increase of $629,672—or about 128%—over the November 2015. Residents of the parish spent about $1.34 million, up from $537,100 for the comparable month one year ago. That’s about a 150% increase. Meanwhile, combined sales tax collections for the city and parish increased 13.6%—from $13.7 million in 2015 to $15.5 million—in November. The city collected $8.8 million in November sales taxes while the parish collected $6.7 million. See the full report.
A new high: It has finally happened. The Dow Jones industrial average crossed the 20,000 mark for the first time in early trading this morning. The Associated Press reports it’s the latest milestone in a record-setting drive for the stock market. The other major U.S. stock indexes were also moving higher, led by banks and other financial companies, as investors pored over the latest batch of company earnings and deal news. The market has been marching steadily higher since bottoming out in March 2009 in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The rally continued after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president last fall. The Dow first closed above 10,000 on March 29, 1999. Read more.
Walls and voter fraud: President Donald Trump is making waves again this morning, announcing via his Twitter account that he’s ordering a “major investigation” into alleged voter fraud during the 2016 presidential election. The Associated Press reports the announcement comes as Trump continues to revisit unsubstantiated claims he’s repeatedly made about a rigged voting system. The investigation, he says, will look at those registered to vote in more than one state, “those who are illegal and … even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time).” Also, the president is expected to sign the first actions on immigration today—including the measure to jump start construction of a wall along the Southern U.S. border—during a trip to the Department of Homeland Security. Additional actions will be announced out over the next few days, according to one official. Read more.
