ADS BOLSTER IRS’ TAX PREP EFFORTS: “A new campaign called Better IRS, which was created by the liberal Groundwork Action advocacy group, has a message for the powerful tax prep industry: We’re not going down without a fight,” my colleague Benjamin Guggenheim scoops in POLITICO’s Weekly Tax. — The tax preparation industry — which includes companies like H&R Block and Intuit, the maker of TurboTax — has spent years and millions of dollars battling against the federal government’s efforts to create its own system allowing Americans to file with the IRS for free. — In opposition to those efforts, “Better IRS launched a six-figure digital ad blitz … on Facebook, Instagram and other targeted websites highlighting the developing plans for an IRS-run filing system, as well as recent reports that tax prep companies shared reams of taxpayers’ personal and financial data with Meta and, in so doing, potentially violated taxpayer privacy laws.” TINY CASINO MAKES BIG LOBBYING SPLASH: “Hawaiian Gardens is Los Angeles County’s smallest city — home to less than 15,000 residents, one square mile of land,” — and, my California Playbook colleague Lara Korte reports, the top lobbying spender in California during the second quarter. — “Hawaiian Gardens Casino, a card room that acts as the main source of revenue for the tiny city, earned the distinction by spending more than $5 million in the last quarter to lobby the state legislature against a bill that wades into a longstanding feud between card rooms and gaming tribes.” — “That’s more than the Energy Foundation and the Western States Petroleum Association, perennially high spenders, spent combined. It even topped the $4 million the McDonald’s corporation dropped battling fast-food labor regulations in Sacramento.” — “The legislation in contention, authored by state Sen. Josh Newman, revisits a hotly contested, decade-old dispute over who can offer what types of card games. Tribes contend card rooms are skirting the law that gives them exclusive rights to games like blackjack. Card rooms argue that the matter is settled and that tribes are trying to run them out of business.” NYC LANDLORD GROUPS IN COMBO TALKS: Two landlord groups with different advocacy styles, the Community Housing Improvement Program and the Rent Stabilization Association, are in talks about merging, Kathryn Brenzel reports for The Real Deal, a real estate-focused publication. — “The groups both represent rent-stabilized landlords in New York and have teamed up to challenge New York’s rent law; they recently filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. They sometimes release joint statements.” — “But the groups also have different leadership styles and approaches to city and state politics. … RSA represents large rent-stabilized owners, as well as condo and co-op boards, while CHIP’s members include midsized owners.” — Jay Martin, CHIP’s executive director, has “called for the real estate industry to change its lobbying approach, advocating for more grassroots efforts and social media literacy. The group launched a TikTok campaign showcasing apartments in dire need of repair, and Martin is ubiquitous on Twitter.” — “RSA has more spending power than CHIP and has poured money into the election campaigns of elected officials on both sides of the aisle. But it operates largely behind the scenes.”
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