Happy New Year!

In today’s news and commentary, Florida hockey players ratify a new contract, Hochul announces plan to end state tax on tips, and the Trump administration drops their appeal over shutdown layoffs.

After four days and numerous canceled games, the ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) players’ strike has come to an end as the league and the Professional Hockey Players’ Association finalized a new collective bargaining agreement. The ECHL is a professional minor league with teams in the U.S. and Canada and serves as a farm system to the NHL. The new agreement, which will run through the 2029-2030 season, “significantly increases player compensation, improves health and safety and delivers on new initiatives that are responsive to our players’ needs, while supporting [the] league’s continued growth,” said ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin in a statement following the deal. The in-season strike was the first of its kind in league history and came after eleven months of stalled negotiations.

On Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced her intention to push for the elimination of state taxes on up to $25,000 of tipped income. The announcement comes as state lawmakers near their return to Albany, where they will engage in negotiations over the state’s 2027 fiscal budget plan. The proposal is very similar to recent federal legislation enacted by President Trump and the GOP. Governor Hochul is running for reelection this year. 

On Friday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit granted the government’s motion to dismiss its appeal which challenged a lower court’s order halting attempted layoffs of certain government employees during last year’s shutdown. The government did not provide any reasons for its motion to dismiss, but it’s likely because the November deal reversed any layoff attempts that occurred during the shutdown. The news comes as Congress faces a new deadline of January 30 to pass another funding bill.