More Congressional idiocy is coming…
One of the dumbest things that Democrats and Republicans alike have done is they have made much of the tax code temporary. They do this because it allows them to act like future budget deficits are lower than they actually are. It is basically dishonest accounting…
Since the “Super Committee” failed; Congress will have to deal with several of the temporary aspects of the current tax code. The truth of the matter is Congress was hoping the “Super Committee” would handle some of this for them… Unfortunately for everyone Congress keeps doing this in December of the year before the tax changes will take place.
THIS IS ABSURD.
The political grandstanding and partisan fighting will be immense in the next four weeks. Congress has failed to pass a lot of required legislation (again) and will struggle to get it all done. Lets look at some of the items that are to be resolved this year; please realize there will be even more to deal with NEXT year due to the supposed expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts.
Congress passed the Alternative Minimum Tax in 1969 to ensure less than 50 families (The very rich) paid more in income taxes. Congress failed to index the AMT with inflation and so more and more Americans are effected by it every year. Every year Congress decides to “patch” the AMT because they do not want it to effect as many Americans as it otherwise would. In 1970 the AMT effected 20,000 tax returns. In 2011 (And it was “patched” in 2011) it effected four million Americans. If it is NOT patched in the next few weeks it will cause about 34 million American households to pay higher taxes due to the AMT in 2012. This tax will engulf both the middle classed and the rich. The one year cost to “patch” the AMT for 2012 is 85 billion dollars.
In difficult economic times Congress has enacted an extension of unemployment benefits to states with high unemployment. The current extension expires at the end of January of 2012. If this extension does not occur about three million Americans (mainly the long term unemployed) will lose benefits in February. The cost of a one year extension is 49 billion dollars.
In 2011 President Obama with cooperation from both Parties passed an ill advised employee payroll tax cut. This payroll tax cut caused Americans to pay 112 billion less in Social Security taxes than they otherwise would. The Federal Government then put an IOU in the Social Security system and promised to pay it back to Social Security in the future. President Obama now wants to increase the size of the employee payroll tax cut. The 2011 version decreased the payroll tax from 6.2% to 4.2%. President Obama now wants to further lower it to 3.1% for 2012. This will put more money in the pockets of payroll workers; however, the Federal Government has to drop another IOU into the Social Security Trust Fund. This will cost 175 billion dollars for 2012.
President Obama now wants to forgive half of the portion the employers match towards social security and medicare on the first five million in payroll. This will save employers money and again the Federal Government will drop another IOU into the Social Security Trust Fund. This will cost 58 billion for 2012.
There are a lot of tax provisions that expire on 12/31/11. This package is called the “tax extenders” package. The cost of this is about 83 billion for 2012 alone.
Congress has promised to cut Medicare payments to doctors by 30% for the last several years. Then in December they panic and decide not to do it for another year. The cost of the “Doc Fix” is 22 billion for 2012 alone.
Congress keeps allowing businesses to depreciate equipment faster. They mistakenly think this causes businesses to buy more equipment. It may have caused this effect the first year or two; however, it has been going on for well over a decade now and businesses expect it. The cost of this is 21 Billion for 2012 alone.
Luckily the Bush tax cuts do not expire next month; otherwise the fighting would be far worse…
In summary here are the temporary provisions the Reps and Dems need to agree upon:
- AMT, 85 billion (BOTH parties want to patch this)
- Extended Unemployment, 49 billion (Democrats want this big time; Republicans kind of want it)
- Expanded Employee Payroll tax cut, 175 billion (President Obama and Democrats want this, Republicans have been less interested in this which is surprising with their ant-tax mania)
- Employer payroll tax cut, 59 billion (President Obama wants this and I think both sides will want this)
- Tax extenders, 83 billion (Both sides want this)
- Doc Fix, 22 billion (Both sides want this)
- Accelerated Depreciation, 21 billion (Republicans want this big time; Democrats pretty much want it to).
Super Committee Idiocy put into perspective
The United States of America is on an unsustainable path. The morons in Washington DC (Both Parties) spend all of their time trying to get re-elected rather than fix problems.
No rational person can look at the amount of debt the United States has and the size of its annual budget deficits and think that this path is sustainable. This year and last year the United States Federal Government borrowed 40 cents of every dollar it spent…
The Congress formed a “Super Committee” of six Democrats and six Republicans. This committee was given the simple task of finding 1.2 trillion dollars of deficit reduction over the next almost ten years…
Lets assume they just want to solve the problem with spending cuts. Currently the Congressional Budget Office projects that Federal spending will grow by about 5.8% per year for the foreseeable future. This is 100% INSANE.
If the “Super Committee” wanted to generate 1.2 trillion dollars in deficit savings all it had to do was to limit the increase in spending to about 3.8% per year. This SHOULD be easy… Really easy…
Instead they bickered with each other and accomplished nothing. It is no wonder Congress has an approval rating of 9%. I hope that America gets fed up with both Parties and send a lot of new people to Congress next November…
Mike Sylvester
Have a Happy
Idiots in DC
Congress has passed one small portion of the massive spending bill (The American Jobs Act) that President Obama wanted to use earlier this year to try to “create” jobs.
This small portion of the bill was passed with almost unanimous support. It is amazing that a bill so stupid can become law so easily.
The bill basically does two things:
The first involves a 3% with-holding tax for contractors. This silly law was passed in 2005. It was so unpopular that Congress decided to implement it starting on January 1st, 2013. Basically the 2005 law would have forced governments to with-hold 3% from all payments to contractors if those payments were $10,000 or more. This silly law did NOT increase taxes; instead it just forced the Government to with-hold tax that the contractor would have gotten credit for paying. The final IRS regulations just came out earlier this year and this was going to be a complicated system that did not raise taxes; instead it just added more paperwork. I am glad it was repealed. It NEVER should have been passed in the first place. As long as contractors file tax returns they will be reporting their income tax due and then the IRS needs to ensure they pay them. A better law would be to require governments to ensure that anyone they do business with is current on all applicable taxes prior to doing business with them.
The second involves giving employers large credits for hiring veterans. Basically this expands the Working Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) program. The WOTC is a program that gave employers a tax credit of up to $2400 for hiring ex felons, certain disabled people, certain people on Welfare, etc. The WOTC is a STUPID program that should be immediately stopped. The Federal Government has no business paying employers to hire one group of people over another group of people. I feel that hiring one group of people over another group of people is discrimination.
The expansion of the WOTC makes it so that employers get:
- Up to $2400 (Must pay $6000 in wages to get this) if they employ a veteran who collected unemployment benefits for at least four weeks in the prior year.
- Up to $4800 (Must pay $12,000 in wages to get this) if they employ a veteran who is disabled and was discharged within the last 12 months.
- Up to $5600 (Must pay $14,000 in wages to get this) if they employ a veteran who collected unemployment benefits for at least 26 weeks in the prior year.
- Up to $9600 (Must pay $24,000 in wages to get this) if they employ a disabled veteran who collected unemployment benefits for at least 26 weeks in the prior year.
I detest vandals
On Election night (Last Tuesday) someone destroyed the mailboxes of two of my neighbors and I. Further I had four reflectors in my driveway and they destroyed those as well. They likely used a baseball bat or something similar.
I have no idea who did it; however, it was likely teen aged kids. They had to have destroyed my property between about 11PM and maybe 5 AM Wednesday morning.
I have no idea why people destroy other people’s property for no reason. It is senseless and ignorant. I wonder why their parents let them roam around late at night?
Then a couple of nights later some lady put her car in my ditch. She pulled into my driveway at night to turn around. I have a pretty nasty ditch on both sides of my driveway a few feet away from the street. I always mark it with reflectors; however, some idiots destroyed my reflectors a few days before and I had not yet replaced them.
She had to call a tow truck who pulled her out of that ditch in about an hour…
I hate vandals…
Mike
How non-elected commissions spend tax funds
At this afternoon’s Redevelopment Commission meeting we were again able to watch a non-elected group spend lots of property tax funds for purposes with very questionable authority and/or economic justification - (and, if you attended this meeting, you were left in the dark on just how much they spent since only the commission members and a few city employees had copies of the resolutions!):
Resolution 2011-19 - This was approved to spend $150,000 of Centenial Industrial Park Urban Renewal Area TIF dollars for changing 123 street lights over to LED lighting. The cost savings in electricity expense was estimated at $7000 per year for the 123 lights as compared with the existing system. The city engineer was asked two questions before the vote: 1) What would the cost have been to replace the lights with standard sodium vapor lighting units? He didn’t have the data and 2) What would be the dollar savings in replacement of burned-out sodium-vapor lamps as compared to the cost to replace the LED lamps? Again, he did not have the answer. A Redevelopment employee stated that the “pay-back” period for the $150,000 would be 6 years. So that’s $150,000 less 6 times the $7000 ($42,000) or $108,000 remaining to be saved over this same 6 years - or $108,000 per year. Even if the city’s cost is $50.00 per hour - that would mean 360 hours per year for the 123 light fixtures - or 3 hours per year per fixture! But, a non-elected commission spending other peoples money could care less about any cost-saving payback, I guess.
Resolutions 2011-20,21,22 and 23 were approved, with all of them being paid with our commision’s favorite “slush-funds” the Economic Development Area’s TIF dollars. Remenber, each EDA with a TIF district was formed to, “allow the development of an area that the city declared ‘could not be developed without the fiscal help of property taxes generated by this specific development over a 50 year (later a 30 year) period’” The douments establishing this “area-in-need-of-development” listed the planned development of what became, for example, “Apple Glen and Jefferson Pointe shopping centers”. As it turned out for this area, due to the private developers planning, very little funding was required for the infrastructure improvments over that paid for by them. So, at the present time, this Jefferson/Illinois Road TIF is generating over $ 3,500,000 per year, accumulating in the city fund # 317 and will begin generation of additional dollrs per year as the new Courtyard Hotel begins to pay property taxes. Three times now, the Redevelopment Commission has expanded this Jefferson/Illinois Road EDA so it would have a place to spend these large amounts of cash! The alternate , per Indiana Code, would have been for the commission to declare the project “complete” and to return any future property tax revenue to the normal property tax levy principals - our Fort Wayne Community Schools, operating funds for city government (Police and Fire Department costs), et al. 2011-20 was approved for replacement of pedestrian and traffic lighting at the Jefferson rail underpass just west of the intersection with West Main Street. 2011-21 was approved for the replacement of the dead Ash trees with other species - at a cost of $19,110 for the Washington Center/Coldwater Road TIF area and about the same in the Jefferson/IUllinois Road area. 2011-22 was approved to ratify and approve acquisition costs for 15 properties on the West side of Ewing Street across from Parkview Field and including the property at the Southwest corner of Jefferson and Ewing. The purchase of these was approved at a special meeting of the commission on June 23 of this year. All of these now belong to the city and are no longer on the property tax roles. The city has no plans for these properties. 2011-23 was approved to ratify and approve expenditures related to demolition of the existing buildings on the above properties. I question, again, how these properies can be purchased with TIF dollars since they are located OUTSIDE the latest Jefferson/Ilinois Road EDA. Greg Leatherman will again use the justification, “these parcels of land are “serving” the EDA” - which is a long stretch of his imagination!!!
Then, in other business, Leatherman asked for and received approval to spend up to $80,000 to make the property sold to The New Harrison LLC for The Harrison complex “Build-Ready”. This will involve digging and hauling 5000 to 6000 cubic yards of dirt, clay, sand, et al out of the pit that will become the underground parking garage for The Harrison. So this is another amount that taxpayers are being charged for the privilege of allowing “The New Harrison LLC” to build a building that will be owned by them - even though about one half of it’s cost is being paid with public funds!
And then finally, Leatherman stated, for about the 50th time, that the project is “A GO” (even though the New Market tax credits have not yet been sold). I guess we can assume that the addional $80,000 will be added to the $200,000 cap on the city’s cost if the Harrison is not built within the time-frame called out in the The New Harrison LLC agreement.
We are getting deeper and deeper and deeper into this thing - And what does the Fort Wayne Corporate entity get in return?
NOTHING!
Fort Wayne City Elections 2011
The City elections are done and over. I have to imagine the vast majority of us are glad that they are over. The 2011 election was the nastiest local election I can remember. Several Democrats ran negative campaigns as did Republican Paula Hughes. The two major candidates for Mayor both ran despicable campaigns.
In an earlier post I discussed which six candidates would win of the six positions I could vote for. I was right about all six winners and except for the Clerk’s race my breakdown of the votes was very close.
I voted for three of the six winning candidates.
There are several surprising takes from this election:
- I am still shocked that Mayor Henry ran a campaign that was so distasteful, negative and dishonest.
- I am also surprised that several Democrats ran negative ads.
- The most surprising take for me is turnout. Up until the 2007 election turnout for City races has been between 36% and 42% which is terrible. In 2007, at least partially due to the indictment of Matt Kelty, turnout was a dismal 33%. This year turnout was only 26%. This truly saddens me and means our elected officials are being selected by a smaller and smaller group of people.
- I was also surprised that Mr. Shoaff barely retained his at large seat. He was almost beat by Friestroffer. I truly thought Shoaff would come in second place fairly easily rather then barely in third place.
There are a couple of encouraging things from the 2011 City elections:
- They are over.
- The voting totals clearly show that a large number of voters did not vote entirely along party lines and I am glad to see it. Further I hope this trend continues. It is absurd to think that all of the members of any one party are always the best candidates in the race.
I voted early this afternoon at Precinct 299
I vote up at Agape Church on Lima Road. I voted around 2:30 PM and the polls were empty; as expected. 2:30 PM is normally a time when the polls are empty.
The only person handing out literature was one person handing out literature for Paula Hughes…
In the primary Paula Hughes mobilized a lot of people and had a large number of volunteers…
Mike
Democrats locally using automated robocalls
I did some research on political robocalls today. Indiana has a law that bans automated political robocalls unless there is an introduction by a live operator who gets permission to start the automated message. There is a fine of up to $5000 for violating this rule.
Last year the three Indiana political parties agreed not to use automated political robocalls.
In September of 2011 Indiana’s ban on robocalls was overturned; basically the court said that Federal law trumps state law and so Indiana’s ban was overturned. Indiana’s Attorney General is appealing the ruling.
Yesterday the Tom Henry campaign engaged in a large robocall campaign. The robocalls that I heard were a recorded message from Mayor Henry supporting Karen Goldner and Sandy Kennedy.
When I originally heard the robocall I thought that the robocall was illegal. When I researched the matter today I found out about the Court case in late September of 2011 that overturned the Indiana law.
I dislike robocalls; however, based on today’s research I think they are now legal as long as they are done from out of state…
Mike
Get out and vote today!
I hope everyone who reads this blog and is eligible to vote goes out and votes today! Voting is important and we need Americans to learn more about the myriad of problems that exist in this country and to select the best of the candidates that are available to represent them!
I will be voting this afternoon.
Please let us know what you see when you go to the polls today!
Mike
