Category: Taxes

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill — A rotten Easter egg for homeowners is part of the tax bill passed by the lame-duck Democrat Congress and signed into law by President Obama, Dec. 17.

A provision to allow homeowners to deduct local property taxes without itemizing was let lapse. About two-thirds of Americans don’t make enough money to make it worth itemizing. The provision saved homeowners about $1.6 billion per year.

Of course, the filthy rich for whom it makes sense to itemize are not affected. Did you hear, by the way, that they are now inclined to support Democrats?

The bill does, however, include a tax break that allows banks and financial firms to shield foreign profits from being taxed through 2011. Beneficiaries include Bank of America  and Goldman Sachs. The cost to the country is $9.2 billion.

It is fair to say Obama is a man of the people if one assumes Wall Street bankers are people.

In a related matter, banks repossessed 1 million homes in 2010.

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill

Homeowners Lose Break In Obama Tax Bill

$9,600 Debt Per Pennsylvanian

Every resident of Pennsylvania owes $9,600 in state and local debt as of 2009, according to Nate Benefield of Commonwealth Foundation. This does not account for the $3 billion deficit in unemployment compensation or the billions in debt assumed in the Gen Theft pension bailout .

And of course this doesn’t account for the money for which they are on the hook regarding the massive federal debt.

So Pennsylvanians, and the rest of Americans, are going to continue to become poorer until they develop skin thick enough to withstand being called “uncaring” and “hateful” by greedy government-connected types who use emotional blackmail as a means of acquiring wealth and power.

Benefield notes that Pennsylvania’s general obligation debt rose by almost $2 billion, or 28 percent, during Gov. Rendell’s reign of robbery.

On a related note, in Michigan, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing has developed a plan in response to his city’s fiscal crisis that would end  services — including trash collection, road repair and fire/police/ambulance responses — to about 45 square miles of the city. Call it urban planning by Mad Max.

Pennsylvania, do you see your future?

Site Flunks Delco GOP On Liberty

LibertyIndex.com run by Bob Guzzardi of Bryn Mawr is a fascinating site full of useful information where each bill passed by the Pennsylvania legislature since 2003 is analyzed with regard as to how it effects the liberty of the residents of the Commonwealth. The legislators are then graded on their support for liberty based on their votes.

The site defines The Liberty Index rating as an  “assessment of whether a piece oflegislation advances or restrains individual liberty,particularly, economicfreedom to spend your money the way you think best.”

The highest grade for a Delaware County legislator is the B given to State Rep. Nick Miccarelli (R-162).  He is followed by Rep. Steve Barrar (R-160) who gets a C+ and Tom Killion (R-168) who gets a C-.

Then it gets pretty sad.

House Republicans Bill Adolph (165) gets a D+; Mario Civera (164) gets a D; and Nick Micozzie gets an F-.

House Democrats Bryan Lentz (161). Greg Vitali (166) , Thaddeus Kirkland (159), and Roger Waters (191) get F- leaving  Robert C. Donatucci (185) to shine with a F.

It’s even worse on the Senate side. Republicans Dominic Pileggi (9) and Ted Erickson (26), and Democrat Anthony H. Williams (8) get F-. Democrat Daylin Leach (17)  for some strange reason gets a mere F. That’s definitely a mistake.

In fairness to the Senate Republicans, the index heavily weighs votes concerning appropriations and if the state had a governor other than Ed “Spend For My Friends” Rendell, I suspect their grades would be higher. Pileggi should get some credit for fighting Eddie as hard as he did to keep spending from being even worse.

And kudos to Guzzardi for some heavy lifting and excellent work.

Pa. Becomes Top Beggar Under Rendell

The dynamic leadership of Gov. Rendell has lead Pennsylania to a number one ranking in each year of his administration in the category of money spent on lobbying Washington. In other words, Pennsylvania had dedicated more state taxpayer money to attempting to leech off the federal taxpayer than any other state.

Pa. snatched the crown in 2003 walloping second-place New Jersey $890,000  to $400,000.

By 2009, the winning streak was John-Woodenesque with Pennsylvania outspending second-place Nevada more than 5 to 1 at $1.48 million to $280,000.

“We’ve done awesome in getting funds from Washington both under the BushAdministration and the Obama Administration,” said Rendell.

Hat tip to Pennsylvania Independent and GrassrootsPa.Com

Philly School Supe Gets Extra 65Gs From Taxpayer. Why?

Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman is getting $65,000 on top of her ever-rising $325,000 salary, Commonwealth Foundation is reporting .

Why? Is 325G and a desire to serve children not enough to inspire her to do her best? Or maybe the state-appointed  School Reform Commission had some extra money — hey, there’s a budget crisis ? — and thought spreading it around would bring some good karma. It’s easy to be nice guys with other people’s money.

2009 was certainly not a year about which Ms. Ackerman could brag. Her most noted action was her strange non-response to violence and harassment of minority students that plague the district.

But then, why work if someone is going to give your $65,000 for sitting on your tail?

Pa. Daily Blames State Budget Crisis On Bush

The Delaware County Daily Times in suburban Philadelphia, today, squarely placed the blame on Harrisburg’s inability to pass a budget on the shoulders of George W. Bush. It said:


Of course, it doesn’t help that the country was plunged into economic disaster by the previous administration. When George W. Bush took office in 2001, he inherited a budget surplus of more than $200 billion. In 2009, he left the country with a $1 trillion deficit and projected deficits of $8 trillion or more.

The Times‘ reasoning appears to be that if Washington didn’t have such fiscal headaches they’d be able to shovel more money to Pennsylvania and nobody would be upset about state political hacks making  300 Gs  even when they retire. Nor would people be expressing ire at the compensation of the members of the teachers union for whose pensions Harrisburg is largely on the hook .

Of course, one wonders why it might not have occurred to the editorial writers that places like California and New York and Michigan with even greater budget headaches might not get first dibs in the fed loot money which would obviously include a chunk taken from Pennsylvanians.

Now regarding the former president, while one is not inclined to defend the domestic spending that occurred under his watch, we can’t recall the Daily Times objecting to Dubya’s creating a Medicare drug entitlement that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade, increasing federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation or being the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal antipoverty programs.

And we certainly don’t see the Times objecting to President Obama’s drastic acceleration of those programs.

Of course, a lot of conservatives did and do.

And with regard to that  $1 trillion deficit and the projected $8 trillion deficits, well, Bush’s final budget projected a $408 billion deficit for fiscal year Oct. 1, 2008 to Sept. 30, 2009. The TARP fiasco, strongly supported by a certain young senator from Illinois, spent nearly $300 billion  more — hey Daily Times what reforms do you advocate for Freddie and Fannie?  Then, Obama tacked on another $113 billion in “stimulus” spending,  and the economic downturn caused a drastic shortfall from the tax revenue that had been projected.

Obama’s first all-by-his-lonesome budget, btw,  calls for a $1.17 trillion deficit.

The problem with the old media isn’t that it criticizes and scrutinizes Republicans but that it fails to do so with Democrats. Stop drinking the Flavor Aid and start thinking for yourselves. 

Blood From Stones In Springfield

Here are two of the four homes for sale in the 100 block of West Springfield Road, Springfield, Pa. Note, that’s just in the 100 block. The tax pain suffered by the people of this state can be laid solely at the feet of government corruption;  mostly by Democrats but the Republicans are far from innocent bystanders. It’s only going to get worse and, no, the pending reform  is not going to help.Enshrine this in gold: it is every bit as decent and moral to cut  a  public employee’s pension as it is to force someone to sell their home to pay for it.
Springfield residents, btw, are now receiving their school tax bills and it’s starting to dawn on many of them that they are merely renting their homes from the government.
The good news? The thrift shop at the Church of Redeemer, which is also in that block, is now open on Tuesdays as well as Saturdays. 

CF Ask: Are All Lawmakers Crooks?

Commonwealth Foundation, today, itemized the recent charges, convictions and investigations of current and recent Pennsylvania state legislators and boldly claimed the crime rate in the state Capitol to be higher than our worst cities.


The CF’s Nathan Benefield pointed out that State Rep. Mike Veon, who had served as PA House Democrat Whip, has been sentenced to 6 to 14 years for his role in Bonusgate while trials are pending against former speakers of the house Bill DeWeese and John Perzel as well as former representatives Brett Feese and Steve Stetler. Note that Perzel and Feese are Republicans while DeWeese and Stetler are Democrats.

Benefield also points out that on the Senate side former powerbroker  Vince Fumo has been convicted, Sen. Jane Orie  has been indicted, and the feds have raided the homes and offices of Democratic Leader Bob Mellow  and Sen. Ray Musto. Here, Ms. Orie is the lone Republican and I’ll grant you that my suspicion is that when all is said and done the scandal will be the behavior of the prosecutor, who happens to belong to a powerful Democrat family, rather than that of the Senator.

Still it is the reasonable person that will think that the Pennsylvania is run by thieves and this would of course explain our chronic budget crisis and bloated pension plans . 
 
Don’t forget that those in trouble aren’t  backbenchers felt by their colleagues to be dirty, but men whom their peers elected to led them i.e. two speakers of the house, a Democrat house whip and a Democrat senate leader.

Yes, Pennsylvania, you are run by thieves.

One solution Commonwealth Foundation broached to bring a level of quasi-honesty to Harrisburg is term limits. To that I say dead on.


Pension Reform Is Generational Theft

By State Rep. Sam Rohrer

I was one of only six members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to vote against a bill that would increase the cost to taxpayers paying for retirement benefits for current state employees, teachers and legislators in the state’s two pension systems.

House Bill 2497 is like slapping a fresh coat of paint on a building with a crumbling foundation. The changes in this legislation would do very little to improve the existing structural deficiencies in the state’s pension systems.

The bill implements a series of changes to the state’s two major retirement systems — the State Employees’ Retirement System (SERS) and the Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS).

The measure would achieve a short-term reduction in contributions by refinancing current pension liabilities over a 30-year period and in reality deferring costs.

This is a case study in generational theft. The Rendell administration skimped in recent years on its obligation to fully fund the pension systems and now that responsibility will be passed on to future generations. This bill just puts the burdens of today on the taxpayers of tomorrow. It makes some responsible changes for newly hired workers, but adds billions of dollars in costs to future taxpayers who will be saddled with greater problems than we now have.

The pension change was likely motivated by a desire to use any short-term savings to pay for additional state government spending.

For years, politicians in Washington, D.C., have been raiding the Social Security system to pay for pet projects. This bill does something similar on the state level. By pushing off pension costs to future years, the General Assembly just frees up more dollars to spend today. There are no substantive savings for taxpayers in this bill. If there were, taxpayers should expect to see the overall costs of state government go down. This is just a numbers game where a near-term decision will underfund the pensions so overspending can occur in another area.

The changes in the pension benefits systems fall far short of bringing them in line with similar private sector retirement plans. The bill maintains the existing defined benefit system, where state employees, school teachers and legislators are guaranteed certain benefits. Under this system, if pension investments fail to meet their goals, taxpayers are on the hook to make up the difference.

Approximately two-thirds of private employers have shifted to defined contribution plans, where the business will match an employee’s contribution to a retirement account. Under this system, the employee bears the burden of risk associated with fluctuations in investment performance.

The decision to maintain the defined benefit pension systems will wind up costing taxpayers significantly more than a defined contribution system, especially if pension system investments underperform in the years ahead.

Many Pennsylvania retirees and workers lost huge chunks of their pensions in the economic meltdown. Yet this bill tells them that, while their own retirement benefits fluctuate, they must guarantee the benefits of taxpayer-paid workers. This legislation essentially says there is one set of rules for taxpayers for their own retirement accounts and a completely different set of rules for those who work for government.

Some of the beneficial changes in the pension bill included:

Doubling the amount of time from five years to 10 years that an employee must work before becoming “vested” – or guaranteed benefits – in the pension plans.

Reducing the multiplier used to calculate pension benefits from 2.5 percent to 2 percent.

Increasing the minimum retirement age for PSERS members to 65 with three years of service instead of the current minimum of 62 with one year of service.

Increase from 50 to 55 the retirement age for representatives and senators who take office for the first time next year.

Eliminates the option for retirees to take a lump-sum payment upon retirement.

All of the changes would only apply to new state workers, teachers and lawmakers who are hired or take office next year. The benefits and requirements of current pension plan participants would not change.

While these changes are a small step in the right direction, they are overridden by the sheer magnitude of the interest costs alone due to the re-amortization over 30 years, all of which will be paid by future taxpayers. In addition, these changes do not protect taxpayers by bringing public pension benefits in line with equivalent private sector retirement plans.

Taxpayers are tired of living by one set of rules while government lives by another. It appears Harrisburg still hasn’t heard that important message.

The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Mr. Rohrer , a Republican, has represented Berks County’s 128th District 128th District in the Pennsylvania House since 1993. He will retire from the Legislature at the end of the year. This column This column ran in the Mercury serving Pottstown, Pa.


Proposed Pa Pension Fix Just Another Scam

A bill being considered by the state House to ease the pain of Pennsylvania taxpayers about to take an unforeseen hit to fund the pension plans of public employees is just going to postpone the pain until those who vote for it are themselves collecting pensions and probably residing in another state.

HB 2497 would limit taxpayer contributions in the near term only to jack them up in later years , according to the always excellent Commonwealth Foundation.  This plan would ultimately put Pennsylvanians on the hook for another $52 billion over 30 years according to CF.

If you don’t believe that HB 2497 is real bad news note  the Pennsylvania State Education Association is not opposing it.

Anybody else think it is a real bad idea to let people write their own own pension plans and oblige others to fund it?

Ironically, Karl Marx has the perfect solution to resolving the pension crisis.