Although you may not want to think about the state of your finances, there is no getting away from the fact that money is an essential part of everyday life. This article is full of tips that will help you get your finances under control.
Be sure to include your post tax income. For starters, include all after-tax money that you get each month from your salary, alimony, child support, rental income, or other sources. Make sure your expenses are less than your income on a monthly basis. A great way to consolidate many bills into a smaller payment is by getting personal loans and these loans are typically desired because they offer a much lower rate of interest. You can imagine how much money you will save by consolidating higher interest loans into a personal loan with a lower rate.
To make this process effective, you should compose a detailed listing of your expenditures. You need to also include quarterly and yearly payments. Some of these expenses may be home improvement and repair costs, or car maintenance and registration payments. You need to also write down other, smaller things that you pay for daily or weekly, such as child care or grocery shopping. You should make sure that your list is as comprehensive as possible to ensure you have a true picture of what you spend.
There are always things you can eliminate from any budget. One easy thing you can do is bring coffee from home instead of stopping for expensive lattes on the way to work. Seek out anything similar to this that you can get rid of without difficulty prior to putting together a lasting financial plan.
See what improvements you can make to help you lower your utility bills. Windows can be a weak link in your homes armor by letting out heat in the winter and cool air in the summer. Make sure your windows are properly insulated. An on-demand hot water tank is a good way to reduce spending. Have a plumber come out and fix any leaky pipes you have to help lower your monthly water bill. Be sure to run your dishwasher only when it is full, so you can make the best use of it.
If you can, purchase new energy efficient appliances. These energy-saving appliances help you save on your utilities. Also, when you are not using something, unplug it. You can save both money and energy by doing this.
Some home improvements pay for themselves over time with the reduction in utility expenses. For example, replacing your roof and installing new insulation prevents you from losing energy for both heating and cooling because of insufficient structural materials.
Try to save money by being careful with appliances. Even though you are spending money to repair or replace items, you will see a savings in the long run.
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A funny thing happened after
California officials announced the shutdown of 70 state parks in
the face of an estimated $33 million in budget cutbacks: Private
companies, wealthy donors, nonprofit organizations and local
governments came up with ways to keep many parks open.
Eleven parks have already been dropped from the closing
list, and the parks agency is holding workshops to teach
community groups how to run a state park.
Unfortunately, such creative solutions — where government
officials privatize services or find other ways to stretch the
taxpayer’s dollar — appear less likely as Californians express
support for tax increases.
In a new state poll, 64 percent of those surveyed are
behind Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to “temporarily” boost the
state sales tax by a quarter cent and impose a new surcharge on
people earning more than $250,000 a year.
With more money coming in, politicians will have no stomach
for reform. As former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s top
pension adviser, David Crane, warned recently in the Sacramento
Bee, referring to the state’s unfunded pension and health-care
liabilities, “a tax increase in the absence of reform would mask
those problems, leading to even larger leakages down the road
and even greater degradation of services.”
Regarding the parks, Governor Brown and his fellow
Democrats promoted the Washington Monument Syndrome, which
refers to the way the federal government, when faced with budget
reductions, shuts down the monument to annoy tourists and
strong-arm taxpayers into giving them more revenue.
False Choice
Brown has based his entire program on that approach. He
keeps frightening voters with his tiresome false choice: higher
taxes or fewer services.
The governor has shown little interest in reforming
programs beyond some superficial tweaks — such as cutting a few
commissions, or restricting state employees’ mobile phones –
but he often prattles on about what it will mean when government
has to do less. At a speech to county officials last summer, he
said that if voters refuse to grant tax extensions, “we will get
a radical restructuring of what we are.”
But the thing that needs a radical restructuring is a state
government that puts the interests of those who work for it
above the provision of services to the actual public.
Privatization — for state parks and other sites, or for
prisons and roads — is by no means a cure-all when government
budgets hit the wall. But it is one option that is rarely
considered these days, especially in California, where the
powerful public-sector unions have been championing legislation
that takes any outsourcing possibilities off the table. The
unions have focused on some failed privatization experiments,
but they never mention the success stories or the common
failures when the government provides services.
Last year, for instance, Brown signed a law intended to
stop local libraries from outsourcing their operations to a
private contractor. The Library Journal reported that the
measure was aimed at a Maryland-based outsourcing company,
Library Systems amp; Services LLC, which “operates libraries in
Camarillo, Moorpark, Redding/Shasta County and Riverside
County.”
The Legislature often proposes union-backed measures that
restrict private alternatives in various areas of state
government, including professional engineering services,
information-technology contracts and the like.
At the local level, some Southern California cities
(including Ojai, Stanton and Claremont) are considering reverse
privatization — spending $100 million or more in bonds and
using the power of eminent domain to take over water utilities
from their private suppliers in order to combat rising rates,
even though these bills are climbing for public and privatized
systems alike.
Prison Horror Stories
But California also has new opportunities for
privatization. Last April, the state approved a realignment of
its prisons, sending many low-level, nonviolent offenders from
the state system to the counties. California’s annual cost of
$47,000 per inmate is the highest in the nation, and private
operators offer opportunities for savings as well as for an
improvement in the horrific conditions in the state’s prisons,
where guards are often protected from accountability, thanks to
a reported code of silence, and where 70 percent of parolees
return to prison within three years of their release.
Critics of privatization, such as New York Times columnist
Paul Krugman, focus on the potential for undue political
influence: “We seem to be turning into a country where crony
capitalism doesn’t just waste taxpayer money but warps criminal
justice, in which growing incarceration reflects not the need to
protect law-abiding citizens but the profits corporations can
reap from a larger prison population.”
Yet nothing has warped the California justice system more
than the California Correctional Peace Officers Association,
which exerts undue political influence on both major parties.
The prison guards union supports law-and-order politicians and
uses its muscle to oppose reforms to the state’s ham-fisted
three-strikes law and to its drug laws.
As the Los Angeles Times reported last year, “Lawmakers
struggling to keep cell phones away from California’s most
dangerous inmates say a main obstacle is the politically
powerful prison guards union, whose members would have to be
paid millions of dollars extra to be searched on their way into
work.” The guards, the article noted, “are the main source of
smuggled phones that inmates use to run drugs and other crimes,
according to legislative analysts who examined the problem.”
Yes, a private prison company has contributed money to
support Governor Brown’s tax-increase measure, but no private
vendor could ever approach the clout of the prison guards union,
which can stop even the most modest criminal-justice
innovations.
Other unions are equally adept at stopping reforms in other
parts of state government.
Privatization Battle
Private companies cannot simply offload their unfunded
employee costs onto the taxpayer, the way the public unions do,
because they have to control their costs. For instance, Golden
State Water Co., now fighting the municipal takeover attempts
referred to above, has higher rates than neighboring government-
run systems, but its rates must cover the total cost to provide
the service, which is why it switched its employees from a
defined-benefit pension plan to a defined-contribution plan.
Privatization is not the same thing as the true private
sector, where companies compete for customers rather than to win
government contracts. In its worst form, a privatized service
marries the inefficiencies and bureaucracy of the public sector
with the profit motive.
But more often — such as in Riverside, where the
privatized library significantly expanded its services — it
offers significant cost savings and greater oversight,
accountability and improved customer service.
For those who reflexively reject privatization, what is the
alternative? The status quo, after all, is a greedy public
workforce that has shown again and again that it puts its own
welfare above that of the people. As long as the voters are
willing to increase their taxes, or someone else’s, to maintain
bloated and inefficient government, they will continue to get
more of the same old thing.
(Steven Greenhut is vice president of journalism at the
Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. He is based
in Sacramento, California. The opinions expressed are his own.)
Read more opinion online from Bloomberg View.
Today’s highlights: The editors on Medicare’s payment board.
Ezra Klein on mandates, taxes and saving Obamacare. Amity Shlaes
on Barack Obama and FDR. Caroline Baum on the national-debt time
bomb. Robert H. Gertner on the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau. Oleg Kashin on Russia’s protest problem.
To contact the writer of this article:
Steven Greenhut in Sacramento, California, at
steven.greenhut@franklincenterhq.org.
To contact the editor responsible for this article:
Katy Roberts at kroberts29@bloomberg.net.
SACRAMENTO An elected state tax collector wants to save strapped California motorists money by freezing the sales tax on gasoline whenever the pump price jumps above $4 a gallon.
The idea, said George Runner, a Republican member of the State Board of Equalization, is to put a few bucks back in consumers pockets rather than provide a small windfall to local governments.
Gasoline prices in California averaged $4.33 on Wednesday, according to AAAs Daily Fuel Gauge Report. Runner said his proposal, expected to be introduced soon in the Legislature, would save consumers $1.4 billion a year if retail gas prices hit $5 a gallon.
This should be a reasonable issue for us to talk about without being partisan, Runner said. We should try to figure out how to help motorists and taxpayers who are getting walloped at the pump.
Passing a bill wont be easy, Runner acknowledged. It would cut revenue for struggling cities, counties and other local governments. They would lobby hard to keep any proposal from winning bipartisan two-third majorities of the members of the Assembly and Senate and the support of Gov. Jerry Brown.
Brown and the Democrats who control the statehouse are struggling to fill a projected $9.2-billion deficit next year, and a host of cities are facing ever-deeper cuts as they try to balance their own budgets.
Sales tax revenue on gasoline for cities and counties rose 22.5% for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. And a change in the tax formula two years ago is ensuring that the state per-gallon gasoline excise tax revenue stays even with fuel-price inflation.
Were not interested in undermining funding for local governments, said Robin Swanson, a spokeswoman for Assembly SpeakerJohn A. Perez(D-Los Angeles).
Gas sales tax dollars will help but are not a panacea for the deep problems that cities are working through right now, said Michael Coleman, a financial analyst with the League of California Cities.
California now has the second-highest level of gas taxes in the nation with an average of 67 cents a gallon, just below New Yorks 67.4 cents a gallon, according to the American Petroleum Institute.
For every gallon of gasoline they buy, California motorists pay a federal excise tax of 18.4 cents and a state excise tax that is 35.7 cents now but fluctuates annually. The local sales taxes average 3.1% on the cost of gas and on the excise taxes, essentially a tax on taxes. That amounts to more than $10 in taxes for a 15-gallon tank of gasoline.
Those rates, according to the Board of Equalization, gave the state $5.2 billion for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30 and local governments a total of $1.5 billion.
Most of the local gas-tax pot is earmarked by various laws for special purposes, including public safety, health, social services and transportation. But a little more than a third of the proceeds goes to the cities and counties to spend as they like.
The rising proceeds from gas taxes arent a game changer for Los Angeles as it copes with a fiscal crisis, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
Its not enough of a revenue source that were focused on it much, the mayor said.
The increased income is like nickels and dimes to the cities, said Lenny Goldberg, director of the liberal-leaning California Tax Reform Assn. At best, he said, the added funds help compensate the city for higher fuel costs for police cars, fire engines and garbage trucks.
The citys share of gasoline sales tax rose nearly 17.8% to $12.6 million for the three months that ended Sept. 30 from $10.7 million in the year-earlier quarter. That accounted for 13.3% of the citys revenue from all sales taxes, according to the Los Angeles city administrative officer. Sales taxes in general account for 4.5% of the citys revenue.
The slow trend of increased gas tax revenue is expected to continue in upcoming city reports for the last three months of the year and the first quarter this year, said Rexford Olliff, a City Hall financial specialist.
Growth can be reasonably expected until gasoline prices stabilize or decline, Olliff said.
The growing tax revenue comes in spite of a steady drop in demand as prices have soared. Consumption fell nearly 3% for the year that ended Sept. 30, according to the California Board of Equalization. Over a six-year period, demand has fallen 10%.
To compensate for potential loss of income, which is dedicated to transportation projects, the Legislature last year applied an inflation index to a portion of the excise tax. It ordered tax collectors to recalculate the levy annually.
Runners idea is good but doesnt go far enough, said Jon Coupal, president of the conservative Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., named after an author of the Proposition 13 initiative that limited property taxes.
Instead of coming up with ways to keep all gasoline taxes high, lawmakers should declare a tax holiday for the sales tax on gasoline, Coupal said.
We have always found it extraordinarily offensive that there is a state tax applied to a federal tax and another state tax, Coupal said. If you go up to anybody and tell them that, they are incensed.
Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. But few Americans realize the scope and breadth of the taxes businesses pay and how uncertain and unpredictable that tax burden has become.
Most Americans would be shocked to learn that the 50 states have 50 different sets of standards for determining when an out-of-state corporation is subject to a state’s corporate income tax. These rules are so vague and unclear that costly litigation is often unavoidable. It is deplorable — embarrassing even — that the most advanced and sophisticated economy on the planet labors under such a confusing, uncertain and unfair system.
Dozens of states — desperate for revenue without political consequences — have been trying for years to collect taxes from businesses that aren’t located within their borders. They regularly assess millions of dollars a year in corporate income and similar taxes on companies simply because those companies have an “economic presence” in their borders. This includes customers with credit cards, bank loans, software or intangibles such as trademarks, trade names or advertising.
[Tallahassee, FL] Gov. Rick Scott signed a series of measures designed to trim business taxes and slash regulations Wednesday, as Republicans promised the initiatives would help promote job creation in a state where unemployment remains stubbornly high.
Passage of these important bills is a huge victory for the future of Florida’s economy, Scott said before signing the package.
Among the bills signed by the Governor was a measure delaying payment of the state unemployment system’s debt helping to keep those taxes low (HB 7027) and a bill increasing the exemption for the corporate income tax and making it easier to qualify for a manufacturing exemption (HB 7087).
He also inked legislation making it easier to eliminate regulations (HB 7029) as well as an effort to crack down on regional workforce boards that Scott says were wasting money.
While supporters insisted that the legislation signed Wednesday will help provide a better business climate, they were quick to say that a variety of factors were at work in the economy, and it would be difficult to accurately figure out how many jobs the measures might create.
The whole goal of this jobs package is to send a message to small businesses, to job creators that it’s safe to get back in the water again, said Mark Wilson, president and CEO of the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
The change to the corporate tax exemption, which will now rise to $50,000 from $25,000, contributes to Scott’s goal of eliminating the tax entirely. But it is a different mechanism than the gradual rate cut citizen Rick Scott touted during his 2010 campaign, and is a slower process than Scott anticipated.
Scott said he remained optimistic the state could eliminate the tax by 2018, his goal.
It’s got to accelerate a little bit, he said. Yeah, I think we’ll get there.
He pointed to the pace of the economic recovery, and the effect that has on state revenues, as one reason the reduction was taking longer.
I’m looking forward to the year that we have a projected surplus, Scott said.
But critics say Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature are taking the wrong approach. Instead, they argue, the state should invest in education, health care, housing and transportation other elements that businesses consider when trying to decide where to locate.
While Florida keeps every year coming up short with funding for those areas, continuing to give tax breaks and general revenue dollars to businesses on the promise that they will create jobs is problematic, said Karen Woodall of the Florida Center for Fiscal and Economic Policy.
The state is digging itself into a hole that it’s going to be difficult to recover from, said Woodall.
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By Robert Powell, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — There’s plenty to consider when you contemplate where to live in retirement. Will family and friends be nearby? Does the weather suit you? What sort of activities are there? And especially high on the list of factors to consider are taxes — one of life’s two certainties and one of the largest expenses people face in retirement.
Is the state that you have designs on retiring to tax friendly or not? And the basic questions to answer are these: How does the state tax your income? How does it tax your property and your consumption? And what’s the overall tax burden?
SLIDESHOW
Tax-friendly
states for retirees
See which states have the tax laws most beneficial for retirees.
DATA Compare your state
Want to compare tax rates for different states? See these tables and
charts for detailed comparisons.
o
State rates: Sales and use tax
o
State personal income taxes
o
How states tax retirement income, Social Security and pension income
/conga/story/2012/03/retirement_taxes.html 200044
As some know, older Americans tend to generate income from several sources in retirement, including income from wages or self-employment; Social Security; pensions; and personal assets, including taxable and tax-deferred accounts. Taxes on those sources of income, in essence, mean less money in your pocket for your golden years. So before moving to this or that state, you’ll need to figure out whether and how the state taxes your various sources of income.
You will also need to consider taxes on the other side of the ledger, including state and local property taxes, state and local sales and use taxes. If you live large, you might pay plenty in property taxes and sales taxes.
And, then you’ll need to calculate what your overall personal tax burden will be. It’s a taxing exercise to be sure.
Thankfully, CCH, a Wolters Kluwer company, has created several charts and tables that look at how states tax income, sales and other transactions, including retirement income. We’ve culled from that list — with the help of Kathleen Thies, a state tax analyst for CCH — the top income-tax friendly states for retirees, states that don’t tax income, including Social Security and pension income. And then we added some commentary from the Tax Foundation about other taxes, such as property and sales, and the overall tax burden, in those income-tax friendly states.
Of course, before moving to one of these income-tax friendly states, be sure to calculate your personal overall tax burden given all your actual and likely sources of income, given your spending patterns, and given your actual or desired standard of living.
Remember, what you save on income taxes in one state you might pay in property taxes or sales taxes. And vice versa. What you save on property and sales taxes in one state you might pay in income taxes. “There are no free lunches so you need to be savvy about what your particular needs are in retirement,” said Thies.
One more note, for those who itemize deductions, there are five types of deductible non-business taxes, including state, local and foreign income taxes; state, local and foreign real estate taxes; state, and local personal property taxes; state and local sales taxes, and qualified motor vehicle taxes.
In other words, to calculate your overall personal tax burden, you’ll have to figure out whether you can take advantage of these deductions.
That said, here’s a closer look at the states that are — if nothing else — the friendliest for income tax purposes, and, in some cases, fairly friendly from an overall tax burden, based on CCH and the Tax Foundation research. The states are listed in order of tax friendliness from an overall tax burden point of view, as measured by the Tax Foundation.
For detailed information on the states, see our slide show, The most tax-friendly states for retirees.
Alaska: Alaska might not seem like a retirement haven based on the usual factors considered such as, say, weather. But it might be the perfect place for one’s golden years if taxes are a big concern. Alaska doesn’t tax personal income, including Social Security benefits and pension income. And, there’s no state-imposed sales tax. This is not to say that you won’t pay any taxes in Alaska. Instead, it means that you’ll pay other types of taxes, such as property taxes.
Nevada: Many retirees rely on income from several sources to make ends meet these days. If you fall into that camp, Nevada might be the place for you. This state doesn’t tax income, Social Security benefits or pension income. And its property taxes are reasonable, too. Its sales tax, however, is higher than the national average.
South Dakota: It might not be the first or even the second state that you think of when contemplating where to live in retirement. But South Dakota is nothing if not a tax friendly state. The state doesn’t tax individual income, Social Security benefits or pension income. And the overall tax burden is among the lowest in the nation.
Wyoming: There’s no individual income tax on Social Security benefits or pension income in Wyoming, according to CCH. But that’s not to say you won’t have to pay any taxes in Wyoming. Property taxes and sales taxes tend to be higher than the national average.
Texas: In Texas, there’s no individual income tax. But property and sales taxes tend to be higher than the rest of the nation.
Florida: There are plenty of reasons why people choose to retire to the Sunshine state, the low tax burden being among those reasons. There’s no individual income tax on Social Security benefits or pension income. There are pipers to pay, however, in the forms of property and sales taxes.
Washington: Another state not generally viewed as a traditional retirement haven is, however, income tax friendly for retirees. There’s no individual income tax on Social Security benefits or pension income. But if you plan on spending lots money while in retirement, Washington might not be your first choice. It has a relatively high sales tax.
See the slide show for complete information on all the states.
State-by-state data
State-by-state data on taxation of retirement income; Social Security and pension income.
State-by-state data on personal income tax rates.
State-by-state data on sales and use taxes.
Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, published by MarketWatch.
Learn more about Retirement Weekly here.
Follow his tweets here.
Robert Powell has been a journalist covering personal finance issues for more than 20 years, writing and editing for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, and Mutual Fund Market News.
Board of Education adopts budget, with $41.5 million in the general fund
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – The Middle Township Board of Education this week approved a zero-tax increase budget totaling $44.9 million.
School board members, 6-1, adopted the budget Tuesday that keeps the tax levy at $22.6 million. It’s been several years since a school budget was introduced that did not raise taxes in Middle Township, said board vice president Dennis Roberts.
He said the Board of Education staved off a tax increase by using money the school board saved from utility consumption in the 2011-12 budget. He said most of the money went to the maintenance reserve, and the remainder to ensure no tax increase.
“When you’re balancing all these things, the board’s ultimate weight was given to instructional staff first to keep the quality of our education and teaching staff working. And that’s first and foremost charge from the administration,” Roberts said during a school board meeting March 27.
Faced with an $809,746 shortfall, partly in cuts from sending district tuition and state aid, board members also moved to privatize substitute teachers and part-time teacher’s aides and bus aides.
The school district is expected to save $208,343 through implementing a full-service substitute teacher program and a full-service paraprofessional program.
Some aren’t happy about the move to privatization, including school board member Robert Bakley II, who cast the lone dissenting vote on the budget. Bakley campaigned against privatization when he ran for school board; he is in his first term.
“I am not in favor of privatization. Fact: We took advantage of a workforce that has little way of protecting itself, teacher’s aides and substitutes,” he said in an prepared statement on Wednesday. “On the other side of this, it will cost us all.”
He used an example of an illegal worker to save money, although there is no indication the school district users illegal workers.
“But when an illegal worker is injured on the job, all of us pay,” he said. “All we did was shift the costs.”
Putting in place a full-service substitute teacher program would come with a $102,740 savings. Substitutes would not be Board of Education employees any longer, Superintendent Michael Kopakowski said.
“All of our current substitutes will remain in the [substitute] pool,” Kopakowski said. “There will be no change in their availability.”
A full-service paraprofessional program would come with $105,603 savings, and Kopakowski said that would include teacher’s aides and bus aides.
“You’re privatizing people who commit to the community…,” said Charlotte Sadler, a teacher from Middle Township High School and president of the Middle Township Education Association.
Roberts said the Board of Education chose to keep in-house transportation, buildings, custodial staff and maintenance.
“I don’t believe that you can characterize privatization of a part-time, 19.5 [hour] employee as a move to privatization,” Roberts said. “Because the board’s finance committee decided that the people who were are full-time tenured, longest aides in our district… will remain in place. They will not be touched in this move, meaning that the only people this affects are our part-time aides, not anyone who’s full time.”
Kopakowski said eight full-time teacher’s aides would continue as Middle Township Board of Education employees and still receive benefits.
Sadler said the Board of Education axed retirement benefits for the part-timers.
“These are the people who give back to the community, that live here,” Sadler said.
She indicated that it’s privatization.
The Board of Education was restricted in what it could do, Roberts said.
Although Bakley voted against the budget, he did praise the school board members for work on the 2012-13 budget.
Members voting for the budget included vice president Dennis Roberts, George DeLollis, Burgess Hamer, Linda Koch, Daniel Money and Stephanie Thomas.
The general fund totals $41.5 million, special revenue funds amounts to $1.76 million, and debt service is $1.57 million.
The school district saw a $745,016 net revenue reduction, including a loss in sending district tuition and state aid. Avalon, Stone Harbor and Dennis Township students attend Middle Township High School.
The Board of Education will receive $156,967 from Avalon, an $181,475 cut from 2011-12; $2,562,895 from Dennis Township, a $300,509 decrease; and $158,927 from Stone Harbor, a $19,627 increase.
For 2012-13 school year state aid, the district has been earmarked $12,905,988, a $40,658 net decrease over last year’s, according to information presented at the Tuesday meeting.
A high school math teacher and a high school social studies teacher will be cut, which would bring a savings of $178,042.
“And those are both due to attrition,” Kopakowski said.
Also six department heads will be eliminated and replaced with two instructional supervisors. The guidance counselor and nurse department chairpersons will remain in place. That move means a cost savings of more than $8,000, Kopakowski said.
“The department chairs will now have a full teaching schedule,” he said.
Purchases shown in the budget include a lease-purchase of a school bus for $17,000 and providing summer school at a cost of $47,730.
Karl Karmilowicz of Avalon Manor called the zero-tax increase budget a “good surprise.” Avalon Manor is a development in Middle Township.
“And the taxpayers, a majority of them, appreciate that,” he said.
Both Republicans and Democrats think they have the upper hand as the Senate takes up a bill that would end oil company tax breaks. NPR’s David Welna explains how the debate in the Senate is likely to frame the debate this fall in the campaign.
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I’m Melissa Block.
In the Senate today, a familiar debate: Whether to end billions of dollars in tax breaks for the country’s five biggest oil companies. Last year, Democrats failed to repeal those tax breaks and they fully expect to fail again. Still, senators from both parties have been eager to engage in the issue.
As NPR’s David Welna reports, each side expects a payoff in November.
DAVID WELNA, BYLINE: As debate got under way on repealing tax breaks for oil companies, majority leader Harry Reid stated a premise he and his fellow Democrats plan to campaign on this year in their bid to keep Republicans from taking over the Senate.
SENATOR HARRY REID: Senate Republicans would never ever side with American taxpayers against Big Oil.
WELNA: New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez, who faces voters this fall, is the lead sponsor of the oil subsidies repeal. The budget that House Republican Paul Ryan proposed and Mitt Romney endorsed, he says, cuts as much money for educating children with disabilities as it gives to the oil companies.
SENATOR BOB MENENDEZ: Tell these children under the Romney-Ryan budget they cannot be helped to fulfill their God-given potential because we just can’t afford it. But we can afford to give these five companies, who made $137 billion in profits, that we should give them an additional $24 billion of our taxpayers’ money.
WELNA: But according to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the American people really care about one fact – that gas prices have doubled during the Obama administration.
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL: And I’m starting to wonder if this might as well be the Democrats’ official slogan: Vote for us and we’ll make things worse.
WELNA: As for the oil companies’ tax breaks, Kentucky Republican Rand Paul makes no apologies. We, as a society, he declared on the Senate floor, need to glorify those who make a profit.
SENATOR RAND PAUL: Instead of punishing them, you should want to encourage them. I would think you would want to say to the oil companies, what obstacles are there to you making more money?
WELNA: And Jon Kyl, the Senate’s number two Republican, issued this warning.
SENATOR JON KYL: Everybody talks about reducing the price of gas at the pump and reducing U.S. dependence. What these tax increases would do is to further that dependence and increase the prices at the pump.
WELNA: Democrats call that argument Republican snake oil. Economists tend to agree. Severin Borenstein co-directs the Energy Institute at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
PROFESSOR SEVERIN BORENSTEIN: Removing the tax incentives might have a very tiny effect on incentive of oil companies to drill a couple of new wells. But even in the context of U.S. production it would be so small, it would have no effect.
WELNA: Republicans, nonetheless, plan to kill the bill repealing oil subsidies in a vote tomorrow morning.
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NORCROSS, Ga., March 28, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
Official Payments, a leading provider of electronic payment solutions, has good news for those who tend to procrastinate when it comes to completing their federal and state income tax returns. Because the traditional tax day of April 15 falls on a Sunday this year and the Washington, D.C., holiday of Emancipation Day falls on Monday, April 16, federal returns are not due until Tuesday, April 17, 2012.
“Thanks to the way the calendar falls this year, taxpayers can spend Sunday, April 15, gardening, relaxing with friends and family, and enjoying other pursuits this year,” said Alex P. Hart, President and CEO of Official Payments. “Plus, Emancipation Day falls on the following day and is a legal holiday in the nation’s capital, so taxpayers get two extra days to file in 2012. On Tuesday, they can go to our website to make their tax payments in a way that’s fast, easy and secure.”
The process is as simple as logging onto
www.OfficialPayments.com and selecting the “Federal IRS Payments” button. Official Payments accepts debit and credit cards as well as other electronic payment methods for various federal taxes, including personal income taxes and federal estimated quarterly taxes. Taxpayers who create an account can schedule their payment early or wait until April 17 to log on and pay.
Official Payments was the very first electronic payment provider to be selected by the Internal Revenue Service and has been processing federal tax payments since 1999. Emancipation Day commemorates April 16, 1862, the day President Abraham Lincoln freed more than 3,000 slaves in Washington, D.C.
About Official Payments
Official Payments Holdings, Inc.
/quotes/zigman/7992663/quotes/nls/opayOPAY -3.24%
is a leading provider of electronic payment solutions in the biller direct market. Headquartered in Norcross, Georgia, the company provides enhanced electronic payment services that include multiple payment choices, payment channels, and bill payment products and services to over 4,700 clients in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Official Payments serves clients in multiple markets including federal, state, and local governments, educational institutions, and utilities. Consumers may pay federal taxes, state and local taxes, property taxes, and other bills such as utilities and college tuition with credit cards, debit cards, electronic checks and alternative payment methods via online, telephone, point of sale and other channels by visiting
www.OfficialPayments.com . Corporate information is available at
www.OPAY.OfficialPayments.com .
Official Payments is not a tax advisor and does not provide advice on any tax requirements. Use of any information from this announcement or site or any other web site referred to is for general information only and does not represent personal tax advice either expressed or implied. You are encouraged to seek professional tax advice for tax questions and assistance.
The tax due dates outlined in this release are obtained from a taxing authority and it is not the responsibility of Official Payments to communicate any changes or updates. Taxpayers are responsible for determining tax deadlines.
SOURCE Official Payments
Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
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OPAY
Official Payments Holdings Inc.
US
: Nasdaq
$ 5.07
-0.17 -3.24%
Volume: 23,358
March 30, 2012 3:46p
P/E RatioN/A
Dividend YieldN/A
Market Cap$84.37 million
Rev. per Employee$543,362