Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganPaperwork, Delays and if You Have More Than One Kid You’re Paying More Money: Tax Time 2018 is Here
Tuesday , 29, January 2019 Community, IRS 1 Comment
When IRS employees came back to work on January 28, 2019, they faced a backlog of work left undone during the 35 day Trump shutdown. Yes, there were five million pieces of mail waiting for them and more pouring in every day. You probably think those 80,000 people walked into the IRS building, sat down in front of their computers, cracked their knuckles and got right to work processing your returns on Monday.
Not even close.
When the Trump shutdown happened back in December, the furloughed workers had to lock their computers so they wouldn’t be booted off the network servers. The max number of days they can do this is 45. The IRS instructed their employees to lock the computers for 30 days thinking that would be plenty of time for the Trump shutdown to resolve itself and they would all be back to work. The Trump shutdown was 35 days long so guess what, all of those computers were booted off the servers anyway and have to be reinstated by the IT department. How long do you think it takes to reinstate computers for 80,000 employees?
Not that it matters, because those 80,000 employees have yet to be trained on the new tax code and tax forms. This is something that usually takes place right after the first of the year with working computers so after the 5 day training period everyone can get right to work. But due to the Trump shutdown, the training period went from five days to two days while everyone waits for the IT department to put their computers back on the system. This likely will take at the very least a month before everyone is up and running again.
Once 80,000 employees receive their expedited training on the new tax code and forms, and their Windows 7 computers are up and running again – buzzing about-to-die fans and all – they can open up the command terminal and run the MS-DOS software that requires command codes to process our tax returns.
What about the new tax code and forms? The expedited training sessions IRS employees are going through confirms what the media has been saying all along about the “tax cut”: it’s a big money grab for the rich. If you’re single or a single parent with one child, you have a better chance of receiving some kind of refund. If you have more than one child, slim to none are your chances of seeing any refund at all. If you rely on family exemptions to keep the amount of tax you owe down, there is nothing but bad news for you. Those exemptions are gone.
The 2018 tax forms have been drastically changed from past 1040 returns. 1040A and 1040EZ are gone. Everyone turns in a form 1040 regardless of income, investments, and tax credits. Form 1040, just as promised, is now an extra large postcard that can be printed on one sheet of paper. What about tax credits? What about deductions? What about other taxes? What about refundable credits? What about additional income and all of the rest of the stuff that usually comes on 1040? Those parts of the tax return are now scattered over six separate schedules to fill out. Yes, you will still need all of those supplemental forms and worksheets to complete your taxes with the 1040 and 6 schedules that used to be part of 1040. The first thing you notice is that the Paperwork Reduction Act Notice at the bottom of each page seems ironic now. The next thing you will notice is your tax preparer charges by the page.
The reality of this tax season is it very likely will take the IRS a year to get caught up. New tax codes, new tax forms, and exemptions are gone. The rich will get more money while the poor will get none. Those 80,000 workers will still be doing this work on ancient hardware with a system that hasn’t been updated in years on decrepit computers running an operating system that Microsoft no longer supports after January 14, 2020. The delays will be long, and it’s guaranteed the federal government will owe hefty interest payments on those refunds the rich will be getting because of the delays.
80,000 IRS employees would like us to keep in mind that everything they do is at the direction of United States Congress, and these changes to our tax code were the work of the 115th United States Congress under the control of Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, and Donald J. Trump. They ask that we be merciful.
The good news for the IRS? They got paid.
The PACE of Embezzlement by Michigans’ For-Profit Charter Schools is the True Measure of “Success”
Wednesday , 23, January 2019 Section 16 3 Comments
Nancy Paris, founder of The Paris Academy based out of Saginaw was charged with embezzlement of $100,000 or more on Tuesday, January 22, 2019, when a May 2018, audit revealed her student count of 715 included 153 fake enrollees. The total amount of taxpayers’ money Paris is charged with embezzling is $800,000.
Paris opened her cyber for-profit charter school on June 21, 2016. With offices in Saginaw and Grand Rapids. she offered over 250 courses and dual enrollment for students attending her cyber “school”. One month later she registered her management company, Paris Academies of Compelling Education Inc., with the state of Delaware. Why would a Michigan for-profit charter school management company do this? Delaware is very pro-business, has business law that will handle your criminal corporate entity with kid gloves, and anyone who tries to sue your business will be told by the judge where you can shove your lawsuit while they kiss the CEO’s ass as an apology for not throwing the case out sooner. That’s Why.
PACE stats: PACE reports enrollment growth of over 700% in one year! Available statewide in Michigan!
— PACE-Paris Academy (@TheParisAcademy) September 15, 2015
700% in one year? Too good to be true! How does a school do that? Public Schools have to provide quality education and education services to increase enrollment. For-profit charter school CEOs do this.
It almost seems as if Nancy Paris knew at some point people would catch on that her charter school for homeschoolers was an excuse to grab Michigan taxpayer money and live the good life. Which she allegedly did.
The Paris Academy obviously is no more. The Genesee School District which authorized the charter school chose to dissolve the contract at the end of June of 2018. With the offices shuttered and the homeschooled students attending classes some other way, The Paris Academy can actually do some good for the education of Michigan by being another example of why for-profit charter schools are bad for the state and need to be eliminated. Perhaps it’s time to stop calling them for-profit charter schools and instead call them for-pilfer charter schools? It’s time to be honest about the real appeal of opening a charter school business because educating children is not it.
Two Upper Peninsula Wolf Poachers Caught on the Same Day
Friday , 18, January 2019 DNR, Upper Peninsula, Wolf Hunt 1 Comment
On Tuesday, January 15, 2019, conservation officers received confessions from two alleged wolf poachers in the Upper Peninsula counties of Menominee and Ontonagon. Both wolves were fitted with collars so the Michigan DNR could track the wolves’ movements.
The poacher from Greenland in Ontonagon County confessed to shooting the wolf on January 14, 2019, after the collar the wolf wore alerted conservation officers she was dead. The rifle he used was seized as part of the ongoing investigation. The suspect in Menominee County confessed to shooting a male wolf on November 19, 2018, during firearm deer season. Conservation officers found the wolf’s collar, but never located the carcass of the animal.
Both suspects will be required to appear for arraignment in county court. Wolf poachers face 90 days in jail and a $1000 fine if convicted. Marquette district law officer Lt. Ryan Aho stated:
“Wolves are examples of important wildlife species that play a critical predator role in the ecosystems of the Upper Peninsula. Our conservation officers did some great work in obtaining confessions from these two individuals who killed wolves collared for study purposes by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.”
Wolves are protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, however, some Upper Peninsula residents encouraged by state elected officials, ignore federal law and illegally shoot the animals anyway following the “shoot – shovel – shut up” method of dealing with the protected species.
Poaching incidents can be reported any time to the Michigan DNR by calling the Report All Poaching hotline at 800-292-7800. For more information about the important role wolves have in keeping Michigan’s ecosystems healthy, visit Michigan.gov/Wolves.
Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Will Issue Food Assistance Benefits Early Due to Trump Shutdown
Monday , 14, January 2019 Community Leave a comment
Residents of Michigan who rely on food assistance benefits for nutrition will receive their February benefits early. The release date is January 19, 2019. Anyone not receiving benefits on that day will receive their February benefits on the following week.
The USDA authorized states to issue food assistance early due to the Trump government shut down now in its 24th day with no end in sight. Due to the early release, there will be no food assistance benefits issued in February and all recipients will need to carefully budget their food benefits so they can meet their family’s nutrition needs through the month of February. MDHHS Deputy Director of Field Operations Terrence Beurer said:
MDHHS is pleased that the department is able to work with its federal partners to make sure Michigan families have food on the table in February.
Monthly benefits are usually issued over a 21 day period. January benefits will continue to follow that schedule. For now, WIC benefits will be issued in February using the established schedule. If there are any changes due to the Trump shutdown, MDHHS will inform WIC recipients.
The early release comes as more people are impacted by Trump’s partial shutdown of the federal government. Government employees most affected by the shut down are working without pay and there is no end in sight. Trump has referred to government employees as being on strike and also stated he sees no reason to end the shut down until he gets what he wants, which is $5.7 billion to pay for a metal fence on the border with Mexico. The majority of Americans do not favor Trump’s demands and want the government shut down to end.
With food assistance, other federal programs face an interruption in the future if the shutdown continues. IRS employees are also not being paid and until they return to work there will be no federal income tax returns processed or refunds issued. Local communities are working to help federal government employees impacted by the lack of income and also ensure that people who need assistance have access to it. For more information on the early release of food assistance benefits, go to the USDA Food and Nutrition Service website
Mason County Democratic Party Challenges Mason County Republicans with Canned Food Drive
Sunday , 6, January 2019 Community, Gateway To Success Academy Leave a comment
The Mason County Democratic Party want to prove there’s more than one way to positively impact their county. They challenged the Mason County Republicans to a canned food drive. Between January 5, 2019, to March 8, 2019, Mason County Democratic Party want to collect food for the Lakeshore Food Club. The losing party will donate an extra $50 to the pantry.
The Mason County Democratic Party will collect canned goods at the Ludington Area Center for the Arts, 107 S. Harrison Street, during their business meetings on February 7, 2019, and March 7, 2019. Republicans can take their donations to the front porch at 309 N Harrison Street.
The Lakeshore Food Club is located in the Lakeshore Resource Network building in Ludington, Michigan. The program is made possible through the generosity of John and Anita Wilson’s Pennies from Heaven Foundation, the same organization that shuttered Journey Alternative Junior/Senior High School so they could open for-profit charter school Gateway to Success in Scottville, MI.
People who show the need for food but can’t afford the cost due to financial hardship can join the food club. Members pay a $10.00 fee per month or volunteer for two hours. Credits to buy the food in the club are based on family size and financial situation.
No matter who collects the most canned goods, the community wins. Good luck!
Attorney General Dana Nessel Will Write an Opinion on the Legality of PA 359
Wednesday , 2, January 2019 Enbridge Line 5 Leave a comment
Governor Gretchen Whitmer began her new job in Lansing today requesting Attorney General Dana Nessel to write her first opinion on PA 359 to determine if the lame duck-session law is legal. PA 359 started out as MI SB 1197 sponsored by Tom Casperson (R-Hates Clean Water) to add language to the PA 214 of 1952. The Mackinac Bridge is now the Mackinac Bridge and Utility Tunnel. The tunnel theoretically will be built to house Enbridge Line 5, the 70-year-old oil pipeline sitting at the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac only one accident away from rupturing and turning two Great Lakes into an ecological disaster.
Rick Snyder was so determined to make sure Enbridge could continue pumping oil through the pipeline when Gretchen Whitmer won the election he and the Republican-controlled legislature fast-tracked a bill that would allow Enbridge to continue pumping oil through Line 5 for 10 years under the pretense of digging a tunnel under the straits. The bill was passed so quickly no one even knows if it’s possible to dig a tunnel in the Straits and the Mackinac Bridge Authority was put in charge of overseeing the project. The Mackinac Bridge Authority didn’t know this until SB 1197 became public. Dana Nessel had this to say about the request:
There are serious and significant concerns regarding PA 359, which the previous governor and legislature initiated and passed without the care and caution one would expect for an issue that will have a monumental impact on our state. Governor Whitmer has rightly – and immediately – raised important questions about the legality and statutory underpinnings of this Act and my office is prepared to tackle her request for an opinion immediately. I encourage any interested or concerned party to forward a brief or legal memo on the issues raised by the opinion request.
The people of Michigan overwhelmingly support shutting down Enbridge Line 5 after the ecological disaster that happened in the Kalamazoo River when Enbridge Line 6B ruptured and leaked nearly a million gallons of heavy Canadian tar sands crude oil in 2010. The clean up has taken years and involved 35 miles of the Kalamazoo River. If Line 5 ruptures in the Straits it would be an environmental catastrophe impacting the largest source of freshwater in the world. Both Governor Whitmer and Attorney General Nessel campaigned on listening to the people and working to shut down Line 5.
Attorney General Nessel assured Governor Whitmer that this opinion will be given top priority as the legality of PA 359 is in question.
We can all get rid of our 2018 hangovers now.
Have a good one.
OOPS All Grift! Taxpayers Pay $19 Million for Betsy DeVos’s Superfluous Armed Security
Friday , 16, November 2018 Sad! Leave a comment
Trump promised to drain the swamp when he went to Washington. So far, the swamp has been relocated to his cabinet and gradually draining back into their civilian jobs. The most recent kicked to the curb was Attorney General Jeff “Keebler lost an elf” Sessions. Currently, scrutiny over Ryan Zinke’s undocumented meetings on company time and $12k charter flights on oil company jets have caused the public to grumble about the grifting interior secretary.
And now comes Betsy “I buy political influence and you’ll like it or else” DeVos.
Michigan has put up with the DeVos family for decades throwing money at politicians in Lansing to buy whatever they want in the state. Our once national standard of excellence public education system has been ground into the dirt thanks to Betsy DeVos’s one-woman crusade against Michigan’s public schools. From writing checks to buy lifting caps on for-profit charter schools to writing checks to get right to work passed to writing checks to decimate the school system in Detroit, Betsy whips out her checkbook whenever she wants something.
Except when it comes to her round-the-clock U.S. Marshal-supplied personal security. In this case, its the taxpayers footing the bill.
You would think a woman who owns ten yachts, 4 private jets, a helicopter, property all over the world, a husband who’s chairman of the board of a large health network in Michigan, and a summer lake cottage best described as the architectural whore of babylon would be able to pay for all the security she needs out of pocket. Not a chance.
No secretary of education has ever required the level of personal security Betsy DeVos enjoys. The Department of Education in its 40 years has never had anyone like Betsy DeVos in charge either. Betsy today still works to make it much easier for sexual predators to get away with it and harder for students scammed by for-profit colleges to get their money back. Her plan to get national school vouchers is still in the future. So why does Betsy feel so insecure?
What she needs this protection for is unknown, since as Education Secretary Betsy DeVos avoids visiting schools like she avoids having empathy for other human beings. Scott Pruitt’s 4 million in security pales. Ben Carson’s expensive dining set is pocket change. Perhaps it’s concern over suggesting allowing ICE into schools looking for illegal immigrants, or her guns not grizzly bears campaign, or making it harder for rape victims to bring sexual predators to justice.
If Betsy feels she deserves this much money just for security, what else does she think it’s the taxpayers’ job to provide her. If she’s not careful, she might outspend Trump and that could make him jealous.
Betsy has drained the Michigan taxpayers to fund corporate grift in Michigan’s public education system for decades. Now she’s in Washington and enjoying a true level of bilking taxpayers she could never imagine in Michigan.
Happy Michigan Deer Season 2018: Don’t Eat the Deer Within 5 Miles of Clark’s Marsh in Oscoda
Tuesday , 13, November 2018 Environment Leave a comment
Less than 48 hours until the state’s largest standing army moves into the forests and fields of Michigan, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services issued a warning to anyone hunting within 5 miles of Clark’s Marsh in Oscoda to not eat the meat from the deer they kill due to elevated levels of PFOs, a variant of PFAs found in samples of tested deer living within two miles of the marsh. They also advise people to not eat kidneys or liver of any deer due to internal organs storing PFA’s.
PFAs became a concern in Michigan after the revelation the MDEQ knew six years ago PFA contamination in the state’s water supply was a serious health threat, yet refused to inform the public there was any problem. Communities all over the state have been tested and found dangerous levels of PFAs exist in the drinking water supply. Parchment, Michigan, issued a bottle water advisory due to high levels of PFAs.
The state so far has tested fish and deer, but have not tested any livestock.
The source of the contamination of Clark’s Marsh is the US Air Force Base in Oscoda. The MDEQ has issued two violation notices against the USAF for the contamination of Clark’s Marsh. The Air Force continues to work on pumping and cleaning contaminated groundwater, but they fell behind their goal in 2017. The fire retardant foam used by airports to put out fires is the likely source of contamination in Clark’s Marsh.
128 deer were tested in different parts of the state. The one deer tested within two miles of Clark’s Marsh was the only deer with elevated levels. There are plans to begin PFAs testing on other game in Michigan in the future. The MDHHS advises everyone to visit the Michigan.gov website and read the information provided on the Eat Safe Fish and Game page.
