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Proper Effective use of TAX Breaks

We keep hearing the news of tax breaks being issued by state law makers to give incentive to locate a business in that state. Even for company’s who have not even asked for it. I know in my local area but not my state, a Governor not only gave a 3 billion dollar tax break over 25 years but a promise for the taxpayers to do a EPA clean up of the property they want to use.

The fact is, a industrial company will locate where the infrastructure is in place to support it’s long term use. Some may play the multi-location game to get tax breaks but in the end, it’s the transportation infrastructure and location to end users and suppliers of products that matters.

All of this really becomes a question of who losses.

Most of the time it’s the local taxpayer. Why ?

He/She will have increase in costs to provide water, sewer and street upgrades to probably a already strained system. And will not get enough in tax collection from any increase of jobs to pay for it.

Just think of all the strains that a local Wall-Mart may have put on your local community if they gave them tax breaks to locate. And while you gave them the tax break, they destroyed the ma and pa biz that paid the bulk of the local taxes. So you now have less jobs, less taxes and strained infrastructure to cover for and you have to pay for that tax break now! Cost shifting at it’s finest.

It use to be a plus when a new industrial plant would go up as they would pay for the infrastructure they needed and everyone benefited by that fact. It increased the tax base for all and made the individual share of the tax burden smaller. Not anymore !

What would be a fair use of tax breaks?

A Proper Tax Break might be one of the following for good reasons:

We need additional refining capacity for fuels like gasoline/diesel. The refiners are not going to do it themselves because when supply is as tight as it is, they make more profits. So lets provide a 5 year tax free break to any company who will build a new, environmentally sound refinery till capacity has grown by 5% in the country .

We want and need manufacturing jobs so why not provide a 5 year tax free break to anyone who will build a factory to make a product that is currently not being produced in this country. Allow up to 50 per year, one per state per year.

You get the idea but it must be done in partnership with the states and watched carefully so it is not a detriment to local taxpayer or miss-used and have a reasonable time expiration date. I think 5 years of no federal tax is good enough but see 8 years possibly for a more expensive operation to something we really need. States could and should partner in step with the federal government for needed things.

To give a tax break to anyone who is only using it to become a bigger version of itself or provides a unfair advantage against a competing company, only harms the locality and the state not to mention the nation. I don’t even think a stock holder benefits because of the Wall Street money shell games. Why anyone would give a tax break to a retailer defies logic.

Time to promote “Build A Better Mouse Trap” and not a Too Big To Fail Company while supplying the country with what it needs. Proper use of Tax Breaks is the tool.

Poor Mouthing – # 2, Political Humor

This weeks Political Humor.

Thanks to the first Presidential Debate, I now know what the extra 2 trillion dollars of defense spending in Romney’s budget is for: …Going to war with BIG BIRD. …Yea, that commy bird is going to get it !

Loose Lips Sink Ships… or so my father use to tell me. To bad for Biden that he is not my brother.

Voter Fraud is widespread say the Republicans. And since nobody believed them, they decided to prove it in all the swing states.

Romney moves to Center. Gets welcomed by Obama who says “glad to see ya here. Staying very long?”!!!

According to Al Gore, Barack Obama’s exceedingly poor and embarrassing debate performance was because he didn’t acclimate to Denver’s 5,280-foot elevation. No problem for Romney, that’s the elevation of his money pile he sleeps on every night.

Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said that 60 percent of Americans receive more financial benefits from the government than they pay in taxes, making them “takers,” rather than “makers”. He must think that number is too low because at another event he was quoted as saying he wants to eliminate Capital Gains tax. Need I remind you that Capital Gains are not from making anything but money from money and not products. Shall we talk about the welfare state now or later?

1st Presidential Debate – Greatest political maneuver ever

If you think we are going to speak on Romney’s win, think again. This is about why President Obama low-balled his performance.

Let’s look at the reasons why he would not want to be so aggressive in this debate.

First and foremost would be because the Republican National Committee had already said if Romney did not do well in the debate to show a fighting chance to win, the committee would shift spending all the money to the Senate and House races where they have a chance to keep the House and take the Senate.

Now the president already knows he has a firm lead in the swing states that will decide this election. A historical fact that debates have never shifted folks election picks from anyone that was not already undecided.

He just made a calculated guess that most of the undecideds have decided. All he has to do is not much more than NOT sticking out with anything new and a possible miss-statement.

Simple – Allow Romney to look better than he has been and keep the Republicans in shorter spending in those critical House and Senate races. He badly needs a change of party in the House when he is re-elected. This may have cost him some undecided votes but I think he had them to spare.

OK, that being said, I know you may find that hard to swallow. But normally, just like science, the simplest answer is the usually the correct one.

Now about the debate.

The only gaffe was Romney s’ attack on “BIG BIRD” (stop funding for PBS).

It seems that Romney did very well in “etch-a-sketching” a move to the center and try to steal Obama’s message. How many times did he say our plans are similar except…

We do already know before the debate, how much he spoke about repealing almost every legislative accomplishment Obama has had in the 3.5 years in office Like Dodd-Frank banking legislation, immigration and Obama-Care. Most of which has yet to take effect till next year and beyond.

I do wonder if anyone has spoke to the fact that the biggest problem with the a growing deficit right now is that less folks are working to pay taxes. Add to it the reduced tax rates that were provided before the collapse of the economy and tax collection/deficit spending become a major problem.

And add to the fact that 1.5% of the 8% unemployment and slow employment growth is partially due to the folks (mainly the start of baby boomers) that were going to retire in 2008, 2009, 2010 & 2011 held back on their plans to retire because their 401K and pension plans were not worth diddly.

This is sure to change at the end of the year and open up opportunities for those entering the work force as those that finally retire make way for folks to move up the ladder as they use to.

One other problem we will face is the troops returning home from Afghanistan will add to unemployment picture so we need a stronger economy before that happens.

So no matter who is president, the jobs picture will get much better next year and so the deficit slightly better but the unemployment numbers may not change greatly.

The bigger question for the future would be if we can get proper and fair taxation and infrastructure spending inside the nation. That’s what is really in question in this election.

Can we get our priorities straight? Only you can decide by demanding change without the “smoke and mirror” tricks we get from legislation that says one thing when it is passed and yet another when the details are written in some congressional sub-committee after the fact and those detailed wordings have been bought and paid for by the lobbyist. It does not matter what party has control of the House or Senate, it is a fact of lobbying and legislating. How do you think those bills get so long on words and pages.

The last time I remember the Republicans truly reducing taxes in a major way, brought us lower taxes for the well to do and FEEs we did not have before. The Fees we did have like passport fees went up considerably. Fees like taxes are just fine unless you are the one paying them.

State Turnpike FEEs are just a road use tax that only effects those that use it but benefit everyone including those that don’t. These fees are kept long after their intended “pay for building the road”, don’t they?

Tax, spelled F-E-E …(to be continued at a later date if the republicans have their way).

Unemployment Falls – 7.8% – creating a stir

You know we have this every election where employment is a campaign issue.

Unemployment numbers coming down while unemployment has been high for a extended period normally is a result from folks not being counted because they stop looking for work.

But to have it show up in a month before an election would make folks wonder but history shows us that it just is NOT a hanky panky issue.

However, it does take a few months to measure a resulting increase in GDP numbers if it is a true increase in employment.

I have always said that I do not want to hear the UNEMPLOYMENT numbers unless you can at the same time tell me the EMPLOYMENT numbers. In other words how many folks are working and paying taxes.

So, being an example of the pot being stirred as soon as the news was released, here it is and I do need to add the comment, WHY DO THE MEDIA NOT AGGRESSIVELY QUESTION ALL OF THOSE WHO MAKE STATEMENTS FROM THIN AIR? No wonder there are so many conspiracy theorist.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Pet Peeves – Humor that’s not funny

Here is our fresh look at really irritating things of our high tech world. Many are my Pet Peeves and from personal experience. Can you relate ?

The debit card bank tells me that their “debit cards will speed up my check-out at the store”. I am sure you have seen them.

Reality check: Of the 3 people in line in front of me, the first one can’t find his card and don’t have cash. We wait while he looks for it.

The second is denied for some reason and the clerk tries 3 other cards for him, each one denied. The man is confused but leaves the store in discuss.

The third persons card is unreadable but the clerk tries multiple times including once with it covered in a plastic bag and ends up entering the numbers manually twice and requires a photo I.D. that the buyer does not have with him.

All of this speed-up cost me an extra 15 minutes before it’s my turn and I am not sure if I have the time to use my debit card?

So I pay cash in the exact amount that I had plenty of time to count without holding anyone else up but the clerk says “I need 5 cents more”. now I had watched her count it and said “count it again, I did 3 times while waiting”. She counted it twice more and says “I am sorry, I don’t know what I did, I need 30 cents more”.

At this point I said “give me the change back and here is a dollar bill (my last one dollar bill), don’t count it again and keep the change” ( when you figure out how much that is ).

Turns out the dollar bill I just handed her was an older silver certificate and see thinks it is funny money and that I am trying to scam her. (she is not old enough to know what a silver certificate is).

So I give in (you know that advertisement was right) and tell her “O.K., give me all my cash back and I’ll just pay with my debit card”. …Priceless…

I see Apple having multiple instances of hacked account information including my account that I find for sale on the Chinese Auction version of eBay.

Reality check: I can only think… Identity Theft, There’s an app for that !

High tech traffic signal systems that use sensors in the lanes to detect cars waiting. This speeds up travelers in all directions.

Reality check: I am stopped behind one car at a traffic light that does not change for 10 minutes. I get out of the car to knock on the window of the car in front of me that did not pull forward enough to trip the sensor to explain this fact.

Being successful, before I can get back to my car, the driver is able to drive away after tripping the sensor and the police show up to hassle me as to why I was out of my car at a busy intersection. After showing my I.D. and waiting for a license check, digging up and showing proof of insurance, letting him look inside my car, there is a accident in the other lane from the folks trying to get around me and the police car. One car in this morning mishap hits the traffic signal electric pole, knocks out the power to the traffic signal and the real fun begins.

I only ask the officer,”can I go before this gets worse?, I did not see a thing and not a witness to anything, I need to get to work”. I wait and help in the welfare check to those in the mishap and for additional officers to direct traffic and open the intersection. Trying to explain why you are late to your boss is like telling a teacher that a goat ate your homework. Don’t even try the truth, you will have to lie.

Digital TV will bring you a crystal clear high resolution picture and more channels to chose from.

Reality check: With my new HDTV, I now have a choice to watch the same info-mercials on more channels with perfect clarity.

High-Speed Unlimited voice and data plan for mobile phones.

Reality check: When they advertised 3G data cellphones, I bought a 3G data phone and plan.

I soon go back to the store and tell them “this is no faster than what I had”.

I was told, 3G is not here yet ( how convenient for them to tell me after signing a 2 year contract).

So I ask “when will it be here?” and I am told “very soon”.

3 years later, They began advertising 4G service and the carrier just implemented 3G service.

I asked how long before they would have 4G service and they said “very soon.”

I said “so according to the last time I was told that, soon means 3 years.” AND ” I guess I’ll wait till you advertise 5G service and I’ll be in for that 4G phone”.

I enjoy a fair 3G speed for the first couple of Google map look-ups and a few hours of a online searches and email with the weather forecast daily, then when my unlimited limit has been reached, it is slower than dial-up.

My phone always try’s to use cellphone network data first, even when connected to my home/office wi-fi network. No wonder I eat up my unlimited limit early.

Yes, it’s a smartphone, very smart for who?

Just try to buy a iPhone without a data plan and use it with wi-fi only!

More Pet Peeves Coming Soon !

FCC to auction public airwaves for private profit

While there is a great need for wireless broadband spectrum for use in mobile products like your iPhone or iPad, the current proposal the FCC is promoting is nothing short of selling off public airwaves for private profit in which they will have a hard time regulating the use of. In effect just giving the public trust of spectrum they are the trustee of to private hands.

While it is not denied the need for spectrum to make all of our gadgets data availability and speeds that can be used for great public good, there is a terrible downside to not allow more competition for that service.

The US has been falling in rank as far as high speed internet availability and speeds for wired services, it is also falling in the area of pricing for those same services for both wired and wireless service. Less service for more money.

WHY?

Because we are the only nation who allowed our company’s that provide those service to buy each other out/merge and have less competition for the same services.

Therefor, less quality at a higher price than the rest of the great economic countries of the world and falling fast.

You don’t think the FCC came up with this on their own do you?

It was promoted since the thought of White-Fi spectrum was going to be released somewhat free to provide back-haul service for local wireless internet providers. The big 3 cell carriers could not stand this to be given away when they needed it to make more for profit services for themselves and leave the public still in wanting for those who do not live in or near a city. In effect becoming a new competitive service for them.

This proposal does nothing to increase competition, only re-enforces the monopolies that exist in wireless carriers.

Please read this from CNET.com which contains the FCC docket proposal.

To be realistic, the current big 3 wireless carriers should be forced to make more efficient use of spectrum they now have a license. After all, they are the ones who make the promises of a network they can not deliver for the end user so why should I be forced to give up a future public television station for their poor use of spectrum.

Any auction for spectrum should be to those that have a specific format for a higher efficient use of the new frequencies and should be available to all that have a non-caped service for its use. After all, these are public frequencies and the FCC has done this before in issuing private use of public radio spectrum and it resulted in a immediate direct success for all involved. It was what forced the cell carriers to go digital in the first place.

Any auction that does not increase competition, only worsens our already low world standard in availability and service vs cost.

What the FCC fails to regulate, the providers will soon take advantage of in unnecessary for profit only limitations on the end users.

If the carriers want to charge per gigabyte, let’s tax per gigabyte of spectrum.They will want to make more efficient use of radio spectrum then. If anyone should profit from the reselling of public spectrum, it should be the taxpayer on a annual basis.

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