SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
February 27, 2011
Sullivan’s Salvos 3/1/11
In this edition:
*RIP Charlie Duffy
*Prairie Preview
*Addressing the Financial Crisis
*Crisis Center Pancake Breakfast
*Arc Chili Supper
*Where Your Tax $ Goes!
*Did You Know?
*RIP Charlie Duffy
Longtime Supervisor Charlie Duffy died Tuesday morning following a long illness. Charlie was elected Supervisor in 1988 and served in office from 1989 through 2000. Charlie also served as Johnson County Farm Bureau President, and was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to a soil and water conservation committee with Bruce Babbitt.
Known as “Mr. Johnson County”, Charlie knew the Johnson County road system like the back of his hand. Charlie sometimes claimed to know everyone in Johnson County, and he was not too far off. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, and served many years as an usher at St. Wenceslaus Parish
*Prairie Preview
Another sure sign of spring… Prairie Preview XXVIII "Rain Gardens & Beyond... Time for ACTION!"
This year’s event is Tuesday, March 8 at 7:30 at Parkview Evangelical Free Church. Doors open to public to view exhibits at 6:30. Refreshments Provided.
The program includes Liz Maas, Restoration Ecologist; Judith Krieg, PWS-President, EarthView Environmental, LLC & President of Take a Kid Outdoors; Fred Meyer, Executive Director, Backyard Abundance; Chant Eicke, Senior Environmental Scientist, EarthView Environmental, LLC and Community Conservationist; Jason Grimm, Food Systems Planner, Iowa Valley RC&D.
This program is sponsored by the Johnson County Heritage Trust, Friends of Hickory Hill Park, Project GREEN, Four Seasons Garden Club Environmental Advocates, Johnson County Songbird Project, Johnson County Conservation Board, and the Department of Natural Resources. Funded in part by a grant from Iowa’s Living Roadway Trust.
For more information, call 319 338-7030.
*Addressing the Financial Crisis
The US is still suffering a financial crisis. Unemployment is about three times the ideal, houses are in foreclosure, and governmental revenues are falling short.
Who should fix things? Certainly not public employees – they had nothing to do with the crisis! How about Wall Street? They CAUSED it, after all! How about reinstituting the 90% top rate for the income tax that the US had in the 1940s and ‘50s?
Worried about those wealthy folks leaving the country? I say they are free to go – but their income earned in the US is still taxed at that rate. And if they leave, they should be required to renounce their citizenship. When trying to reenter, they should be stopped at the border the same way a poor Mexican worker would be.
State, county and municipal employees did not cause this. Let’s ask the folks who DID cause it to pay for the damages!
*Crisis Center Pancake Breakfast
The Crisis Center is holding its annual Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, March 5 from 7 AM to 12:45 PM at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church in Iowa City.
Tickets are $5 for adults, $2 for children under 10, and are available at the door.
*Arc Chili Supper
The Arc of Southeast Iowa is holding its annual Chili Supper Friday, March 4 from 4:30-7:30 at River Community Church in Iowa City.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under (age 3 and under eat free). All proceeds fund The Arc, providing services to people with disabilities so they can realize their goals relating to where and how they live, learn, work, and play.
*Where Your Tax $ Goes!
From Iowa Fiscal Partnership: At a time when unemployment in Iowa neared 7 percent and Iowans coped with steep cuts in critical state and local services, three corporations received over $30 million in corporate subsidy checks from the Iowa Treasury. They are among 133 corporations that paid no state income tax but still received checks from the state.
This and other disclosures come from today’s release of the annual report on Iowa’s Research Activities Credit (RAC) for 2010. They show the fiscal scandal that the RAC has become. Rockwell Collins, Deere and DuPont had the largest corporate claims — $14.2 million, $12.8 million and $5.9 million, respectively. Of that $32.9 million in claims, at least $30.7 million was paid out in checks, because it was above and beyond the amount of taxes those companies owed.
Overall, corporate RAC claims totaled $45.2 million — $43 million of it, or 95 percent, being paid out as so-called “refunds” for taxes never paid. When we are asking Iowa government to be efficient and frugal, and to not promote special interests, how can this be justified? It cannot.
There is some good news — and that is that we have any news at all. This report is the first to give Iowans a full year’s look at the biggest recipients of these corporate giveaways. It is a result of a law passed in 2009 to bring some transparency to this highly costly and clearly unaccountable program. Previously, RAC “refunds” were paid out as secret checks from the state treasury. The law now requires an annual review of RAC claims, information about “refunds” and the names of recipients and amounts for claims in excess of $500,000.
These industry giants make their profits from being on the cutting edge for research; they don’t need incentives for investing in research activities, they must do it anyway. What they need from Iowa are skilled, educated workers, good roads and infrastructure, and a good quality of life. Research and common sense tell us these would be better smart investments for Iowa’s economic prosperity, not subsidy checks to wealthy corporations.
The Iowa Fiscal Partnership has produced a number of reports on the research activities credit, including reviews of economic analyses that conclude such credits have very little impact upon business decisions.
* Rockwell Collins ($561 million in profits in 2010), Deere and Company ($1,865 million in profits in 2010), and El DuPont Nemours And Company, Inc. ($3,031 million in profits in 2009). (After-tax profits, figures from corporate statements.)
For more information about Iowa fiscal issues, visit the Iowa Fiscal Partnership
*DID YOU KNOW? Women make up only 15% of the US House of Representatives. There are only 2 Hispanic Senators, and no African American Senators.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
www.johnson-county.com.
"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
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As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan@mchsi.com. I look forward to serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 10:03 PM
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