Update on the tax prep scams

As an update to the email Harrison posted from his mom, I'll link to two articles in the Buffalo News highlighting what we were able to scrap together in our first I-90 collaboration!

Article 1: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11EA983073A3DD28&p_docnum=6

Article 2: http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/editorials/story/274274.html

return to geneseo

So my return to Geneseo has been smoother than ever. I am back to taking the fun fifteen credits and I am now an official bartender at Club 41 (who knew Nociolo had so many odd skills). I live at 14.5 North St (the old CARE house for those of you that remember) and my all boy roommates are just dandy. I had to suspend my work with NOW because it was just too much for me to handle. This allows me to be better available for TGVL, VOX, and Jon Powers campaign (yea Sara and Greg keep him liberal!). I am really excited to be in a class with beth mccoy again, the inspiration is just mind numbing. Anyway I shall post again soon. Ohh yea and toast to good health!
-julie

An Undeniable Force of Attraction

Yes, this title is referring to that most charming of Rust Belt cities: Buffalo, NY. It seems that I may be moving there within the next couple of weeks as a temporary place to live, work, and hang out with awesome people. After that I am still planning to go WWOOFing in Europe starting in mid-May. I have finished my stint at Cowberry Crossing Farm in Hudson, NY. After 7 months of farm work, I was ready to leave, but I have missed some aspects of it since I left. I definitely miss my farm family. They were really great to live with and they always treated me well and helped me whenever they could. I especially miss their 5 year "little cutie" named Reese and our wrestling matches. I am not sure that all the Waldorf education in the world can take the fight out of that kid. He loves to headbutt!!

After I left the farm, I went to visit my Mom, Stepdad, and sister Katie (she exists) in Puerto Rico. My mom and stepdad, James, are trying to start an Episcopal Retreat Center in the mountains of PR. They are working really hard at it and are trying to make relationships with the local community. They seem to be experiencing a lot of success because there are always people dropping by to say hello or conduct a little church business. A kid from their neighborhood started coming up to hang out and he was really fun. I got to speak some spanish with him and we focused most of our conversation on the NBA. My spanish was abysmal, and it made me want to get a lot better. I am thinking that I am going to spend some of my time WWOOFing in Spain and learn that shit. I also got to spend a lot of time at the beach. One day my Mom and two other women almost got sucked out into the blue by a really strong undertow. It was really scary, but there were enough of us to form a human chain to bring everyone back in safely. Fucking ocean. I will have some pictures of PR soon, but my digital camera is pulling some serious shenanigans, so it may be a little while.

My trip to PR was bookended by a couple of lovely visits to Buffalo, where I got to see many Geneseo alums and meet some Buffalo friends of theirs. Everyone was great and it was really fun to be there. Harrison and I played some 3 on 3 basketball with a bunch of people and now every muscle in my legs is sore. I need to get more exercise apparently. I also watched the Super Bowl with Harrison, Sara, and Stephan. We were all pretty excited by the end (well, some of us were excited at the beginning too). Take care everyone. peace.

Cathy Fahey, my mom, rocks.

here is an email i got today (remember, my mom is on the common council) :

"Harrison,

I am working on some legislation you and others in Buffalo (and your local legislators) might be interested in. It concerns lower income individuals who are eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) when filing state and federal tax returns. The EITC is largely geared to help families with children. A family with two children is eligible for the EITC if the income is under about $35,000.

Research indicates that a high percentage of these individuals (Albany has some of the highest percentages in NYS as does Buffalo) use fee-based tax preparation services to obtain their refunds. In order to pay the fee they often end up taking out a loan called a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL) at interest rates of up to 700%. The tax preparation fee combined with the fees for the loan end up costing between 15%-20% of the average refund check of an EITC eligible individual. An example is a single parent of two making $28,000 and eligible for a $1600 refund, who ends up paying $265 for tax prep fees and a RAL.

The EITC should be going directly into the pocket of these citizens and instead they are being preyed upon by these tax preparation businesses. In addition, it is money that is not going into our local economy. It is no coincidence that you tend to see a lot of these tax prep places in lower income neighborhoods. One zip code near PUSH (14208 zip code) has one of the highest rates of people eligible for the EITC who use fee-based tax prep places in NYS and 1 out of every 2 of these folks uses a RAL in the process.

There is legislation at the state level and federal levels that doesn’t seem to be moving and, from what I can tell, does not preclude legislation at the local level. NYC passed legislation several years ago requiring full disclosure and posting of all fees to customers by tax prep places as well as notification that they can receive their full refund from the IRS in less than ten days if they have a bank account with direct deposit. They are also required to give customers a Taxpayers Bill of Rights that informs them about RALs and fees and warns them of illegal practices to avoid. As a result of the NYC legislation, the percentage of EITC eligible individuals applying for RALs in low income neighborhoods in NYC is LOWER by upwards of 20% than that of individuals from Albany and Buffalo’s low income neighborhoods.

I have attached a few different documents for you to look at. One is an informative report on the issue by the Children’s Defense Fund. I have also attached the NYC’s Consumer Bill of Rights and the draft of my resolution which I hope to be introduced shortly here in Albany.

Hope all is well with you and Colin! I don’t know if Colin told you but we are probably coming out to visit this coming weekend and staying over at a hotel Sat. night. We will try to bring whatever furniture, lamps, etc. we can fit in the car.

Love, Mom

BAM!

yes.

because you need this:

Revolutions, Caulk Streams, Dead Birds

Hi friends. Harrison suggested I post something on here, and in the spirit of the New Year - trying to do more shit better and what not - I wrote it on my list of 'shit to do'. It's at the end of a long shit-list, but I worked a long day today, so tonight it is taking precedence over insulating my roof, and repairing the broken windows in my attic, and removing the newest pigeon that flew up there and died. Happy New Year! For real though, things are good in Burlyvit. The wine gig ended with winter, so now I'm working for my slumlord who is a cool guy and a contractor, among other things, such as a complete burnout. But it works out, because he pays me to do all the stuff he forgot, like insulating? Anyway, I'm helping build an $800,000 addition for a 28-year-old dude. His mom owns a ritzy co-op, and his shower has a stream running out of it. Seriously. He had rocks grouted into his tile bathroom, and a stream runs out of his limestone steam-shower, across a granite tiled bathroom floor, into a black marble jacuzzi. Yeah Vermont! Go Green! Shop local! Oh well... It is a pretty cool project. I get to do a little bit of carpentry, but mostly I'm the painter, though the last couple of days have involved 10 hours each of caulking. If any of you have spent much time caulking, then you realize why I am glad that my New Years revolutions did not include anything about improving the sophistication of my jokes. Any job involving caulk provokes a stream of necessary questions: Hey Jeff? Jeff is my landlord. How much caulk do you like? To use on the window seams? Do you prefer the white caulk or the brown caulk? It's terrible. And by 7:00 I've been on my knees all day and I have caulk all over my hands and in my hair. So it's a good thing that my actual New Years revolution was to start working less. I decided that I've been way too motivated in 2007, so I'm stacking my piles of cash and jumping in Ryan Murray's new used truck in about a month, and heading West. Maybe I'll see you on the way through. Rock on. Dan Badger.

nytimes slide shows.

grandmothers against war nyc, traditional fight in india, john edwards supporter in nevada with an "i'm votin' for kids" sign, nevada caucus-goers.