Read more about the article TPA Is Still Waiting For Answers From GSA About LEED

TPA Is Still Waiting For Answers From GSA About LEED

On January 17, 2013, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance sent Freedom of Information Act requests to the General Services Administration requesting, “a copy of all e-mails to the U.S. Green Building Council or the ‘USGBC’ from the General Services Administration from 2002 to 2011,” and “a copy of all e-mails from the U.S. Green Building Council or the ‘USGBC’ to the General Services Administration from 2002 to 2011. A third FOIA request was sent for “a copy of all General Services Administration e-mails that mention the U.S. Green Building Council or the ‘USGBC’ from 2002 to 2011.” These requests are part of an ongoing investigation by TPA into the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification system promulgated by the USGBC and mandated by the GSA for all new federal buildings. As of March 7, 2013, TPA has received no response to the FOIA requests. Even if there were no records that were responsive to the requests, GSA should have notified TPA with that information. USGBC may have inadvertently forced GSA to play their hand when they mentioned to a reporter (in response to TPA’s FOIAs), “The group is likely to be disappointed, says Lane Burt, USGBC’s director of technical policy, who adds that USGBC staff members correspond regularly with GSA staff members.” The good news is that the USGBC has at least acknowledged that records exist. The bad news is that there hasn’t been a response from the GSA.

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Read more about the article Tax Reform Takes Center Stage With H.R. 1

Tax Reform Takes Center Stage With H.R. 1

For once Washington takes a step in the right direction, but keep your excitement reserved. Much remains to be seen about just how far House Speaker John Boehner’s efforts to reform our tax code will actually go but credit should be given to Speaker Boehner who took the first step towards making this happen when he announced that “he will push major reform of the tax code by reserving pole position — H.R. 1 — for that massive legislative undertaking. Again, don’t get too excited or think the battle is over yet. The troops haven’t even gotten on the ground yet. The Hill article reminds us of a very important fact: “Designating tax reform as H.R. 1 far from ensures that it will become law this year, or even that it will make its way through the House.” While this is certainly true, this reality calls all pro-taxpayer groups to join together and keep Boehner to his promise. There’s much to undertake when it comes to crafting a good, extensive restructuring of our current, disastrous, burdensome tax code, but the fact is you can’t begin to have a conversation until the subject is at the very least on the table. And that’s what Speaker Boehner has done. Now let’s just hope this symbolic gesture moves beyond a sheet of paper and prompts action on a significant under-hauling of our nation’s tax code. In an attempt to encourage Congressional action on this issue, Taxpayers Protection Alliance suggests that one area of tax reform that should get particular attention is corporate tax reform.

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Read more about the article TPA Joins Forces to Urge Congress to Support the Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act

TPA Joins Forces to Urge Congress to Support the Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act

Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance joined with 16 other free market and taxpayer groups to urge strong support of S. 446 and H.R. 943, the “Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act,” sponsored by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Rep. John Duncan (R-TN), respectively. This common sense legislation would scale back crop insurance premium subsidies, the cost of which has skyrocketed in recent years, to the more responsible levels that prevailed prior to a massive expansion in 2000. In doing so, it would provide a modest down payment on desperately needed fundamental reforms to U.S. agricultural policy. In 2011, taxpayers paid an average of $62 out of every $100 in crop insurance premiums, with farmers only needing to cover the remaining $38 out of pocket. This extraordinarily generous subsidy has led to extremely high costs for taxpayers. From 2001 to 2012, the total cost of premium subsidies jumped four-fold from $1.8 billion to $7.5 billion. The Congressional Budget Office projects even higher costs in the future, averaging $9.1 billion annually. Limiting these subsidies to the levels that prevailed in 2000 would essentially reverse the aforementioned ratio, with taxpayers covering an average of $37 out of every $100 in premiums and farmers covering the remaining $63. Even a modest reform like this yields huge savings, as CBO estimates the Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act would reduce the burden on taxpayers by $40.1 billion over the next decade.

Continue ReadingTPA Joins Forces to Urge Congress to Support the Crop Insurance Subsidy Reduction Act
Read more about the article Tennessee Telephone Pole Dancing

Tennessee Telephone Pole Dancing

Today (March 1) the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) sent a letter to members of the Tennessee House and Senate urging them to vote against a bill that according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press “would allow Tennessee's electric cooperatives and government-owned utilities to charge an exorbitant amount for cable and telecommunications companies to use electric companies' utility poles.” This legislation would stifle Internet and phone service deployment and ultimately hurt consumers. The Tennessee-based Freedom to Connect states that, “Attachment rates are sky rocketing. In fact, in Tennessee public power companies and co-ops charge rates that are among the highest in the entire nation – rates averaging $17 per pole attachment. Some Tennessee power companies are charging as much as $30 per attachment, nearly 300% higher than the national cooperative average of $10.38 and more than 400% higher than the rates charged by investor owned utilities. The House and Senate bills would force providers to pay millions in additional pole fees, which in turn would mean phone and Internet providers would have to raise rates. This is bad for the free market and bad for consumers.

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Read more about the article Sequestration To Affect Already Closed National Drug Intelligence Center

Sequestration To Affect Already Closed National Drug Intelligence Center

At midnight tonight (March 1), the sequestration ($85 billion in automatic spending cuts) officially kicks in. The amount of misinformation surrounding President Obama’s the sky-is-falling rhetoric when describing the sequester’s spending cuts is getting out of hand. In fact, it’s now so far removed from reality that the administration has started lamenting supposed cuts to a government agency that no longer exists. Back in September 2012, Congress requested that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) send a detailed report detailing all of the government programs and agencies that would be affected if the sequestration cuts were to occur. Just this week, Reason announced it had discovered a problem with the report. Specifically, “One of the cuts it warns against would affect an agency that no longer exists--and didn't exist when the OMB sent its report to congress.” Oops! The Reason post goes on to detail the government’s significant error: “The first line item on page 121…says that under sequestration the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) would lose $2 million of its $20 million budget. While that’s slightly more than 8.2 percent (rounding error or scare tactic?), the bigger problem is that the NDIC shuttered its doors on June 15, 2012--three months before the OMB issued its report to Congress.” If you need more proof, Reason’s site even includes a screenshot of the government’s page.

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Read more about the article TPA Joins Transpartisan Coalition to Reduce Wasteful Defense Spending

TPA Joins Transpartisan Coalition to Reduce Wasteful Defense Spending

On February 27, 2013, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance joined with groups from the Left and Right to urge Congress and the President to reduce wasteful and ineffective Pentagon spending to make us safer. There is a growing consensus—among members of Congress from both sides of the aisle, policy wonks of various stripes, and even defense industry CEOs—that lawmakers can, and should, find areas for substantial savings in the Pentagon’s bloated budget. The colaition, and military experts believe we can realize savings of at least $50 billion to $100 billion per year over 10 years in the Pentagon budget—without compromising national security. In fact, such savings will make us safer since our security depends on a sound strategy and a strong economy. The Pentagon must confront the threat to our economy with the same vigor, determination, and skill it has shown toward other urgent tasks. Our military might is not measured by how many dollars we spend but how we spend our dollars. The signatories to this letter are: Americans for Tax Reform, Campaign for America's Future, Center for Freedom and Prosperity, Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Cost of Government Center, CREDO, Freedom Action, Friends Committee on National Legislation, National Priorities Project, National Taxpayers Union, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats of America, Project On Government Oversight, Republican Liberty Caucus, R Street, Take Back Washington, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, USAction, U.S. PIRG, Women’s Action for New Direction, and Win Without War. Read the full letter here.

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Read more about the article D.C. Fire And E.M.S. Employees Rake In $1 Million In Overtime

D.C. Fire And E.M.S. Employees Rake In $1 Million In Overtime

While many struggle to find jobs in this economy, others enjoy superfluous benefits and unwarranted rewards. Chances are if you’re a government employee, the odds are in your favor to benefit from some sort of needless, unnecessary perk along the way. Study after study has shown that public employees are vastly overpaid and earn a significantly larger salary than their counterparts in the private sector. Even with this reality, it’s still surprising to learn about the most atrocious examples of government employees “benefits.” The Washington Examiner recently reported that “25 D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department employees combined to earn more than $1 million in overtime pay during the city's most recent fiscal year, agency statistics show. According to records provided to the D.C. Council, the 25 workers collected $1,021,242.07 in overtime. That compensation was in addition to more than $1.6 million in salary.” [emphasis added]

Continue ReadingD.C. Fire And E.M.S. Employees Rake In $1 Million In Overtime
Read more about the article Marketplace Fairness Act Is A Bad Idea That Isn’t Fair

Marketplace Fairness Act Is A Bad Idea That Isn’t Fair

Rearing its ugly head again, the Marketplace Fairness Act has recently been reintroduced in this Congress by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY). Don’t let the word “fairness” in the bill’s title fool you. Under the auspices of fairness, the legislation empowers the government to extract even more tax dollars from the already weary taxpayers across the nation. As Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) explains in a letter to Congress, “While achieving ‘fairness’ may be a laudable goal, it cannot be an excuse for increasing the burden on taxpayers.” In addition to the gravest issue of higher taxes for taxpayers, a lot of other shortcomings exist in this bill. For example, it would create a bureaucratic, organizational nightmare for online retailers by imposing onerous, unreasonable demands on their business transactions. As R Street Institute Senior Fellow Andrew Moylan explained recently in an op-ed, “…online retailers would be denied that convenient standard and would be forced to interrogate their customers about their eventual destination, look up the appropriate rules and regulations in more than 9,600 taxing jurisdictions across the country, and then collect and remit sales tax for that distant authority…Because they would now have to comply with the complex tax codes in more than 9,600 tax jurisdictions, remote retailers would be weighed down by substantial compliance burdens."

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Read more about the article IRS Can’t Seem To Get It Right

IRS Can’t Seem To Get It Right

As tax season begins to rear its ugly head again, taxpayers across the nation are reminded of the out-of-control spending habits in Washington. Even more depressing is the fact that this type of spending is no longer merely a habit; it has become a way of life for many of our elected officials. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS), one of the most feared agencies, has shown that they just can’t seem to get it right. On one hand, the IRS’s Inspector General just released an audit report that showed that $6 million was wasted on technology. On the other end of the scale, the IRS announced it would eliminate one of its most useful programs, IRS's Migration Flow data program.

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Read more about the article TPA Joins Coalition Urging Congress to Pass Common Sense Agriculture Reform

TPA Joins Coalition Urging Congress to Pass Common Sense Agriculture Reform

On February 14, 2013, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance joined with nine other taxpayer and free market groups to urge Congress to take common sense steps to reform federal supports for agriculture and save taxpayers at least $100 billion over the next decade. The 113th Congress has a prime opportunity to reduce the federal government’s meddling in the agricultural sector while helping to pay down our $16 trillion national debt. A number of common sense steps can be taken to create a more accountable, responsive, and cost-effective agricultural policy. Despite the 2012 drought being one of the most severe in history, the agriculture industry “suffered” with near-record profits. Given today’s extraordinarily high commodity prices and farm profits and our monumental fiscal crisis, agriculture subsidies should be reduced by at least $100 billion over the next decade. Federal supports for agriculture must be evaluated on their own merits. Though explosive growth in nutrition programs, particularly the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), must be addressed, that discussion must not be used to sidetrack necessary reforms to federal subsidies to agricultural businesses. Congress must consider changing the law under which America operates in the absence of a new farm bill. The current fallback, the horribly outdated Agricultural Act of 1949, forces taxpayers to decide between Farm Bills with inadequate reforms or reverting to even more detrimental World War II-era law.

Continue ReadingTPA Joins Coalition Urging Congress to Pass Common Sense Agriculture Reform