Read more about the article Taxpayers Beware: GAO Releases New High Risk List

Taxpayers Beware: GAO Releases New High Risk List

Every two years, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) releases its so-called high-risk list. This is the list of areas of federal spending that are vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. And, this year, just 48 hours after the President’s State of the Union address, GAO released their update for 2013. Titled, “High-Risk Series: An Update,” which details 30 high-risk areas of the federal government. Two areas were removed and two new areas were added to the high-risk list. The two areas that were removed included “Management of Interagency Contracting,” and “Internal Revenue Service Business Systems Modernization.” The two new areas added to this list were “limiting the Federal Government’s Fiscal Exposure by Better Managing Climate Change Risks” and “Mitigating Gaps in Weather Satellite Data.” With 28 “repeat offenders,” the list clearly shows that there is quite a bit of work to do. With all the talk of deficits, debt, and the sequester, there couldn’t be a better time to discuss options on making the government more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.

Continue ReadingTaxpayers Beware: GAO Releases New High Risk List
Read more about the article Taxpayers Are Still Getting Whacked at Mob Museum

Taxpayers Are Still Getting Whacked at Mob Museum

One year ago today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) and the Nevada Policy Research Institute held a press conference in the shadow of the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement (aka The Mob Museum) as it opened its doors calling the expenditure of tax dollars to build the museum a complete waste of money. TPA first alerted folks to the taxpayer boondoggle in September 2011 with the release of the report "Top Five Most Ridiculous Taxpayer Tourist Traps” in America. In that report, TPA cited the Mob Museum as THE top taxpayer-funded tourist trap. “Sin City residents have already been shaken down for $7.1 million to install more than 30 exhibits in the former courthouse and post office that houses the museum. Another $200,000 was slipped to the Mob Museum from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which hands out money snagged from a steep hotel tax to provide funding. According to City of Las Vegas budget documents, local taxpayers aren’t done shelling out money for the museum. Completing the $42 million museum will cost Vegas residents at least another $8.7 million, and possibly much more.” The museum features many strange macabre “attractions” such as the barber’s chair that mob boss Albert Anastasia was sitting in when he was gunned down in New York and parts of the bullet-riddled wall from the St. Valentines Day Massacre (hence the reason for opening the museum on Valentines Day). Despite promises from former Mayor Oscar Goodman (and former mob lawyer) that the museum would generate 800,000 visitors in its inaugural year alone, that promise like so many others governments make, has fallen far short of reality. Far from a sweetheart deal, this museum has failed to even meet its “breakeven” point, which was to see 300,000 visitors in the first year. According to the museum staff at the completion of their first year, they’ve only had 250,000 visitors walk through the front door. It’s worth noting that just a few months back in October 2012 the museum had only welcomed its 100,000 visitor.

Continue ReadingTaxpayers Are Still Getting Whacked at Mob Museum
Read more about the article TPA Reacts to the State of the Union

TPA Reacts to the State of the Union

Tonight was President Obama’s fourth State of The Union (SOTU) address (2009 was technically just a speech before a joint session of Congress, not a State of The Union). Just as in previous SOTU’s by President Obama, and former President’s, there is quite a lot to digest. As you can imagine, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) listened intently as the President talked more about his spending and taxation plans for the year. An article in The Hill earlier today gave us a sneak preview of what to expect, “President Obama will use his State of the Union speech Tuesday to turn public opinion against automatic spending cuts and argue that some of the money to replace the cuts should instead come from higher taxes. He will use the prime-time TV address to argue the economy would be damaged if $85 billion in automatic spending cuts were to go ahead on schedule on March 1, and will seek to set up Republicans to take the blame if they do.” Well, President Obama kept true to his word. He railed against the sequester (automatic spending cuts), asked for more revenue, and called for additional spending. The trifecta of what not to do considering that the nation is $16.5 trillion in debt and the deficit this year will eclipse the $800 billion mark.

Continue ReadingTPA Reacts to the State of the Union
Read more about the article Burlington’s Bust

Burlington’s Bust

When you want something done well, on time, and within budget, don’t look to the government to make it happen. Government-owned networks (GONs) epitomize the flaws and pitfalls associated with most of government “enterprise” ventures. The Coalition for the New Economy took a closer look at one of these GONs, Burlington Telecom in Vermont. In his recent paper, Dr. Joseph P. Fuhr, Jr. explained some of the problems Burlington Telecom has experienced. As Dr. Fuhr notes “many of the problems typical with GONs: a construction plan that is behind schedule (the network is only 85 percent built); high levels of debt ($51 million to be exact); and unmet subscribership goals (despite promises of universal service, the network only serves 4,000 residents).” Although these examples are very troubling, they don’t hold a candle to the $17 million in government subsidies the system, Burlington Telecom, “borrowed” from the city’s taxpayers. Unfortunately for Burlington’s taxpayers, the nightmare of this system doesn’t end here. No different than a bad dream that can’t end fast enough, the shortcomings inherent in GONs continue to plague the localities that misguidedly implemented the network in the first place.

Continue ReadingBurlington’s Bust
Read more about the article Governor Dayton’s Dubious Tax Scheme

Governor Dayton’s Dubious Tax Scheme

(Phil Krinkie, a former eight-term Republican state rep from LinoLakes who chaired the House Tax Committee for a while, is president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota. You can contact him at:philk@taxpayersleague.org) Two weeks ago Governor Mark Dayton released his long awaited “Tax Reform” agenda in a 45 minute presentation to the media and interested parties. In what the Governor termed major reform and “a fair tax system for all Minnesotans” he proposes to extend the sales tax to most goods and services including clothing, raise the top income tax rate by 23% and increase other taxes and fees by almost a half a billion dollars. The Dayton “Tax Reform” agenda is big on taxes and little on reform. If adopted the Governor’s tax plan would make our income tax rate one of the top five in the U.S. and impose sales taxes on services that no other state in the nation taxes. Besides the fact it’s a major tax grab, Dayton is proposing to implement tax changes that he opposed just two years ago in his campaign to become Governor. In a gubernatorial debate with his two opponents, Dayton characterized his opposition to expanding the sales tax in this manner: “Extending the sales tax to clothing…is regressive. Extending the sales tax to all consumer services, car repairs and haircuts and individual purchases of lawyers and accountants…taxing all that and turning those service businesses as tax collectors for the state is really a hornet’s nest…it’s more of a regressive tax…on middle income and working families.”

Continue ReadingGovernor Dayton’s Dubious Tax Scheme
Read more about the article Internet Tax Is Still A Bad Idea

Internet Tax Is Still A Bad Idea

As with many things, Ronald Reagan said it best when he observed that many liberals’ actions could be succinctly stated with these three sentences: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” For the purposes of this blog, the first sentence will do. In fact in the case of what seems to be a perpetual debate over taxing the internet, the sentence could be modified slightly with the addition of: “The faster it moves, the greater the tax.” Though not quite as elegant as the Gipper said it, you get the idea. Fortunately, a few Members of Congress recognize the detrimental, wide-reaching effects that an internet tax would have on our economy. In an attempt to end a debate over implementing an internet tax before the debate gets fully underway, two Senators, Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Dean Heller (R-Nev.) introduced new legislation that “would extend a law banning federal, state and local governments from taxing Internet access.” Congress should act quickly to pass this important piece of legislation. As The Hill reported, the “Internet Tax Freedom Act, originally enacted in 1998, is set to expire in November 2014. The bill from Ayotte and Heller would extend the ban indefinitely.”

Continue ReadingInternet Tax Is Still A Bad Idea
Read more about the article TPA Joins Call To Strengthen Our Economic Security With Defense Savings

TPA Joins Call To Strengthen Our Economic Security With Defense Savings

Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance joined with 7 other groups to urge Congress to pursue a minimum of $50 to $100 billion in annual Pentagon budget savings over the next decade—savings taxpayers were promised in the Budget Control Act of 2011. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are ending, and our defense leaders admit the spending boom that more than doubled the Pentagon budget since the wars’ launch a decade ago must end. Consensus exists among civilian and military experts that DOD can absorb at least sequestration levels of spending cuts while retaining a robust force to meet the nation’s security needs. The bottom line is that sequestration will not weaken our military and should only be the first step in realigning the Pentagon’s priorities. Reforms such as eliminating outdated, Cold War-era weapons; cutting programs the military doesn’t even want; reforming military health care programs; and closing unneeded bases will not only save taxpayers billions, they will also make our nation stronger by helping safeguard our financial security.

Continue ReadingTPA Joins Call To Strengthen Our Economic Security With Defense Savings
Read more about the article Free WiFi: Another Costly Bad Idea From The FCC

Free WiFi: Another Costly Bad Idea From The FCC

Most people understand that when you have a bad idea that’s been rejected time and time again, it’s never a good idea to come up with an even worse idea to replace it. Unfortunately, that’s not the way the government thinks and it appears that the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC), under the leadership of Chairman Julius Genachowski, never seems to run out of bad ideas. The latest bad idea came earlier this week when the FCC announced its intent to “create super WiFi networks across the nation, so powerful and broad in reach that consumers could use them to make calls or surf the Internet without paying a cell phone bill every month,” as reported by The Washington Post. Similar to the ill-fated Universal Service Fund (USF), this latest FCC proposal would waste taxpayers’ resources while simultaneously stunting private sector innovations and investments in the industry. There is no telling how much a country-wide Wifi network would cost. With a government that is quickly going broke and the private sector pouring billions of dollars into a strong and reliable WiFi networks, taxpayers should not be funding this.

Continue ReadingFree WiFi: Another Costly Bad Idea From The FCC
Read more about the article Deficits and Debt Do Matter

Deficits and Debt Do Matter

Nobel Prize winning economists can be wrong. On January 28, 2013, while promoting his new book, economist Paul Krugman told viewers on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that deficits don’t matter. He has probably said that before, but his remarks should be viewed with renewed interest and scorn because they run counter to what is playing out in the U.S. economy and the halls of Congress right now. The government reported on Wednesday that the U.S. economy contracted by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, the first time growth has been negative since mid-2009. Analysts expected the GDP growth to be 1 percent to 1.2 percent. This period of economic growth occurred during a time when Congress raised taxes on the job creators and even middle class Americans. Budget battles over the last two years have been precisely about deficits and debt and the United States experienced a credit downgrade in the summer of 2011 as the country struggled through a debt ceiling increase. As Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough wrote in a Politico op-ed in response to Krugman’s appearance on his show, “His argument also runs counter to what I have been saying in Congress and in the media since 1994.” Scarborough went on to elaborate who else agrees with him, “Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass, who agrees with former Joint Chief chairman Michael Mullen, that longterm debt poses the greatest threat to America 's national security. Richard took exception to the suggestion that deficits don't matter and that longterm debt can be pushed to the side for years to come. Mr. Haass, Admiral Mullen and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles all believe that entitlements and debt are the most pressing challenges we face as a country over the next few decades.”

Continue ReadingDeficits and Debt Do Matter
Read more about the article New Report Uncovers Medicare Waste

New Report Uncovers Medicare Waste

Perhaps no government program has become more synonymous with waste, fraud and abuse than Medicare. So when the Associated Press broke a story last week noting that the Medicare program “paid more than $120 million from 2009 to 2011 in violation of federal law for medical services for inmates and illegal immigrants,” many in Washington likely didn’t bat an eye. But policymakers in Washington and taxpayers throughout the nation should be appalled by this latest example of careless, unnecessary Medicare spending. Just because there are so many examples of mismanagement of Medicare funds does not mean that this should desensitize folks from the magnitude of the problem. Improper payments are not a new problem. On February 7, 2012, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report, “Improper Payments: Moving Forward with Governmentwide Reduction Strategies,” which identifies $115 billion in improper payments by the federal government. According to the report, “The $115.3 billion estimate was attributable to 79 programs spread among 17 agencies. Ten programs accounted for about $107 billion or 93 percent of the total estimated improper payments agencies reported for fiscal year 2011…The federal government continues to face challenges in determining the full extent of improper payments…Internal control weaknesses continue to exist, heightening the risk of improper payments.” The GAO lists the most vulnerable programs and, to nobody’s surprise, Medicare and Medicaid are at the top of the list with $29 billion and $22 billion respectively in improper payments.

Continue ReadingNew Report Uncovers Medicare Waste