New Jail Proposition on April 2018 Ballot

Benton County voters will soon have opportunity to approve a proposal for construction of a long-awaited and desperately-needed new jail, or to reject it for a second time, keeping the status quo which for health, safety and security reasons is unacceptable.

The 162-year old building has been the subject of articles and conversations for the past several years. See https://readmyquips.wordpress.com/2014/11/) and search the print edition of the Benton County Enterprise for more information.

JailPhoto

Jailhouse2013 Photos by J.E. Coates

County Commissioners approved a motion on January 22, 2018 to place Proposition 1 on the April 2018 municipal election ballot.

Shall the County of Benton, Missouri impose a county wide sales tax in the amount of one-half of one percent ($0.005) for a period of twenty-one years from the date on which such tax is first imposed for purposes of operations and paying for construction of a new jail for detention facilities and administrative office space for the County Sheriff’s operations? If approved, this sales tax will expire on September 30, 2039 or whenever the final payment occurs on lease certificates of participation financing, whichever comes first.

If approved, after solicitation and acceptance of construction bids, the project, estimated to take 2-1/2 years to complete, would begin in Spring 2019.

The proposed site is on the access road across from the former Smoke Shack BBQ. It is close to the ambulance center, close to the water tower, has sewer and utility lines in place – saving an additional $1-2 million, and gives easy access to Hwy 65.

Sheriff Knox said the jail is “designed specifically for Benton County, based on information pulled from the jail project archives, and is exactly what the people asked for. The new plan saves nearly $5 million.  Much of the space is multifunctional, and unlike now, it is extremely secure.”

The design is state of the art, Knox said.  There are no razor wires. Inmates will be brought in via a secured sally port and will not be outside unless they have been released by the proper authorities and procedures.  No homes or children’s school or play areas are in the immediate vicinity; the jail will not be in anyone’s backyard.

Knox said everyone involved in the jail project has taken seriously the responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer money. Geographically, site selection was limited because of the lakes, and because of the goal to save between $1-2 million by locating options with water, sewer and electricity already available. The difference between the site selected and the next best location about 100 yards south of it, was the price.

proposed jail

He respects opinions of residents who are  protesting the location, Knox said. He believes they do not yet have all the facts. Distribution of information about the jail project has begun, and opportunities to ask questions and learn more about the details will be available soon through townhall meetings.

On February 1st the sheriff posted a photo of the conceptual design on his Facebook page: https://facebook.com/SheriffKnox/ where more than 45 comments and 79 shares are supportive of the plan to date.

 

January 20, 2017 and the Next 100 Days

NPR  on November 9 published promises the then future President-Elect Donald Trump made to America during his speech in Gettysburg, Pa. in late October this year.

Trump said he will:

FIRST, propose a Constitutional Amendment to impose term limits on all members of Congress;
 SECOND, a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce through attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health);
 THIRD, a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated;
 FOURTH, a 5 year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service;
 FIFTH, a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government;
 SIXTH, a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
  • On the same day, (I will) begin taking the following 7 actions to protect American workers:
FIRST, I will announce my intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205
SECOND, I will announce our withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
 THIRD, I will direct my Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator
 FOURTH, I will direct the Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to identify all foreign trading abuses that unfairly impact American workers and direct them to use every tool under American and international law to end those abuses immediately
 FIFTH, I will lift the restrictions on the production of $50 trillion dollars’ worth of job-producing American energy reserves, including shale, oil, natural gas and clean coal.
 SIXTH, lift the Obama-Clinton roadblocks and allow vital energy infrastructure projects, like the Keystone Pipeline, to move forward
 SEVENTH, cancel billions in payments to U.N. climate change programs and use the money to fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure
  • Additionally, on the first day, (I will) take the following five actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law:
FIRST, cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama
SECOND, begin the process of selecting a replacement for Justice Scalia from one of the 20 judges on my list, who will uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States
THIRD, cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities
FOURTH, begin removing the more than 2 million criminal illegal immigrants from the country and cancel visas to foreign countries that won’t take them back
FIFTH, suspend immigration from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur. All vetting of people coming into our country will be considered extreme vetting.
  • Next, (I will) work with Congress to introduce the following broader legislative measures and fight for their passage within the first 100 days of (my) Administration:
  1. Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification Act. An economic plan designed to grow the economy 4% per year and create at least 25 million new jobs through massive tax reduction and simplification, in combination with trade reform, regulatory relief, and lifting the restrictions on American energy. The largest tax reductions are for the middle class. A middle-class family with 2 children will get a 35% tax cut. The current number of brackets will be reduced from 7 to 3, and tax forms will likewise be greatly simplified. The business rate will be lowered from 35 to 15 percent, and the trillions of dollars of American corporate money overseas can now be brought back at a 10 percent rate.
  2. End The Offshoring Act. Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
  3. American Energy & Infrastructure Act. Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.
  4. School Choice and Education Opportunity Act. Redirects education dollars to give parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.
  5. Repeal and Replace Obamacare Act. Fully repeals Obamacare and replaces it with Health Savings Accounts, the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines, and lets states manage Medicaid funds. Reforms will also include cutting the red tape at the FDA: there are over 4,000 drugs awaiting approval, and we especially want to speed the approval of life-saving medications.
  6. Affordable Childcare and Eldercare Act. Allows Americans to deduct childcare and elder care from their taxes, incentivizes employers to provide on-side childcare services, and creates tax-free Dependent Care Savings Accounts for both young and elderly dependents, with matching contributions for low-income families.
  7. End Illegal Immigration Act.  Fully-funds the construction of a wall on our southern border with the full understanding that the country Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such wall; establishes a 2-year mandatory minimum federal prison sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. after a previous deportation, and a 5-year mandatory minimum for illegally re-entering for those with felony convictions, multiple misdemeanor convictions or two or more prior deportations; also reforms visa rules to enhance penalties for overstaying and to ensure open jobs are offered to American workers first.
  8. Restoring Community Safety Act. Reduces surging crime, drugs and violence by creating a Task Force On Violent Crime and increasing funding for programs that train and assist local police; increases resources for federal law enforcement agencies and federal prosecutors to dismantle criminal gangs and put violent offenders behind bars.
  9. Restoring National Security Act. Rebuilds our military by eliminating the defense sequester and expanding military investment; provides Veterans with the ability to receive public VA treatment or attend the private doctor of their choice; protects our vital infrastructure from cyber-attack; establishes new screening procedures for immigration to ensure those who are admitted to our country support our people and our values
  10. Clean up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.

Identity Theft, the IRS and You

Online filers of federal or state income tax increasingly are at risk of losing their refunds because of rampant and sophisticated identity thieves.

Several case scenarios find an individual filing a return but rather than finding the expected refund in their bank accounts or the mailbox, they received a letter from the IRS advising them their return had already been filed and their refund already paid!

Data breaches elsewhere give hackers an edge

Michael Cohn, editor-in-chief of AccountingToday.com, explained that hackers are using data stolen through breaches of other corporate and government systems to get access to tax information stored in IRS servers.

A recent example is the breach of the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) data that left the personal information of millions of federal employees – past and present – exposed. Cohn said in the April 14, 2016 article about breaches of IRS data over the past year that:

Taxpayer data was fraudulently accessed, not through a forcible compromise of the computer systems, but by hackers who correctly answered security questions that should have only been answerable by the actual individual.

Cohn wrote about reforms Congress mandated in 1998 for the IRS that have not been completed, a result, he wrote, of billions of dollars of cuts to the agency’s budget over the years.

Federal and state collaboration

The Security Summit, a group comprised of representatives of the IRS, departments of revenue from the fifty states, and tax software providers announced enhanced protections against breaches of IRS data.

The Summit added steps to the online filing process for 2016 with the goal to verify taxpayer identity before the return is processed. These include:

  • taxpayers who received an IP PIN must use it. The six-digit number serves to prevent misuse of social security numbers, and will be sent every year before the tax season begins, and a new PIN will be sent each year;
  • IP PIN notices dated January 4, 2016 erroneously refer to 2014 returns, but are valid for 2015;
  • requirement to set a new password for those filers who are using the same online tax software as last year;
  • some states ask for driver’s license numbers to verify identity; and
  • in some cases, where filers have requested direct deposit of refunds, their refunds will be mailed by check instead.

For example, the Missouri Department of Revenue will make it optional for online filers to provide driver’s license numbers because the extra step provides more assurance that tax refunds will reach legitimate filer

Steps by taxpayers to improve their security

Individuals can take certain precautions with their personal computers and electronic devices to reduce their vulnerability. Experts recommend the following as some more easily implemented:

  • Encrypt tax record documents. File encryption products are many and varied, therefore, “how-to” lessons such as the following example may be helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UIeSOeC5ss.
  • Shred documents with personally identifying information (PII): name, address, birth dates and places, social security numbers, etc.
  • Do not give out social security numbers except to trusted requesters, and do not carry the SS card on your person.
  • Check the web address of the site visited to be sure it has the security lock and begins with https:// before entering any PII.
  • If you are using any of the following, it is a good idea to change them right away and use stronger, individually unique passwords.

25 Most commonly stolen passwords in 2015:

123456 password 12345678 qwerty 12345 123456789
football 1234 1234567 baseball welcome 1234567890
abc123 111111 1qaz2wsx dragon master monkey
letmein login princess qwertyuiop solo passw0rd
starwars

If your identity is stolen…

Report the facts and circumstances to the appropriate authorities. Missouri Department of Revenue guidelines can be found here, reflecting similarities to those of other states, as well. In general, notify the following when you know or suspect that information affecting your tax status has been stolen:

  • Department of Revenue of your state of residence
  • Local police
  • State Attorney General
  • IRS
  • Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
  • Credit reporting bureaus: Equifax; Experian, and Trans Union.

2016 filing date for 2015 returns

Federal returns for the 2015 tax year are due on Monday, April 18, 2016.  Emancipation Day falls on Saturday, April 16, and since it is celebrated as a holiday in Washington, D.C. on Friday, April 15, the filing date for income tax returns is extended to the following Monday.