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Tax
Refund News
Many
of you have waited patiently for your income tax refund to arrive from the
State of Missouri. This is my seventh year
in office and I have never had so many constituents call to ask why their
income tax refund is delayed. Unlike the national government, we
cannot just print money; we must actually wait until it is in the bank
before mailing out checks. This year our Governor chose to wait
until he received some economic stimulus money. Here is one news
report:
State
expects to finish most income tax refunds tomorrow
State tax refunds for most
Missourians who filed their returns on time in April have been received or
will be in the mail by the end of business tomorrow. But if it had not
been for 250-million dollars in federal stimulus money coming to the
state, a lot of Missourians might still be waiting for their refunds. Tax
collections through May are down by a percent-and-a-half while the amount
the state owed in refunds was up more than seven percent. That has put the
revenue department in a squeeze that threatened to delay refunds even more
than they had been
delayed.
Four Questions We All Should Be
Asking (from
Rep. Davis)
1.)
Shouldn’t tax pre-payments be put into a special
reserve account where it
will not be used until all refunds are
paid? The concept of
extracting a percentage of people’s wages every pay period addresses a
governmental concern that the constituents will not be able to manage
their financial affairs if they paid their taxes at the end of the
year. Perhaps the citizens should be equally concerned their government
will not have money in the bank when it is time to refund their
money. I would prefer a system where both parties were equally
accountable for paying whatever is due when it is due. If the people
have to pay penalties, fines and interest for late payments, the
government should have to do the same in reverse.
Hmmm…I may need to file a bill next
year establishing equal treatment for our citizens in refund
payments. Perhaps the best way to solve this is to allow the
taxpayers to put their money in an interest bearing escrow account.
At the end of the year, a calculation would allow the taxpayer to pay only
the actual amount due. No refund would be necessary. This is a
standard practice in the home mortgage industry for payment of real estate
taxes. People pay an estimated amount monthly, yet the total is not
rendered to the governing agency until the end of the year. We need
our income tax payments structured in a similar fashion. That way
the taxpayer could enjoy the benefit of the interest accumulated
throughout the year.
2.) Why are we
spending federal economic stimulus money to pay people back for money they
overpaid the state? The stimulus
money is supposed to be used for one time projects, not to go into
standard operations of state government. Tax refunds are a regularly
occurring event that will come every year.
3.) Why
is any government in
debt? When a new business
is forming, the start up costs frequently create debt. A smart
business plan will allow the business to repay the loan within a specified
time. Established businesses set aside a portion of revenue for debt
reduction. When the period of indebtedness is over, more money
becomes available for capital improvements or dividends to the
shareholders without incurring new debt. All governments could
enhance the prosperity of their citizens if they would seek to eliminate
their debts. The state
of Missouri spent over 170 million dollars
in 2008 and will spend over 175 million dollars in 2009 just in interest
payments on state bonds. (Source:
Division of Accounting, State of MO.)
4.) When the House was
considering what to do with the economic stimulus money, we decided the
most fair and appropriate use would be to give it back to our citizens in
the form of an income tax reduction. After all, this economic
stimulus money is only a pre-payment on the taxes you are going to owe in
the future. The amount we attempted to give our taxpayers was one
billion dollars. The Senate and the Governor’s office squelched that
idea saying it was an inappropriate use of the stimulus money. Now
here we are using stimulus money to give out tax refunds.
Why does the Governor want to
use stimulus
money to pay people back money they don’t
owe the government, but both the Governor and the Senate were opposed to
using the same money to grant them relief in the future?
Some people
compartmentalize public policies into fiscal issues or moral issues.
I propose that the fiscal issues are also moral issues as well. The
level of care we use when handling other people’s money demonstrates our
commitment to good stewardship as well as our respect for our fellow
citizens.
Your
thoughts are important to me, so please let me know what you think about
the spending of the economic
stimulus money and how to handle our income tax
refunds. You can send me your opinion by clicking
here: Cynthia Davis
‘Bill
of Rights’ Scholarship Opportunity
If you or someone you know is a college-bound
female high school junior or senior from either the Class of 2009 or the
Class of 2010, we have an exciting opportunity to share with you.
The National Foundation for Women Legislators
(NFWL) is hosting their Annual
Conference from September 3rd – 7th, 2009 at the
Hyatt Tamaya Resort on the Santa Ana Pueblo just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico. Seven contest
winners will receive: (1) a $3,000 unrestricted scholarship to
use towards college tuition at any U.S. college
or university; and (2) and all-expense-paid trip to NFWL’s 2009 Annual
Conference where you will meet women lawmakers from across the
United States, learn about public policy, and establish relationships that
often grow into mentoring opportunities. NFWL will pay completely
for your airfare, lodging, meals and conference registration fees.
You will be accompanied by your sponsoring legislator, Rep.
Cynthia
Davis.
The “Essay Contest Verification Form” must be
submitted to Rep. Davis’ office by 5pm on July 3,
2009 to indicate your interest in
participating. A 400-600 word essay and two letters of
reference must be submitted to Rep. Davis’ office no later than 5pm on July 10,
2009. Details about the essay and the conference
can be found at NFWL’s
conference website.
If you have additional questions please feel free
to call or e-mail Rep.
Davis’ office.
Cynthia
in the News
Are your rights
safe - local woman tells of her fight for right to home school at
CWA this weekend
June 11, 4:44
PM Examiner.Com
(Lisa Naeger
and her children)
So, do you think your home
school rights are safe? Is Missouri a home school friendly
state? How home school friendly is our state? If you home
school in the state of Missouri, you have
probably heard on more than one occasion that Missouri is a home
school friendly state. If this is true, it is in a large part thanks
to
politicians in law-making influential roles such as
Cynthia
Davis and Todd
Akin for starters. But,
how home school friendly is our state? And, can we afford to relax and
trust it will stay this way?
Last month, over 2,000 home
schooler’s rallied at the last minute to show up on the steps of
Jefferson
City when we were informed of a bill that was being
re-written which could adversely affect our home schooling rights. When
the lawmakers saw the vast amount of people at the courthouse steps on
such short notice to support home school rights, they were impressed. They
ended up re-writing the Bill. In the end, the Bill does not benefit home
schooler’s as much as the rally had hoped and was reported as it leaves lots of room for intrusion by government because we
now have to address the number of hours that actually qualify for
a
credit hour, and compulsory school age is now 17.
Home
School Legal Defense
Association (HSLDA) is working on amendments for the next session.
Still, we got the ball rolling in the right
direction.
But, the outcome isn’t always
in a home schoolers’ favor. Recently, State Representative,
Cynthia
Davis’ bill to propose
an amendment to our state constitution guaranteeing parents and legal
guardians the right to care, educate and raise their children without
governmental hindrance did not pass. On a larger scale, the
UN-CRC could adversely affect every nurturing parent in our nation.
Michael Farris from HSLDA
will continue to move forward at the
national level with a National Initiative regarding a Parental Rights
Amendment. You can join the fight for your parental rights by signing an
online petition:
Sign Parental Rights Online
Petition
HSLDA has been very
successful in helping to set precedent in national and state-inflicted
laws regarding home schooling across our nation. But, what happens if you
are caught in the middle of a battle which the state did not inflict –
such as a divorce? You may not know that the HSLDA and Families for Home
Education (FHE) will not
represent you.
Such laws have affected local
home schooling mom, Lisa Naeger. No stranger to the public school system;
after serving a term on the Francis Howell School Board, she decided to
home school her children 8 years ago. Since that time, she has been
careful to uphold all the laws of our state. She has kept logs and records
of her children’s academic studies and hours of instruction along with
samples of their school work. Her children have thrived in the home
schooling environment showing steady improvement each year and always
testing at or above grade level on standardized tests she chose to have
administered to her children. She even went a step further and chose to
enrich her children’s learning with outside courses offered through co-ops
& lessons. This not only added to their academic learning but their
well-rounded social skills – you know, those cherished socialization
skills that so many who oppose home schooling are concerned home schooled
children will never achieve!
In January 2008, after 21
years of marriage; Lisa found herself in the middle of a divorce. Her
husband, an attorney and CPA with substantial income, had filed for
divorce and didn’t stop there. With the concern that he could not support
two households after the marriage ended if Lisa remained home to teach the
children, he proceeded to make home schooling an issue to contest as part
of the divorce hearings. Prior to this, he had never expressed any
concerns about his children being home
schooled.
In St. Charles
County, a Guardian Ad
Litem (GAL) is usually appointed in custody cases when there is alleged
abuse. It is their job to act as a representative of the children to
ensure the best interests of the children in court. In this case, the GAL
has turned this divorce into Lisa and her children’s worst nightmare. She
immediately questioned the children, leaving them in tears. She then
ordered them to write a report comparing and contrasting home school to
“regular school.” After that, she submitted them to psychological testing,
more academic achievement testing & testing for Lisa to determine her
competency as a teacher. The result of this? The judge granted an order,
requested by the GAL, that her children register for school in the fall.
And, Lisa was told that she was not to discuss any details of the case
with her children, leaving them wondering why they are being put through
all this trauma.
If all this sounds
complicated and unpleasant, that’s probably because when you are trying to
be a light shining in the darkness, it can look pretty bleak to your right
& to your left. Even though a recent USA
Today article reported
home schooling is on the rise, we are still in the minority at 2.9%. But,
when home schoolers join together, we get things moving in the right
direction and stop hindrances of our rights to educate our children the
way we are entitled to educate them in a free society which our founding
leaders sought and established.
A Little
Bit of Humor
"Is your advertising
getting results?"
asked one business
owner.
"It sure is," moaned
the second owner.
"Last week we
advertised for a night watchman ... and the next night we were
robbed."
This Capitol Report is a weekly
column by Representative Cynthia Davis, from the 19th District,
covering events in the Missouri Legislature and district-wide
issues.
J If you know of anyone else
who would like to receive my Capitol Report, please send an e-mail to
Cynthia.Davis@house.mo.gov
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