Category: News and Politics
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Comment on “A Tale of Two Recoveries: Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy”
Researchers Susan L. Cutter and Christopher T. Emrich at the Hazards and Vulnerability Research Institute at the University of South Carolina published information about recovery from super storm Sandy as compared to Katrina. I think that I participated in submitting responses to their survey. I noticed that one area not mentioned in the article in Emergency Management “A Tale…
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NJ state workers need to revise their financial plans
(This post follows yesterday’s announcement that the state Supreme Court ruled that the state is not required to make negotiated pension plan contribution. More at NJ.com). “The future isn’t what it used to be.” New Jersey state workers and other participants in the state pension system (like teachers) who were promised solid pensions will receive less…
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Sales tax on interstate accounting services
The Democrat-led Finance Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly voted yesterday (4/29/2015) to expand its state sales tax to include accounting services. The Senate President Pro Tem said that he supports the changes but there appears to be opposition to the move beyond that. Three states currently tax professional services: New Mexico, Hawaii and South…
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Money Island NJ: ‘Ground Zero’ for regional climate change response
With the April 15 tax deadline past, today I turned my attention to local New Jersey politics in Money Island New Jersey. My friends and acquaintances know that for many years I’ve been working in support of a sustainable future for my time home community. Today I spent time speaking with our political consultant, our…
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Letter in support of agricultural tourism in New Jersey
This is the text (with hyperlinks added) of my letter to the Cape May County Agricultural Development Board regarding New Jersey’s attempt to draw visitors to South Jersey’s farms for recreation and tourism purposes. The matter is covered in this newspaper article. My larger concern is that if local government reacts to a small number of…
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10 good reasons why I might choose not to vote
The right to vote in a self-governing society also recognizes that electing not to vote is an option in appropriate circumstances. The election to abstain from voting is arguably the most valuable tool we have to preserve the integrity, value and meaning of the voting process. Here are ten good reasons that I may choose…
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How to fix your small business 401(k)
This week President Obama’s administration gave a strong endorsement of the Department of Labor’s plan to impose fiduciary obligations on investment brokers and advisors working with retirement plans. The controversial proposal is based on a belief that new rules are a needed consumer protection to prevent billions in costs due to bad advice. Most consumer advocates…
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No tax penalties for Healthcare.gov customers given wrong information
Yesterday the Department of Treasury issued a press release saying that the IRS announced that it will not penalize taxpayers who filed taxes based on incorrect reporting information from the federal health insurance exchange. That’s mighty kind of them.
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ACA – The law that really wasn’t
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 really hasn’t had any significant impact on individuals and small businesses despite the volumes of information, rhetoric and threats of penalties for non-compliance. Today the Obama administration extended the individual health insurance enrollment deadline (again) regarding the individual mandate. Last week they postponed the effective deadline for small business…
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My most popular articles in January 2015
All five most of my most popular articles on LinkedIn Pulse for the month of January 2015 were actually published in December. That seems odd given the short-lived value of the type of news-related consumer finance topics and commentary that I typically cover. I notice that the top four are direct commentaries on current events reported…