Month: October 2013

GEICO makes Arizona taxpayers spend $8 million on vouchers

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by David Safier

The Star has a story this morning that makes GEICO sound like the good guys for donating $8 million so poor kids can go to private school. The story is factually accurate and wildly misleading. Here's what the story should have said.

GEICO used the state law that allows corporations to get 100% tax credits for money they give to School Tuition Organizations (STO). That money will be distributed by the STO to pay for student tuitions to private schools. So GEICO paid $8 million up front and will have all of it deducted from whatever taxes it owes the state. Cost to GEICO: zero. Cost to Arizona taxpayers: $8 million.

The STO that got the money, Arizona Leadership Foundation, is making out very well on the deal because it gets to keep 10% of tuition tax credit donations to pay for overhead. That comes to $800,000 in overhead — $800,000 taxpayers will pay, since, as I said earlier, GEICO will get 100% of its money back. In the research I've done on STOs, I see no indication that it will cost the Foundation almost a million dollars to collect the money, then distribute it to the students. The money has already been given. That was easy. Now parents have to apply for the funds. The STO will assess the applications, then give the money to the private schools chosen by students whose applications it accepts. That's not an $800,000 operation.

Reaping the whirlwind: GOP pays the price for its governing-by-extortion strategy

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Two new polls out this week demonstrate that the Tea-Publican governing-by-extortion strategy of taking the country hostage and shutting down the federal government, coupled with threatening to default on the full faith and credit of the United States has been devastating to the GOP. Will they learn their lesson? Nah.

This new poll from CNN is devastating to the GOP.

While President Obama is under water on his approval rating at 44 percent to 52 percent disapprove, the approval of Congress remains in the ocean depths at 12 percent.

The CNN poll finds that Americans have more confidence in President Obama than the Republicans to deal with the major issues facing the country by
44-31. Among moderates, those numbers are 51-24; among indys they are
34-30; even 21 percent of Conservatives approve. Obama leads across all demographics by age, race, sex, education, income and region. Obama's lead among white (40-33) seniors (47-30), critical to the GOP in the midterm electorate, portends real trouble for the GOP.

Critically, the CNN poll finds that 54 percent of Americans think continued GOP control of the
House is bad for the country, including 59 percent of moderates and 53
percent of independents; even 32 percent of Conservatives say it is bad for the country. This negative view of the GOP holds across all demographics by age, race, sex, education, income and region. This negative view of the GOP among white (49-43) seniors (56-39) portends real trouble for the GOP. (Only the 65+ age group is evenly divided).

The CNN poll asked some granular questions about the Affordable Care Act aka "ObamaCare" that most polls do not. 41 percent approve and another 12 percent say ObamaCare is not liberal enough. Only 38 percent oppose ObamaCare as too liberal. By asking the granular questions rather than the error-prone approve or diapprove dichotomy that distorts results, the poll produced a more accurate result.

The TanMan, Weeper of the House John Boehner, finds no love in this poll. 63 percent of poll respondents want to see him replaced as Speaker.

September Jobs Report (delayed by GOP government shutdown)

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Steve Benen has the September jobs report, the release of which was delayed by the GOP government shutdown. As you might imagine, the impending GOP brinksmanship of a government shutdown and threatening default on the sovereign debt had a negative effect on the economy. This is likely to continue as long as this threat remains over the economy. Economy adds 148k jobs, jobless rate drops:

[T]he data seems somehow stale – we’re looking at month-old figures just as we’re nearing the end of October.

Nevertheless, as Nelson Schwartz noted earlier, this report “will be closely watched,”
in part to see if there’s any evidence of progress in the job market,
and in part because this is the last jobs report to cover the period
before congressional Republicans shut down the government and sparked a
new debt-ceiling crisis.

So, how’d we do? Not especially well. The new report
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the U.S. economy added
148,000 jobs in September, below modest expectations. After years of
public-sector layoffs serving as a drag on the overall economy, we’re
starting to see a slight turnaround – the private sector added 126,000
jobs last month, while the public sector added 22,000 jobs. That may
seem like a fairly modest number, but it’s the most in recent memory.

SeptemberJobs

America’s Deadly Inequality

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Posted by Bob Lord Remember when John Edwards spoke about two Americas?   In McDowell County, USA Has Close to Haiti's Life Expectancy: Welcome to Third World America, Alex Henderson of Alternet shines a light on those two Americas, and the contrast between them. The bottom line: Inequality in America isn't just immoral, it's deadly. … Read more

AIRC Update: AIRC files its response

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

On Friday, the AIRC filed its Response to Platiff's Motion for Preliminary Injunction in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricitng Commission. This is the case in which our Tea-Publican legislators want to overturn Proposition 106 (2000), the citizens initiative creating the AIRC enacted by the voters of Arizona, asserting that the citizens of Arizona have no authority to deprive the state legislature of the "exclusive" power to redistrict.

The Response cites the controlling case precedents demonstrating why the case filed by our Tea-Publican legislators is without merit, and they are not entitled to any relief.

It is important to remember that during the Progressive Era, a number of states enacted the reforms of citizens initiative, referendum and recall. The state of Arizona was admitted to the Union in 1912 with a progressive state constitution which expressly provided for citizens initiative, referendum and recall, reserving to the people the power to propose laws and amendments to the Constitution.

The controlling case precedent is Ohio ex rel Davis v. Hidebrant, 241 US 565, 569 (1916):

By an amendment to the Constitution of Ohio, adopted September 3d, 1912,
the legislative power was expressly declared to be vested not only in
the senate and house of representatives of the state, constituting the
general assembly, but in the people, in whom a right was reserved by way
of referendum to approve or disapprove by popular vote any law enacted
by the general assembly. And by other constitutional provisions the
machinery to carry out the referendum was created.

* * *

In May, 1915, the general assembly of Ohio passed an act redistricting the state for the purpose of congressional elections, by which act twenty-two congressional districts were created, in some
respects differing from the previously established districts, and this
act, after approval by the governor, was filed in the office of the
secretary of state. The requisite number of electors under the
referendum provision having petitioned for a submission of the law to a
popular vote, such vote was taken and the law was disapproved.