IS IT TRUE October 25, 2013
IS IT TRUE that the Vanderburgh County General Fund Account Fund is never less than $6 million dollars and sometimes shall go up to around $68 million during the Fall and Spring tax collection periods? …that the contract clause stating that the bank that handles the County General account must be located within a 1 mile radius of the Civic Center was created by past County Treasurer Z Tuley?…that we also hear from completely reliable sources that the $45,000 allocated in the 2013 budget to handle the management of the County General Fund has already been spent?…if this information is correct then the County Commission will have to spend at least an extra $20,000 for Old National Bank to finish managing this account until the end of the year?…we have called the County Auditor’s office a number of times to find the real answer concerning the above issue without results?…since the County Auditor can’t return phone calls maybe he can e-mail us the answer concerning the present status of the $45,000 annual fund budget that was earmarked to Old National Bank to handle the County General Fund account?
IS IT TRUE that Evansville is not alone in the United States to see crime on the increase as it was reported yesterday that violent crime rose 15% in our country last year while property crimes rose 12%?…these numbers rising are an indication of a poor economy and a frustrated population?…another statistic of interest that came out earlier this year is that the net immigration from Mexico is now negative?…the border with Mexico has been a sore spot with some people for many years because of the numbers of people who sneak into the United States to find work that is better than what has been available in Mexico?…now that the work has dried up in America we don’t need that fence and all of those guards to keep people out anymore?…both of these sets of statistics are counter to the “official†unemployment rate falling to its present level of 7.2%?…what they are consistent with is the roughly 90 Million working age Americans who are not even participating in the workforce and are thus not counted as unemployed?…that number is dramatically larger than it has been historically and has grown because people have exhausted their unemployment benefits, learned to game the free services offered, found a friendly doctor and gone on disability, or just given up?…for the first time in perhaps the entire history of America people with children are hoping their children will be able to enjoy the same standard of living they had as opposed to teaching them and encouraging them to do better?
IS IT TRUE in yet another case of federal government incompetence the IRS has acknowledged that it has handed out over $11 Billion per year in unjustified Earned Income Tax Credits?…this is a problem that is from an IRS perspective just about detection and follow up?…the abuse of the Earned Income Tax Credit is rooted in dishonest tax preparation and may someday increase the property crime numbers cited above if the IRS can figure out how to do anything about it?
IS IT TRUE the BLAMESTORMING in Congress is once again taking on a carnival atmosphere now that questions are being asked about why the ObamaCare websites have performed so badly?…it was revealed yesterday that the October 1st launch of the website was for all practical purposes a cold launch with little or no testing done prior to that day?…the other tidbits of information exposed are that the prime contractor is a Canadian company that was dismissed from a similar task by the Government of Canada in the past?…we wonder what ever happened to “Made in America†when it came to this $640 Million debacle?…there really are many American companies that could have done this job and done it right?…we are sure the carnival of errors and finger pointing will continue for some time?…Kentucky continues to be the state that gets the gold medal for getting an enrollment portal to work and is the Obama Administration’s poster child for excellence in this department?…the raw numbers for Kentucky are 24,000 enrollments which corresponds to 0.6% of the state’s population?
“…the other tidbits of information exposed are that the prime contractor is a Canadian company that was dismissed from a similar task by the Government of Canada in the past”
With Earth Care to his credit, Winnecke might be presidential material.
Where did all the money go?
Last SBOA audit of the City of Evansville:
CONTRACTS (City)
As stated in several prior reports, the City entered
into a contract with SMG, effective January 1,
2006, to manage Roberts Stadium, Victory Theater, and Me
sker Music Theater. T
he contract required an
independent audit of SMG. An addendum to the contra
ct was added on September 5, 2007, amending the
contract from requiring an audit to requiring a review.
As of July 2012, a review had not been completed for
the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, or
2011. Without the independent revi
ew of SMG’s financial records
the accuracy of amounts paid to or re
ceived from SMG cannot be verified.
Payments made or received for contractual services
should be supported by a written contract. Each
governmental unit is responsible for complying with the
provisions of its contract
s. (Accounting and Uniform
Compliance Guidelines Manual for Cities and Towns, Chapter 7)
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None of this is encouraging news.
Does it look like there are crooks guarding the hen house?
How can the voters know who to really trust? I mean most voters know very little about most of the candidates that the two political parties put up to run for office. We are too busy taking care of our own business and homes to have time to get to know what’s going on in the Civic Center. Unless you live there and work there it’s nearly impossible to know what these politicians are up too.
The best we can hope for is to have dem and repubs checking each other and finding mistakes and errors and for the press to report this to the public.
But I’ve found that the Press is not always as concerned about the general publics welfare on some issue as I am. In fact they go out of their way to suppress vital information that the public needs to know IMHO.
Also I don’t see the press hounding the civic center like they did in the past. You don’t see guys like Herb M down there sitting on stories about shady actions in the civic center. Where did they real journalist go to who investigate government corruption?
It seems like every time I press the “Submit Comment” button that I get a Http 405 error message on this web site. Is the server over loaded now?
But at least some times the post gets though. Now I see how Obama’s health care computer feels. It’s not easy running a web site with millions of people trying to access it at one time.
I’m wondering that with the increase in traffic to this web site the problem is that the server can’t handle all the new traffic and crashes at times? Not all the time but enough to make it frustrating. But can’t complain too much as this site is still free. Ha ha.
Does Not Your Father’s Old National withdraw their offer of support for the new hotel if the county does as it should and finds a new bank?
That sounds like a probable scenario. This is going to get interesting.
Don’t feel bad the Auditor isn’t calling you back. I called the Prosecutor three times this week trying to find out whether he is investigating the alleged bribe attempt of one of our City Council People over the hotel issue. I have also tried friending him on Facebook, but so far I’ve heard nothing. I’m beginning to think Mr. Hermann isn’t interested in pursuing felony bribery charges.
It would probably be very awkward, as it may embarrass some old family friends.
I think the “it might have been a joke” comment from the person making the allegation pretty much shoots the case, but I guess we’ll see.
Hey, I hear the Warrick law suit situation on Hwy 62 from Chandler is front page now on that puny courier site. “As the auger turns”… “Worth observation”, I suppose with the site for the medical center being in focus for your area Brad.
“nummus americanus”
“greenback (US)”
Call the FBI instead. That’s what Herman should have done too.
thanks CCO for reporting the truth……it is hilarious that the liberal rag c&p was made to shut down full access….
Looks like the County Auditor is also hiding information from the taxpayers. Why didn’t he disclose that the budget of the County for service rendered by Old National Bank is was spent before the RFP was sent out? I bet if you look at his political donations list you might find people connected with Old National Bank on it. I so, I can’t wait for him to run for re-election so my fellow tea party friends can take him to task.
Shocked there has been no comments from the moles or the editor on the sneagle meeting some of the city council members had yesterday. Didn’t this same media outlet blast the former administration and council for having the same type meeting. I remember several of these same council members saying they would not attend these types of meetings.
Do tell. You know my private email.
You know mine lets chat
Is it true…The 6 Democrat City Council members(Friend,Lindsey, Riley,O’Daniel,Adams and Robinson) held a close door caucus/meeting at City attorney Danks’ office.
Democrats Weaver and Mosby were not invited to the meeting.
Lindsey has said he would never attend closed door meeting. I guess he forgot he said that.
“Lotta Looting”,– protects a systemic/societal/political foundation that defines Evansville, as a “dirty” little town.
Republican assessor. Republican auditor. Republican treasurer.
What checks and balances?
Word is Kirk spends what little time she does in the Civic Center doing the job of the clerk. Obviously she needs to be learning how to be the treasurer instead.
LewisRules: Democrat President and Democrat Senate–What checks and balances?
The ONB/private club/political cronie/love connection with the civic center money coffers will be hard to break. The one party system entrenched in local politics will see to it that ONB is the Vectran of the tax accounts, with the included fees. The only people who use ONB anymore are stockholders and people who don’t pay the fees.
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE http://www.nationalreview.com
September 16, 2013 4:00 AM
Congress’s Exemption from Obamacare
Make Congress get insurance the same way the little people do? Hill denizens howl in fury.
By John Fund
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Prostitution. Bribery. Blackmail. Thuggery. Hypocrisy.
Those were just some of the incendiary words thrown around the U.S. Senate last week, and that doesn’t count what people said in private.
The Senate may still have a reputation as a genteel club, but lawmakers seemed to abandon rules of decorum completely last week in arguments about whether Congress should be treated like the rest of the country when it comes to Obamacare.
Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, has demanded a floor vote on his bill to end an exemption that members of Congress and their staffs are slated to get that will make them the only participants in the new Obamacare exchanges to receive generous subsidies from their employer to pay for their health insurance. Angry Senate Democrats have drafted legislation that dredges up a 2007 prostitution scandal involving Vitter. The confrontation is a perfect illustration of just how wide the gulf in attitudes is between the Beltway and the rest of the country — and how viciously Capitol Hill denizens will fight for their privileges.
In 1995, the newly elected Republican Congress passed a Congressional Accountability Act to fulfill a promise made the previous year in the Contract with America. For the first time, the Act applied to Congress the same civil-rights employment and labor laws that lawmakers had required everyday citizens to abide by. With some lapses, it’s worked well to defuse public outrage about “one law for thee, one law for me†congressional behavior.
In 2009, Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) decided that the principle deserved to be embedded in Obamacare, and he was able to insert a provision requiring all members of Congress and their staffs to get insurance through the Obamacare health exchanges. “The more that Congress experiences the laws it passes, the better,†said Grassley. Although his amendment was watered down before final passage to exclude committee staff, it still applies to members of Congress and their personal staffs. Most employment lawyers interpreted that to mean that the taxpayer-funded federal health-insurance subsidies dispensed to those on Congress’s payroll — which now range from $5,000 to $11,000 a year — would have to end.
Democratic and Republican staffers alike were furious, warning that Congress faced a “brain drain†if the provision stuck. Under behind-the-scenes pressure from members of Congress in both parties, President Obama used the quiet of the August recess to personally order the Office of Personnel Management, which supervises federal employment issues, to interpret the law so as to retain the generous congressional benefits.
OPM had previously balked at issuing such a ruling. Even without OPM, Congress could have voted to restore the subsidies or ordered a salary raise to compensate for the loss of benefits, but that would have been a messy, public process, which everyone wanted to avoid.
Senator Vitter says the OPM ruling has removed “the sting of Obamacare†from Congress. “Many Americans will see their health coverage dropped by employers, and they will be forced into the exchanges,†he told me last week. “If Congress is forced into them on the same terms, it will be more likely to fix Obamacare’s problems for others.†The bill he and his co-author, Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming, have drafted would make everyone working on Capitol Hill buy insurance through the exchanges — with no subsidies. White House officials and political appointees in the executive branch would also be required to obtain health insurance through the exchanges.
The Congressional Leadership Empire decided to strike back at Vitter. Politico reported that several Democratic senators have asked staff to draft legislation that would deny federal health subsidies to anyone who votes for the Vitter plan, even if Vitter’s plan doesn’t become law. An even more spiteful draft bill would bar subsidies to any lawmaker or aide found by a congressional ethics committee to have “engaged in the solicitation of prostitution.†In 2007, Vitter’s phone number was found in the records of the “D.C. Madam,†the owner of a high-end prostitution ring. Back then, Vitter held a news conference with his wife standing next to him and apologized for a “serious sin†that he refused to discuss further. He was reelected with 57 percent of the vote in 2010.
Vitter isn’t taking the attempts to strong-arm him quietly. “Harry Reid is acting like an old-time Vegas mafia thug, and a desperate one at that,†he said in a statement to Politico. He also wrote a letter to the Senate Ethics Committee demanding an investigation of Reid and Democratic senator Barbara Boxer of California. “Threatening to take away their colleagues’ health care coverage subsidy if they do not vote a certain way, at worst constitutes bribery and a quid pro quo arrangement, and at best amounts to improper conduct,†he wrote. Senator Reid’s office responded by calling Vitter’s charges “absurd and baseless.â€
What Vitter’s opponents fear most is that this fight will penetrate the public’s consciousness. A new poll taken for Independent Women’s Voice, a conservative group, found that 92 percent of voters think Congress shouldn’t be exempted from the insurance provisions of Obamacare. Most voters blame both parties equally for the exemption, which means Republicans will also be hurt politically if it stands. “This is an issue with almost unprecedented intensity,†IWV president Heather Higgins told me. “Republicans have the choice of leading the Vitter parade for repeal or getting run over by it. To duck it will be viewed by their constituents as political malpractice.â€
— John Fund is national-affairs columnist for NRO.
POLITICO.COM
David Vitter pushing ban on subsidies
By: Burgess Everett
September 23, 2013 07:46 PM EDT
A testy debate over whether lawmakers and Capitol Hill staff should receive federal subsidies for their health insurance under Obamacare is coming right back to the Senate.
Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) plans to file an amendment to House-passed spending bill now under consideration by the Senate that would that require lawmakers, the president and administration appointees no longer receive those subsidies.
Vitter’s insistence on a vote on that same amendment to an unrelated, bipartisan energy efficiency bill effectively ground the Senate to a halt for more than a week, resulting in the bill being shelved as Washington’s focus shifted to preventing an Oct. 1 government shutdown.
Vitter’s plans were detailed in an email — obtained by POLITICO — sent from Vitter’s staff to fellow GOP staffers and closely mimics a similar plan in the House. If the Senate strips out a provision that defunds Obamacare in the spending bill and sends it back to the House, Republicans in the lower chamber may send back a spending bill that kills the subsidies for Capitol Hill staffers and lawmakers, raising the shutdown stakes even further.
Vitter will likely be able to file his amendment as early as Thursday although it likely won’t receive a vote, according to a Democratic leadership aide. But it will again be a focal point of the Senate’s running debate over Obamacare.
© 2013 POLITICO LLC
Any Congress critter who votes to exempt them self from Obamacare, be they democrat, republican, or independent, should NEVER be reelected to congress or any other federal office!
No federal subsidies for Congress’ healthcare under the Obamacare Act!
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You know I think I agree with you on the principle of fairness to all. The Congress and the Executive branch as well as the Judicial Branch should all have to do what we the people have to do. That would make for better government IMHO>
right on right on press…….they work for us…….they are not kings…….barry hussein obama should have been the first to sign up…….what a disgrace…….
And GW Bush should be the second one to sign up as well.
The GOP has too much control over the Federal Government now.
Liberal democrats have incrementally moved in and taken over the bolt and nut jobs of the government. Some government agencies, like HUD employees are nothing short of democrat campaign workers.
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