Turn Coal Workers Into Wind and Solar Workers

Supreme Court upholds power plant pollution rule

…............In a 6-2 decision, the justices approved a 2011 regulation issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which had been challenged by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and officials in states which produce large amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide..........

The EPA regulation calls for 27 states – including Ohio – to limit the emissions from coal-fired power plants. Those emissions scatter across the East coast making it difficult for states without many coal-fired plants to achieve clean air standards required by the nation’s clean air laws. [and the health of all citizens].............It was unclear what the immediate impact would be in Ohio and to the producers of coal-fired electricity in the region like DP&L, Duke Energy and Ohio Edison.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/national/supreme-court-upholds-power-plant-pollution-rule/nfkYx/

Ohio government hypocrisy – what opportunity?

Lisa Peterson Hackley, a DeWine spokeswoman, said the ruling gives the EPA “the power to dictate any state’s plan for controlling air emissions without giving a state a fair opportunity to put in place its own systems to combat cross-state pollution.”

She added the decision allows the EPA “to define the standard and also impose its system without first providing the states that opportunity, which we find disappointing.

In my opinion Ohio coal company interests have been calling the legislative and policy making shots as far as energy production is concerned.

To wit: The [coal] industry's larger financial investment over the past three years appears to have been in the GOP-dominated state Legislature, where associates of the state's two most powerful coal firms — Boich Cos. and Murray Energy — have directed nearly $170,000 since 2011, according to an Associated Press review of state campaign finance filings.

State lawmakers hold sway over the state's clean energy quotas and other environmental laws.

George Elmaraghy, a 39-veteran of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said in an email widely distributed last week that his departure was being forced by Kasich and Ohio EPA Director Scott Nally after "considerable pressure" from the coal industry. Elmaraghy headed Ohio EPA's Division of Surface Water, which issues permits for mining and other activities.

http://www.herald-dispatch.com/news/briefs/x1988589333/Coal-contributors-target-Ohio-GOP-legislators-gov

Ohio Energy Standards Require Utilities Increase Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency. In 2008, Ohio passed an Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard (AEPS) which includes both renewable energy and energy efficiency requirements. The standards mandate for the state’s utilities to source 12.5 percent their electricity from renewable sources by 2025, and to utilize energy efficiency projects to achieve 22 percent in energy savings by the end of 2025.

http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/08/alec-attack-ohio-renewable-energy/

Paul Hunter

Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place?

We like to avoid taxes whenever possible but many civic minded consumers also want to support the local community by buying from local home town businesses that must collect sales tax at point of sale.

A growing number of internet stores like monster E retailer Amazon can sell their products at a lower price because they are based out of state and are not required to collect sales taxes for Ohio. This means that a $200.purchase from an online store is automatically $14.50 cheaper than the same item purchased locally..

Not only does Ohio lose tax revenue from this arrangement so does the county government.

Twenty states have acted to require out of state tr .

Three more states have joined the growing list where you'll be charged sales tax on Amazon purchases: Indiana, Nevada, and Tennessee. Amazon already collected tax in 16 states, and in 2016, South Carolina will join them, bringing the number up to an even 20.

Recently, the Supreme Court declined to hear an Amazon lawsuit against New York, after the company attempted to fight a ruling that its relationships with local affiliates constituted a physical presence. Though it opposes what it calls a patchwork of state-level taxes, Amazon supports Congressional efforts to establish nationwide online sales tax rules.

In one of the first efforts to quantify the impact of states accruing more tax revenue from Web purchases, researchers at Ohio State University published a report for the week of April 21 that found sales dropped for Amazon when the online charge was introduced. In states that have the tax, households reduced their spending on Amazon by about 10 percent compared to those in states that don't have the levy.

“As analysts have noted, Amazon offers the best prices with or without sales tax,” Ty Rogers, a spokesman for Amazon, said in an e-mail.

New York and others have said the push to tax Amazon is an effort to treat online and brick-and-mortar retailers equally.

In addition to quantifying the sales impact, the researchers concluded that brick-and-mortar stores didn't hugely benefit from households reducing their spending on Amazon. That's because many shoppers simply turned to online alternatives.

In total, brick-and-mortar retailers enjoyed a 2 percent bump in purchases in states that introduced an online sales tax, while competing online retailers got a 20 percent increase, the study found.

The biggest sales uptick—61 percent for big-ticket items—went to merchants that use Amazon Marketplace. These outfits pay Amazon a fee to offer products through the Amazon website, yet don't collect taxes. The products are typically available alongside Amazon's own listings.

Landfill Public Hearing April 26, 2014.

In my educated opinion a public hearing is: A forum to enable the legislative body (council) to receive input from the residents of the city and other parties with an interest in proposed legislation.

What a public hearing is not: A forum for a guest of council, such as the Mayor, to open the hearing by making disparaging comments concerning the contents of a letter written to the local paper on the issue before council. Not only is such commentary out of order, it can have a chilling effect on residents right to offer opinions on public matters.

What a public hearing is not: A debate between residents offering their comments and a member of council arguing each point raised by individual speakers. Solid waste committee chairman, Rob Jaehnig, contested almost all, if not all, comments made by concerned and informed residents.

Also in my opinion, council should listen politely, take notes and if desired, make general summary comments at the end of the public meeting.

When this poster commented publicly during the hearing that the expected capacity of the new expansion of landfill space would, at current dumping rates, last for more than ten years the mayor countered that the time line was only seven years. When it was pointed out that the most current data verified the longer period Mr. Jaehnig added that the ten year number was incorrect and asked a member of the audience to verify the seven year number.

Not wishing to engage in a time consuming argument I stepped down.

Facts from the permit to build document received by the city in March.

“The anticipated life of the facility will be 14.5 years based on the facility’s anticipated average daily waste receipt of 59 tons.”

Paul Hunter

A City Landfill Plan

One person's proposal

1. Change the new cell expansion financing method from cash in advance because:

a. Based on the service directors statement of new construction cost being $680,000, the present method depletes the land fill reserve fund from $630,000 to $50,000.

b. The present method causes a technical default of the $100,000 annual payment due the city for a past expansion costs. This causes the landfill debt to the city to remain at its present $300,000 balance.

2. Suggested method of financing:

a. Use $300,000 of the reserve fund to pay off the balance of the debt owed to the city.

b. Finance the construction by either borrowing from the city or issuing a seven bond revenue bond.

3. The reduced tipping at the landfill by outside the county haulers should extend the life of the of the new cell expansion well into the next decade.

a. The reserve fund can grow over the next 10-15 years in anticipation of the eventual closure of the facility.

4. If low tipping volume and/or increased operating costs in the future negatively effect the reserve funds growth, three options are available.

a. Request a one dollar per ton reduction from $7.50 in the amount the landfill must pay to the Clinton County Solid Waste District.

b. Increase the fees paid by “in city” commercial haulers whom, by ordinance, are required to use the city landfill.

c. Increase the fees for city performed residential and commercial waste collection.

Note: The landfill got in trouble in 2010-2012 by undervaluing airspace in an effort to increase volume. By lowering tipping fees without authorization from Council out of district tipping volume increased but revenues declined at the same time airspace consumption increased.

Paul Hunter

Income Disparity

Informed opinion:

This statement appears rational. Globalization puts pressure on U. S. corporations to cut labor costs in order to stay in business.

However, if corporations are forced by competition to reduce labor costs, why are corporate profits as a share of the economy near their all-time high? Such profits make it particularly hard to argue that companies do not have the ability to support higher wages.

Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve, hardly a radical institution, shows that corporate profits as a share of Gross Domestic Product have reached a record level.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/19/our-broken-social-contract/?_php=true&_type=blogs&nl=opinion&emc=edit_ty_20130620&_r=1

Before the 1980s, C.E.O. pay, according to Alan Krueger, the chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers was set with close attention to norms of fairness, so that the range of compensation between janitors and top executives was kept within limits. This “social compact began to fray in the 1980s,” Krueger, argued in a Cleveland speech. He provided a chart, showing “how labor compensation has failed to keep pace with productivity growth.”

In my opinion the groundwork is being laid that will result in the eventual weakening of the national and world economies. Eventually less money in the pockets of the consuming public means less demand for products. When savings are exhausted and borrowing has reached its limit who will buy the widgets?

Paul Hunter

A Sign Of The Times

 Dollar General to add 3 more stores in [Dayton] region

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/business/economy/dollar-general-to-add-3-more-stores-in-region/nfcrc/

An indicator of the growing disparity in the nation's wealth distribution. Even Walmart has become too pricey for the growing ranks of underpaid working Americans.

Wilmington is front and center of this trend. We have: Family Dollar, Dollar General, Dollar Tree etc.

We are adding jobs but, for the most part, they are low paying jobs that can force many workers to depend on the assistance of social services to provide for their families. Over 50% of Wilmington school's students qualify for free lunches.

Paul Hunter

Is The Fair Tax Really Fair?

An informed opinion:

Over the past several years the “Fair Tax (FT)” scheme has been pushed by some Libertarians and other right wing commentators as a means of eliminating the present income tax system.

Basically the tax is a national sales or consumption tax on all new goods and services consumed by all U. S. residents.

The claim of fairness comes from the fact that all residents pay the same tax for consumption. regardless of income.

a. The FT rate would be 23%-25% on all new goods and services.

b. The tax on first $25,000 worth of purchases would be rebated to all residents

c. The tax is revenue neutral in that the rates would be set to provide the same national revenue that the current income tax system provides.

d. An unproven theory holds that manufacturers would be able to offer goods at lower prices due to lower tax costs but even the theory ignores the fact that a large portion of goods come from overseas and would not be affected.

The problem: The tax burden is shifted to those households that spend all their earnings on taxable consumption and from those households that only spend a portion of their income on consumption. For example a family of four with a gross income of $50,000 would spend all of their income on goods and services. The same family with a $500,000 income would save and invest a significant amount of income and only pay taxes on the consumption portion.

I quick trip through the IRS Form 1040 tax schedule quickly reveals that the lower earner would see a significant increase in federal taxes while the more affluent would see a significant decrease.

In the end it's the same old regressive tax that is typical of all sales taxe ideas.

Regressive tax explained: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/regressivetax.asp

Some examples include gas tax and cigarette tax. For example, if a person has $10 of income and must pay $1 of tax on a package of cigarettes, this represents 10% of the person's income. However, if the person has $20 of income, this $1 tax only represents 5% of that person's income.

Sales taxes that apply to essentials are generally considered to be regressive as well because expenses for food, clothing and shelter tend to make up a higher percentage of a lower income consumer's overall budget. In this case, even though the tax may be uniform (such as 7% sales tax), lower income consumers are more affected by it because they are less able to afford it.

Paul Hunter

Forms of City Government

Some folks in our fair city are toying with the idea of proposing a charter to the residents.

The Ohio Constitution gives all municipalities home rule. This means that cities and villages may adapt laws for purposes of local self-government that are not specifically forbidden by or in conflict with general law. By way of contrast, counties and townships may perform only those functions that are specifically permitted by state law, unless they adopt, by vote of their citizens, an alternate or charter form of government.

Municipalities may choose from three different types of government - general statutory law (Wilmington and Clinton County villages), one of three optional statutory laws or charter. The optional plans and the charter require approval by vote of the citizens. Municipalities are classified as either villages (under five thousand population) or cities (five thousand and over).

Piqua is one example of many types of charter cities in Ohio.

Piqua is served by five commissioners representing the five wards.

Each Commissioner must live within the ward that he/she represents. Any person eligible to the commission may be placed in nomination by a petition filed in his behalf with the election authorities and signed by not less than fifty (50) nor more than one hundred (100) electors of his ward, as a candidate for ward commissioner.

Election of commissioners is city wide with the entire city electing all commissioners and is nonpartisan. Elected Commissioners serve a term of four years. City Commissioner elections are held in November in odd numbered years. The election of commissioners is staggered so that all seats are not contested at the same time. Ward 3 and Ward 4 will be contested in 2001, 2005, etc.  Ward 1, Ward 2 and Ward 5 will be contested in 2003, 2007, etc.

The Mayor of Piqua is also known as the President of the Commission.  He/She must be one of the five commissioners. The Mayor must declare him/herself as a mayoral candidate and is elected by the city at large. The mayor serves a two year term. Election of the Mayor is held in November in odd numbered years.

Washington C.H. charter does not provide for a Mayor.

Paul Hunter

Racinos Reduce County Revenue

What happens to local distribution of Ohio's gambling tax revenues when Racinos (race track casinos) all come on line? Horse racing tracks located near Lebanon, Columbus, Cleveland, Youngstown, Cincinnati and Dayton will or have opened racinos. Racinos provide slot machine style gambling.

A major portion of casino state revenue is shared by the counties and school districts while racino revenue is not distributed to local governments, only to schools. It is becoming evident that many racino gamblers are former casino customers because local government shares are declining.

By law, casino taxes are allocated to schools in addition to state aid. But racino profits that are funneled through the lottery commission could be offset by lower state education assistance. There's a guarantee it's coming to public schools. Whether it's new money to public schools is a different question.

In October 2013 Clinton County received $130,000 casino tax distribution. In Janurary 2014 the county's share fell to $127,000

Paul Hunter

County Earners

Top Ten County Earners

Compiled from data furnished by the county auditor’s office. 

(P. Hunter)

Compensation includes all county paid benefits including health Insurances

The Engineer and the Prosecuting Attorney receive additional compensation from the state.

 

Name	Position	Compensation
Jeffery Lewis	Dpt. Of Disabilities	$126,707
Jeffery Linkos	County Engineer	$118,202
Helen Rowlands	Com. Pleas Court	$117,573
Mark Miars	Juvinile. Court	$115,935
Rick Moyer	Prosecutor	$115,886
Andrew McCoy	Asst. Prosecutor	$106,576
William Randolph	Asst. Prosecutor	$106,234
Kathleen Spirk	Job and Family Ser.	$105,571
Pamela Walker Bauer	Dpt. Of Health	$99,959
Mary McElwee	Com. Pleas Court	$99,954

City To Give Up Control of Landfill

Attention: All residents, businesses and development property owners adjacent to, or near, the city's present landfill on Nelson Ave. and Rt. 22 & 3 (W. Main)

The city of Wilmington is seriously considering contracting with an out of state “for profit” management company called Santek to assume operation of the landfill.

As I understand the situation, Santek will lease the property from the city. In order to pay the city and make a profit Santek will have to greatly increase the daily dumping rate from the present 58 tons per day toward the maximum daily rate allowed by the Ohio EPA of 195 tons per day. In order to meet this huge increase in volume Santek will be bringing in trash and garbage from other parts of the state and maybe even from out of state.

For some reason there is a rush to accomplish this transfer when, in fact, we now have a system that works well for the residents and the business community and is self financing.

With the recently approved expansion to an existing cell it will be as much as ten years until a decision has to be made to open up another area of the property or permanently close down the facility so that quality development of the nearby and adjoining properties can occur.

My position is and has been that if the system is working well for the residents of the city don't try to fix it to gain a few temporary dollars.

A public meeting on the pending legislation will be held at or before the next city council meeting on Thursday, April the 17^th at 7:30 Inform your neighbors that may not read this letter.

Councilman Joe Spicer represents this area and he can be contacted at 382-8945 or joespicer31@msn.com

Paul Hunter Wilmington

The Jobs Struggle

According to the local newspaper a new company is coming to town that will have an annual payroll of $2.4 million. The company, L&L Foods, plans to use a temp agency to provide staffing with a pay range of $9 to $11 per hour. A wage that will put the temp workers well below the federal poverty income for a 3 person household.

The taxpaying public will pick up the tab to support these low paid workers in the form of the earned income tax credit, food stamps, Medicaid, school lunches etc.

The new payroll will increase city annual income tax revenue by $24,000. In order to return to the tax revenue peak of 2009 it would take 128 comparable enterprises.

However, if we can clone the promised 259 higher paying jobs coming to the Air Park's new hangar next year it would certainly be a major economic improvement. Then maybe city services and those that provide them can receive a too long delayed funding increase. Those hangar jobs, estimated to pay around $25 per hour, could generate $135,000 in new annual tax revenue, not counting the multiplier effect on the local economy.

Paul Hunter

Letter to City Council

Letter to City Council 4.4.14

Note: That the landfill extension is eventually necessary is not in question.

A brief commentary concerning the over use of the emergency clause when enacting resolutions and ordinances.

Example:

At the last meeting the resolution to extend landfill capacity was questioned by some council members but the rush to enact via the emergency clause appeared to stifle the debate.

With the most extended passage format of three separate readings and then 30 days to become effective, the resolution would have become effective on May 17^th. A first reading in March and 2^nd 3^rd tonight would mean an effective date of May 3^rd. Or all three reading last month would have made the date April 20^th.

The most recent data from OEPA indicates that, using last years tipping rate, current capacity will last until the 1^st of December of this year.

Allowing for the usual two months for construction a July or August start date would have been more than adequate.

Did council really need to eliminate time for council members and the public to examine the issue and then make an informed decision? Was the issue so urgent that the resolution had to go into immediate effect? Should the voter's right of referendum be nullified because we just wanted to get the issue passed in a hurry? Was the immediate passage of the resolution necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety of the City and its citizens?

Paul Hunter

Top Ten City Compensated Employees

In addition to take home pay annual compensation includes all city paid fringe benefits. Data furnished by deputy city auditor.
Paul Hunter
1. Andy Mason - $121,336 - Fire Cheif
2. Duane Weyand - $109,459 - Police Chief  
3. Larry Reinsmith - $108,247* - Service Director 
4. Robert Martin - $105,066 - Sergeant
5. Danny Mongold - $104,062 -Human Resources
6. Joshua Riley - $101,858 - Chief Detective 
7. Ronald Cravens - $101,396 - Sergeant
8. Ronald Fithen - $100,241 - Sergeant
9. Marque Jones - $100,092 - Income Tax Commissioner
10. Mary Kay Vance - $99,984 - Deputy Auditor
*Not including state retirement compensation.

Trust the stock markets?

Maybe not.

If you are a day trader in the stock market or even if you use a broker to place your buy orders be advised that someone else may be looking at your order. That someone is a high speed computer that anticipates your order and buys the selected stock in front of you and that raises the share price that you will pay. This apparently legal operation is called “front running”

Front running is exactly what it sounds like, and it operates like this: You're waiting in line to buy a pound of hamburger that's priced a $2. By the time you get to the front of the line though, a high frequency shopper has bought a bunch of hambuger and driven up the price. Now the milk is $2.25.

Oh, and the guy who got in front of you, took the hamburger you were going to buy, bought it for $2, and then sold it back to you for $2.25. So he's making that $0.25.

For more detail see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/30/michael-lewis-on-60-minutes_n_5060400.html

Paul Hunter