From Tucson, Arizona

It's Your Money!

Good Morning:
Mon, October 29, 2001
1:59AM

From Gerald R. Klatt
Lieutenant Colonel, USAF, Retired
CAFRman

State and local governments have huge surpluses of your taxes they are not using.
You need it now. The country needs it now.

There is no need for unemployment or economic slowdown.

Here are the results of the potential surpluses of your tax dollars not being used by the States, counties, cities and school district listed.

States

Potential Surpluses

Per Capita

Counties, cities, school district

Potential Surpluses

Per Capita

AZ

$ 13.28 B

2,589

City/County of San Francisco

$ 4.11 B

5,135

CA

60.94 B

1,799

Pima County, AZ 

406.1 M

1,244

CO

5.59 B

1,299

Tucson, AZ

263.1 M

540

FL

59.92 B

3,827

Tallahassee, FL

594.8 M

4,033

HI

4.39 B

3,676

Austin, TX

1.55 B

2,464

IN

12.76 B

2,162

San Diego, CA

3.01 B

2,360

KY

9.55 B

2,362

Phoenix, AZ

2.04 B

1,580

MA

12.80 B

2,015

Hamilton County, OH

823.5 M

2,851

NH

1.92 B

1,552

Cincinnati, OH

696.9 M

2,072

NY

58.58 B

3,216

Cincinnati, OH School System

147.9 M

406

OH

40.15 B

3,537

Columbus, OH

786.6 M

1,106

OK

7.29 B

2,112

OR

11.81 B

3,452

TX

54.84 B

2,685

VT

1.40 B

2.297

WA

19.13 B

3,246

WI

6.38 B

1,189

Total...

$ 362.5 B

Total Potential Surpluses at State-Level Governments in U.S.

$ 725.0 Billion

Average Per Capita Potential Surpluses

$ 2,558

Number of Jobs Created

7.25 million

Increase in Economy

$ 1.45 Trillion

Un-American

You have to sacrifice because of the war effort, unemployment, and the economic crisis. I do not see State and local governments helping the effort in any way. There is a lot of lip service and rhetoric, but their actions speak what their true objectives are. The Wall Street Journal and other news publications keep reporting that State and local governments are more concerned with adding new taxes because of the war effort than helping their citizens in this, what I call, an economic crisis.

For example, most governments have huge unemployment compensation funds, yet the Wall Street Journal has reported the States are trying to tax more for these unemployments; acting like cry babies about the slowing economy.

If your governments will not return the surpluses and you do nothing, then you better learn how to say "Yes Comrade", with a smile.

Excuses, excuses, excuses

Governments have numerous excuses why they cannot returned these surpluses to the people. Here is a list of 14 common excuses and the proper response. [Details] The final excuse is always, "We need these reserves for emergencies." Will someone please tell them that a war on terrorism and an economic recession or worse at the same time is an "emergency".

Forget the Budget

Governments will always refer to the budget to justify their actions. There is only one way to counteract this. Tell them you are not interested what the budget says, only what the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) discloses. This is the public document that discloses the huge surpluses. Make them and the news media talk about the CAFR.

No need for unemployment or an economic crisis

If they returned the surpluses there would be no unemployment or economic crisis; just an economic explosion. President Bush and Alan Greenspan, Federal Reserve Chairman, believe it will take over $100 billion to stop the slowing economy. This will be your tax dollars being misappropriated. Yet, the State-level governments have approximately $720 billion in funds they are not using. Do you see the impact now?

The Generation Gap

I am from the "We the people..." generation. This generation may have to put their boots back on and take the country back from some in the present generation and get it started in the right direction. Getting our money back from the State and local governments is the first step for all Americans regardless of generation.

Remember, united we stand, divided we fall.

Respectfully,

Cafrman
www.cafman.com

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