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EDITORIAL
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Thursday, April 11, 2013

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OUR TAKE: Editorial

More progress in the ght against tax abuses

Extra caution on the road always a good idea

wo fatal car accidents that occurred within hours of one another last week should serve as a tragic reminder for all motorists to drive defensively and always be aware of their surroundings. On April 3, two people lost their lives in unrelated accidents as a 38-year-old Ypsilanti Township man lost control of his car and crashed into a tree while driving south on Whittaker Road just past Merritt in Ypsilanti Township; and then several hours later and just 10 miles away, a 49-year-old Ypsilanti man died as a result of a rollover accident on northbound U.S. 23 just north of Milan. While there was no information as of press time as to what caused the accidents that have left two Washtenaw County families in the grips of loss, a new state law is at least trying to mitigate another road safety concern with teen drivers talking on cell phones. Just a week prior to the accidents, Kelseys Law, or Senate Bill 756, went into effect after being signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in January. The new law bans the use of cell phones for teen drivers with a Level 1 or Level 2 drivers license under the Graduated License Program. Kelseys Law started as a grassroots campaign after Kelsey Raffaele, 17, of Sault Ste. Marie, was killed in a crash in 2010. Several weeks after the accident, it was discovered that Raffaele was talking on a cell phone while trying to pass another car on an icy road, according to the website, kelseyslaw.com Born from tragedy, Kelseys Law will help novice drivers focus solely on driving, said Michael Prince, director of the Office of Highway Safety Planning. The largest contributing factors to teen traffic crashes are inexperience and immaturity. Driver distractions only exacerbate these situations so we hope teens will remember to put their phone in park. The new law is especially timely with the summer season right around the corner meaning there will be more pedestrians walking the streets, more bike riders trying to flow in with the traffic and, of course, more motorcycles. For parents with teenage sons and daughters looking forward to their schools prom, its critical now to have a talk concerning road safety and drinking and driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drinking and driving-related incidents with teens has dropped nationally by 35 percent from 1990 to 2005; but in Michigan, traffic deaths (involving teen and adult drivers) increased by 5 percent from 2011 to 2012. In 2011 in Michigan, 52 people were killed and 452 were seriously injured in crashes involving drivers 17 and younger, according to a state press release. Whether its an inexperienced driver absentmindedly chatting on a cell phone or something as innocent as loud music, its safe to say that any distraction while driving - whether youre young or old - is too much of a distraction.

n March, the Senate get situation compels it; fairpassed a budget resoness and justice demand it. lution. This blueprint During the budget debate, for the scal year that a number of senators joined begins in October me on the Senate floor to represents an important speak about the need to step forward on an issue close tax loopholes. We of great signicance to outlined the preposterous American taxpayers: the contortions that too many need for balanced decit cor-porations and wealthy reduction. individuals employ to avoid An important part of paying taxes, and how those balanced deficit reduction contortions contribute to is reducing the deficit a shift in the tax burden without severely damagfrom corporations and the ing important protections wealthy to middle-class famCARL LEVIN for and investments in ilies and small businesses. American families. One The case for additional way to do that is by ending unjustified revenue and for closing tax loopholes tax loopholes and ending the damage as a source of that revenue is overthey have inflicted on our budget. whelm-ing. Serious deficit reduction The budget summary released by requires more revenue, as everyone Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, from the Simpson-Bowles Commission the chairwoman of the Senate Budget to the Domenici-Rivlin task force to the Committee, decried the sheer magniConcord Coalition to Fix the Debt, has tude of the revenue lost to off-shore tax recognized. abuse, wasteful and inefficient loopFederal revenue remains signifiholes, and other business tax breaks. cantly below its historic average as For many years, as chair-man of a percentage of the gross domestic the Permanent Subcommittee on product of our economy, and that Investigations, I have focused on the revenue is, and under current trends maze of offshore schemes and complex will continue to be, below the levels we gimmicks that are concocted to allow have needed in the recent past to bala privileged few to avoid paying the ance the budget. taxes that they owe. Our subcommittee In particular, the loss of corporate has, on a bipartisan basis, filled voltax revenues is an ongoing cause of ume after volume with damning detail deficits. In 2006, corporate tax revenue on how these schemes work and the made up about 15 percent of all federal damage they cause. revenue. In 2012, it had fallen to 10 Now we are at a moment in history percent. Somebody has to pick up the when we can remove this blight. The slack. In this case it has been average pressures on the federal budget and American families. the threat to economic growth and Why is corporate revenue a shrinkprosperity that they represent require ing share of our treasury even though action. We must close these loopholes. the U.S. corporate tax rate, at 35 The relentless arithmetic of our budpercent, is one of the highest in the

GUEST COLUMN

developed world? It is because the top tax rate doesnt tell the story. While our tax rate at the upper limit is 35 percent on corporations, the average U.S. corporate taxpayers effective tax rate was just 12 percent in 2011, which is the lowest in generations. A recent study by two think tanks found that 30 of our largest corporations with combined profits of more $160 billion paid no income tax, zero, from 2008 to 2010. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations outlined in a report last year how three U.S. companies Apple, Google, and Microsoft used offshore gimmicks to avoid taxes on almost $80 billion in profits. But momentum is building to stop these abuses. Earlier this year, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island joined me in introducing the Cut Unjustified Tax Loopholes Act. Our bill would help address some of these tax schemes and others, as well. Its a powerful weapon in our deficit-reduction arsenal if we will use it. During the budget debate, Whitehouse and I were joined by Sen. John McCain of Arizona in introducing a bipartisan amendment recognizing the need to close corporate tax loopholes. The Senate approved our amendment, putting the Senate on the record on the need to end offshore tax abuses by large corporations. We cant afford these loopholes. We cant afford the budget deficits they help cause, and we cant afford the damage they do to ordinary families and small businesses. Ill keep working to strengthen the momentum for reforms that end these abuses. Carl Levin is the senior U.S. senator from Michigan.

GUEST COLUMN: By Tom Watkins

Michigan needs to take a denitive approach to job creation, education

obs and talent matter. Gov. Snyder said there is a mismatch between the two as he recently kicked off his rst two-day economic summit at Cobo Center in Detroit. Snyder points out there are more than 60,000 open positions on mitalent.org. But Snyder also recognizes that Michigans greatest asset that we have in our state is our talent. With all the talk at the national, state and local level about fiscal cliffs, debt and deficit reduction crisis, are we losing sight of the real tragedy? A lack of jobs. Human misery is measured in more than unemployment statistics. Job losses destroy families, communities, and cities, ripping away at the heart of our country. Behind the unemployment statistics are citizens: moms and dads, sisters and brothers losing hope as human potential slips away. Just recently, the Obama administration touted the American economy adding 236,000 new jobs in Febru-ary. Good news for a change. In addition to the Happy days are here again theme, we added more construction jobs than at any other time since March of 2007. Yet even with these encouraging numbers, the overall recovery is still leaving far too many Americans behind. A recent issue about jobs published in The Atlantic Magazine, noted: People looking for work for sixmonths or longer longterm unemployed jumped by 89,000 last month. Its been three years since the labor market bottomed, but the long-term unemploy-ment rate is still higher than it has been at any point since 1948. Technically speaking, were still in a deep hole.

mists and pundits have lamented that they had not seen Michigans economy in such a downward spiral since the deep Reagan recession of 1982. Now more than 30 years later, again the dominant issue today remains the economy and jobs.

ments of new jobs in the auto sectors, the reality is that we lost jobs in a roaring tsunami and replaced them with tear drops.

We need action in dog years

The public isnt seeing any political party or candidate making job creation a true priority . No one is offering meaningful proposals designed to get people working again, other than standard political party rhetoric about cutting taxes or raising taxes. Not unlike a Miller Lite beer commercial it sure tastes great (cut taxes) and is less filling (raise taxes) but we need serious action to create jobs. Just when we need government to work together, polls indicate peoples trust in governments ability to handle virtually any issue at any level is at an all-time low. Rest assured, someone who has lost a job, be it white collar or blue, does not care where the job creation ideas comes from Democrat or Republican, Libertarian or Green Party as long as people get working again. At his economic summit Snyder reminded the audience he ran on a pledge: More and better jobs and a future for our kids! He spoke with passion that Michigan needs the new three Cs: Collabora-tion to Create talent and to Connect education/talent development with employers needs. Michigan lost nearly a million jobs beginning just before the Great Recession of 2008. The recession only sped up the misery . Rust Belt state Michigan has been in the top tier of economic decline for some time. Despite recent announce-

Longterm strategy: Quality education from cradle to grave

Tax time is open season for hackers

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Michigan must continue to focus on preparing, retaining and attracting talent something government can actually do. Companies will grow in and come to places where talent is nurtured and concentrated. We must set a goal to make Michigan and America the brain bank of the world, where everyone comes for deposits and withdrawals. This requires a cultural shift away from thinking a high-paying, low-skill factory job is the easy ticket to the middle class. A four-year college degree is not the sole pathway to success. Technical and vocational training can have a big pay off. We have moved from a state where you once could lift for a living to one where more and more of our citizens must think for a living. The Atlantic Magazine got it right when it stated, There isnt a more urgent crisis than putting the longterm jobless back to work. Lets follow Snyders lead and develop our talent and assure we have jobs to offer. Getting Michigan work-ing again will pay big dividends for us all. See: Business Leaders for Michigan report, A New Michigan, The 2013 Report on Michigans Progress in Six Opportunities, was developed in partnership with Anderson Economic Group LLC. The report can be accessed at businessleadersformichigan.com/ research-reports.

Lessons learned?
Over the past several years, econo-

As a friend of mine prepared her taxes last year, she was encouraged to include her foster son on her taxes to receive the tax benefits. When she did, it was discovered that the 2-year-old already had bad credit. Her sons information had been compromised and used by a thief to run up debt. Stealing the identity of a child is an attractive approach for criminals since the victim may not find out until they are much older and applying for credit the first time. It is the time of year most Americans are preparing their taxes. The bad guys know that, and it is a prime time for them to use social engineering tactics to steal information and identities. Just think of the personal information on a tax return, and it is easy to understand why returns are a target. On the first page of a tax form alone, a person lists the name, address, date of birth and social security number of everyone in their family . This personal identifying information is a gold mine for someone looking to steal your identity . Now that Americans are Tom Watkins is a US/China business and educational consultant. He can be able to file their taxes online and get tax forms online, reached at tdwat-kins88@gmail.com.

KRISTEN JUDGE
fake tax websites are popping up. The IRS issued a warning in October 2012 called, Dont Fall for Phony IRS Websites that describes websites that mimic the IRS. The official IRS website is simple to remember: www. irs.gov. Be sure to check that you are on the official site before doing any online transactions. Be informed this tax season to keep from becoming a victim of cyber tax scams. Kristin Judge is the Executive Director of the Trusted Purchasing Alliance, a division of the Center for Internet Security. She can be reached at kristin. judge@cisecurity.org.