School Funding CenterCentral source of expertise on school improvement issues

Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay in school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration’s efforts to take such foods out of schools.

The final version of a spending bill would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

Lee and Collier school districts have already put into place many of the Obama administrations changes, such as serving more fruits and vegetables, but there are other standards that the districts would have been forced to take up removing 2 percent fat milk from schools and serving unflavored 1 percent or fat-free milk.

On an average day, the Lee district serves 48,000 lunches, and all meals include at least one fruit and one vegetable. The district spends $11.2 million a year on food for its 119 schools more than $1 million on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Collier and Lee, which removed all fryers from its schools five years ago, is in line to get a boost from the federal government to pay for the heathier fare. Last years $4.5 billion Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act increased the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches by 6 cents per meal. About 67 percent of Lees 80,000 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals through the federal government.

In its new spending bill, Congress wants to allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Tomatoes, incidentally, are a fruit.

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administrations attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables, and USDAs proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business.

Piling on to the companies opposition, some conservatives argue that the federal government shouldnt tell children what to eat. In a summary of the bill, Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and … provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals.

School districts have said some of the USDA proposals go too far and cost too much when budgets are tight. Schools have long taken broad instructions from the government on what they can serve in the federally subsidized meals that are given free or at reduced price. But some schools have balked at government attempts to ban specific foods.

Staff writer Chris Umpierre contributed to this report.

interesting statistics relating to Grand Blanc’s recall of Rep. Paul Scott.

The Journal Sentinel’s Criag Gilbert writes: Enlarge Rep. Paul Scott loses recall effort gallery (12 photos)

“There have now been 32 recall elections in US history involving state legislators.

And 11 of them took place this year.”

Wisconsin is home to one of the country’s most famous recall elections. In August, efforts to shift control of the state’s Senate by recalling six lawmakers drew widespread attention and millions of dollars.

The ousting of Scott and an Arizona lawmaker Tuesday cap off “a year like no other in the history of this rarely-used election device,” Gilbert writes.

FIVE PAUL SCOTT RECALL MUST-READ STORIES

Paul Scott recalled: The rise and fall of Michigan’s Republican wunderkind

Full coverage of Paul Scott recall; first Michigan lawmaker recalled in 28 years

History of a recall: Timeline shows events leading up to Tuesday’s recall election against state Rep. Paul Scott

All eyes turn to Michigan’s 51st District as Paul Scott recall campaign enters final days

Special interest groups spend thousands on Rep. Paul Scott recall effort as Supreme Court keeps issue on November ballot

For all of Mlive’s coverage of the recall, .

Also check out the graphs in the link, which show how unprecedented the recall’s use has become.

Another interesting piece of data from the Recall Elections Blog, which tracks recall activity around the country: Scott is the 17th state lawmaker in U.S. history to lose a recall vote.

The IRS is seeking to improve paid tax preparer training for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). To pursue this goal, the IRS has expanded the EITC compliance program.

One of the measures undertaken by the IRS is targeting returns of any federally authorized tax professional with a consistent record of EITC errors. The objective is identification of the cause for errors. Possible reasons for inaccurate EITC claims are lack of knowledge about qualifications for the credit or intentional disregard for accuracy.

In order to reduce EITC problems, the IRS will identify whether mistakes continue for tax return preparers with previously high error rates. Potential IRS responses range from mandating extra tax preparation education to barring a tax practitioner from the industry.

Any individual working in registered tax return preparer employment with EITC claims will encounter IRS scrutiny. Both new and experienced tax professionals with questionable EITC claims can expect contact from the IRS, either in writing or with personal visits. In some cases, a tax preparer professional may undergo an IRS audit of EITC due diligence compliance.

To avoid EITC errors, a formal registered tax return preparer study course is essential because it thoroughly covers all aspects of tax preparation. In addition, the IRS offers online tax training specifically addressing EITC tax rules.

The Return Preparer Toolkit section of the IRS website describes common EITC errors in order for tax preparers to improve due diligence procedures. Many specific situations are covered in the Frequently Asked Questions section.

More education about the EITC is available from online tax school courses. Every tax practitioner benefits from this refresh of information. These courses also count toward hours needed for RTRP continuing education requirements.

The IRS estimates that between 24 and 29 percent of all EITC claims have errors costing the government approximately $13 billion to $16 billion each year. Although some mistakes are caused by inaccurate interpretation of the law, most errors are believed to originate because tax return preparers accepted fraudulent information from taxpayers or made incorrect assumptions.

According to IRS evaluations, about 60 percent of EITC errors fall into these three categories, which now demand extra attention from every tax practitioner: (1) incorrectly claiming a qualifying child, (2) married individuals filing as single or head of household, and (3) maximizing the credit with inaccurate reporting of business income or expenses.

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure

Pursuant to the requirements of the Internal Revenue Service Circular 230, we inform you that, to the extent any advice relating to a Federal tax issue is contained in this communication, including in any attachments, it was not written or intended to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (a) avoiding any tax related penalties that may be imposed on you or any other person under the Internal Revenue Code, or (b) promoting, marketing or recommending to another person any transaction or matter addressed in this communication.

There are several reasons to use cash advance money mutual instead of traditional loans or asking for help from friends or family if you need cash quickly. There are many situations that can not wait the time required for a regular bank loan and in many cases, you need to get the funds as soon as possible to deal with some of emergency that has happened.

Cash advance is short term loans offered by non-bank lenders. In recent years, the pawn shops online and on land have emerged as an option for short-term credit for those who want to get money as soon as possible. Today lenders offer loans for 7 to 30 days to repay while you can extend the repayment term if you need.

Cash advances have many advantages and benefits compared to regular loans such as:

• Easy application and submitting forms;
• Fast approval;
• No credit check involved;
• Getting money quickly;

Fast and easy application forms

Payday loans are easily accessible. You can apply for them on the phone, in person or online. They require very little information such your bank account details and proof of income. You must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible for a payday loan. This is very easy and convenient over a regular bank loan, which often requires an application that consists of several pages. Now you don’t have to waste your time.

You will be approved in several hours

Unlike traditional bank loans, which can take up to several months for approval and 2-3 weeks after to get the financing, payday loans are usually approved within one day. Once your request is approved, the funds are quickly transferred into your bank account electronically and you can use them immediately. For emergencies, it is very useful in the comparison to a regular loan.

No necessity of credit check

Another benefit of cash advances over regular bank loans is that they require no credit check. If you have been late on payments of bills or have suffered financial problems, it can be difficult to obtain a regular bank loan. With cash advance, the only information lenders need, is that you have an income, and you can prove you have a bank account.

Money for emergency

Another advantage for payday loans is that the whole process is very fast. Once you are approved – usually within 24 hours or less, then you have access to loan funds. If you have an emergency, like your roof breaking down or a necessity to go to the doctor, then you can take care of it quickly and easily without any hassle.

Many people use payday loans as a tool to maintain and manage their credit status. Instead of paying bills late or not at all, they take a short term cash advance to make ends meet until their regular paycheck comes in. It is a way of managing credit which can be a good idea if you have any bills to be paid before you get your salary and you are paid once a month. The table below shows us the frequency of paycheck or regular income received by the average borrowers.

Although cash advance can be a quick solution to emergency situations, you would be better served to think twice before using it. You can find pawn shops in almost every community across the country. For many people, they are a bad idea to cash flow and money problems in the short term.

Cash advance is loaned with high interest rates

One drawback with payday loans is that they charge interest rates extremely high for borrowing money. In many cases, interest rates are about 400 % on a short term loan. This is much higher than any credit card company is authorized to charge and can make it difficult to repay a cash loan. If you find you are unable to repay the loan on the due date, you may find that the interest rate rises again and you will not be able to get out from debt.

Lenders are not controlled

Each state has its own regulations on payday loans, but overall lenders have only several limits. One of the few rules is that they are not able to charge interest rates higher than 36 % in interest rates to military personnel. These regulations came about because the payday loan companies have been opening many pawn stores near military bases and soldiers and their families were charged extremely high interest rates for loans. There was concern that this practice could endanger military personnel security clearance, so that the law was adopted.

There are only a few federal regulations on the retail and online payday loan companies. There are current efforts to change that and make the regulation more consistent and stringent. In the next table are shown some main regulations in Illinois.

How to define the root of your financial problems

One of the big problems that come with cash advance is that it can be easy to get trapped in the cycle of payday loan. Instead of being able to budget your money to pay bills when due and save the money that is available to you when you receive your paycheck, it can be very easy to take a cash advance to the short term.

Nevertheless, cash advance money mutual is an easy answer to a person who needs to overcome the difficult problems. If you have an emergency or bills to be paid immediately, a payday loan could be a great idea. They are easy to get and use within several hours.