Mike Luckovich Editorial Cartoon - from Go Comics

Does change still count? Cents, charity, community

How will you fund your charitable and gift giving this holiday season? From your checking account, a separate savings account, a change jar?

If you're like many people, you have a container filled with loose change from your cash transactions. Depending on the size of your container, from a coffee can to a wine jug, you could have the metallic equivalent of some “greenback” Andrew Jacksons ($20) or the elusive Benjamin Franklins ($100). That could certainly buy some warm clothing or a good meal for some people who need it.

As an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer living on a poverty level income, my spare change is mostly pennies. I've used all my silver-colored coins for parking meters and library fines. At first glance the pennies look impressive, they feel solid and heavy, but they don't actually add up to much. Only a few businesses still believe in the capital power of those little copper coins. You can't use them in parking meters. They are bulky and take time to count. Some banks won't even exchange them for bills; they'll only take coins for deposit if you have an account with them.

In December 2009 CNN Money reported on a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) study finding that 17 million Americans don’t have bank accounts. That’s “nearly 20% of all U.S. households earning $30,000 or less per year” who save their pennies at home. Even if each household had a dollar’s worth of pennies in the cookie jar, that’s $17,000,000 not working in our bank-based economy. It’s not gaining interest, not being used to fund businesses, home loans, car loans, educational loans, non-profits. Spare change adds up.

Initiatives like BankOn Kalamazoo County are designed to bring some of that loose change back into the mainstream economy. BankOn gives qualified people with low-incomes and/or poor-credit access to a more prosperous future, helping them establish or re-build their credit scores, through financial literacy training and low-fee or no-fee bank accounts. (For BankOn financial literacy classes, check out the Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services schedule.)

As for me, I’m not sure where I will donate my accumulation of coins this year. It will be for the common good of the community. It’s a personal choice, of course, as are all financial decisions. I’m thankful I have some change I can share.

Tax Refund Anticipation Loans: High Interest & Fees for the Working Poor

Tax season won't be underway until January, but there was a big line Thursday in front of one H&R Block branch (in Wyoming, Michigan).

The company has been pushing its line of credit called the Emerald Loan, (an income tax refund anticipation loan or RAL). Typically, the market for these products are low-income earners who often get tax refunds that can be used to pay off the loan, consumer groups say.

But there is some concern customers may be purchasing expensive tax preparation services they can't afford, or digging themselves deeper into debt.

www.woodtv.com/dpp/your_money/Loans-from-tax-prep-chains-Demand-up

The Better Business Bureau:

"... cautions consumers to consider the complete costs of a RAL and how these loans can wipe out a significant portion of a tax refund.

“RALs are short-term loans with exorbitantly high interest rates and hidden administration fees, so consumers are actually paying someone else to have access to their own money.

However, if the refund is less than anticipated or the RAL is not paid off in time, the fees can take a significant chunk out of the refund.”

A RAL is similar to a payday loan, with interest rates averaging between

50 and 500 percent.

They sometimes are offered by fly-by-night tax preparers. Consumers still can obtain income tax refunds, free of charge if they are willing to wait two weeks...

The fastest and most secure way for consumers to receive a tax refund directly is to file tax returns online and allow direct deposit of

the refund to their bank account. This can take as few as eight to 15 days."

ct.bbb.org/article/income-tax-refund-anticipation-loans-15231

Working Poor Lose Ground Under the Tax Compromise

When President Obama defended his tax cut compromise with the Republican Party, he insisted that he was helping working people avoid taking a pay cut. "I'm focused on making sure that tens of millions of hardworking Americans are not seeing their paychecks shrink on Jan. 1, just because the folks here in Washington are busy trying to score political points," Obama said.

But as tax experts look at the proposal more closely, it has become clear that the working poor will actually end up losing money under the new arrangement.

"Single working people with earnings below $20,000 and married couples with earnings below $40,000 are worse off under the payroll tax cut proposals in the compromise between the president and the Republicans," explains Bob Williams, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Policy Center.

www.dailyfinance.com/story/taxes/working-poor-pay-more-obama-gop-tax-compromise/19752400/?icid=fbuzz|working-poor-pay-more-obama-gop-tax-compromise/19752400/

Photography exhibit puts a face on clients served by Ministry with Community

An exhibit at the WMU College of Health and Human Services displays photographs and stories of a few clients who receive services at Ministry with Community. On exhibition in the second floor gallery of the WMU College Health and Human Services Building on Oakland Drive, the display was to end after Dec. 20 but now will be up through Jan. 10.

The portraits and stories are getting attention at the college, said Gay Walker, coordinator for the college’s Holistic Health Care Program and coordinator for the exhibits that appear in the gallery.

“It’s very different than a typical exhibit. There’s a purpose here,” Walker said. “My intention has been to bring in not just exhibits for their beauty but ones that say something, they say something important.”

Wojtyniak’s project features photo portraits that are overlain with the written stories of those captured in the picture.

Visitors to the display will see two layers over the picture that they can open to read the person’s narrative, captured in interviews by a Ministry with Community staff member.

Originally, these portraits were taken and provided to the Ministry clients as a gift, funded by a ChangeMaker grant from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation.

But Wojtyniak said they needed a wider audience.

“This exhibit is offered as a gift. Not from me, but from the members in the portraits,” Wojtyniak said in a news release.

“The members shared their stories and themselves with me, resulting in many engaging portraits. However, the powerful stories and portraits begged for a wider audience.”

The exhibit can be viewed from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. For more information contact Walker at 269-387-3839 or gay.walker@wmich.edu.

Read the full article: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/12/photography_exhibit_enduring_s.html

Panhandling by the Side of the Road: "It's Too Embarrassing"

Teresa Connors sits in a single-wide trailer at a (Northern Indiana) mobile home park, worrying. Sparsely furnished with a secondhand sofa, a coffee table from her mother and a decade-old television, she calls it home.

She has no work income, and two daughters, ages 2 and 4.

Steven Connors, her husband, is in the county jail, still waiting placement in a state prison where he'll remain, even with good behavior, until at least 2017.

A year ago, Teresa could be found standing at the corner of Brick and Gumwood roads, holding a sign that begged passing drivers for money. Sometimes her daughter, then 3, would join her. Steven, with his own sign, would beg nearby.

But now, she said, no level of desperation will move her to hold that sign again and feel the stares of passing drivers.

"It's too embarrassing," Teresa said.

www.southbendtribune.com/article/20101205/News01/12050310/-1/XML

The Poor Frequently Spend Time in Jail When They Cannot Post Minor Bail $$

Thousands of people arrested on low-level crimes in New York City spend days languishing in jail, not because they have been found guilty but because they are too poor to post bail, according to a report to be released on Friday.

The report, which examines the bail conditions for people charged with nonfelonies like smoking marijuana in public, jumping a subway turnstile or shoplifting, found that the overwhelming majority of defendants in cases in which bail was set at $1,000 or less were unable to pay and were sent to jail, where they remained, on average, for more than two weeks.

The report comes as the number of arrests for low-level misdemeanors, often referred to as quality-of-life crimes, is rising.

www.nytimes.com/2010/12/03/nyregion/03bail.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion

What does a living wage look like in America?

Moving towards a living wage

What would a living wage in American look like? The Alternatives Federal Credit Union put together this analysis on what it costs to live an affordable lifestyle in the United States. On average, to live sustainable life requires roughly $23,000 a year for an individual. Divided by 40 hours, that amount becomes about $11/hour.

Comparatively, the poverty line for an individual in the United States is roughly $10,000 a year. Under that, and you are eligible for a variety of benefits to supplement your income. The disparity between the two comparisons should provoke some interesting thoughts.

What exactly happens to those who live between the gap of $10k and $23k per year?

Category	Month (2006)	Month (2008)	Percent Change	Year (2008)	Comments	Source
Rent	$628	$763	21.50%	$9,156	Fair market rent, single BR incl. utilities	HUD
Food	$180.95	$203.25	12.32%	$2,439	Average of low-cost food plan for males/females 19-50	USDA
Transportation	$164.22	$167.52	2.01%	$2,010.24	Weighted average of amount spent on cars and public transportation	ACS, BLS, EIA, TCAT
Communication	$56.48	$61.49	8.87%	$737.88	Local calling plan, 30 minutes long-distance and Internet	BLS, Verizon
Health Care	$122.62	$143.53	17.05%	$1,722.36	Employee's share of premium and out-of-pocket medical expenses	BLS, Alternatives
Recreation	$100	$100	0.00%	$1,200.00	Arbitrary	Claritas
Savings	$56	$59.81	6.80%	$717.72	Adjusted for inflation	BLS
Miscellaneous	$105.08	$111.13	5.76%	$1,333.56	housekeeping supplies	Claritas
Net (Subtotal)	$1,413.35	$1,609.73	13.89%	$19,316.76
Payroll Tax	$130.42	$147.29	12.93%	$1,767.45
Federal Tax	$118.58	$117.95	-0.53%	$1,415.39
State Tax	$41.83	$50.35	20.36%	$604.15
TOTAL	$1,704.18	$1,925.31	12.98%	$23,103.75
hourly@40 hrs/week	$9.83	$11.11*

* The Tompkins County Workers Center/Living Wage Coalition figures that the hourly living wage without health insurance is $12.11 an hour.

See the full report at: http://www.alternatives.org/livingwage2009notes.html.

Compare this to the current guidelines for the Federal Poverty Line:

Persons In Family Or Household	48 Contiguous States and D.C.	Alaska	Hawaii
1	$10,210	$12,770	$11,750
2	13,690	17,120	15,750
3	17,170	21,470	19,750
4	20,650	25,820	23,750
5	24,130	30,170	27,750
6	27,610	34,520	31,750
7	31,090	38,870	35,750
8	34,570	43,220	39,750
For each additional person, add	3,480	4,350	4,000

SOURCE: Federal Register, Vol. 72, No. 15, January 24, 2007, pp. 3147-3148

A Young Pastor Speaks to the Importance of the 2010 Hunger Report

At church on Sunday, a homeless fellow came in midway during our service. I had snuck off to use the men's room just after the sermon. As I was returning from the church basement, this fellow opened the church doors. He had been sleeping outside all night, "sleeping" in sub-freezing temperatures. His coat was more of a jacket and certainly was not adequate for a walk on a cold evening, let alone sleeping outside all night.

I welcomed him inside. Helped him to a bench in the back of the church. Covered him with a few of the used coats that we had in a box and which the church is collecting for the needy. I stood with him as he prayed. Eventually, he warmed enough to join the rest of the congregation. After services, one of our church members took the fellow to a truck stop to get a hot shower. Someone else bought him some clean clothes at Goodwill.

As I am typing this tonight, I sit in a warm house. My wife is in the other room watching TV. My cat and dog are lounging lazily. I can hear the freezing rain outside and am wondering:

where our homeless friend is bedded down for the night.

And he is just one. According to a Kalamazoo Gazette report from July 18, 2009, "Kalamazoo County's homeless population jumped more than 40 percent from 2007 to 2008 at the same time that Michigan's homeless count remained virtually unchanged, according to a federal report." And that is just Kalamazoo. SW Michigan encompasses Benton Harbor, Battle Creek, Niles, Allegan, Sturgis, and many other communities.

It is all rather overwhelming.

So, I needed some encouragement. And I think I found it in the message of this young African American pastor in a Twitter message that I got this evening from Bread for the World:




Amen.

CNN: Hungry Mothers Cook for Hundreds