Tag: taxpayer money

Commentary: Feds Set Record for Improper Payments

RealClearWire
Government Spending

In 2021, near the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, investigators tailed a Jeep Cherokee stolen from an airport Avis to a New York City apartment they called a “fraud factory” – no furniture, just an air mattress, a computer, stacks of loan and tax forms, and a shredder. 

Two men who had first met in prison – Adedayo Ilori, 43, and Chris Recamier, 59 – were using stolen identities and fake paperwork to falsely claim they employed 200 people, bilking the federal government’s pandemic-relief programs of more than $1 million, according to federal prosecutors. They used the stolen money to splurge on big-ticket purchases, such as cryptocurrency, leasing luxury apartments and a Mercedes, the evidence showed.

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Commentary: An Economy That Serves Nobody Except Those in Charge

American Greatness
Suits

As we outlined in Part One, here in California, we have an economy that would be the fifth largest in the world if it were to be separated as a standing nation. Home to Silicon Valley, Hollywood, world-class agriculture, and medical schools, California is an economic powerhouse.

Yet we, in California, have the highest poverty rate in the nation. We have a majority of the nation’s homeless people. We have the highest overall tax rates in the nation. Our energy costs are double that of the national average. Our per-student spending in schools is well above the national average, yet our students consistently have below-average grade-level test scores. Our major cities are crime-ridden, our power grid is woefully vulnerable, and our beaches are regularly closed due to raw sewage contamination.

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Under Walz, Minnesota Bilked Hundreds of Millions Even After Warnings About ‘Pervasive’ Failures

Just the News
Gov. Tim Walz

As his administration ramped up its government giveaways in the midst of a pandemic and border crisis, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was warned his team did not have adequate protections for the taxpayer money it was sending out the door to nonprofit groups and workers.

In fact, auditors just last February reported they found “pervasive noncompliance” inside the Walz administration with grant management policies that were “signaling systemic issues regarding grants oversight.”

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Congress Preaches Spending Cuts While Allowing Its Own Budget to Explode by 38 Percent Since 2014

Just the News

While many lawmakers have preached for years the need for federal spending cuts, the amount of taxpayer money that Congress spends on its own operations has swelled 38% since FY2014 from $4.3 billion to $6.9 billion this year, according to a Just the News review of Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports on annual federal budgets. 

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Carhartt to Expand in Michigan with Nearly $1 Million of Taxpayer Help

The Center Square

Michigan-based outdoor and recreation clothier Carhartt was granted $937,500 of taxpayer money to expand its facilities in Dearborn.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says the Michigan Economic Development Corp. investment will create 125 new jobs and spark a $4.67 million capital investment.

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Commentary: An American Tradition Is Chronic Anti-Poverty Waste via the Federal-to-Local Distribution Pipeline

RealClearWire

For six years, beginning in 2014, the accounting firm for the Southeast Alabama Community Action Partnership warned administrators that the organization was doing a poor job of managing the millions of dollars in taxpayer money it received annually for its poverty-reduction work, including home energy assistance and foster grandparenting.  

In 2018, a longtime employee filed a federal complaint alleging that the group spent public money profligately on extravagant travel and for other unauthorized purposes, and that it retaliated against employees who questioned its financial practices. 

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Some Michigan Schools Keep Mum on COVID Relief Spending

The Center Square

Theoretically, taxpayers should be able to see how Michigan schools are spending $5.7 billion of taxpayer money to recover from COVID-19-related learning loss.

But an investigation by The Center Square through more than 80 records requests to schools statewide shows how difficult it can be to obtain itemized COVID spending records. Many schools never responded to an initial Freedom of Information Act request.

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