Brown: Released financial data
“Scott Brown is going above and beyond what the law requires in terms of disclosure.” That’s what Brown campaign manager Colin Reed said in announcing Brown had released eight years of joint tax returns with his wife Gail on Friday. Members of the credentialed media had until four P M on Friday to view the returns at Brown’s Manchester campaign headquarters. Reed said that by releasing eight years of joint tax returns, the Browns are quote “proving they are committed to transparency and accountability.” End quote. Reed said the campaign expected incumbent Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen to also release eight years of joint returns, quote “as she promised if Scott Brown did the same.” During a June 8th interview on WMUR‘s Close Up, to which we’ve linked, Shaheen promised to release her taxes, saying, “If my opponents agree to release their tax returns, then that’s something that we would do.” Brown’s campaign is now calling her out on the matter.
Shaheen: Said she’d release joint tax returns, but…
The campaign also announced Brown had filed personal financial disclosure forms with the Senate Ethics Committee. It lists the sources of his nearly half a million dollars in income earned in two thousand thirteen, his assets, and other interesting information. The campaign release included a summary of Brown’s income, taxes paid and charitable contributions, among other bullet points of financial interest. Over the eight years, Brown paid an average of twenty three point six percent of his income in taxes and donated two point zero seven percent of his income to charity. His income nearly tripled in two thousand ten to almost eight hundred forty thousand dollars. We’ve posted all the details with this news read at Girard at Large dot com.
Kuster: Bagged sending political mail at taxpayer expense
Seems that First District Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter isn’t the only one with a penchant for using congressional mailing privileges to further her political career. Second District Congresswoman Ann McLane Kuster has spent almost three hundred thousand dollars since being elected doing the same thing. State Rep. Marilinda Garcia, a Republican candidate in Second Congressional District, released a statement in response to recent news reports that Kuster’s abused the so called franking privilege. Said Garcia, quote, “Ann Kuster’s consistent use of taxpayer-funded mail— the so-called Franking privilege—to promote her reelection is not only a waste of tax dollars, it is an unethical abuse of her position… Through these actions, Ann Kuster exemplifies what Americans dislike about U.S. Congress.” End quote. Garcia called on Kuster to tap into her one point five million dollar, special interest funded reelection war chest to pay for political mailings, not taxpayers’ pockets.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
Livingston: STEAMing Ahead.
The Manchester Board of School Committee meets twice tonight. First, at six fifteen, the board will take public comment on the two thousand fifteen budget. Now that the city’s aldermen have made the appropriation, the school budget goes back to the public for comment before the new fiscal year takes effect. The appropriation was half a million dollars less than the school board’s request, which was constrained by the charter to remain within the city’s budget and tax caps. Following that meeting, the school board will convene to take up regular business. Items of note on the agenda include an update by Superintendent Debra Livingston on the STEAM Ahead New Hampshire program that’s set to begin its inaugural year this fall at West High. Also of note, the board’s Coordination Committee is recommending that a complaint brought to its attention by former Alderman at-Large Mike Lopez be received and filed. Lopez had questioned the board as to why a highly qualified veteran wasn’t considered for an English as a Second Language position with the district. The veteran in question, Richard Haugh, is headed back overseas to teach English as a Second Language. Both Lopez and Haugh were flummoxed by both the district’s response and lack of response to his applications which ranged, they say, from over qualified to no response at all. The board will also consider a report from its Buildings and Sites Committee regarding several millions of dollars of capital projects.
Shaheen: Sent letter demanding IRS investigate conservative groups
Citizens for a Strong New Hampshire submitted a Freedom of Information Act request with the Internal Revenue Service , Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. Copies have been mailed to all three offices and were hand delivered to the district offices of Shaheen and Shea-Porter. The organization is seeking to obtain any and all emails and or correspondences to or from Shaheen and/or Shea-Porter to or from former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman, former Commissioner Steve Miller, and/or former head of the tax-exempt groups Lois Lerner between the dates of January 1, 2009 – May 21, 2013. The request was filed in response to the revelation Lerner’s emails were lost as was Shaheen’s 2012 letter to the IRS requesting greater scrutiny of tax-exempt organizations. Shea-Porter was included in the request as she had also made public statements critical of tax-exempt conservative organizations. Because the IRS has failed to cooperate with the broader investigation, delaying the release of information on multiple occasions, Citizens for a Strong N H is asking Shaheen and Shea Porter to comply with the request, even though they are exempted from it by the law.
That’s news from our own backyard, Girard at Large hour ___ is next!
