$2 million habit: WI Public employee smoking surcharge would generate millions for state

By   /  May 20, 2013  /  Featured, Health Care, News, Obamacare, public sector, State Government, Wisconsin  /  No Comments

A proposal that would add a $50 monthly surcharge to Wisconsin state employees who use tobacco would generate $6 million in revenue for the state. Obamacare would not allow termination of insurance coverage of state employees who lie about using tobacco.

Lighting up may cost state employees $50 more per month, but the state’s coffers could be about $6 million richer over the next biennium, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.

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$102k salary doesn’t go as far in Florida under terms of Hertz deal

By   /  May 20, 2013  /  Featured, Florida, News  /  1 Comment

JOBS: 700 new high paying jobs won't exactly all go to Floridians and the average salary figure may be skewed.

The truth behind a deal with Hertz Corp. to bring 700 jobs to southwest Florida with an average annual salary of $102,000 may be hidden under skewed statistics and misleading numbers.

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Critics say IL Gov. Quinn’s latest hire kept candidate out of key Dem race

By   /  May 20, 2013  /  Featured, Illinois, News  /  No Comments

quinsmile

By Benjamin Yount | Illinois Watchdog

SPRINGFIELD — Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is either the king of coincidences, or likes to hire failed Democrats.

A handful of Illinois Republican state senators say it is obviously the latter.

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Who wants to be mayor of PA’s broken capital city, and what difference does it make?

By   /  May 20, 2013  /  Featured, Issues, Local Government, Local News, News, Pennsylvania, Politics & Elections, State Government  /  No Comments

BROKE AND BROKEN: Voters in Harrisburg will chose a new mayor this year, with the first key election set for Tuesday.

It is hard to believe anyone would want to run the city of Harrisburg.

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Hey, IRS: Here’s the WW II prison camp survivor you asked about

By   /  May 20, 2013  /  Featured, Federal Government, National, New Mexico, News, Politics  /  2 Comments

Marianne Chiffelle was held in a Japanese prison camp in the Dutch East Indies. Now the IRS wants to know about her politics.

By Rob Nikolewski │ New Mexico Watchdog
ALBUQUERQUE – The Internal Revenue Service not only wanted a wide variety of information from the Albuquerque Tea Party‘s application for nonprofit status, it also wanted to know what contacts it had with people from other political organizations too.
That included an 83-year-old great-grandmother who was once held in a World War [...]

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