An 8 Hour, $100 CPA CPE with George Hartzman in Greensboro, on August19, 2010

You are cordially invited to an Eight Hour,
Intermediate / Advanced CPA CPE Workshop entitled:
 

What Could Happen
After What May Happen Next 

Critical analysis and debate for CPAs
in public accounting and industry.
 

Topics: An overview of current geopolitical and economic events, North Carolina and local municipal budget and finance highlights, America and the States, Bailout, Greece, Europe, Social Security, The 2009 Financial Report of the U.S. Government, Federal Reserve, FASB, Healthcare Ethics, Tax Ethics, Business and Regulatory Ethics, Hedge and High Frequency Trading
 

Think Professional Education is registered with the North Carolina State Board of CPA Examiners as a sponsor of continuing professional education. Please note that these sessions do not satisfy the annual ethics requirements for North Carolina CPAs.
 

George Hartzman, President of Think Professional Education specializes in economics and financial ethics and has taught North Carolina CPA CPE for ten years. George is the author of Think, What to Do Now, Think, Investor Guide, Think Retirement Plan Edition, Fiduciary Guide, Questions for Investors and Questions for America, which are used to teach CPE and adult education.
 

Each Attendee with recieve a dated, numbered, and signed copy of What Could Happen After What May Happen Next

Mr. Hartzman has worked in the financial services industry as a financial advisor and portfolio manager and holds degrees in Communications, Philosophy and Public Relations from Frostburg State University.

Lunch and refreshments catered by Lox, Stock and Bagel

Seating limited to 30 attendees 

Lecture Format. No advanced preparation or prerequisites necessary. Complaints or comments regarding registered sponsors may be addressed to the North Carolina State Board of CPA Examiners, PO Box 12827, Raleigh, NC 27605. Each CPA must exercise judgment in selecting courses and claiming credit for only those courses that contribute to the CPA’s professional competence and meet the standards  found in 21 NCAC 8G .0400 Based on 50 minute hours

Please click button to register in the left column.

Perkins, Carroll and Kotis Linkfest

Greensboro CIty Council Member Robbie Perkins Text Messages to Developer Roy Carroll During Council Meeting, Any Ethical Questions?

Kieth Brown

Triadwatch, December 22, 2009

Percolating a New City Scandal

Joe Guarino

Guarino, December 21, 2009

Roy Carroll's Company + City of Greensboro are Defendents in a Court Case

Kieth Brown

Triadwatch, July 16, 2009

City of Greensboro City Council Candidate Information Request I

George Hartzman

Questions for America, July 17th, 2009

On City of Greensboro City Council Agenda Items 10, 11 and 15

George Hartzman

Questions for America, November 6, 2009

.

.

Horsepen Village Commercial, LLC

Martin Ware

Vie de Malchance, July 17th, 2009

Greensboro and Carroll company co-defendants in lawsuit

Roch Smith

Roch 101, July 17th, 2009

Abner Doon: February 4, 2012 - 11:43 am EST

"So, by your logic homosexuality is genetic and not behavioral?"

Actually, the genetic thing is factual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_displaying_homosexual_behav...

The problem may lay in the "belief" that humans are also animals?

"So, if I commit a crime or some other behavioral misdeed

I should just explain to the courts that it really was not my decision

to act in this manner I was overcome by genetic predisposition?"

Are you saying being gay is a crime?

Or should be a crime?

Or a crime against your religion?

"That is complete and utter garbage."

Nice straw man
by using a non relevent example of someone who breaks the law
and then calls the idea in question garbage
based on a flawed metaphor?

"Homosexuals are not in any way, shape, or form a minority,

they are people who have chosen to behave

in a manner that contrary to the normal behavior of the vast majority of society."

They "behave" differently from us,
so let's make them pay for being that way
thereby identifying them as a minority
which you also say they are not?

"If you are going to commit the act at least stand up,

take responsibility and accept the consequences that come with it

instead of blaming it on your chromosomes."

So you believe gays should go to jail?

Or is that still the straw man argument?

Have you ever had premarital sax?

Are two women in love
in their home
while not treading on you
somehow breaking the law?

Would you let one of your kids

date a member of a different race?

Yes Weekly: The Business of Elections in Greensboro

Yes Weekly: The Business of Elections in Greensboro

http://www.yesweekly.com/article-7396-cover-story.html

 

Municipal elections are a nearly half-million-dollar industry every odd year in Greensboro. In 2007, more than $450,000 washed through the election system, raised from homebuilders, lawyers and other citizens with a stake in city politics, funneled into the coffers of candidates’ campaign and then drained back out in expenditures for yard signs, newspaper ads, billboard displays, payments to poll workers and rental fees for banquet halls.

 

…The cost of Greensboro municipal elections has more than tripled since 2001, with the total spent by victorious candidates rising from $73,901 in 2001 to $282,623 in 2007.

 

…The three at-large seats range from $19,547 to $27,889 each. Some district seats go for more than others. The District 4 seat in the city’s affluent northwest quadrant averages $15,119, while District 3 runs $13,303.

 

…Our campaign finance shows that the average candidate usually gets about 10 percent of their funds from small donors — meaning people who gave less than $50.

 

“It’s much more efficient to raise your cash from the big donors,” [‘Josh Glasser of Common Cause of North Carolina told delegates at a Greensboro Neighborhood Congress meeting on Sept. 12, Glasser continued.’] “That means courting interests that often come before the city council and ask for favorable regulations and favorable rules. If you survey the sitting Greensboro City Council, every single member would have to admit that their largest or second largest donation came from someone connected to the real-estate industry or the developers industry.”

 

…District 3 candidate George Hartzman, who attended the meeting, argued that reform needs to be taken a step further.

 

“You have these people who are wanting to do business with the government, and they’re paying for their election. And then they get elected and they put a proposal in front of the people that they paid to get elected. And then the people who got elected vote for the thing that the person wants to have passed. It’s a conflict of interest…. Why aren’t we looking at not letting the people who are contributing to elections not being able to do business with the city for X amount of time before and after they give the money? Doesn’t that seem simple? It’s basic ethics.”

 

Zack Matheny, the incumbent in the District 3 race, was first elected in 2007 in a contest with four other opponents in which Matheny quickly emerged as the leading fundraiser. Matheny raised a total of $46,358 [while serving on Greensboro’s Zoning Commission] and secured 58.9 percent of the vote in the general election. His opponent, Joe Wilson, raised only $13,795.

 

…Newspapers are not far behind printers in a ranking of sectors that financially profit from campaigns. Victorious Greensboro city council candidates spent a total of $68,615 on printing in 2007, and $61,351 on newspaper advertising. One newspaper, the conservative-leaning Rhinoceros Times, dominates the trade, pulling in $26,030 in 2007, followed by the News & Record, with $17,558; the Carolina Peacemaker, with $8,928; The Greensboro Times, with $3,690; and YES! Weekly, with $3,300.

 

...Adams, Jones, Johnson and Wells are among the six black elected officials who hold voting privileges on the George C. Simkins Jr. Memorial Political Action Committee, commonly known as the Simkins PAC, or simply the PAC. The PAC sends out a mailing during every election to households in predominantly African-American areas of the city that lists its favored candidates.

 

A white politician who runs citywide, Groat contributed $1,500 to the Simkins PAC in 2007, on top of her payments to Adams and The Greensboro Times,…the newspaper owned by Rep. Earl Jones… Her total payments to the three entities come to $3,362. The PAC reasoned that “Sandra has completed her first term and will continue to be responsive and open-minded.”

 

Robbie Perkins, another white politician running citywide, also received the PAC’s endorsement. He paid at total of $1,700 to the PAC and related entities.

 

Three other white candidates received the PAC’s endorsement. Zack Matheny spent $450 with The Greensboro Times on advertising and contributed $200 to the Simkins PAC.

 

Candidate spending, 2007

 

1. Mayor Yvonne Johnson — $97,201

2. Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat — $46,414

3. District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny — $45,868

4. At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins — $38,968

5. District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade — $22,595 ($38,379) *

6. At-large Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw — $16,075

7. District 2 Councilwoman Goldie Wells — $7,520

8. District 4 Councilman Mike Barber — $4,982

9. District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small — $1,300 (estimated)

 

* Wade paid Republican consultant Bill Burckley $13,784 in January 2008, two months after the election, for mailings. To cover the bill, she raised $11,575, mainly from individuals connected to the real estate, development and building industries, and loaned herself $2,500.

 

Most expensive races (avg. of victors’ expenditures, 2001-2007)

 

1. Mayor — $33,091

2. At-large — $19,547-$27,889

3. District 4 — $15,119

4. District 3 — $13,303

5. District 5 — $11,056

6. District 2 — $8,101

7. District 1 — $3,288

 

Fundraising, 2007 Greensboro municipal election

 

1. Amount raised Jan. 1-June 30: $10,845

2. Amount raised July 1-Aug. 28: $83,706

3. Amount raised Aug. 29-Sept. 30: $124,616

4. Amount raised Oct. 1-28: $160,194

5. Amount raised Oct. 29-Dec. 31: $84,710

 

Jordan Green

Yes Weekly, September 16, 2009

http://www.yesweekly.com/article-7396-cover-story.html

Bundling, Conduit and Conflict of Interest defined

Bundling -- The practice of pooling individual contributions from various people -- often those employed by the same business or in the same profession -- in order to maximize the political influence of the bundler. Typically, all of the checks collected in this way are sent or delivered to candidates on the same day.

 

Conduit -- A person, group, or organization that forwards others' contributions to candidates, a legal activity under federal law.

 

Conflict of Interest -- The situation that results when an umpire takes money from the players, when a judge takes money from defendants and prosecutors, and when government officials take campaign contributions from people whose economic interests are affected by government policy-making.

 

Coming to Terms:

A Money-in-Politics Glossary

Does history rhyme? II

Little by little, business is enlarged with easy money.

 

With the exhaustless reservoir of the Government of the United States

furnishing easy money the sales increase, the businesses enlarge

more new enterprises are started,

the spirit of optimism pervades the community.

 

Everyone is making money, everyone is growing rich.

 

It goes up and up,

…until finally someone whose judgment was bad,

someone whose capacity for business was small

breaks,

and as he falls, he hits the next brick in the row,

and then another

… and down comes the whole structure.

 

That is what happened to greater or less degree

before the panic of 1837, of 1857,

of 1873, of 1893 and of 1907.

 

Elihu Root

US Senator, Nobel Laureate

Why Greensboro’s, Guilford County’s and America’s Political System is Broken

In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

 

In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee

 who is incompetent to carry out his duties.

 

Work is accomplished by those employees

who have not yet reached their level of incompetence.

 

Dr Laurence J Peter

 

Market Failure

 

…market failure exists to the extent that innovation is blocked by incumbents. If innovators can succeed by out-competing incumbents, then the market is working. If incumbents have a self-reinforcing system that keeps out innovators, then we have market failure.

 

…Suppose that we have a group that wants enormous political power. The group rewards people who justify its power by calling them "experts." It punishes those who question its power by dismissing them as "hacks." If you want money and status, you want to be labeled as an expert. In order to be labeled as an expert, you produce analysis that justifies concentrated political power for the elite group.

 

This process is self-reinforcing...only "reliable" people are allowed to be CEO's or policymakers. A requirement for being "reliable" is sharing the views of other "reliable" people as to what constitutes reliability.

 

It is like the tenure system in academia. Who gets tenure? Above all, it is people who support the existing tenure system.

 

…Of course, incumbents never want to change the process, but markets can force change.

 

…There is a market failure in health care. Instead of innovation, what gets rewarded are ideas and policies that entrench the existing system.

 

…There is a market failure in education. Educational institutions are evaluated not on the basis of rigorous standards but instead on the basis of a system of credentialism that is self-referential. X is acceptable because X has been certified by Y, which is acceptable because it has been certified by Z, and so on. In order to climb the ladder in academia, you have to display allegiance to the credentialist ideology. You have to reinforce the incumbents and help snuff out innovation. Our program is accredited, and yours is not. So there.

 

…The key is whether a reputation system is reasonably open to innovation, or whether it serves primarily to maintain the status of incumbents.

 

The reputation system…serves the incumbents, who want to centralize political power. The relationship between politicians and experts is the most serious market failure of all. It is our version of what I have called the Moral Rot Factor.

 

...I think that there is still a high probability that we are on a path to a system in which a political elite ruthlessly rewards its friends and punishes its enemies, leading to a society with much less innovation and much more corruption. I do not foresee gulags and mass murders, but there is plenty of potential for moral rot in cronyism, and that I do fear lies ahead.

 

Arnold Kling

Library of Economics and Liberty

Is Greensboro’s City Council attempting to control public thought by boring televised meeting viewers at the beginning so fewer will watch anything controversial or entertaining by the end?

Without censorship,

things can get terribly confused in the public mind.

 

William Westmoreland

American military commander, Vietnam, 1964 - 1968

US Army Chief of Staff, 1968 - 1972

If borrowing to pay for tax cuts helps an economy in the short run, do unpaid for tax cuts retard growth in the long run?

The Laffer Curve, anyone know what this says?

 

It says that at this point on the revenue curve

you will get exactly the same amount of revenue as at this point…

 

Does anyone know what Vice President Bush called this in 1980, anyone?

 

Something-d-o-o economics, voodoo economics.

 

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

 

Should higher interest rates and inflation

correlated to tax cuts and increased borrowing

eventually reduce tax revenue

following short term economic growth?

What does spending more than you make look like?

 Chart Via Business Insider

Does history rhyme?

If some lose their whole fortunes, they will drag many more down with them.

 

If those revenues are destroyed,

our whole system of credit will come down with a crash.

 

…The national budget must be balanced.

 

The public debt must be reduced.

 

The arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled.

 

Payments to foreign governments must be reduced

if the nation doesn't want to go bankrupt.

 

People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance.

 

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Roman Constitutionalist

George Hartzman Class at Shepherd’s Center of Greensboro

Adventures in Learning

October 7, 14, 21, 28, and November 4 and 11, 2010

1:30 to 2:30pm

Recent political events through the lens of economic and financial ethics

A contrarian’s view of geopolitical, economic and local news

Alternative prognostications of what could happen after what may happen next.

First Baptist Church
1000 West Friendly Avenue
Greensboro, NC

Adventures in Learning offers enrichment and fellowship opportunities
for all Greensboro area man and women age 60+.

There are 20 Classes from which you can create your own schedule.

http://www.shepctrg.org/

If Greensboro News and Record’s Editorial Board not only ignored but erroneously refuted evidence of Pay to Play politics in 2007’s City Council election, how can they tout piousness in 2010?

Hypocrisy is the act of persistently pretending to hold beliefs,

opinions, virtues, feelings, qualities, or standards

that one does not actually hold.

 

Hypocrisy is thus a kind of lie.

 

Wikipedia

 

Editorial: Saving democracy

 

Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court decision changes some of the rules for financing political campaigns in North Carolina and across the country, and probably not for the better. But the state can and should respond in ways that keep wealthy special interests honest.

 

Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina called the 5-4 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission a step toward turning "public elections into public auctions."

 

…It might if big corporations begin to spend millions on behalf of candidates or issues.

 

…North Carolina might not be able to keep a lid on the money, but if it requires complete transparency, citizens can see which candidates have been auctioned to special interests -- and vote for someone else.

 

Greensboro News & Record Editorial Board, January 23, 2010

The Rhino Times Paul C. Clark on Guilford County, North Carolina's School Budget, governmental propaganda, and what may happen after what could happen next when federal stimulus money runs out

"...Guilford County Schools, in real terms, has had about the same amount of money to spend in each year of the current recession, and has more money to spend for this school year than it did last year.

...After months of hearing "cuts, cuts, cuts," most people think the school system will get less this school year than it did last year.

Not so.

When the school board on August 10 approved a final 2010-2011 budget after months of deliberation,...the final [2010-1011] operating budget...was $598.6 million, $8 million more than the school system's 2009-2010 operating budget of $590.6 million.

And the school system's 2009-2010 operating budget was only $1 million less than its $591 million 2008-2009 operating budget, despite months of discussion about budget cuts.

Are you certain
you’ve not been conditioned to think certain thoughts?

Guilford County Schools Chief Financial Officer Sharon Ozment and the school system's public relations department heavily advertise cuts in state funding, whether or not they materialize.

Does thinking you understand what another says
mean you hear what they mean?

They tend not to mention that the school system's operating budget has increased from the previous year.

Do the few who control the dissemination
of most financial and political information
enjoy relatively disproportionate levels of influence
than the many who don’t?

It's one of the spins they use to make the school system appear to be poorer than it actually is and to downplay its spending.

Is an untruth disseminated as true a lie
if the truth remains unfound through incuriosity?

Another is not mentioning the amount of the school system's total budget in press releases.

Could some of what you think
be what you’re frequently told to think?

For the 2009-2010 fiscal year, that budget was $642 million.

For the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the total budget is $651 million – an increase of $9 million in real terms after months of debates over "cuts."

Can what you think may be
turn out more like what you thought
even if it doesn’t?

...Guilford County Schools could just take its funding cuts with a stiff upper lip, realizing that they are the common lot during a recession. But there's no tradition of doing that in public school systems, where every budget cycle is a much-ballyhooed crisis.

The main reason the school system isn't hurting like everybody else is the federal government. The...the stimulus bill has funneled billions of dollars into state and local governments, much of it earmarked for education.

...Guilford County Schools has had $38.4 million in state funding cut over the last two years. But the school system has received $75 million in federal stimulus money over three fiscal years.

Guilford County Schools expects to get more stimulus money for fiscal 2010-11 that isn't reflected in the $75 million figure. On August 10, Congress passed a $26 billion "jobs bill" – more accurately, a government-jobs bill to fund teachers, police officers and other public sector workers. Guilford County Schools stands to get $14.1 million out of North Carolina's $300 million allotment from that bill.

If the federal government habitually bails out overextended school systems
is it a good idea for school systems to overextend?

Also, North Carolina last week won one of the federal Race to the Top Fund grants that are intended to improve failing schools. North Carolina's grant will be for $400 million, and at least half of that money is expected to go directly to school systems. If $200 million is apportioned to the school systems based on their enrollment, Guilford County Schools stands to get another $10 million or so.

If short term taxpayer subsidies boosts Guilford County School's revenues,
what could some long term unintended consequences be?

The stimulus money does come with strings attached. The federal government specifies what the money can be spent for, but in most cases the stimulus money frees up other money the school board can then reassign.

Congradulations to the Rhino Times' Paul C. Clark
for winning the "George Hartzman Person of the Day Award"
for uncovering and reporting on the fungibility of government budget accounting!!!

...The main problem with the stimulus money is that it's scheduled to run out after the 2010-11 school year, leaving the school system facing, unless the economy recovers, budget cuts that will be genuinely severe in 2011-2012. Not even the federal government can go on indefinitely supporting state and local governments forever.

Can bailouts perpetuate problems instead of solve them?

Some Guilford County school board members say they plan to keep as much of the jobs bill money for 2011-2012, despite the fact that the state and federal government intend it to be spent by September 2011.

Should Guilford County Schools is facing a dire budget outlook,
should the School Board discuss not borrowing any more money than absolutely necessary,
and if not, at what point could the Board and Guilford County's Commissioners
be considered guilty
of financial negligence and fiscal malpractice?

"Save every dime that we can for next year," recommended school board member Paul Daniels. "The forecast we have is gloomy beyond comprehension.""

Paul C. Clark
Rhino Times

If elected officials can control information dissemination to benefit a select few instead of the many…?

Pontius Pilate was the first great censor,

 and Jesus Christ the first great victim of censorship.

 

 Ben Lindsey

 

Is it hard to get entrenched economic and political leadership to understand

if relative legitimacy depends on not understanding?

 

What if what you’ve been told to think isn’t?

 

First they came for the Communists,

 but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.

 

 Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists,

but I was not one of them so I did not speak out.

 

Then they came for the Jews, but I was not Jewish so I did not speak out.

 

 And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

Martin Niemoeller

To not raise taxes, does Guilford County, NC intend to spend $36,695,976 more than expected revenue in FY 2010-11?

Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed
whatever follies I have witnessed…
have been the consequence of action without thought

Bernard Baruch
American financier, and presidential advisor

Summary of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balances
Fy 2010 - 2011 Proposed Guilford County Budget: Page 18

FY 2010-11 TOTAL Expenditures                   $586,299,343 
.

Beginning Fund Balance                                        $127,874,415

Ending Fund Balance*                                             $ 91,178,439

Excess (deficiency) of revenues over                $(36,695,976)

*Note: Not all fund balance is "spendable" and available for appropriation.

Prudent Man Rule

An investment standard…to govern the action of those responsible
 for investing money for other people

The fiduciary is required to act as a prudent man or woman would
in regards to investing monies of others

Bloomberg Financial Definition

Is Guilford County, NC going to burn through $89,857,200 of savings in two years?

People do not like to think

If one thinks, one must reach conclusions

Conclusions are not always pleasant

Helen Keller

Summary of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balances
Fy 2010 - 2011 Proposed Guilford County Budget
 
Page 18

FY 2009-10      Beginning Fund Balance                       $ 181,035,639
FY 2010-11      Ending Fund Balance*                            -$ 91,178,439

                                                                                                         =$89,857,200

*Note: Not all fund balance is "spendable" and available for appropriation.

Does Guilford County, NC’s proposed budget spend $17,210,932 or 25,045,979 less?

Summary of Revenues, Expenditures, and Changes in Fund Balances
Fy 2010 - 2011 Proposed Guilford County Budget

Page 19                                      Amended                    Proposed                       Change vs. Adopted
                                                     FY 2009-10            FY 2010-11                                         $                             %

TOTAL Expenditures       $ 596,945,277       $ 568,900,000                $ (17,210,932)                 -2.9%

Page 18                                     Amended                      Proposed                      Change vs. Adopted
                                                     FY 2009-10               FY 2010-11                                        $                           %

TOTAL Expenditures        $ 622,179,667        $ 586,299,343                   $ (25,045,979)             -4.1%

The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism
 by those who don't have it

George Bernard Shaw

Guilford proposes $17 million cut
Joe Killian
Greensboro News and Record, April 16, 2010

If North Carolina is $391 million short for 2009, and 1.2 billion in cuts are coming in 2010…?

We can ignore reality
but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality

Ayn Rand

NC forecasters expect 2 percent revenue shortfall

Tax forecasters estimate North Carolina will collect about 2 percent less revenue than first predicted this year.

The Legislature and budget office experts say the state will take in $391 million less than expected to pay for the $19 billion budget for the year ending June 30.

…A memo dated Monday also says the state will receive $788 million less than expected for the budget for the new year starting July 1.

…Legislative leaders say they may have to find up to $1.2 billion in spending cuts, additional revenues or both when new Medicaid expenses and other needs are included.

The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 13, 2010

How could a $500 million current fiscal year miscalculation by the state of North Carolina affect local municipalities?

N.C. faces $500 million shortfall: The final figure might be much higher as income and sales tax collections trail legislative projections.

Top lawmakers say North Carolina will come up $500 million short of its $19 billion budget by the end of June.

"It would not surprise me if it hit $600(million) or $700million," said Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "But $500million seems like a given."

Revenue at the end of January was $35 million behind estimates.

…But income and sales tax collections continue to trail what the legislature's fiscal staff projected.

Barry Boardman, chief economist on the staff, said the state could face a $500 million gap when the budget year ends June 30.

…Boardman highlighted a couple of troubling trends:

Estimated tax payments are below estimates by about 5 percent.

…Also, sales tax revenue is behind estimates by about 4 percent.

…The state has shed 24,000 jobs since July.

…The biggest impact on state revenue, in either direction, will come in April with the payment of individual and corporate income taxes.

[…the state has returned 590,000 refund checks worth $406 million compared with 279,000 refund checks worth $263.9 million this time last year. North Carolina Tax Refund Delays?]

Mark Johnson
Charlotte Observer via Guarino via Civitas