Priest forges Boise-Haiti bond

from the Idaho Statesman

BY ANNA WEBB

Rick Frechette wears sandals and carries a rosary in his pocket. The rosary, its beads woven from brown thread, is nearly weightless. Frechette's skin is ruddy, a sharp contrast to the white vestments he wore Saturday when he helped lead mass at St. John's Cathedral.

Frechette, a priest and medical doctor, made his annual visit to Boise from Haiti this weekend. The visits cement a connection between the Valley and a country infamous for its poverty.

This time around, his travel plans were nearly derailed by the hurricanes that struck the Caribbean and had "Father Rick" wading through mud, bringing water to stranded people and helping nuns trapped on rooftops.

Over 15 years, Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center's "Project Haiti" has given more than $1 million for lab and X-ray equipment at Saint Damien, a children's hospital founded by Frechette in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Frechette finds an easy explanation for the connection between Idaho and Haiti.

"We didn't make it. God did. He finds a way of putting good people together."

Frechette has developed something of a cult status among the Boiseans who know him. Descriptors range from "pied piper," to "the most charismatic person you will ever meet," to "almost diabolically winning."

Saturday, after the St. John's mass, a group of children stood in the pews. Clearly beside themselves with giddiness, they were trying to catch Frechette's eye, and were crestfallen when the wrong adult saw them first and waved instead of Frechette.

The priest has a formidable sense of humor. He refers to the useless items people donate in the name of goodwill as "junk for Jesus," and quipped that the only thing worse than changing diapers, "is changing diapers in a blackout."

But his stories give the sense of how dire life is in Haiti, where most people don't live to see their 50th birthday, and environmental degradation is such that an aerial photograph of the border looks like a swath of watery, brown paint next to the thick, green felt of the Dominican Republic.

Frechette and his staff must regularly face dilemmas like whether it's better to run a breathing machine to keep one child alive, or use the fuel to run a water purifier for the benefit of every patient instead.

"As it says in the Gospels, you leave the 99 sheep and go for the one," Frechette said. He ran the breathing machine. The next day, by chance - or some other power - more fuel arrived.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Riding across America for poverty

from the Idaho Statesman

Pastor signed up on a whim, and once his congregation found out it got behind him
ELSEWHERE

BY SHAWN RAECKE

Henry Devries, of Kamloops, British Columbia, had never ridden a bike long distance. In fact, he didn't even own a bike that could handle a cross-country endeavor.

But Sunday morning, Devries was among 220 riders taking part in the Sea to Sea Bike Tour, a tour across America to raise money and awareness for global poverty, at a stop in Julia Davis Park in Boise. The trans-continental bike event from Seattle to Jersey City, N.J., is believed to be the largest cross-country bike tour ever, according to event coordinators.

Devries joined other participants in a worship service at Julia Davis Park on Sunday as surprised as anyone to be there.

For Devries, the whole thing happened by accident. One day, while sitting at his computer, he responded to an e-mail as "kind of a joke."

"This message flashed across my screen that said it was the last day to sign up," Devries explained.

Following the links, he signed up thinking that he would just donate the $250 entry fee and that would be that.

"I filled out the entry form and then clicked 'send', " said Devries, a pastor in Kamloops. But after his congregation learned about the cause and how he signed up on a whim, they got behind him and wouldn't let him back out.

"They helped raise the $4,000 so I could ride the first leg from Seattle to Denver," he said. "With family and other commitments at home, it's all I can really afford to do."

So far Sea to Sea has raised over $1.5 million in donations, which will fund initiatives aimed at reducing poverty for individuals, families and communities around the world.

Link to full article. May expire in future.

Idaho Is the Only State to Exclude Low-Income Families from Its Grocery Tax Credit

from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

By Phil Oliff and Nicholas Johnson

Idaho is one of seven states that taxes groceries at the same rate as other goods. It is one of five states that offer a credit or rebate to mitigate the tax. But even though the tax falls most heavily on low-income families, Idaho—unlike any other state—excludes many poor families (mostly working families) from receiving the credit. This uniquely flawed policy has no policy justification. It would be simple and relatively inexpensive to make all Idaho families eligible for the credit.

Idaho Excludes Poor Families from its Grocery Credit

For those who are eligible to receive it, Idaho’s grocery tax credit provides a flat $20 per person for individuals under the age of 65 and $35 per person for individuals age 65 and older. While the amount of relief provided by the credit is modest, it can help to mitigate the impact of the highly regressive grocery tax on the budgets of low-income families.

Poor families, however, are generally barred from receiving the credit. Specifically, households with incomes below the threshold at which they are required to file an Idaho income tax return ($17,500 for a married couple filing jointly or $8,750 for a single person in 2007) are ineligible to receive the credit. The only exceptions to this income requirement are people over age 62, blind people, and disabled veterans, who can receive the credit if their incomes are below the threshold.[1]

Idaho’s Credit Differs from Credits/Rebates in Other States

Idaho is one of five states that tax food and provide tax credits or rebates to offset the impact of the sales tax on food.[2] In contrast to Idaho, all of the other states target their credits or rebates to lower-income households. Some even structure their credits or rebates so that the lowest-income families receive the largest credits, in recognition of the particular burden that food taxes place on low-income families. The characteristics of these credits or rebates are described below.

Hawaii: Hawaii’s food tax credit is available to all households with adjusted gross income below $20,000 through 2007 and below $50,000 after 2007. The amount of the credit ranges from $10 to $35 through 2007 and $25 to $85 after 2007, and varies according to income, with lower-income households receiving larger credits.

Kansas: Kansas offers a food tax refund to families with children, the elderly and disabled people with qualifying household income less than $29,700. The amount of relief is $78 per exemption if qualifying income is less than $14,850, and $38 per exemption if qualifying income is between $14,851 and $29,700.

Oklahoma: Oklahoma provides a food tax credit to families with gross incomes below $50,000 and to single people and married couples with no dependents with gross incomes below $20,000. The amount of the credit is a flat $40 per exemption.[3]

South Dakota: South Dakota provides a sales tax on food refund to all households with incomes at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level (which for a family of four in 2008 equals slightly more than $30,000). The amount of the credit varies according to family size. For the period spanning July through December of 2007 the average quarterly rebate paid under the program was approximately $25.[4]

None of these states requires recipients to have incomes over a certain level, so the credits are fully available to all low-income families. Hawaii, Kansas and Oklahoma administer their food tax credits through the income tax, but families that have incomes too low to meet the filing requirement are allowed to claim the credit anyway, either by filing a tax return or by filing a special form created for this purpose.[5]

Who Is Excluded from Receiving Idaho’s Credit?

By excluding many low-income families from claiming the credit, Idaho’s grocery tax credit excludes the families and individuals who need the credit the most. Low-income families pay a higher percentage of their income in food tax than higher-income families. They are the households that are most likely to have trouble paying their bills or putting food on the table. Many of the households that the credit excludes are working families struggling to make ends meet. In 2006, for example, over 14,000 married Idaho households with at least one working member had income under $17,500. In that same year over 70 percent of married households in Idaho with income under $17,500 had at least one working member. Moreover, with the exception of the blind, the credit is also unavailable to low-income disabled Idaho residents whose earning power may be limited by the nature of their disabilities.

No State Excludes Food Stamp Recipients from Its Grocery Tax Credit

All five of the states that provide grocery tax rebates or credits allow participants in the federal Food Stamp Program to receive the credit. This is because food stamps are designed so that recipients are expected to spend 30 percent or more of their available income on groceries. In addition, many food stamp recipients participate in the program for only part of the year. As a result, although purchases made with food stamps are not subject to state sales tax, most food stamp recipients spend a substantial share of their own money each year on groceries and therefore pay substantial tax.

The structure of the credit can also create perverse incentives and rewards. Beyond excluding poor households, the grocery tax credit’s eligibility requirements also impose a marriage penalty. To see why this is true, take the example of a single Idaho resident with an annual income of $15,000. As long as this individual stays single he is eligible to receive Idaho’s grocery tax credit, because his income is above the $8,750 income threshold for single filers. However, if he marries a non-worker he will no longer be eligible for the credit even though his income remains the same (and he is now supporting a family with that income). This is because his $15,000 household income falls below the $17,500 income threshold for married couples filing jointly.

Why Fixing Idaho’s Credit Should Be a Priority

As is evidenced above, every other state that offers food tax benefits recognizes that low-income families have the greatest need for those benefits. At the very least Idaho lawmakers should act promptly to assure that its most vulnerable citizens have access to the same food tax relief as everyone else. After all, even Idaho millionaires have access to Idaho’s $20 per person grocery tax credit. It makes no sense that the families who stand to benefit the most from the credit are excluded from receiving it.

End Notes:

[1] The filing threshold for married filing separately is much lower, but few low-income Idahoans use this status.

[2] Two states—Alabama and Mississippi— fully tax food and offer no credit. All other states exempt food partially or fully from sales tax.

[3] For a very small percentage of low-income Oklahomans, specifically those receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the sales tax credit is rolled into their benefit payment rather than being provided directly.

[4] South Dakota’s refund is issued quarterly and is based on an estimate of how much sales tax a household spent on food during the quarterly period (using a tax rate of 5.9 percent). When the state calculates the amount that households receiving food stamps spend on food, it subtracts their monthly food stamp benefit from their estimated food stamp expenditure. This is because households do not pay sales tax on purchases made with food stamps.

[5] Note also that many families in Idaho and elsewhere who are not required to file income taxes do so anyway in order to claim refunds of withholding taxes. Under current law in Idaho, such families cannot get the credit, but it would be administratively simple to allow them to do so.

Students feel the pinch of poverty

from the Arbiter Online

JACQUELINE WAYMENT

The Volunteer Services Board at Boise State University is presenting Poverty Week, Nov. 12-16.

"The goal of VSB is to raise awareness on campus and in the community about poverty and to provide students with an opportunity to get involved," Poverty Issues Coordinator for VSB Blair Davidson said.

Four different events on various topics highlight the week, ranging from human trafficking to finding ways to help impoverished villages in Honduras access clean water.

Monday's presentation featured a documentary on uncovering the truth about human trafficking and how it stems from impoverished countries.

Students simulated what the distribution of wealth looks like in the world Tuesday. At the Hunger Banquet, students were split up into three different groups as they arrived: the high-income group sat at tables that had dishes and table cloths, the middle-income group sat at empty tables and the low-income group sat on cardboard on the floor.

Dr. Said Ahmed-Zaid, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, gave a presentation to help students understand how everyone is connected in the world, and how people in impoverished parts of the world live. He gave some basic facts and descriptions of each of the income groups.

To depict how each group lives, Dr. Ahmed-Zaid described different situations people find themselves in, causing them to move between the income groups.

The most vivid example included all of the income levels and showed how the global economy affects everyone.

Afterward, students watched a video produced by Oxfam, a company that is "committed to creating last solutions to global poverty, hunger, and social injustice." Students were able to see how simple, innovative solutions helped impoverished people become self-sufficient. Students then ate food according to their income groups. The rich were served a full dinner on dishes, the middle income ate from a buffet table on paper plates, and the poor ate a small plate of rice and beans. This gave students a tangible idea of how inequality in distribution of resources affects people's lives.

While students were eating, Professor Martin Orr, chair of the Sociology Department, gave a speech. He discussed how poverty is an economic, political and moral problem. The crux of his argument was that policies of imperialism, colonialism and globalization were perpetuated by design. The VSB wanted to provide students an opportunity to experience economic inequality in the world. They achieved their goal.

A company owner with a high income was purchasing coffee at a very low market price. This in turn caused the middle-income farmer who grew the coffee to fire his workers. The workers lost their jobs, reducing the amount of money they could spend, causing the low-income laborer to starve.