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With lax oversight, mismanaged Oregon towns veer toward insolvency
Oregonlive.com ^ | 04/15/2012 | By Rachel Stark

Posted on 04/15/2012 3:56:27 PM PDT by redreno

When Tiffany Couch's phone rings, it often means trouble for another Oregon city.

Last year she was called to Oakridge, a Lane County timber town of about 3,700 people that in two years ran through $1 million in reserves. She scoured the city's books and interviewed staff in search of fraud or some explanation for the town's financial mess. Couch issued a report of her findings - error-racked budgets, sloppy bookkeeping, overspending - along with her best advice. Then she was off.

Her next client was waiting 130 miles north. Molalla.

The two small towns, Couch learned, share remarkable similarities. The mistakes piled up, the options narrowed, and the towns faced insolvency.

(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Oregon
KEYWORDS: fraud; taxes; teaparty; union
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To: dennisw

Why’d ya go there? But, for the record, these “timber counties” are Federal welfare cases. The enviros destroyed them. Lots of illegals, too.


21 posted on 04/16/2012 9:37:06 AM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
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To: dennisw

Why’d ya go there? But, for the record, these “timber counties” are Federal welfare cases. The enviros destroyed them. Lots of illegals, too.


22 posted on 04/16/2012 9:37:27 AM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
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To: gundog

I agree. The eco-wackos destroyed rural Oregon and how come I’m not surprised they are full of Mexicans (legal and illegal) too. Ever see the movie “Sometimes a Great Notion”? No Latinos in it....lol


23 posted on 04/16/2012 1:15:18 PM PDT by dennisw
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To: dennisw
Ever see the movie “Sometimes a Great Notion”?

"What's with the hair?"

24 posted on 04/17/2012 12:35:22 PM PDT by gundog (Help us, Nairobi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope.)
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To: gundog

I can tell you saw the movie and liked it. A bygone era.


25 posted on 04/17/2012 5:36:27 PM PDT by dennisw
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To: Political Junkie Too; Jeff Head; Salvation; dixiechick2000; BOBTHENAILER; SierraWasp; tubebender

“Isn’t Oregon another failing Democrat enclave, like California and Michigan?”

Yep, the tax and spend rats have been in power for close to two decades. With the eco terrorists, they have gutted the states/counties/cities economies in the name of being green.

First the eco terrorists created the spotted owl faux issue and basically destroyed the timber industry. Next, they worked to destroy ranches and farmers.

Then, the rats who vote got union jobs in the cities/counties and states with great yearly raises and incredible retirement/health benefits.

Throughout the state, they prevent businesses from coming in or staying in with their anti business rules and regulations in the name of being green.

This bs has been happening for close to 2 decades. In the 1990’s, we had thought about retiring to the Oregon coast in the SW/Brookings or Medford areas. Fortunately, my oldest son told me to subscribe to the Oregonian for a year to see what was happening to the state. It only took a few months to realize that Oregon was becoming Oregone!

Californicator land is heading down the same trail only faster and on a bigger scale with millions of free loading illegals in with the native liberal freeloaders.


26 posted on 04/18/2012 9:39:50 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS DESTROYING AMERICA-LOOK AT WHAT IT DID TO THE WHITE HOUSE!)
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To: Grampa Dave

That, my FRiend, was a marvelously astute summation of the scenario!!! (except you left out my old home state of rural IL)


27 posted on 04/18/2012 10:59:08 AM PDT by SierraWasp (Negativity must die because it's self-fulfilling!!!)
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To: Grampa Dave; SierraWasp

Welp...the stimulus money is gone, so the cutting will commence. A couple of years ago, they put off the inevitable, though I know they thought the redistribution of wealth would be more successful than it has been. They wasted so much money that it’s mind boggling.

The Beaverton school district was, when we moved here, one of the top school districts in the country.

Today, they are going to start cutting it to the bone.

BTW, it doesn’t matter. It’s been considered to be a “test” high school, because of the “diversity” of cultures, so those kids have been “test” kids for at least a decade.

What a waste...

The only other area I feel as badly for is California.

God love and bless both of you.


28 posted on 04/22/2012 11:46:56 PM PDT by dixiechick2000 (This hobbit is looking for her pitchfork...God help the GOP if I find it.)
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To: dixiechick2000; Liz; SierraWasp; tubebender; stephenjohnbanker

“The stimulus money is gone, so the cutting will commence. A couple of years ago, they put off the inevitable, though I know they thought the redistribution of wealth would be more successful than it has been. They wasted so much money that it’s mind boggling.”

We have the same bs re the stimulus money here in Californicator land.

The city of Vallejo went into bankruptcy a couple of years ago after decades of uber liberal rule by union thugs posing as local leaders.

Vallejo closed fire stations and depended on other near by cities for fire and police protection in the evening and nights.

Then, I started reading about the miracle of Vallejo and how they had rehired cops, firemen, reopened the closed fire station and more wonders.

I told my trophy wife, sons and friends that something was wrong. Liberals never rescue a failing city/county/state re the financial disasters brought on by their reckless spending and borrowing of OPM!

Later, I found out that the predominantly rat voting city of Vallejo got stimulus money. The stimulus money enabled hem to pay for services that the City didn’t have money for. That money will be gone next year. So they are depending on the re election of their lord Obozo, Pelosi Galore, Fineswine, Reid the Red and other left wingers at the Federal level to bail them out.

It is a good bet that Vallejo isn’t by itself re using stimulus money to fund their overpaid employees, union thugs posing as workers and rich retirees with great health plans with basically no paying by the retirees.


29 posted on 04/23/2012 12:09:41 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS DESTROYING AMERICA-LOOK AT WHAT IT DID TO THE WHITE HOUSE!)
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To: Grampa Dave

Soon many towns will go down....thuggery only lasts so long.


30 posted on 04/23/2012 12:16:08 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: Grampa Dave; Political Junkie Too; Jeff Head; Salvation; dixiechick2000; BOBTHENAILER; ...
Paraphrasing St Augustine: "Without a system of justice, what is the government but a marauding band of robbers."

The ONLY way to stop these govt thieves is to compel them to submit their financial accounts and tax returns at least once a year-----especially after they vote millions of tax dollars to subsidize cockamamie makework govt projects---(this is the way they launder tax money for themselves).

TAXPAYERS SHOULD DEMAND TO KNOW What did they list on their tax returns as "interest income"? These corrupt thieves exhibit an unmitigated contempt for taxpayers---the con artists see taxpayers as work horses to be beaten into submission to satisfy their lavish lifestyles. Govt thieves should be charged with hate crimes against taxpayers.......among their other crimes.

===========================================================

SAMPLE LETTER TO LAW ENFORCEMENT
Taxpayers are urged to notify the FBI now.
FBI TIPS PAGE https://tips.fbi.gov

SUBJECT: Collusion, conspiracy, and bribery
IN RE: Oregon financial irregulariyies
REFERENCE: falsified documents, wire transfers, accounting fraud, etc.

NARRATIVE Taxpayers demand to know the scope and dimension of multiple conspiracies by government insiders to collude in sub rosa deals to personally profit. Putative insider dealing is seriously impairing the state's financial stability and could be prosecutable under the Hobbs Act.

OF INTEREST TO LAW ENFORCEMENT The FBI should interrogate the named individuals for evidence of schemes to falsify documents to further insider schemes. The FBI should investigate any and all official documents submitted by town governments.

Crimes might include---conspiracy. collusion, falsifying offical documents (a felony), money laundering, tax evasion, extorting taxpayers, theft of govt monies, misuse of public office and government positions.

31 posted on 04/23/2012 2:03:54 PM PDT by Liz
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To: redreno

But I thought this only happened in big cities?

lol....


32 posted on 04/23/2012 2:05:28 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Political Junkie Too

As opposed to what?


33 posted on 04/23/2012 2:14:25 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Liz

” Paraphrasing St Augustine: “Without a system of justice, what is the government but a marauding band of robbers.”

Prophet & Saint!!


34 posted on 04/23/2012 2:48:32 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: Condor51; Grampa Dave; thouworm; ken5050; stephenjohnbanker; NYer; The Mayor
REFERENCE Staggering $30M theft from tiny Ill. city
By JASON KEYSER / Associated Press, April 19, 2012

CHICAGO (AP) -- EXCERPT---Allegations that a finance officer for a small northern Illinois city was able to steal a staggering $30 million from government coffers to run a nationally renowned horse breeding business inspired calls Wednesday for more rigorous oversight in small communities that typically face less scrutiny.

FBI agents arrested longtime comptroller Rita Crundwell accused of using the money to fund one of the nation's leading horse breeding operations and feed a lavish lifestyle that kept her outfitted with cars and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewelry.According to a criminal complaint, the siphoning of city funds went undetected for years until another staffer filling in as vacation relief became suspicious and discovered a secret bank account. How an enormous sum - it dwarfed the city's current annual budget of $20 million - could be stolen and escape the notice of a yearly audit left many puzzled.

Dixon, a city of about 16,000 people west of Chicago where Ronald Reagan grew up, was especially vulnerable because Crundwell, who has been comptroller since the early 1980s, had control over all of the city's finances, a common arrangement in smaller cities and towns.

Federal prosecutors say she stole $3.2 million since last fall alone and misappropriated more than $30 million since 2006.Crundwell is free on a $4,500 recognizance bond. A federal judge barred her Wednesday from selling any property while the wire fraud case proceeds and limited her travel to northern Illinois and to Wisconsin, where she has horse ranches.

Agents searching her home, office and farms in Dixon and Beloit, Wis., seized seven trucks and trailers, three pickup trucks, a $2.1 million motor home and a Ford Thunderbird convertible - all allegedly bought with illegal proceeds.

Authorities also seized the contents of two bank accounts she controlled. Between January 2007 and March of this year, she is accused of racking up more than $2.5 million on her personal American Express card - including $339,000 on jewelry - and using Dixon funds to pay back the charges. Prosecutors say she used $450,000 in stolen funds for operations at her Meri-J Ranch, where she keeps about 150 horses.

Crundwell is one of the top horse breeders in the nation. Her ranch produced 52 world champions, according to the American Quarter Horse Association in Amarillo, Texas, the world's largest equine breed registry and membership organization.

Dixon placed Crundwell on administrative leave without pay and named a new interim comptroller.

Trying to explain how that much money could disappear unnoticed, Mayor James Burke said Dixon has struggled financially with big infrastructure expenditures, reduced revenues and cash flow problems made worse because the state is far behind on income tax disbursements. That provided plausible reasons to think the extra hole in the budget was related to those financial problems, he said.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

35 posted on 04/23/2012 2:49:14 PM PDT by Liz
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To: Liz

INSANE chick...


36 posted on 04/23/2012 2:52:34 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: hinckley buzzard

“But when I do I’ll be especially glad that part of the bill will be paid by ignorant insolent jerks like you.”

hahahaha Put me on that list. I have been voting against and speaking out against almost every single thing the state has done since I turned 18 in 75. Dont put any blame on me.

I voted for two dems in my entire life and I can name them to this day. Dave Brandness for state sinawhore (longtime friend of the family) and Mike OCallahan for guv. An old school dem. And both of those votes were over 30 year ago.

The reps have not done much good but when I voted I felt as if I was doing my part to say no to all the crap. I knew at 18 that SS was a ponzi scheme. I never got a chance to vote against SS, and I never got a chance to vote against Satans greatest victory to date.......... Abortion.

Yeah, blame the boomers for SS, abortion and every other evil the liberals forced upon us


37 posted on 04/23/2012 3:36:39 PM PDT by winodog
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To: Grampa Dave; Liz; dixiechick2000; marsh2; AuntB; calcowgirl
Just as Rush says, it's a money laundering scheme to funnel our tax dollars to the union contributors (especially governmint employees unions) to the Democrat Party so the Debt King Democrat, Obama Yo Mama the imperial presidente can send it back from what his dependent class calls "his STASH!!!"

I not only hold Dems in contempt, I despise what they've done and dreadfully might do to our beloved country if they win 2012.

38 posted on 04/23/2012 4:48:51 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Negativity must die because it's self-fulfilling!!!)
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And here's another big fast shuffle of over 8 billion more for purely political purposes!!!
39 posted on 04/23/2012 4:52:40 PM PDT by SierraWasp (Negativity must die because it's self-fulfilling!!!)
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To: redreno

Notice the headline. The problem is lack of oversight and MORE govt will solve this................


40 posted on 04/23/2012 4:54:54 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Lord, save me from some conservatives, they don't understand history any better than liberals.)
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