Tax Credit for Education

You may or may not know this about me, but I scrimp and save and sacrifice so my daughter can attend a private school. I do this because year after year I evaluate the situation: the benefits she (and I) receive from her attendance there and the financial cost to me. The cost/benefit analysis continues to favor her staying at her school.
The environment is nurturing and thoughtful. She learns things without realizing she's learning. The school instills a love of learning and cultivates curiosity in the children. The 5th grade teacher she has for main lesson has been her main teacher for four years now. This dedicated woman knows my daughter and knows our family dynamics.
One of the ways that I have been able to continue sending Kayla to this school is by contributing money to the scholarship foundation and getting a dollar for dollar Arizona state income tax credit. Every year I ask people I know to do the same because once I raise $1500 which goes to a general fund, every dollar over that goes directly to paying my tuition bill!
I think tax credits are wonderful because I know where my tax dollars are going. In this case, my state income taxes are going to provide scholarships for families to attend the Tucson Waldorf School.
Please consider making a tax credit contribution to Arizona Waldorf Scholarship Foundation this year. When you file your 2010 state income tax return you can get a credit for the exact amount you contributed (up to $500 filing singly or $1000 filing as a married couple). Be sure to not file an EZ form which does not allow for this tax credit.
One great thing about this credit, unlike the ones for installing solar panels, is if you have over paid your taxes you will get a refund. So, it literally costs you nothing. You can even use PayPal and/or charge it (and earn points). Follow this link and please make your contribution for The Chevas Family. Any amount is appreciated.
Thanks and please contact me with questions. Please also pass this on to friends.
-Deanna Chevas
d.chevas@gmail.com

Shift The Way You Shop

Arizona is about to embark on an experiment to see if it can replicate the findings of an economic study in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
As the study by Civic Economics has proved, if all of the households in Tucson alone shifted 10% of our existing purchases from non-local businesses to Local Independents (locally owned and independent businesses) we would see thousands of new jobs created and millions of dollars of new economic activity. And all this can begin to happen as soon as people start shifting and without the use of one taxpayer dollar.
On October 1, 2010 Local First Arizona will launch a campaign called Shift Arizona with a press conference at Maynard's Market at 10 am.
After this, it is up to the citizens of Tucson and the entire state of Arizona to choose to spend a portion of their budget at local businesses. Individuals can make a pledge and see the impact of their shift at the new website, ShiftArizona.com.
Get out there Tucsonans and Shift! There is a friendly county by county competition already underway with Springerville in Apache County leading the state in percentage of residents pledging to shift. Crazy, huh?! Watch the competition unfold here.

Another (Local) Shopping Excursion

The other day I realized my household is down to 3 of the set of 6 wine glasses I bought last year at one of those big-box housewares retailers. I said perhaps I'd plan a trip there soon as we were in need of flatware as well.
Blessed be my finance who said, let's go to Table Talk. This is a locally owned housewares store. I kind of gave him a hard time about how much more we'd have to spend to get the same quantity. Also, I kind of like buying cheapo wine glasses because I am clumsy. Anyway, I knew he was right, that we should at least go to Table Talk. And, I knew it would be a much more enjoyable shopping excursion.
The local store did not disappoint. Firstly, the service was great from a warm greeting and offering of coffee to the demo on how to use my new knife sharpener.
Next we found a great sale on cookware sets. We debated the virtues of each and thought about our needs. In the end we realized buying a set wasn't necessary, since we only really need 2 or 3 pieces. So, we bought one small frying pan to try out and left the store with our needs satisfied and our pocketbooks none the worse for wear. We made a commitment to pop in there from time to time to build our new kitchenware collection bit by bit. In this way, we end up with great products at good prices that will last and we feel good knowing a lot more of our hard earned money stays in our immediate community.

Ratatouille

This is another reprint from my personal blog, from August 1, 2010


I followed Alice Waters recipe for Ratatouille tonight. I love her The Art of Simple Food. It is my first go-to cookbook and almost always has what I need.

It came out so tasty! Even my eleven-year-old daughter said it was yummy. At first she was really not into it. We talked a bit about that. I asked her, Is it the flavor or the texture? She took a bite with some buttered rosemary bread. A look of bliss came over her face. She said, hmmm, it’s actually quite good, it’s yummy! She said the favor was good, it was the texture that she didn’t care for.

We ended up having a very interesting discussion about the origin of food and how it’s cared for while growing and how fresh it is when brought to the table. Because we got the vegetables that were in our dinner tonight from the farm down the road, we were able to experience the amazing freshness of just picked vegetables. Because my daughter spends time at the farm helping the farmers pick and weed and wash pests away with onion water, she can appreciate what she’s eating even if she doesn’t like it.

I remember having a moment like that when I was a kid. I asked my mom if onions were good for me. Because she said yes I decided I would eat them without complaint because they were good for me.

I cannot say enough about the benefits of getting fresh produce from a nearby grower.

Saturday morning CSA pickup

This is a reprint from my personal blog from July 31, 2010
 
I just got back from the CSA farm where I picked up a wonderful share of summer vegetable. Let me just plug this for a minute. River Road Gardens is a beautiful biodynamic farm tended by two very dedicated and extremely hardworking and loving people: Jon and Emily. I feel so blessed every time I pick up my share of the crop.

Today Emily told me how much trouble they are having with vermin. There are lots of critters in the field trying to eat up all the food we humans have paid for. This is one trick about growing crops without poison. But, they are committed to poison-free growing. I didn’t feel like the voles got my food. I came home with a big bag of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, basil, onions and amaranth! I’ll do a bit of research on that one. I have only ever had amaranth inside baked goods.

So, this week I will make Ratatouille for the first time. What goes with it? Good crusty bread I am thinking.

Stay tuned for a delicious meal...

How to cook with all those CSA treasures

Cook What You Have is a new blog by River Road Gardens that highlights individual vegetables from the biodynamic farm. Need to know what to do with all that eggplant or peppers or squash? Check out this blog.

Summer Bounty

Check out what I picked up from my farmer yesterday! Jealous? Join the River Road Gardens CSA. Coming home with this amazing selection of beautiful food biodynamically and organically grown by people who love what they do and work incredibly hard makes be do a little jig every other Saturday (I split a share with a friend).

In addition to these lovely squash, garlic, eggplant, sweet and hot and peppers, I was given a huge bunch of basil and a few pounds of perfectly ripened tomatoes.
I will attempt to make sauce with all these beautiful tomatoes. I borrowed a food mill from a friend and will try something I have never done. After that I will try turning all that basil into pesto (another thing I have never done). It's a food adventure in my kitchen today!

Some hours later....
I made the best damn pesto! I loosely followed Jamie Oliver's recipe.

Prop 100

In the months leading up to this Tuesday's election there has been news reports on services the Arizona State Legislature is cutting due to our budget crunch. I personally have been affected and so has the small business I work for. The state cut parents out of the KidsCare program. This is the higher income tier of AHCCCS. So, last September my coverage was cut, but my daughter's coverage continued. Now, the State is threatening to cut AHCCCS completely. In fact they did and then renewed it at the 11th hour.
I see this as a scare tactic.
The argument for the increased sales tax as proposed in Prop 100 that I have heard from the Governor's mouth is, Hey, I am a republican and I am asking for a sales tax increase. I have voted against sales tax increases my whole career. Now I am asking for one. Doesn't that show we really need it?
What?! I'm asking for it so you should give it to me?
Oh and also if you don't pass Prop 100, education funding will be further cut. So, pass it or else.
I will not be threatened or bullied into giving the state more money.
If the Governor was offering a carefully thought out plan for future spending; if she'd admit to the mismanagement of state funds in the past; and if she'd explain in detail how she'll put the state on a track for fiscal sustainability I might be willing to vote yes on Prop 100.
The state sales tax has been increased by 1.1% since 1995. And, the Arizona government has grown by 30% in that time. Also, the state gives our money away to out of state businesses and consultants. No wonder the state is broke.
Raising the sales tax, esp. during a very slow recovery from a painful recession will discourage spending in the Metro areas of the state. Why wouldn't I buy all my books, DVDs, electronics, shoes, etc. online when I get an automatic discount because the sales tax is now 9.1%?!
Arizona State Legislature and Gov. Jan Brewer: want to raise revenue?

1. Encourage citizens (and snowbirds) to shop at brick and mortar stores, preferably locally-owned stores. 
2. Change the Arizona procurement laws to weigh for a local business to fulfill a contract as 48 other states do.
3. Move the state's money into local banks and credit unions.

In short, stop the leakages of our wealth to other communities.

Just some thoughts from a humble indie-shop employee without health insurance who loves her home state of Arizona.
Vote no on Prop 100 and demand the Legislature go back to the drawing board and do what every poor and middle class family in America is having to do, trim the fat and spend more wisely.

My Impact with One Purchase

I have been thinking a lot about this factoid that Local First-type organizations speak about: approximately 45 cents of every dollar spent at the locally-owned business stays in the local economy vs. 13 cents spent at a national chain business.
I recently purchased a pair of shoes from my favorite indie shoe store. I could have easily bought the same shoe at a department store or--heaven-forbid--online. But, not only do I appreciate the friendliness of this businesses, the sales people are knowledgeable and spend the time you need with you. I tried on a few styles and hemmed and hawed as I tried to decide between two pair. In the end I choose my new $100 sandals in brown.
It is very convenient that my purchase was nearly exactly $100. That means $6.10 went to the state capital and $2.00 went to city hall to fund basic services. And, according to the statistics mentioned above $45 of my purchase stayed in my community through paid wages and purchased office supplies, marketing and advertising dollars, etc. If I had bought the same shoe at a big box shoe seller only $13 would have stayed in the local economy. That's $33 lost.
There are 600,000 people in my community. Let's say half of those make a $100 purchase of shoes, clothes, or electronics a month. If 300,000 people make that $100 purchase at a big box store my community loses $9.9M per month! Is that correct? Whoa, what an impact one person can make!
For those who have a penchant for online shopping, try keeping those tax dollars in the state. Unless, of course, you want to have to put out your own fires and haul your own trash to the dump. If 300,000 people in Tucson redirect $100 of online shopping a month to stores in town (preferably locally-owned stores) we'd keep $600,000 in the city coffers and over $1.8M in state coffers in just sales tax revenue. Per month. Over a 12-month period, that is well, a lot of money. My figures are conservative. All it takes is less than half of the population of Tucson to spend $100 a month at a local business instead of a big-box or worse an online store to keep the economy humming.
In a state with relatively low property and income taxes, we really need our sales taxes to fund basic services such as police and fire departments.
Let's not give the state more per dollar of our hard earned money, let's just keep it local people!

Up for a vote-Arizona's state sales tax

Ask me why I won’t give the state legislature more of my hard-earned money.

The state of Arizona is broke. The state’s budget is millions of dollars in the red. One of the solutions being proposed right now: raise sales tax to increase revenue. That will be put to a vote in the coming weeks. Raising sales tax punishes the poor and struggling. I will not support that. The way I see it, the state of Arizona has been squandering my money anyway.

Raising the sales tax will also hurt small businesses, the very businesses that are re-circulating the most money within our community.

This year the state legislature awarded a 5 million dollar office supplies contract to a business who’s corporate head quarters are outside Arizona and doesn’t even have a local distribution center. That contract created zero jobs in the Arizona economy.

Pay attention to leakages of our wealth. Don't export my dollars to another state. Keep our money in our economy for our civic institutions.

According to a study done in 2007 by Civic Economics, an economic analysis and strategic planning consultancy, if that contract had been awarded to a locally owned office supply retailer, Wist, 1⁄2 million dollars would have remained and been recirculated in the Arizona economy.

State of Arizona: pay attention to leakages of wealth. Don't export my money to another state. Keep our money in our economy for our civic institutions.