Sales tax error launches campaign to preserve SS COLAs

By Paula Barr
Daily Journal
Sep 08, 2009

When it comes to money, Howard McKenna counts every penny - literally.

On Thursday, he discovered that two Dollar General stores in Farmington were charging 9 percent sales tax instead of the proper tax of 7.975 percent. McKenna contacted the city, the state revenue department and State Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington.

Farmington City Clerk Paula Cartee called Dollar General's corporate office to tell them to change the computerized registers. She followed that up with a letter.

On Friday, purchases by the Daily Journal showed the error had been corrected.

That attention to detail over taxes contributed to McKenna's decision to launch a campaign to preserve Social Security increases for senior citizens.

More than four months ago, the Farmington man started a petition to ask Congress for that protection. Since then, McKenna has found more than 2,600 people who support his cause.

McKenna sent a letter with that many signatures to President Barack Obama in August. In the letter, McKenna addressed an Associated Press (AP) story saying that there would be no Social Security raises for two years. McKenna's petitioners need their raises every year, he wrote.

"Does Congress go without raises? No, they don't," he wrote . "We seniors have paid our dues and we all think we are being left out in the cold, Mr. President. We all need your help. Don't forget, you will be old some day and you will be in our shoes."

McKenna said he also has sent letters and copies of the signed petition to U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond and State Sen. Kevin Engler. He asked each to help his cause.

Emerson acknowledged his letter and his efforts, and Engler said he would raise the issue at the state level, but McKenna said he has not heard from any of the others.

"That's okay, I'll just keep writing them and sending them new signatures," he said.

McKenna has some petitions at The Factory for people who would like to add their names.

McKenna's campaign began in late April after an AP story in the Daily Journal said the recession is projected to wipe out annual cost-of-living increases for 50 million Social Security beneficiaries for the next three years.

The story also said that the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) latest estimates indicate that "inflation will dip so low that Social Security recipients will not qualify for annual increases in 2010, or for two years after that. In 2013 through 2019 - when projections are less reliable - CBO estimates annual increases of 2 percent each year, which would be among the lowest."

According to CBO estimates, if those projections remain correct, recipients would forgo about $378 billion that they would otherwise receive through payments from 2010 through 2019.

McKenna was angry that senior citizens would lose Social Security benefits even as costs continued to rise. He decided to exercise his right to petition the government.

He wrote his own petition and began collecting signatures. McKenna plans to send a final copy of the signed petition to every member of Congress before November elections along with a request to preserve Social Security increases.

He plans to attend the Sept. 12 Tea Party outside the St. Francois County Courthouse in Farmington. The event begins at 10 a.m. McKenna said he would be asking people to sign the petition throughout the event.

http://www.dailyjournalonline.com/articles/2009/09/23/news/doc4aa6801723d9f440834312.prt