Melva Gifford

I went to a presentation at American Fork library. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.
– Presenter meets with Fiduciary Standard: middle between social security and annuities,
– Has to act on the best help for the user.
– Advice Social security
– 1954 retire 66 ever year after add two months.
– Add 8% for every year you wait on retirements.
– Anyone with free assessment co volunteer free assessment.
– Outliving our money: people living longer.
– Average age expectancy is 80 yrs. Old
– People outlive their retirement savings
– Worker to retiree is currently 3 to 1.
– Poverty rate for seniors is about 9.5%
– 9 out of 10 get Social Security benefit.
– Social Security staff are instructed to not give advice. They would be liable.
– If you don’t know the options you have to ask.
– Once you decide it’s a permeant decision.
– Full retirement is 66.
– Retire 70 from 66 get 8% increase.
– Social Security based on best 35 years of employment.
– You need 40 credits / 10 yrs. of credit.
– Ssa.gov> open an acct.
– If retire early before full retirement. Only make 17.4 starts to take benefit away.
– Q: you can work as much as you want after 66.
– When full retirements yr. can make 45,360.
– Living spouse benefit. You draw your own benefit.
– Living spouse can get $50^ benefit.
– 25% loss if retire early before 66.
– Retirement tax: based on income and social security.
– Single 25K 50 % taxed, 34K 85% faxed.
– Married 32K 50 % taxed 44K 85% taxed.
– At age 70 and ½ it is a requirement to withdraw money.
– New tax lower 12 l% 19-77K.
– Standard deductions 12 K married 24 k not taxed.
– No change of capital gains (investments and property) income from sold house taxed.200 K exemption for a single.

Do you have something to add? If you do, please share in the comment section of this blog.

These are some notes from a church meeting. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

– Poem by Frost: two roads diverged. https://www.thelampstand.com/sugarboo-designs-artprint-roadnottaken-ap298wh.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI65TWvIeh4AIVlRx9Ch2MgQj2EAQYASABEgLBdPD_BwE
– Exodus 31: foundations of the Sabbath. 1. The road less traveled by > humorous
– Observing Sabbath signal we accept covenants at baptism. 2. Beacon to God to where to send our blessings.
– Rest and refreshment. research by scientists shows that poor rest and the lack of refreshment, are key components to emotional health and wellbeing.
– Help remove stress boost the immune system and reduce health issues, disease
– Help heath. Improve short term memory. Improved energy and endurance. Scientist research reveals.
– David burner: one of the challenges we face each day is to not allow the worries of this world to dominate our lives.
– Two men were axing wood. The first worked without a break while the other would stop from time to time. The first kept working. The man who stopped cut more wood. The man who took a rest said, Let me show you something. The first was too busy. Finally, at the end of day second man had done more work. How did you do it? the first man asked. The second answered Every time I took a break I sharpened my ax
– Remember that we are doing a lot of things that are good. And build on the things that are good.
– Patrick F. McManus: wrote a humorous book: The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00723IMRQ?ref=dbs_p2d_P_R_popup_yes_pony_T1

Do you have something to add? If so, please do so in the comment section of this blog.

I took notes at a political gathering of about ten local representatives of the county. Any misinformation or misspelling is the fault of the note taker. Sponsors of the event: Women’s legislative counsel and Utah Valley Hospital. Senator Henderson was not present due to health.

This is a submission to my caucus corner occasional blog.

Bills:

– Future event: Orem Feb. 21st 6 pm Orem high school growth of Utah 6 pm.
– Reps from Utah County control very many key positions in the Senate.
– Brad Daw: Working on finding different ways to help medical patients to be better patients. Want to shop and see how much a medical or service will cost. Want to unit different government software tools. Dept. health tracks insurance claims across the state. Public employees create a shopping tool for PHHOP clients. Finding a way where we can take the tools and merge the data together.
– Marsha Jenkins: (district 51): has a daylight saving bill. House bill 66. Put this proposal in the 2020 ballet. Propose putting a nonbinding question on the ballot to ask six questions. Do you prefer keeping off daylight savings time? If the legislators choose a different time would you prefer to stay on the status quo?
– Propose adding autoimmune (I think) disorders to be added to medical help.
– Grady Bramers: (alpine/cedar hills). Management of 26 K lands a year (I think) transfer lands from BLM control to state control. A lot letting Utah do this has been in books since 1926. Requires a report what would be the best use of lands. And appropriate enough money to tend to them.
– Francis Gibson: Mapleton, Spanish Fork, and Springville. Is the majority leader in the house. Working on a tax credit for air pollution equipment. Business is taxed a higher rate for pollution control equipment on their business. Bill to not be charged extra tax for things that clean the air.
– Kevin Stratton: (Orem, Provo, Lindon). Optimistic we have a bright future. Congress Curtis has a bill to follow Utah’s example. Concerns: make sure we are engaged in the political process. The drift toward socialism is a great concern to me. He serves in areas of natural resources such as water and public lands. Serve on the water development commission and aquaculture committee. Things in our favor: 1. Friendly administrations allow more state liberty in public lands. 2. School community council bill – $2.5 billion. That should shoot to school community councils. It will give them more local control. We need more sources and influence. Need to have more local control related to violence, abuse, and pornography. 2. We have water issues. Been festering for the last 50 yrs.
– Brad/Robertson bill: state constitution public schools should be free. Except for fees allowed by legislation. The average cost of school fees is $125 per student. Prioritize education.
– Norm Thurston: (Provo and Springville and bit of Spanish Fork). Two issues 1. We need to resolve the initiative process. Make process concentrated to have a citizen’s option count. 2. Prescription drug pricing. Trying to help Insulin-dependent diabetic encounters faces a high cost of insulin. It is excessive where other drugs are not.
– Val Peterson: stem cells> get money to education specifically Math and engineering education. Work on getting more money for an engineering education initiative. Business coming into Utah needs engineers.
– Brambell: tax policy bill and business regulations, ethics initiative.

Q&A:

– Q: Senate bill 34: affordable housing and transportation: we are in a housing crunch. Some want to strip our cites to conduct their own zoning. Cities should have that power. LADMA: provides authority to determining zoning.
– Q: Senator bramble: how to fix giving too much power to a judge. Our responsibility is a balanced budget. The constitution gives redistricting to the legislator. Any citizen can post a lawsuit if they don’t think redistricting plan fits the statute. Have real standard one person one vote. I feel restrict commission should be kept.
– Q: Senate bill 65. Rep Stratton: fix Medicaid expansion prop 3 will bankrupt us. Med expansion won by 700 votes. There are checks and balances in place. Need to have long term vision of paying for Medicaid. We are asking for some exceptions from our federal counterparts. We want to help people help themselves. We need safety nets. The proposals are set to go to the house does not go into effect 2021. A challenge is going from 100 to 130 % increase coverage. Projections of expenses is not normally accurate to the height that is a reality.
– Bremmal? 27K a yr. is the federal poverty rate for a family of 4. We have 45K who are on private insurance they get federal money and fed money to pay premiums. The insurance plan costs $25 a mo. The gap means are adults are 100% in poverty (I think). Traditional Medicaid is disabled; child or pregnant low-income mothers are currently covered. Senator christen bill is to cover adults. We need to live within our means. Every state that has passed Medicaid had 25 to 50 % more growth in expenses than anticipated. NV is 56 Million short.
– Q: Peterson Gov. Herbert advocated for computers in work. Can also do technical options for non-college careers. Bill to add programming code training in class. Applied signed class offers a 12-week coding class. Silicon slopes> guy who started Adobe com. What can Utah do to attract progress? He said to clean up the air.
– Q: The best idea to impact our air pollution problem. Norm: geography is our biggest problems and the second thing is the increased population. Things that work A. Tier three fuels. Different types of cars with a different mix of fuel. B. individuals behavior what we do each day. Reducing cold starts. Combining your trips and reduce idling. C. some ride bike to front-runner to and from work. Citizens’ engagements are the biggest contributor. Our populations has grown to nearly 3.1 million. We have reduced pollutants to 50%. Gibson: air is 53% cleared then air in 1950. Legislator decisions need to think in the long hall. Feel should not be taxed business who installs clean air equipment. Woodburning stove> incentive Cole stove and extended rebate to replace the stove. We live in a bowl of mountains.
Melva’s SiFi ideas for pollution: have big balloons float in the sky that are directed by drones. The balloons have pollution collections on some adhesive surface that gather pollutants from the air. Bring down the balloon scrape off the filth off their surfaces and put them back up again.

– Q: Can you explain how to modernize sales tax. Robertson. Our economy has been changed the tax on goods has been declining. The current trend is paying someone to have lawn done by service, rather than buy their own mower and od their own lawn. Sales tax needs to be balanced toward a service economy. Tax items that haven’t’ been taxed before on a broad economy. Norm: our state tax code connects back to federal. When trump tax rebate took place state not yet do a full refund. Bramble: federal taxes went down and the state tax went up. The big challenges are what to and what not to tax. For example, We don’t tax cosmetic surgery. Challenges are to know how to tax things. Challenge on how to administer.
– Q: discuss the press conference for more representation for Utah county. There is a discussion to change the form of government for the county. There are structure problems on how the county gov is set up. When Utah county rises in a population of 700 K we become a class 1 county. We are then entitled to a seven-member council, who work part-time, rather than 3 full-timers. Rep suggests we get a study started to see what would be the best system. Encourage citizens to contact the county commission to start that study.

Closing statements:

– Brabjle: prop 3. When people vote for Medicaid expansions, ask: does it meet with (Senate bill 96) with the state constitution.
– Citizens stay involved.
– Stratton: there is a separation of powers. It is a sound constitutional principle. And other sound principles are citizens’ representations. We need to realize that Utah county will soon become the biggest county in the state. We need to concentrate on building the new.
– There are people long before us who put the states in its current state. Today’s leaders are building for Utah in the future. Make a decision based on budget and your future lives.
– Women are self-selecting not being involved in politics because of child care. He votes that funding be directed to child care for mother legislators.
– How can citizens help; try to understand that challenges gov reps face? Have mercy to legislators’ decisions. Need to come to an agreement that is best for everyone. Everyone feels their idea is the right answer.
– Brad: against assisted suicide bill. Happy to stand in the account on how we vote.
Future meetings:

– Feb 9th 7:30 bills and beagles. Ebo school district
– 9 pancakes and politics at a hospital.

– Feb 23 eggs and issues
If you have anything to add or to correct, please do so in the comment section of this blog.

Here are notes from the town hall by our local representative Brad Dew. I was late for the meeting and only got the following. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

This is a submission to my caucus corner occasional blog.

– There is a bill to clean up the process of how bills are processed. Currently, a request for objections to a proposed bill can be submitted to a city council. The city can take its time on responding to giving the applicant the necessary signature papers to gather from citizens. It might take sever lays to as week thus cutting into the signature time. The bill means that the clock for gathering signatures doesn’t start until the applicant gets their signature papers.

– Some bills are an executive and others are legislative. One bill at the state says that a city can’t use city finances to share any info to citizens if the city council objects to what some citizens want. Any time info is shared with the public, each side (Pro and Con) can give 500 words on their stand on the issue. Then each side gets an additional 250 words as a rebuttal. The city can’t unfairly use city money to tilt the balance of opinion.

– Brad is chair of the health and human services committee. That committee oversees the two abortion bills

– Bill presented by Nelson: cannot change the gender on a birth certificate. and not change the gender of a driver’s license.

– Tax code: Medicaid expansion will be very controversial. The issue is on how the state can finance it.

– There are two bills on vaping: vaping is a particular problem with youth. It is proposed to move to age 21 and tax vaping like cigarettes are taxed.

– Brad, are you opposed to public servants such as firemen and police offices getting 50% of their salary in retirement if they have served 25 yrs. He is not opposed to that.

– There is a bill on school fee waivers. cut back on what high schools can charge for fees. We need school fees or increase taxes.

– Is there any legislation on oppornity(sp) zones No. what is oppornity(sp) zones? oppornity(sp) zones is where investors can direct funds to run-down properties and can get a capital gains return and get tax benefits.

– Maybe be a bill on a Lake Powel pipeline: looking at finances. St. George is running out of water. It can’t support its rate of growth. This does not involve the Colorado compact which shares water from the Colorado River to multiple states.

Since I missed much of the meeting, if anyone else attended the meeting, please feel free to add to the notes.

Good: legislators
Bad: leglativators

Leg and Is at the front. Some citizens often feel that certain bills are being addressed late in the game. So, legislators, your mission IS to shake a LEG and hurry to avoid being LATe on a discussing a bill.

If you have a better trick, please feel free to share.

These are notes from a finance class offered at the church. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

– Doing what matters most.
– Often people think about things that are short term rather than the long term.
– Long term focus: retirements plan, savings, good health, no debt, creating memories with family and friends.
– Insignificant things that can prevent us from progressing; impulse buys, thinking of the moment and not the long term objectives. Forgetting to read the scriptures because of homework.
– Do homework before Sunday so Sunday is devoted to God.
– Gospel ordinances can help us to progress: with tithings, we go to God first and we are not so devoted to money. Give to God first.
– Dc:84:20: lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinances of the temple. Be blessed in all our affairs paraphrase
– Boy k Packer: establish the temple as a great part of our membership (paraphrase).
– Why is it important to be temple worthy and how it relates to self-reliance: our goal is to gain the kingdom of God.
– A temple recommend shows you have a disciplined life.
– Living the word of wisdom can help prevent complication as of drug addiction and family issues related to
– Temple attendance opens you more to revelation and God can prompt us to make the correct decisions.
– Teach your children to press forward in Christ.
– Become spiritually self-reliant so we can help others wo are weak.
– Laymen and Lamual had relied on Nephi to understand certain principals of the gospel.
– Need to learn to be content with what we possess. We don’t have to compare ourselves to the Jones.
– When we are temporally self-reliant we need to help others. Erving and giving to others
– Who are the poor:
– Teach them but also teach them to fish.
– Sometimes when you help others they call become too reliant to get continual help.
– The spirit can prompt you to help others in need.
– Fast offering and humanitarian fund as well as donate to Di all help.
– One needs to look in their homes for their possessions in their home and remove not needed simplifying your life.
– Press forward with faith.
Check your status:
– Am I free of dependence on family
– I regular review my budget
– I have a one-month emergency fund
– I’m debt free or regular lowering my debt
– I have a 3 to 6 no emergency fund.
– I have insurance for healthy, home, car etc.
– I’m regularly saving and investing for the future.
Future goals:
– Continue to have family counsels
– Continue to review principles on this book
– Someone take multiple jobs to get more money that can use a skill you have like pulling our carpet of doing floors.
– Steady pay makes constantly poor and live in that amount. If you have an extra job help us you put that extra money to debt or to purchase something.

Do you have something to add? If you do, please share in the comment section of this blog.

These are some notes from a church meeting. Any misinformation is the fault of the note taker.

– What: goodwill or loving favor in Greek. Give kindness to another that they did not deserve. One man owed another man money and could not pay. The third man paid the debt to help the debtor. Christ represents the third man. The third man was not in debt and could pay on the behalf of the first man. Just as Christ is perfect and without sin and could save us.
– God grace > all things that are manifest because of the grace of God.
– John 3:16 god so loved the world check.
– Moses: God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son.
– By the grace of God that Christ atoned for physical death and physical sins, this is for all.
– Why: we can’t go to God’s presence because of our sin. Grace is free to all of us be we have to conduct our lives to make it realized.
– We need to tap into the atonement by living the commandments.
– Gerald Lund: we are saved by grace through his atonement
– The atonement is not just to rid our sins but to help us through our affirmatives, our instability and everything that haunt us day to day.
– How to realize grace in our lives
– D&c 76: celestial kind these are their names are written in heaven.
– For people who are thirsting after righteousness.
– When we obey the commandments we have access to grace.

Do you have something to add? If so, please do so in the comment section of this blog.