The new head of the Social Security Administration is promising to do what he can to end the agency’s overpayment penalty practices. Appearing before the Senate Special Committee on Aging, Martin O’Malley expressed his opposition to previous policies and said he was determined to implement changes in order to “address the injustice that we do to real people who through no fault of their own find themselves to have 100% of their benefits that they live on intercepted.” Instead, only 10% of a person’s monthly check will be retrieved when a Social Security recipient fails to respond to an overpayment notice, rather than seizing the person’s entire monthly payment. O’Malley, the former Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore, noted that Congress requires the Social Security Agency to make every effort to recover what are called “overpaid benefits.” “But doing so without regard to the larger purpose of the program can result in grave injustices to individuals,” he remarked, while referencing elderly people who have lost their homes or been put in “dire financial straits” when their payments are suddenly discontinued. “Innocent people can be badly hurt,” O’Malley continued. “And these injustices shock our shared sense of equity and good conscience as Americans.” Besides reducing the repayment obligations to 10% of a check, said O’Malley, the agency will now impose repayment plans that could stretch out to 60 months. “Finally,” said O’Malley, “we will be making it much easier for overpaid beneficiaries to request a waiver of repayment, in the event that they believe themselves to have been without any fault and/or without the ability to repay.” In larger comments, O’Malley revealed that the SSA this year will serve 7 million additional beneficiaries, “with about 7,000 few full-time permanent staff” as compared to a decade ago. While staffing has increased to around 60,000 as of the end of last year, which O’Malley characterized as “still historically low,” he added nonetheless that it was “better than the roughly 56,000 at the end of the prior year.” In confirmation hearings last year to become the new SSA head, O’Malley said he hoped to work on the agency’s challenges in a bi-partisan manner with Congress. Referencing his years as a mayor, O’Malley remarked: “I learned there is no Democrat or Republican way to fill a pothole.” By Garry Boulard
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The Green Book for black travelers was an extraordinary running series of publications that for 30 years listed the hotels, motels, restaurants, boarding houses, and various different businesses that black people in an era of often rigidly imposed segregation could safely patronize. Issued between 1936 and 1966 the publication, also called the Negro Travelers’ Green Book, was specifically designed to give the “Negro traveler information that will keep him from running into difficulties and embarrassments and to make his trip more enjoyable.” Count Basie and Duke Ellington, among other prominent musicians, may have fronted two of the most successful orchestras in their cross-country travels, but they always made sure to have a copy of the Green Book on their bus just to be on the safe side. Now the City of La Junta, Colorado is putting together a survey that will focus on “resources connected to Green Book travel” as part of a larger effort to preserve historically significant properties. To that end, the city has just received a $25,000 grant from group History Colorado in its effort to identify historically important resources and properties. “Surveys and design guidelines like the ones funded in this round of grants are vital building blocks for historic preservation across the state,” Patrick Eidman, the chief preservation officer of History Colorado, said in a statement. The City of Carbondale has similarly received a $25,000 grant to update preservation design guidelines for its Old Town, which is populated for the most part with structures built between 1879 and 1920. Many of those structures, according to History Colorado, run the architectural design span from “Queen Anne and shingle styles to later forms embodied in the Foursquare, Classic, Cottage, Bungalow, and Craftsman styles.” A final $25,000 is heading to the City of Northglenn to help fund a survey plan that will “guide the community’s future preservation efforts,” and in the process pinpoint structures of historic importance. Such documentation serves as a necessary preliminary for local governments seeking private and public funding to both preserve and upgrade historic structures. By Garry Boulard Exactly $15 million has been approved by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham for the long-planned building of a new Magistrate Court Building in the city of Bernalillo. The project is one of around 80 capital outlay requests approved this spring for larger Sandoval County and getting a subsequent thumbs-up from the Governor. Altogether, the state's fourth largest county is seeing some $44.6 million in new capital outlay spending. Officials in Sandoval, which is additionally the fastest-growing county in the state, have wanted to relocate the Magistrate Court from its existing address at 1000 Montoya Road to a district court site off New Mexico State Road 528 as part of a part of an overall court facility expansion in what is the state's 13th Judicial District. Other capital outlay projects approved for Sandoval County include $2.1 million for the building of a new county animal shelter; $2 million for electric grid work at the Santa Ana Pueblo; and $1.2 million for the building of the new Sandia Pueblo Child Development Center, which is expected to be completed in the summer of 2025. Just over $1 million is targeting the construction of a new Fire Station Number 8 in Rio Rancho. Additional projects include $951,000 for work at the Ask Academy in Rio Rancho; $650,000 for the construction of an applied tech program building on the Rio Rancho campus of Central New Mexico Community College; and security system improvements for the Rio Rancho Public School District, with $350,000 in funding. The number of individual capital outlay projects for Sandoval County has grown as the county's population has seen a near doubling in the last two decades from 89,000 to nearly 156,000. By Garry Boulard In an ongoing effort to increase the energy efficiency of public school buildings across the country, the Department of Energy has announced support funding availability to the tune of $180 million. In announcing the 2024 Renew America's School initiative, Jennifer Granholm, Secretary of Energy, remarked: "There's nothing more critical than investing in the health and education of our nation's children." The awards will focus on school heating and cooling system upgrades, lighting projects, and the use of renewable energy technologies. According to an Energy Department press release, schools or school districts applying for grant funding are encouraged to submit proposals "across a portfolio of ten or more school facilities." Those facilities, in turn, may be located in one or more school districts. "Competitors submitting proposals should be organizations or teams with the capacity to aggregate and manage projects across a portfolio," the release continues. Last year the program awarded upwards of $178 million for nearly one hundred school facilities located in 22 states. Of those awarded, four were located in the West: the Carlo School District in Carlo, Montana; the Kane County School District in Kanab, Utah; the St. Maries School District in St. Maries, Idaho; and the Winnett Public School District in Winnett, Montana. The Energy Department has announced that it is additionally encouraging partnerships between school districts and industry experts designed to create "stakeholder support networks that can provide districts earlier, more targeted assistance, help them build internal expertise, and provide pathways to additional funding." Submission deadline for grant applications is set for June 13. By Garry Boulard Construction could begin next spring on a much-anticipated project that could result in new affordable housing options in downtown Flagstaff. Two separate groups, the Catholic Charities Housing for Hope, and the Foundation for Senior Living, have been working and planning together for the most part of a decade to build the project at 320 N. Humphreys Street. That site is in a neighborhood of well-established older residences and is currently the home to a former Catholic school which would be demolished to make way for the new buildings. One part of the site, under the auspices of the Catholic Charities program, will see the building of around 65 units. The second half, belonging to the Foundation, will have a total of 70 units. Plans for the project were first presented to the Flagstaff City Council in 2021. It was then anticipated that work could launch sometime in the summer of 2022. A lack of funding, however, forestalled that timeline. Now an official with the Catholic Charities program has announced that that elusive funding may at last be within reach: "We're feeling pretty good about where we are," Steve Capobres, executive director with the Charities' Housing for Hope, remarked to the Arizona Daily Sun. The earlier released plans for the twin projects envisioned two separate structures with four floors each, a variety of unit sizes, and buildings bearing a modern architectural design. By Garry Boulard The campus of a highly praised program run by the National Guard in Roswell is in line to receive some $2 million in state funding for facility work. The New Mexico National Guard Youth Challenge Academy, located at 131 Earl Cummings Loop, is part of a national program for at-risk youth focusing on 16- to 18-year-old male and female high school dropouts interested in military training. The goal of the program is to produce graduates with the values, skills, and self-discipline “necessary to succeed as adults.” Earlier this year, members of the New Mexico State Legislature approved funding for renovation of a main structure on the academy’s campus. That capital outlay was subsequently approved by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. The $2 million appropriation is one of 32 projects for Chaves County winning approval this spring, representing just under $17 million in spending. The largest capital outlay, at $3 million, is going for improvements to the Roswell Air Center, which was built during World War II as the Roswell Army Airfield and is five miles to the south of downtown Roswell at 1 Jerry Smith Circle. Other projects, especially for Chaves County, include the relocation of the Pecos Regional Communications Center in the county’s main administration building at 1 St. Mary’s Place; and $590,000 to renovate the Chaves Coop Extension Service Building at 200 E. Chisum Street. The county is also receiving up to $500,000 for flood control canal work at the Macho Draw site some 12 miles to the north of Roswell. By Garry Boulard 2024 Seeing Construction Job Growth in the West, But Not So Much in the East, Says New Report3/19/2024 A closer look at construction employment trends put together by the Associated General Contractors of America shows job increases pretty much throughout the West over the course of the last year. Crunching numbers originally compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the AGC analysis reveals a 6.3% increase in jobs in Arizona from January of 2023 to January of this year, with the overall numbers jumping from 205,700 to 218,600. During this same period of time New Mexico also posted a 3.7% gain, from 51,400 to around 53,300 jobs. Always booming Texas continued to boom with a 3% gain representing 837,600 new jobs, compared with 813,100 in early 2023. Other Western states such as Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, also saw construction job growth. Colorado, however, normally on the upside in such studies, posted a decline year over year, with 183,200 jobs in January of this year, compared with 184,000 200 in January of 2023. The states with the largest raw job growth were all, not surprisingly, the nation’s largest states, with California up by 44,600 new jobs, followed by Florida at 27,200, and Texas with 24,500. States in the East, meanwhile, mostly saw job losses, with New York leading the way with a 3% decline and drop from 396,900 in early 2023 to 384,900 in January of this year. By Garry Boulard Plans have been announced to demolish a building in downtown Denver in order to make way for the construction of a new outdoor patio that will be part of a larger entertainment space. The plan for the structure at 1962 Market Street, as announced by the Denver-based Monfort Companies, is sparking opposition primarily because the building for decades was the home to a popular jazz club. Otherwise known as “The Pec,” the club and bar El Chapultepec opened in 1933 and for years showcased a variety of talented local and regional jazz artists. Frank Sinatra dropped by one night and Bill Clinton in 1992 joined the club’s house band playing sax. The Monfort Company purchased the property in 2022, announcing plans shortly afterwards to develop an entertainment venue in the area. While Monfort initially signaled that it wanted to keep the Market Street building intact, press reports have since indicated that preserving and upgrading the structure would prove cost prohibitive. In response, the non-profit group Historic Denver has filed with the City of Denver for a landmark designation for the building. In a statement, John Deffenbaugh, Historic Denver chief executive officer, said “the thoughtful combination of new development and historic places is what sustains the authentic character of our city.” Deffenbaugh added: “With the necessary love and care, the El Chapultepec building can continue to stand for many more years and serve as a reminder of the legendary venue and of the performers who played there.” The Monfort Company has said that it would like to see the building of an open-air patio where the El Chapultepic building currently stands, bordered by waist-high planters, with additional roof space that will overlook the Market Street block. Two neon signs advertising the club will be preserved and used again as part of the new development. By Garry Boulard Work could begin later this spring on a park in Farmington that will feature facilities geared for disabled children. To be located at 317 W. Apache Street in a mostly residential part of the city, the Boundless Journey Adventure Park will be built to Americans with Disabilities Act standards and will include a series of structures intended for all-inclusive play. According to earlier released plans, the park will also see the building of an amphitheater, walkways, and space specifically for skateboarders and people in wheelchairs. Additional amenities are expected to include adaptive swings and wheelchair swings, climbing nets, shade structures, bathrooms, sensory play areas, and textured wall surfaces. City officials have said that upon completion, the project will be the first fully inclusive, accessible, and adaptive playground of its kind in Farmington and larger San Juan County. The park is expected to cost around $13 million to build, of which the City of Farmington has so far raised more than $4.5 million. The project has additionally received a $300,000 Resilient Park Access Grant from the National Recreation and Park Association. The Boundless Adventure Park has been in the discussion state in Farmington for months and is partly based on other similarly named efforts across the country designed to provide playground and park amenities for children at different abilities levels. By Garry Boulard A legal settlement addressing realtor commissions is expected to have a dramatic impact on how real estate in the U.S. is sold and purchased, according to analysts. The Chicago-based National Association of Realtors has announced that it has reached a $418 million settlement with litigants regarding agent commission rules. Those rules mandating a 6% commission for agents on the sale of a home have been in place for decades. But an anti-trust suit brought by a group of Missouri home sellers some five years ago seemed to show a way forward when a federal jury decided that the NAR was working to inflate commissions. The grand jury also ordered the NAR to pay up damages of up to $1.8 billion. Now, after weeks of legal skirmishing, the organization has agreed to pay a separate $418 million settlement, while also doing away with what have become standard 6% commissions. In a statement, the NAR said it agreed to the settlement in order to “end litigation of claims brought on behalf of home sellers related to broker commissions.” But the statement added that in agreeing to the settlement, the NAR “continues to deny any wrongdoing.” Nykia Wright, interim chief executive officer of the organization, said the NAR has worked hard for years to "resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers.” Continued Wright: “It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible.” “Under the terms of the settlement, listing agents will no longer be able to advertise commission rates to buyers’ agents on most of the databases where homes are listed for sale,” reports the New York Times. “This,” adds the paper, “will allow for more negotiation.” Notes the Wall Street Journal: “Most sellers will no longer need to advertise up front how much they will pay buyers’ agents.” The site Curbed says that for buyers the settlement may see a move toward “pared-down services,” before adding: “There is widespread hope that a reduction in commissions, which are baked into sales prices, may cause home prices to fall, but that remains to be seen.” The statement by the NAR’s Wright added: “Continuing to litigate would have hurt members and their small businesses. While there could be no perfect outcome, this agreement is the best outcome we could achieve in the circumstances.” By Garry Boulard |
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