A former employee of the state Children, Youth and Families Department and several other Silver City-area residents have been accused of defrauding the state of more than half a million dollars.
Andrea Munoz, 34, allegedly received kickbacks from people who were fraudulently reimbursed for child care services never provided. The alleged scheme involved the department's Child Care Program, which reimburses low-income parents for baby-sitting services.
Court documents allege 16 people admitted receiving checks from CYFD, cashing them and splitting the proceeds with Munoz between 2001 and 2006.
Romaine Serna, a spokeswoman for CYFD, said $574,000 was allegedly taken.
Serna said the scale of the alleged fraud is the largest the agency has encountered.
Yeah right. How about we just get rid of unnecessary government welfare programs that hand out checks? That would be a much better way of eliminating these situations. Every time the government doles out cash, the end result is fraud.
I'm a small business owner. Actually, I own two. A friend of mine told me once that he wanted to start a business because he "didn't want to spend his entire life working for the man." Like many, he wanted to be his own boss. Control his own destiny. Reap the rewards he sowed instead of creating wealth for someone else's gain.
There is only one problem with all this...
When you are your own boss, you suddenly become painfully aware of just how much of the wealth you are creating is going to the government in the form of taxes. On average, I work 12 to 16 hour days and have from day one of officially becoming an entrepreneur. Yet, thanks to our government's commitment to tax and spend, more than a third of my time is spent working to pay for bigger and bigger government.
People have been conditioned to think of taxes as simply the government collecting a portion of the money you earn. We are taught that money is the root of all evil. So, parting with it for the greater good must be a good thing.
But, that conditioning is wrong. The government is not taxing our money. The government is taxing our time. Whereas, money is of little true value. Time is priceless. Everyone has only a finite amount of time.
If I work 12 hour days, five days a week, and pay thirty percent in taxes, then one full month of my life each and every year is spent working for the government. That's one month that I don't get to use to strengthen my family, improve my community or better the world. Every year the government takes one month of my life. Every year, they take one month of yours.
Is the world better off because of it? I don't think so.
This article (subscription) in today's Journal is very troubling:
For years, Albuquerque students in the band Mariachi San Jose entertained audiences at festivals and competitions across the region.
Now, Albuquerque Public Schools is fighting a group of parent volunteers in court over money raised to support the group and for the right to use the name "Mariachi San Jose."
At issue is whether Mariachi San Jose is a school program or an independent community program.
APS filed a lawsuit against some of the group's parent volunteers last month. Attempts to resolve the dispute through a court mediator failed Tuesday, according to parents and school officials.
The relationship between APS and the volunteers soured last summer, and everyone agrees that students have suffered the most.
It wasn't that long ago that Governor Bill Richardson was on his soap box talking about the need for government to get involved in promoting parental involvement. Now, APS is again in the spotlight for going out of its way to DISCOURAGE parental involvement.
Think about this, you have the state's largest school district, a district with boatloads of taxpayer money, suing parents, who are in all likelihood taxpayers, to keep them from being involved. Something is seriously wrong with this picture. And it only gets worse:
Forming another mariachi group is fine, APS says, but there's no question that Mariachi San Jose is a school-based group because it started at East San Jose.
Since when does a school fight for ownership rights? Isn't the school's purpose to serve the community? So what if the parents started the program at the school? Parents starting a program at a school is a good thing. Does APS really want to discourage this type of initiative by SEIZING a successful volunteer driven programs? It's not like there is any inappropriate behavior occurring:
But [APS deputy superintendent Tom] Savage said a recent audit of the group's activity fund at East San Jose didn't uncover any accounting problems.
Theses actions by APS are sending the wrong message to all volunteers who contribute their time to programs throughout the district that benefit our students. I strongly encourage you to let APS know that suing volunteers is not the answer to improving student achievement. Ask the Superintendent, Dr. Beth Everitt, to stop this nonsense. You might also consider contacting the APS Board.
I was born a New Yorker and have lived in more places than I can count on one hand. My wanderings included a total of more than two years in Ecuador and nine years in California. The latter being significant as that is where I met the love of my life. Of course, she determined that our progeny would be the tenth generation of her family to be raised in New Mexico. So, this is where my roots will grow long.
