Revenue Dept. Rumors
Inmates being used to process state tax returns and thousands of lost returns........here's the facts and fiction on both.
The state has NOT contracted with a company that uses inmates to process Kentucky's tax returns. I first got a tip that inmates were being used in June, from an anonymous e-mail. I think I was the first reporter to call Revenue Department spokesperson Jill Midkiff to ask about it. She told me the state is farming out its tax return processing to a private company but that firm doesn't use inmate labor. There's also a state law forbidding inmates from handling any private information.
I did follow up, calling the company with the Kentucky contract and getting one other state they do business with (can't remember who it was). I called the revenue folks in that state who assured me they'd never heard of the inmates processing tax forms rumor and it wasn't happening in their state. BOTTOM LINE: I have no reason to believe the inmates handling tax returns rumor.
The rumor about thousands of tax returns being lost is partly true. Midkiff says about 1% of the returns that are mailed in every year are mishandled or lost. But she says the actual number of lost returns is down this year. The state does farm some of the work out to a company based in London, Kentucky. I do know of one state employee who hand delivered his tax return to the Revenue Department in March, didn't hear anything, contacted revenue in June, was told he hadn't filed yet, hand delivered another copy in June and was finally told he was "in the system" last week. That's not great efficiency. It's tough on him but not a big deal if there's only a few hundred like him. If there are thousands, then the state's got a problem.
If you want to relay information, anonymously, to me try my e-mail at mark.hebert@whas11.com
Comments
Kudos to Mark Hebert for squelching another false, malicious rumor that was started on Mark Nickolas' blog.
The ridiculous rumor that prison inmates were processing personal tax returns is a story that would most certainly whip up fear, panic and alarm in the tax payers of this state. The ultimate purpose of such a scare-tactic story would be to incite the taxpayer to protest and to try to instill no faith in the current Revenue Cabinet.
Mark Nickolas' blog had that rumor begin on his blog in an open thread on June 2nd. The person who started that false, malicious rumor used the anonymous moniker, disgustednky.
Then, after Mark Nickolas told Joe Gerth that Nickolas is getting paid $15K by the Democrats to start his blog up again and after telling Gerth that Nickolas wants to "ruin the political career" of Ernie Fletcher -- Nickolas wrote a thread where he stated that as a matter of fact the Revenue Cabinet hired prison inmates to process our tax returns. Nickolas' titled his very inflammatory, erroneous, untrue story,
"Why Did KY Dept of Revenue Illegally Use Prison Labor To Process State Income Tax Returns?"
To Mark Nickolas, the Dept. of Revenue did NOT hire prison labor. Your story was untrue and maliciously tailored.
The story Mark Nickolas wrote was dishonest and the only sources Mark used, and published in the thread, were from two of what Nickolas called, "excellent inside sources."
This whole BS rumor was put out on Nickolas' blog and Nickolas never so much as called the Revenue Cabinet before printing the false, inflammatory blogthread that he authored.
The rumor of inmates processing our tax returns is just one more example of the fact that Mark Nickolas writes untrue, malicious stories about people, agencies etc., without any reliable research of facts before starting his rumors.
To date, even after Mark Hebert proved Nickolas' thread to be full of false information, Nickolas has NOT written a retraction on the story. I'm not surprised about that.
PS. Mr. Hebert, you in the media act as if Nickolas is a political figure, when are you folks in the media going to call Nickolas out and ask him hard questions when he writes false rumors and the like? I'd like a reporter to ask Nickolas what he meant when he told Gerth he wants to "ruin" Fletcher's political career. Don't you think that sounds personal?
Posted by: fedupwithrumors | August 14, 2007 11:31 AM