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tv   The Willis Report  FOX Business  May 6, 2015 5:00pm-6:01pm EDT

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bers. stay with fox business. fox means business and we're here to watch your money. meantime, thank you so much for joining us. adam: "the willis report" is next. liz: have a great night. ♪ gerri: hello everybody, i'm gerri willis and this is "the willis report," the show where consumers are our business are the government's economic numbers a lie? that is what legendary businessman steve wynn just said. >> the idea that america is the grips of a great recovery is pure fiction. it's a lie. gerri: we'll examine the evidence. brace yourself for a slew of new taxes. several states, some led by republicans, are reportedly considering big tax hikes. we'll break it down. also homeowners raided by the government. why your property tax bill keeps going up, even when the price of your home doesn't. and thanksgiving without turkey this year? >> getting bad out there because
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there are 24 million birds, turkeys, chickens that have now been lost. gerri: all that and more coming up on "the willis report" where consumers are our business. gerri: brace yourself for the tax man. nearly a dozen states are proposing a whole new slew of tax hikes. the roster includes raising sales taxes, income taxes capital gains, even property taxes. some of these states led by republicans! here with how much you could be on the hook for, pete seth head of national taxpayer foundation. you are the perfect person for this interview. thank you for coming on. i was stunned nearly 12 states now are trying to get more taxpayer dollars. what do you make of this? is this a new trend. >> even more than a dozen states when you factor the ones already done it and ones still hiding their tax increase proposals. take a look at gas taxes for example. they have gone up in iowa, north carolina, idaho,
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south dakota. they're very well about to go up in south carolina and other states. what do these states have in common? republican governors proposing them signing them into law. gerri: i don't know about that. i have to tell you, i'm looking at these numbers. they're astonishing. yet when you talk to people who have to pay the taxes they're not too happy. last night, in michigan, bes tax increase proposed there. would take sales taxes up to 7%, bring in 1.3 billion in revenue. voters just didn't say no, they said hell no. >> that's right. gerri: do you think voters are in angry mood? >> i think they are. unfortunately in michigan they're still going to be stuck with an e-commerce tax that the republican governor there snyder, has championed. this is a major -- gerri: e-commerce? e-commerce? >> yes. an e-commerce tax. this is going to be a major threat if other states decide to mimic what michigan is doing. it could very well mean states are going to do what the federal government has been proposing
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for a number of years. there is going to be a whole cartel of this e-commerce taxation. gerri: all right. the thing that is confounding is that these states their tax revenues are now back to prerecession levels. >> yes. gerri: why do they need more money. >> why indeed? i think a lot of this is, only nixon could go to china strategy. only republicans can apparently safely raise taxes now. they can take the political heat at a time when things like gas prices are cheap. i don't think that is necessarily the case at all. nixon went to china to fight the cold war against the russians. these governors are making economic war on their own citizens. gerri: to give people a good idea here, connecticut wants to expand sales tax. >> yes. gerri: we've got a proposal from louisiana for higher cigarette taxes. kansas, property taxes. nevada wants a higher business license fee on and on and on it goes, my friends. everybody wants something. >> yes. gerri: in some states, multiple
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tax increases taxpayers might face. i want to change gears here a little it about. and move to property taxes. because here's my beef with property taxes. let me tell you, i live in the highest property tax county in the country. so i know what i'm talking about. the value of my home has not gone above where it was in 2006 okay? we have never regained the lost ground and yet do you think my property taxes have gone down? of course they have not. >> no. gerri: so you say property tax collections are going up across the country. tell us about that. >> yes. there was never this crisis in property tax revenue that local government officials predicted would happen when home values dropped. there was one year 2011, when nationwide property tax collections went down by, 1.3%. gerri: tragedy. >> that is not not doomsday. no way. so what we're looking at is almost half a trillion dollars worth of property tax
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collections at the end of 2014. that is a 25% increase from where it was in 2007. now, something is going on here. rates are going up somewhat. but one of ihe more sinister things is, they're creating new taxing districts with their own property tax authority. whereas you paid for your garbage out of your general property tax, for example. 10 or 20 years ago they create a trash collection district, that is charging you separately. your general taxes stay where they are. there is new tax and suddenly you're paying more. gerri, you know i think my friends would say that sucks. pete, thanks for coming on the show. >> my pleasure. gerri: you sure know how to hurt a girl in the afternoon, let me tell you. thank you for being here. great job. >> take care. gerri: i want to mention to our viewers, property tax collections compare your property taxes to average across the country the average is $3188.
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moving on to the economy which isn't such good news either economic numbers are amiss. that is what las vegas businessman, steve wynn says. he says what the white house keeps promoting we're in economic recovery is flat-out lie. some economic numbers may prove wynn right. with us moody's economist john lonski. always good to have you here. before we get started i want you to hear what steve wynn said. >> the idea of america is in grips of a great recovery is pure fiction. it's a lie. >> really? >> jobless recovery because recoveries are marked about the amount of real employment. and if you count the people that left the workforce real unemployment is 15 to 20%. gerri: john, you have to give him this. this has been a jobless recovery. how much of that do you agree with? >> in tone very much so. this is the dullest economic recovery since the second world war. you know, we're getting some
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troubling news on economic activity for the second quarter already. we probably contracted in the first quarter. that means it is highly unlikely that the economy will grow by 3% this year. 10 straight years under 3%, no precedent. average annual rate of growth 1.5%. that is miserable. no wonder, we, we have the worst recovery again since the second world war. gerri: i think number you always pull out is so interesting. we're on track for 10 straight years of economic growth below 3%. this is the not america you grew up with. this is not what we're used to. this is not what creates jobs. >> even during the 1930s, would have horrible year gdp would be down sharply but following year comes up four or 5%. that is not happening. something fundamentally changed with the u.s. economy. the growth potential we knew in previous years just isn't here anymore. gerri: well, astonishing and
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shocking. as you said, friday we get monthly unemployment report. let me tell you i heard this some times from the white house. look, the consensus number out there, 5.4%. that sound like good news. what is missing from that equation? >> well, part-time jobs are included. let's not forget about the fact there has been a lot of labor force dropouts. the fact is this. since the beginning of 2008, we've added three million jobs. very good but at the same time we grew the number of americans aged between 16 and 64 years of age by nine million. so, we're we've increased payrolls by only 33%, 1/3 of the increase of the working age population. that is lousy. gerri: my opinion that is not enough. >> no. gerri: obama-nomics is not working. if you're right if the first quarter will get revised to negative that is really the expectation out there, we have one foot in recession here. we have one foot in recession. we're going to be in recession.
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as you know, kind of thing you never know until you're really out of it. >> that's true. year after year, economists have projecting this big pickup in growth. it is simply not happening. gerri: no. >> i think you will find out within the next week, when the latest consensus projections come out for 2015. real gdp growth. closer to 2.5% than to 3%. gerri: consensus 5.4%. you know what the government will say. they will say, this is the lowest unemployment rate since the financial crisis. this is terrific. >> when you start from a low base you should be doing a lot better. it is much easier to get very strong growth numbers from low base to a high base. despite a very low base formed by the great recession we're still struggling to get decent growth of a fuller, utilization. gerri: i agree. i think you're right on target. we have to get to one other issue here. that is janet yellen, who spoke today. for goodness sakes, the woman
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said steeply higher interest rates are in the offing. are you changing all of your models right now? >> no, i'm just rolling my eyes at that particular statement. it makes absolutely no sense. we still have very slack labor market. we have problems overseas. latin america growth is close to 1%. my goodness china's doing poorly. there is a very limited up side for bond yields. i wouldn't be surprised if we start getting weaker-than-expected data on u.s. economy that now 2.2% 10-year treasury yield is back under 2% fairly quickly. by the way the fed funds futures market believes that the federal funds rate at end of this year is no higher than .5 of 1%. fed policymakers can talk themselves blue in the face but the markets ultimately respect economic reality. gerri: john license kirks you are on fire tonight, my friend. thank you so much for come on the show. >> thank you. gerri: heard it here first janet yellen not corrects. -- correct. thanks, john.
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when he want to know what you think. are the government economic numbers, are they a lie? log on to gerriwillis.com. i will share results at end of tonight's show. property tax collections on rise. we talked about that. higher sales tax business license fees, capital-gains tax all going up but is your money being spent any better? the answer is a resounding no. case in point. the irs issued 5.6 billion in potentially bogus education tax credits in a single year. more than a quarter of all education credits claimed by taxpayers. that is according to a government watchdog. as we told you yesterday, credits are free money, directly from the federal treasury. or can i be more precise here, that is your money. that is not all. treasury inspector general reported today over a 10-year period, 1580 irs employees were willfully tax non-compliant. in other words, 1500 irs employees did not pay their taxes not because they made a mistake, my friends of the they
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did that on purpose. you and i can't getaway with that. simply wrong for taxes to continually escalate higher especially when the money is wasted, frittered away. just had to get that in. still a lot more to come this hour, including now that you know your tax bill could be set to spike we have solutions to ease those property taxes. i sit down with fox news's "the five" co-host, dana perino to get her take on the republican presidential field. send us an email, go to our website, gerriwillis.com. we'll be right back. ♪ when a moment spontaneously turns romantic why pause to take a pill?
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♪ gerri: the 2016 presidential race is heating up with more gop candidates jumping in. meanwhile hillary clinton's favorabilities seem to be increasing. 65% say clinton has strong
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leadership qualities. so what gives? joining me now is former white house press secretary and co-host of "the five," dana perino. she also has this new book out, a "new york times" number one best-seller, the good news is. the good news dane at that thanks for coming on show. >> you're an early reader of book. gerri: i'm a big fan of it too because it is fantastic. you did a great job with that book. talk a little politics first. come back to it, i will talk about my favorite parts. hillary clinton, she seems to be weathering the scandal what is going on? >> i do think our media some ways we're so hungry for next thing, turn the page for next news cycle i don't think we know how she is weather scandals. if you look at other polls like "wall street journal" and ap they had a different result. all those polls are good polls. they're getting different things. it is really early to tell. remember this, first of all she hasn't answered any questions about i in of this. one of the ways you weather a storm you ignore it.
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that seems to work. other thing none of the candidates that will be running against her in the next year-and-a-half, have begun to try to define her and run negative ads, things like that. so we don't really know. sadly i actually think for the american people regardless of politics there is a question here about a former president, whose wife was the secretary of state getting money into the family's foundation, that then results in an approval of that government's project that was in front of the federal government and required secretary of state approval which they got. that actually is not political. that seems to me like something that, at minimum the government the justice department and fbi should at least take a look at. gerri: tell you it is not one example. it is lots of examples. i think you're right, people generally haven't digested this, got their arms around it. you would think it wouldn't be just republicans asking questions. anybody who would go up against clinton. now we're seeing elizabeth warren meeting with private backers.
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what do you make of that? is she coming out. >> a friend of mine who i trust very much, she can not understand why elizabeth warren doesn't just get in the race. she thinks elizabeth warren could beat hillary clinton like barack obama did in 2008. i personally don't see that i remember when barack obama face on the scene, my head said who is this, i like his sound. i like what he is saying. elizabeth warren doesn't excite me in any way. can i say something about the clinton foundation and money from foreign governments? gerri: yes. >> that money was stolen from the people of those countries. the people of those countries do not live in the fancy mansions that those leaders of those countries, that were writing big checks to have bill clinton give speeches and get approval from secretary of state clinton. that money was stolen from the very people that hillary and bill clinton say they want to help. gerri: many of them have repressive regimes to women. >> they don't talk to the press either. gerri: they don't talk to the press either.
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quickly, one more candidate to talk about. huckabee announced recently. he is getting flagged in his own house among republicans. glen beck today saying he is spoiler. "wall street journal" come out in editorial just slamming him. yet his numbers are strong. what do you make of that? >> look at, almost kind of a parallel, right? so the polls can tell you only so much. hillary clinton has support from her democratic base. mike huckabee has support and has maintained it for years with certain branch of republican party. the test for him will be to see can he get past some of this criticism and can he unite the party? can he broaden that base? he will have enough money to get to the debates that start in august. not too far away. those debates are actually really going to matter. everyone will have enough money to stay a little bit competitive. gerri: we have time for, the good news is. you shared it with me early. it is a great read.
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>> i'm glad you said so. it is kind of nerve-wracking out and even after to ask somebody to read your writing. i wasn't sure if i see you in the hall, but that good is really good didn't mean it. i would have known you didn't like it. gerri: it was great to hear about your childhood where you grew up. so fascinating. the question i really have on my mind is about george bush. what he was like to work with? what did you learn from him? because the book is so great saying, here is how you succeed and thpresent s gat at teaing ou me fdamtal lsons >> o of e rsons iwant to wte ts bo somedy le whorew u on aattl rah wi no pitic conntion andge eup as firs wmanepubcanress crety? heeal trued m lik m coon ssehinkg. likeay cmunate wth eopl ked my snyispitio thais w iallit the go ni is. to nowhe prson de of geor w. sh i not iclud in a alys ofis
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resincy. ereare ry w pple tat cod hav wrien ts bk. i'mne othe i wandeopl to knohat it waslikbehihecene ostimptants leersh quaty,eoplin busess n'talkabonou forgenes theabily torgind moven. to l tingsgond foc on a goa he so tughtebout ssin cretso you cold avanc a rge al. wh the faostashe was the free-trade agreement pas democrats were up over uri that h dn'tdoenou abo rrorm. heas there in the ovaloval office. can i call the press. i don't want any credit. give it to uribe. he needs it more than i do. as press secretary you're always looking for good news to put out there. gerri: too bad for you. good for him. >> but better for the larger goal. unfortunately democrats came up with another reason to kill the free-trade agreement.
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gerri: good luck with the book. i know it will do great. thanks so much for coming on. a programing note for you, fox business's "cavuto" tonight for extended interview. that starts at 8:00 p.m. this is the first time she will be on fbn since announcing her run. you don't want to miss that. be sure to tune in. later in the show, thanksgiving may be six months away but there are worries the bird flu might have already ruined this important holiday. across the pond british election is tomorrow. we'll talk about why the election is mirroring ours at home and what it means for a so-called special relationship with america. stay with us. ♪ (trader vo) i search. i research. i dig. and dig some more. because, for me, the challenge of the search... is almost as exciting as the thrill of the find. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we rebuilt scottrade elite from the ground up - including a proprietary momentum indicator
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going to the polls tomorrow, and it's already the closest election in more than a century. the result expected to have a big impact on relations with the u.s. for more on that former adviser to lady thatcher and a heritage fellow. great to see you back on the show. >> great to be here, thank you. gerri: start with the conservative party. very curious, seems like the party is splitting into factions what's going on? >> this should be an election the conservatives win easily. however, according to the latest poll i think that david cameron is going to struggle to form a new government, and despite of course the economy doing extremely well, the conservatives have been struggling to get above say, 34, 35% of the electorate. a key reason for that is a large chunk of the conservative party is actually broken off from david cameron's conservatives and joined the u.k. independence party, a party to the right of the
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conservative party, which supports tougher policies on europe and also on immigration. gerri: let's delve into that for a second. nile, this is reminiscent of the u.s. right? our conservative party, our republicans there's a wide range of views about how to run the government. you say the conservative party there basically broken on immigration. what are the competing views? >> well under the current conservative led coalition immigration has continued to rise, and it has become one of the very top voter issues. and so the u.k. independence party has been calling for tougher measures with regard to immigration. they've also called for britain to leave the european union, something david cameron has resisted he has agreed to referendum on eu membership 2017. you see the conservative party splitting in two, with the large chunk of the grassroots
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party voting against the conservative party. if david cameron does not emerge from tomorrow's election as the prime minister i think that a big reason for that is that he's alienated a lot of his own traditional supporters who he's referenced as, and i quote here fruitcakes and loonies, and that's not exactly the kind of rhetoric that is going to win you an election. gerri: absolutely not. i guess our concern is how is this going impact the special relationship between our country and yours? what might happen? who might we be speaking to beside david cameron? >> that's a very good question. i think that david cameron has been a very strong supporter. he has a very good relationship overall with the current u.s. president. the leader of the labour party known as red ed by a much of the british electorate because of left wing views is someone
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who's an unknown quantity on the international stage and i think that how the special relationship evolves on ed millerband is a big question mark, actually. my sense is that initially ed millerband will not have a terribly close relationship with the u.s. president. it will take time for him to establish himself on the international stage eventually i think you are going to see millerband become just as every single post war british prime minister has been a supporter of alliance with the united states, at least out of sheer necessity. britain needs america america needs britain. it is the most important bilateral alliance on the international stage, and i suspect that ed millerband who is some respects to the left of francois francois hollande is far left
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of the united states. gerri: great to see. >> you my pleasure thank you. gerri: credit card data breach hits businesses and restaurants. and are we facing turkey day without the turkey? is that possible? fox business' jeff flock is why your thanksgiving table might be missing this dish? when cigarette cravings hit, all i can think about is getting relief. nicorette mini starts to relieve sudden cravings fast. anytime. anywhere. i never know when i'll need relief. that's why i choose nicorette mini.
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. gerri: welcome back to "the willis report." in a moment why we might be facing this thanksgiving without the turkey, but it's time for a look at other stories in the news. an nfl investigation into deflategate finds that new england patriots quarterback tom brady likely knew of inappropriate activity. according to the official nfl report, it is more probable than not that the locker room
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attendant and equipment assistant deflated the footballs used in the afc championship. however, the probe cleared coach bill belichick and team management of wrongdoing. jetblue will offer flights from new york to havana cuba july 3rd. the first major carrier to offer direct flights since the agreement between president obama and raul castro to ease travel and trade restrictions. the co pile of the germanwings plane that crashed tried a dry run. investigators say andreas lubitz practiced a descent when the captain left the cockpit on the same flight. he deliberately crashed the plane into the french alps and killed all 150 people on board. california state water board approved a state emergency drought to slash water use in urban areas by 25%. the first time that the state put in place mandatory reductions in water use. those are some of the stories
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in the news tonight. thanksgiving, my friends, could be a real turkey this year. the latest outbreak of bird flu has affected turkey producers so much it's causing worries about a shortage. fox business' jeff flock is in chicago. what are we facing here, my friend? >> i think it's tofurky day for me i know you're a big tofu fan, aren't you? >> lamb, lamb leg of lamb. >> that's better. the numbers are getting scary. take a look at numbers from usda. now at 24 million birds that have been either killed by bird flu or have had to be euthanized as a result of trying to stop the disease. 24 or 23.9 million birds total, 4.6 million of those turkeys and that begins to raise a problem when you think that it takes about four months five months to raise a turkey and we're six months out from thanksgiving. and the problem is no one knows gerri where all of this is
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going to end. the virus continues to spread. the latest outbreak, the newest one at a farm in iowa, jenny o, the hormel turkey arm laid off 233 people at a processing plant in minnesota. hard hit state minnesota. now on the good side on the positive side, we have maybe you didn't know this, in this country something akin to the strategic oil reserve for turkeys. take a look at numbers from usda maybe i'm sort of making this up a little bit. i'm not make the numbers up. there's a lot of turkey in cold storage right now. according to the usda 23,000 tons of turkey breast in cold storage. whole turkeys, 90,000 tons, in total 173,000 tons of turkey in storage. the fact is most of the turkey we eat at thanksgiving has been frozen for a while. it actually keeps pretty well. we were out at a turkey
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processing -- a poultry operation a couple of weeks ago and the scary thing out there is if this continues, you know, right now we don't look so bad, for the guys that like fresh turkeys if we get more of a spread you may not get fresh turkey at thanksgiving frozen turkey you are probably okay on. gerri: jeff thank you for that. appreciate your reporting. i'll join you for tofurky day, okay, my friend? >> sure, we're good. we're easy to please. gerri: thank you. and don't forget tonight republican presidential candidate carly fiorina will be talking to neil cavuto right here on 8:00 p.m. eastern time. stay on fbn, right after "cavuto," sharp teeth week on "strange inheritance" continues. and tonight, there will be four back to back episodes kicking off the event jamie colby talks to a family whose inheritance comes in the form of creepy crawlers. they have one of the rarest
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collection of bugs from around the world. here's a sneak peek. >> 100,000 creepy crawlers, spiders that will cover your whole face. >> all collected from the far reaches of the world. >> is it alive? >> talk about a bug's life. >> walt disney went into the museum and wanted to buy the collection. >> but there's a bigger story behind this bizarre bequest. >> it was an interesting and eye opening experience all of its own. gerri: watch sharp teeth week all this week on "strange inheritance" monday through friday on the fox business network. and later in the show, the data hack nobody is talking about. could your personal information be a risk? and property taxes keep going up like we talked about. nexter's guide to spring real estate examine ways to lower the tax bill. it's fast and legal. stay with us.
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. gerri: heads-up home owners users guide to spring housing heats up. we talked about it earlier in the show. poll after poll shows us that americans hate this tax the most. tonight we're helping you lower tax bills with personal finance expert vera gibbons who blogs for zillow. you are the perfect person for this segment. i read you on this topic. start with the big numbers right in the reality is that the amount of money collected in property taxes is going nowhere but up up 7%, there's got to be a lot of taxpayer fatigue out there? >> a lot of taxpayer fatigue out there. taxes are ridiculously high especially in westchester county, zillow did the analysis on this. paying about $14,000. gerri: and some of us are paying more than that. >> some of us are paying more than that. ridiculous.
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you don't have to take it sitting down. very few people appeal taxes but should. 5% appeal property taxes but you should chances are getting taxes reduced are pretty high. gerri: all right, a lot of people figure out what neighbors are paying, people with similar house. if you do that that might give you a clue you're paying too much. why do you think people don't go that baby step towards reducing taxes? >> that is a baby step, the reason people didn't bother with the comps it's too easy a process for them. now can you go to zillow or have a realtor pull up five to ten comps and send it to the adjustor. pretty easy to do. people are intimidated by the process they don't know how the process necessarily works, but comps is going to be primary ammunition in getting property taxes. gerri: have you got a process for this one step two step three step. >> i do. gerri: you start by look at your assessment notice.
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what is that? what will we find out? >> the assessment notices go out now. may is a big month, i would take a look at that and take a look at property card which is accommodated with the assessment notice on. this property card which is what the assessors use to assess your home value. square footage number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the reason you look at the property card carefully is there are a lot of mistakes potentially on the property card. square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms might be wrong. the national taxpayers union suggests there could be a substantial amount more than you have to, and avoid a formal hearing altogether if you actually bring that to the adjustor's notice. gerri: you have to gather your evidence. is there anything that is convincing to these folks that you should be paying less? is it the comps? what is that critical thing you've got to have to say hey, this is unfair, you've got to reduce my taxes?
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>> if you talk to a realitior and get the comps, schedule your formal appeal with the adjustor. it's going to spell out the instructions if you want to make appeal. you can mail them the evidence e-mail the evidence, in other cases go down to the office and schedule an appeal. gerri: all right, vera, thanks for coming on. i'm still miffed about my property taxes. home values fell like a stone and we're still paying. >> local infrastructure, schools fire departments, they need the money. that's what happened to you and me. gerri: vera, thank you so much. >> thanks, gerri. gerri: coming up tomorrow, ways to lower your energy costs. the hot weather is just around the corner, my friends. someday it will be summer and that will raise your bill. ways to improve your home that will give energy costs much-needed relief. now for consumers, a popular cellar of point of sale systems is confirming a data
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breach used in over 100,000 businesses like bars, restaurants is your information at risk? we're asking adam levin, founder of identity theft 911. the company in the crosshairs is harbor touch, what do they do and how do they get information from individuals put at risk? >> well what happens is that they provide point of sale systems to restaurants, bars and retailers. gerri: so do they have the thing i'm putting my card through to pay? >> they do. gerri: okay. >> and malware remember target, malware neiman marcus sally's the list goes on and on where malware has gotten on point of sale systems, it got onto the point of sale systems. 4200 of 150,000 businesses no indication how many consumers went to the 4200 businesses. gerri: so this is the number of businesses affected, nothe mbe of divials >>corrct. rri i wnt t radhat
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haorouch sai to a big bog bsie isecuty. thiss hbor uchthe mpan in ecrosairs t inden invved t instlati ofalwar witn ursfetecinghe incent rbo tou ideifie a move the lwar fro afcted sysm. am as always, the breach happens and the trouble and the ripoffs can go on for a long time. >> absolutely. and the problem is that now they've gotten so sophisticated in the deep web or the real black market. gerri: dark web. >> dark web as well. sounds like a star trek episode. gerri: it is a star trek episode. >> they sell by zip code they sell by type of card the amount available credit. gerri: we don't know who doctor d this, right? >> no we don't. gerri: move you to another problem, you remember sally beauty, a company you might have seniors might have frequented they are nowavg troubles they've detected
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malware in the systems, trying to determine the extent of the problem the first time they had a problem, it was identified at about 2600 stores were impacted. they claimed 25,000 credit cards. doesn't seem right. 10 cards a store? gerri: that seems low? >> very low to me. gerri: sally beauty said -- you know the reality here is if you're using a credit card you are at risk. so give me one idea for consumers tonight who might be concerned, what should they do? >> what you need to do is two things, check your credit card accounts on a daily basis, which you and i talked about, and secondly sign up for transaction alerts with bank, credit card company credit union where they notify you every time there is activity in your account. at least you will know if that
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activity was you or not. gerri: adam thank you good to see you. >> thanks gerri. gerri: still to come, a look at the growing trend of bankruptcy trustees going after colleges for tuition. here's your consumer gauge with the numbers that matter the most to you. we'll be right back. super poligrip seals out more food particles. so your food won't get stuck and you can enjoy every single bite. eat loud, live loud, super poligrip. super poligrip holds your dentures tightly in place so you never have to hold back. laugh loud, live loud, super poligrip.
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for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you in out-of-pocket medical costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. . gerri: the average price for college tuition is more than $31,000, and that doesn't include room and board. coming up with that type of money could make a parent go bankrupt. if that happens could the bankruptcy trustees go after the college for part of your debts. bankruptcy attorney jeff hellman says they can and they will. joining us to explain us how this works. jeff, welcome to the show, good
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to have you here. why are you doing this? what's going on? >> it's a trustee's duty to try and recover as much money as possible for the creditors of the debtor that files for bankruptcy. and these college tuition payments what are is called a constructive fraudulent transfer that the trust see entitled to recover. gerri: without getting too much in the weeds here in terms of the details of bankruptcy law let's talk a little bit about the broader picture here that maybe causing all of this to happen. look, parents across country are struggling with these tuition bills it seems likely tuition bills are putting people into bankruptcy. do you think that the burden of these bills is causing this to happen? is encouraging people to file for bankruptcy? reorganization? >> these are not reorganizations typically these are called the chapter 7 bankruptcy but, yes certainly the burden of the tuition payments or some cases
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parent loans for tuition payments are certainly contributing to debtors making the decision to file for bankruptcy. gerri: here's what i don't understand. normally it's the duty of the folks who racked up the debt to pay it back. in this case, you're going to the colleges to get money. how is that possible? >> okay well the answer is when you have what's called a constructive fraudulent transfer that's where a transfer is made to someone at a time when the debtor is insolvent for which the debtor does not receive equivalent value. gerri: jeff, you know what? i don't understand those phrases and i know you can explain this to me talk to me like i'm your mother. so you guys have sort of found a loophole right? a way to get around this requirement that all these debts be paid back, and it's essentially that mom and dad did not pay for the education for themselves they paid it
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for their children, correct? >> that's it. because mom and dad have paid for their children the benefit that the college provides is a benefit to the children, not to mom and dad. it's as if mom and dad gave a car to the kid and that car was no longer available to pay the debts that mom and dad had incurred. gerri: fascinating. chapter 7 bankruptcy filings as you say, you've gotten back 600000, nearly $601000 and the number that is critical to that, college tuition has gone up 346% in decades, that is causing immeasurable harm to families across the country. jeff hellman, thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you for having me appreciate the opportunity. gerri: we'll be back with answer to the question of the day. are the government economic numbers a lie?
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. gerri: steve wynn says the government economic numbers air lie. here is what some of you are tweeting about the poll question. sergeant tweets this -- on facebook, john posts -- john, you are out of control. and doris says -- well, if you repeat the law long enough, that happens. we asked the question on gerriwillis.com, 95% of you said yes. log onto gerriwillis.com for online question every weekday. and coming up tomorrow on our user's guide to spring real estate, the latest ways to improve your home to keep energy bill low.
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that's it for tonight's "the willis report." thank you for joining us, don't forget to dvr the show if you can't catch us live. "making money" with charles payne is up next, have a great night. . >> breaking news earnings reports continue to pour in. green mountain nearly misses on the top and bottom line down it goes. whole foods misos revenues that stock getting crushed. tesla losing less money than expected. we've got a lot more details on those and many, many others that reported after the bell. first as we head into the all-important government jobs report, we got the adp version this morning, take a look at this. man was it a disaster. down five consecutive months. this is a sequential down death spiral. it looks ugly. the biggest blow in manufacturing. news that four members of the

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