Originally Posted by Z06PDQ
more cut and paste...
Report on CAFR Research by: Walter J. Burien, Jr.
Introduction
Walter Burien Jr. worked as a Wall Street Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) for fifteen years, but now resides in Arizona. According to Mr. Burien, every state, county and major metropolitan city is keeping two sets of books. One set (the 'Budget') is commonly available and tracks each governmental entity's casts and tax revenue. The Budget is the financial record that's seen by the public and used by politicians to justify new governmental services and higher taxes.
However, there is a second set of books (called the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, or CAFR) which is virtually unknown to the public but contains the real record of total governmental income. According to Mr. Burien, although the Budget gives an accurate account of government costs, only the CAFR gives an accurate account of government's income.
For example, while a particular state budget might report receiving $20 billion in taxes (just barely enough to sustain its $20 billion in costs) - the CAFR might reveal the state's real income is in the neighborhood of $60 billion - three times as much as reported on the budget. If these allegations are accurate, the particular state could stop charging all the taxes we are familiar with and, not only survive but, either double the amount of reported government services or give every citizen a huge tax rebate.
The implications are mind-boggling. The CAFR's reveal that the world is so different from what we are led to believe, so much more corrupt than suspected, that we are left with three choices, either; 1) government agrees to end the deception and stop overtaxing us, or 2) the American people agree to accept their status as slaves, or 3) both sides refuse to agree and precipitate a shooting revolution. The issue is that big.
Are Mr. Burien's allegations correct? How could any governmental entity dare to routinely overcharge its citizens by 200%, underreport its income by 2/3rds, and knowingly press for higher taxes based on an inaccurate budget? Worse, how could such a fraudulent system become widespread among all states, counties, cities and the Federal Government?
Those who have made efforts to verify Burien's research indicate that the conclusions drawn by Burien are probably correct. For instance: The State of Alaska and the city of Anchorage both use Budget/CAFR accounting systems that conceal a 'breathtaking' difference in reported revenue. Another researcher in Wyoming claims that a comparison of his state's budget and CAFR also support Mr. Burien's arguments. In every case, there are two sets of books and the income reported on the budget is millions or billions of dollars less than is reported on the CAFR.
These verifications of Burien's research and findings lend credence to his allegations.
What follows is an amalgam of statements or implications raised by Mr. Burien in various interviews.
Mr. Burien reports first discovering the CAFR report in New Jersey in 1989, when he helped start and incorporated a New Jersey tax protest group called "Hands Across New Jersey." While involved with that group, Mr. Burien read in the state's Annual Budget that the total cost of all public services was $17 billion and the "net available" (the money on hand to pay all bills) was $24.6 billion. But then he asked the first question the IRS asks in any audit: "What are the gross receipts?" He added the figures from various state government sources and came up with about $44 billion and began to wonder how the state could have $17 billion in costs, $24.6 billion in cash on hand, and $44 billion annual income? The numbers didn't add up, so he began to dig deeper.
Because his father had been Personnel Manager for the State Treasury for four years, Mr. Burien understood how to get around in the various government departments. The state Director of the Budget was on vacation, so Mr. Burien called one of his lowest level assistants and said, "I'm working on a report for Richard [the vacationing Budget Director] and I need all the figures on the autonomous agency accounts, interest accounts, investment accounts." The assistant said, "Ohh, you want the CAFR." This was the first time Burien had heard of the CAFR but he said, "Yes" and the assistant mailed it to him.
The 1989 CAFR showed that New Jersey had liquid investment funds (cash) of $188 billion of which; common stocks worth $70 billion, $10 billion in loans made by the state due from public and private corporations, and $14 billion in insurance company equity participation. The little state of New Jersey, which admitted to less than $25 billion in annual income on its budget, reported $188 billion in cash, stocks, loans and equity participation on its CAFR. According to Mr. Burien, "On that day, I learned the definition of syndicated organized crime." Keep in mind that most of the revenue and investments from the 21 counties, hundreds of cities, municipalities, school districts, state financial authorities, pension funds, and 69 enterprise authorities, all of which put out their own CAFR or Combined Financial Statement are not inclusive with the state's revenue and investments. Totals here when looking at composite New Jersey government figures is well in excess of 1.8 Trillion dollars. Yep you heard that right 1.8 trillion. Divide that figure by the population of New Jersey to see the per capita share of the wealth.
So why are the taxes in New Jersey some of the highest in the country? The answerer is; Power corrupts, absolute Power corrupts absolutely. Mr. Burien keeps emphasizing to the public that they, the public, left the VAULT door open, and those sharp little crackers said thank you very much. The problem is that most (95%) of the public responds with, "Vault, what vault". With this well entrenched attitude of naivety by the public in place, those sharp little crackers now have even stopped saying thank you very much as they plunder the wealth in their unabated efforts towards the building of their own empires within the corporate structure of Composite Government.
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