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Saint David’s Society banquet to be held

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Their View: Internal accounting controls protect small business owners

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Pennsylvania Department of Aging Secretary Teresa Osborne this week spoke about the department&#8217;s current and future initiatives and Gov. Tom Wolf&#8217;s budget investment in seniors at the University of Scranton&#8217;s State of Scranton Seminar Series.</p><p>Osborne provided an overview of Pennsylvania&#8217;s aging landscape and how the state is working to improve and streamline services for seniors.</p><p>&#8220;With a growing population of over 2.9 million adults over age 60, Pennsylvania must be prepared to effectively serve diverse communities with varying needs,&#8221; Osborne said. &#8220;The Wolf Administration is focused on ensuring that seniors and their families have access to the services and supports they need to age in place with dignity and respect.&#8221;</p><p>Osborne said Wolf&#8217;s budget is a new way for older Pennsylvanians, and includes the creation of a Department of Health and Human Services that will unite the Departments of Aging, Drug and Alcohol Programs, Health, and Human Services. By providing a single point of contact at the state level, Osborne said bureaucracy will be removed, duplication will be reduced, and confusion will be eliminated. HHS will bring together four departments with shared goals, thus creating greater opportunities to better leverage existing resources in order to create a government that works.</p><p>Older Pennsylvanians will not see any cuts to their benefits and there will be no impact on how lottery fund monies are used to support senior programs, Osborne said. Aging services will improve by simplifying how older Pennsylvanians and their families seek information and access benefits.</p><p>&#8220;The Governor&#8217;s proposed budget articulates our shared commitment to creating a health and human services system that is more efficient, effective and responsive, and puts the Pennsylvanians we are called to serve first,&#8221; Osborne said.</p><p>For more information on the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, visit <a href="http://www.aging.pa.gov" target="_blank">www.aging.pa.gov</a>. To learn more about the governor&#8217;s budget, visit the Governor&#8217;s Executive 2017-2018 Budget website.</p><p><strong>W-2 phishing scam</strong></p><p><strong> expands </strong><strong>to schools,</strong></p><p><strong>other employers</strong></p><p>The Pennsylvania Department of Revenue and the Internal Revenue Service are warning all employers about an email phishing scam that is expanding from the corporate world to public schools and nonprofits, Secretary of Revenue Eileen McNulty announced this week.</p><p>&#8220;This large-scale theft can give criminals sensitive financial information about employees that can be used to commit various crimes, including tax identity theft by filing a fraudulent tax return in the name of a victim,&#8221; McNulty said in a news release.</p><p>Here&#8217;s how the scam works: Cyber-criminals disguise an email to appear as if the message is from an organization executive. The email is sent to payroll or human resources employees, requesting a W-2 form for each employee in the organization.</p><p>The scam first appeared last year and, according to the IRS, has expanded this year to more employers, including public schools, chain restaurants, temporary staffing agencies, healthcare and shipping and freight companies.</p><p>In a twist, the scammers sometimes follow up with a fake &#8220;executive&#8221; email to the organization&#8217;s payroll or comptroller staff, asking them to wire transfer to a certain account. The IRS reports that some companies have given the cyber-criminals both their employees&#8217; confidential tax information from the W-2s and thousands of dollars due to wire transfers.</p><p>Employers victimized by this scam should immediately report the W-2 thefts to both the Department of Revenue and IRS. The agencies will immediately take steps to try to help protect employees against tax-related identity theft.</p><p>The W-2 scam is just one of several email phishing or phone scams that try to trick employers and taxpayers into giving out sensitive financial information.</p><p>According to the IRS, taxpayers and tax preparers should be leery of using search engines to find technical help with taxes or tax software. Selecting the wrong &#8220;tech support&#8221; link could lead to a loss of data or an infected computer. Also, software &#8220;tech support&#8221; will not call users randomly. It is a scam.</p><p><strong>Wolf outlines $2.1B</strong></p><p><strong>planned investment</strong></p><p><strong>for highways, bridges</strong></p><p>Gov. Tom Wolf this week announced plans for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to invest more than $2 billion in roadway maintenance and highway and bridge capital projects over the next 10 years through Road MaP &#8212; its new Road Maintenance and Preservation program.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve made significant progress on our roadway and bridge needs and the Road MaP program will amplify our efforts statewide,&#8221; Wolf said in an emailed news release. &#8220;We&#8217;re bringing an even bigger focus to our interstates and to the lower-volume roads where many Pennsylvanians live and work.&#8221;</p><p>The investments are being made possible due to legislative action in 2016 that caps expenditures from the Motor License Fund going toward the state police budget beginning with the 2018-19 budget and concluding with the 2027-28 budget. The program will see an additional estimated $63 million in the 2017-18 state fiscal year through Wolf&#8217;s budget proposal of a $25 per capita fee for municipalities with exclusive state police enforcement coverage.</p><p>Of the capital-project investments, $500 million will be allocated to an Interstate preservation and reconstruction program, bringing that total program, begun in 2016, to $1 billion over the next 10 years. Another $600 million will go toward rehabilitation and reconstruction needs identified through PennDOT&#8217;s district and regional planning efforts.</p><p>In addition, of the roughly 18,000 miles of PennDOT-owned, low-volume roadways, 24 percent haven&#8217;t had structural resurfacing in more than 20 years. Of those roads that aren&#8217;t Interstates or on the National Highway System, 27 percent are rated as &#8220;poor&#8221; on the International Roughness Index, which rates pavement smoothness.</p><p>The department estimates that Interstate reconstruction costs roughly $2.6 million per lane mile, or $5.2 million if the segment mile of Interstate has two lanes. Resurfacing 1 mile of two lanes of interstate in one direction of travel costs roughly $1 million. On lower-volume roads, per-mile costs are roughly $24,700 to seal coat, $101,400 to resurface and $910,000 to rehabilitate.</p><p>Road MaP, with its additional resources making more contracts and department maintenance work possible, means that all maintenance projects listed in Act 89&#8217;s Decade of Investment will be completed by 2028. As of late February, more than 70 percent of projects accelerated or made possible by Act 89 were completed, are underway, or are on the department&#8217;s four- or 12-year plans. The projects are viewable at <a href="http://www.projects.penndot.gov" target="_blank">www.projects.penndot.gov</a>.</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_PA-Revenue-Secretary-Eileen-McNulty.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">McNulty </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_PA-Revenue-Secretary-Eileen-McNulty.jpg</photo0><caption0>McNulty </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Wolf-3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wolf </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Wolf-3.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wolf </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Osborne-1CMYK.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Osborne </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/web1_Osborne-1CMYK.jpg</photo2><caption2>Osborne </caption2><photoCredit2></photoCredit2></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Capitol Roundup: Aging secretary discusses governor’s investment in seniors