I moved to Bethlehem in September 2011 after spending the first 30 years of my life in Allentown. When I was looking to buy a home, I took a hard look at the entire Lehigh Valley and it didn’t take long to see that there are a lot of great things happening in Bethlehem. The way that the city has reinvented itself after the demise of the steel is commendable, and it hasn’t rested on its laurels.

I was involved with volunteer work in the city before I bought my house here, but after becoming a resident I started to take a greater interest in the city’s politics. I go to city council meetings when my schedule permits and zoning hearings more often than I’d like due to a developer trying to build an unwanted drug rehab facility in my neighborhood. At those meetings I’ve gotten to know not only more about how the city works, but also more about the people who are making the policies that affect how the city runs. While Bethlehem is a Democratic stronghold, there is definitely a big difference in our representatives.

Now that it’s time to elect new leadership for the city and the county, it’s time for everyone who is able to voice their opinions about what they want for the future of our city. I’ve watched the intense primary that’s underway and while I can’t vote on Tuesday, I know who I want to win and why.

Northampton County Executive: John Callahan
Callahan has served as Mayor of Bethlehem through a transformational time in its history and his vision has helped revitalize the once-struggling city. His sometimes-controversial ideas have helped reduce the city’s debt and have created an environment that has fostered economic growth. I believe that same vision, matured through his mayoral experience will be a huge asset to Northampton County.

Mayor of Bethlehem: J William Reynolds
In the interest of disclosure, Bob Donchez taught me when I was in high school, and Willie Reynolds graduated from Liberty the same year that I graduated from William Allen. That said, my choice had nothing to do with hard feelings against an old teacher, or somehow aligning with someone who is my own age.

Attending city council meetings has shown me that Reynolds has opinions and isn’t afraid to express them. He says what he thinks is right, is prepared to support his views with evidence and is willing to ask tough questions that everyone is thinking, but no one wants to bring up. He’s ready to make a difficult decision, knowing that he’ll never make everyone happy, but that he has to do what he thinks is right and will benefit the greatest number of people, not only those who complain loudly for a few days and then go away, never to be heard from again.

Throughout the primary campaign Reynolds has consistently had a positive message. He actually has a vision for the future of the city and is willing to articulate it. He doesn’t just go back to the talking point of “look at my record.”

Another thing that speaks to me louder than any campaign rhetoric: I actually see Willie Reynolds at community events. He’s in the community. He talks to everyone. He volunteers. Now, I can’t say that I attend every function, volunteer project or activity, but I’ve not seen Donchez at anything.

I want my mayor to have guts, vision, and a positive attitude. I want him to be out in the city, interacting with his constituents, even those who may not agree with him. I want him to keep Bethlehem moving forward.

City Council: Karen Dolan
During the city council meetings I’ve attended, I can say that councilwoman Dolan has shown that she has views similar to mine. The thoughtful questions and opinions she expresses at council meetings show that she is interested in preserving the character of the city while taking a pragmatic approach to sometimes controversial problems.

City Council: Adam Waldron
As a small business owner who lives in the west end of the city, Waldron brings practical experience that he’s gained by not only starting a successful business, but by boot-strapping his campaign. He’s out knocking on doors, putting up signs, volunteering at community events and talking with citizens. He’s got a lot of energy, good ideas and is from a part of the city that has been under-represented on council.

I can say that while I don’t have any personal dislike for the other city council incumbent, Eric Evans, but I can’t say that I support his re-election. While he does a good job at running meetings efficiently, he hasn’t shown me that he’s willing to express his opinions on issues, even those that aren’t controversial. I’m sure he has views, but I don’t know what they are, other than going along with whoever complains the loudest prior to and at city council meetings.

I don’t know anything about Callahan, Sanders or Melnick aside from what I’ve read in the newspaper, so I don’t have a strong opinion on any of them.

Chris Morales, the lone Republican who is running for council is the owner of Easy Weenies, the food cart that you’ll find on Fourth Street. He’s done a lot of work in pushing the city to have more favorable policies toward small business owners. While he’s not going to be affected by the Democratic primary, he’ll have my vote in the general election.

I asked a few homeowners that I know that also don’t have land line service what they did about their service and most said that they either never had it activated (the route I took) or they called the phone company and had the service cancelled. When I asked what they did about the physical wire and box, everyone that I spoke with said that they just left it there. I asked people how I could go about getting it removed and some said that it was illegal, that the phone company just wouldn’t do it, or “if you go to sell the house in the future it will reduce the value.”

I left it go for about a year and this past weekend while doing some yard work I once again noticed the inactive box on the side of my house and finally decided to act and contact Verizon and get a definitive answer. The worst thing they could tell me was that they weren’t going to do it, but until I asked them directly, I’d never know for sure.

Since it was Sunday I sent a support request through their website, figuring that they wouldn’t be taking non-urgent phone calls on a weekend. I got a reply regarding my request to remove the line saying “I apologize for any frustration or inconvenience this has caused.” (how polite) and they told me to call 1-800-VERIZON to schedule someone to come out. This was great news.

I called and since I wasn’t quite sure what department I needed I chose the “everything else” options on their automated menu and spoke with a very polite woman (her name escapes me) and I explained that I wanted the box removed from my house. She asked why, and after I explained that I didn’t want phone service and I can’t see me ever wanting it, she told me that they don’t normally remove those boxes in case I would ever sell the house in the future and the new owner would want phone service. I thanked her, but said that I didn’t like the box being there and really wanted it gone. She told me that she couldn’t transfer me to the repair department, but asked that I call back in and select that option so someone could set up an appointment.

I called back in, selecting the repair option and was ready for someone to try to talk me out of removing the box. The guy I spoke to didn’t even flinch when I said that I don’t want residential phone service and would like the box removed. He took down my address and a contact phone number and said someone will be out tomorrow to remove the line.

Once I stopped dancing around the issue and just called the phone company, I was on the phone for less than 10 minutes. I’ll post an update once the technician comes out to let everyone know if there were any complications.

[Update: 5/14/2013 12:55 pm]
A few people asked me how much Verizon was going to charge me to remove the equipment and I told them that the representative didn’t even mention it. A few said that I would likely just get a bill in the mail. To be sure I called back and spoke with a guy named Matt who said that any of the lines outside of the house are owned by Verizon and they are 100% responsible for them so there would be no charge. (That’s a relief.) They only charge if they have to do something to the wiring inside the house.

[Update: 5/16/2013 9:34 am]
No one came out on 5/15 to remove the line from my house so this morning I called Verizon to find out why. I spoke with Pam who was very polite and she said that my support request had been closed, even though nothing was done. She entered in a new support request of me and when I asked her when I could expect someone to come out she said that she has it in to be done today since someone closed the old ticket without doing the work.

[Update 5/17/2013 1:10 pm]
Since no one came out yesterday like they said they would, I called Verizon to check on the status of the repair ticket. I spoke with Ed and he told me that the ticket was still open and even though it was scheduled for yesterday, it was still pending for someone to come by and remove the line.

Let me say that by all accounts, yesterday’s race was extremely well run and everyone involved did a fantastic job. Yes, I know a number of the people who organized the event, but I’d feel the same way had it been put on by complete strangers. I run to stay healthy, and I’ll continue to do so, but participating in yesterday’s event confirmed my feeling that races aren’t my thing. I know that many people get motivated by the competition, camaraderie or various other aspects of being in an event like that, and that’s great, but I just don’t get anything out of it.

Thanks to everyone for all of the kind words about my participation in the race, but unless it’s to be there for someone I care about, I don’t see me entering any more in the foreseeable future.

Sure, we’re all changing all the time, but how does your sense of self change when something that used to be a key part of your sense of self lets you down, or decides they no longer want anything to do with you? What happens when everything you thought you were a part of is gone and you’re all that’s left? What makes you, you?

For some reason a lot of people seem to think that a huge tax refund is a great thing. Like somehow Washington is just giving them a bonus for being an amazing citizen. They couldn’t be more wrong. It’s called a refund for a reason. It was your money all along.

What? It was my money the whole time? But? Huh?

Like it or not, when you earn money in the United States you have to pay income tax. When your employer withholds it from your check they send it to Washington to fulfill your tax obligation. At the end of the year, if they withheld too much money, you get it back in the form of a tax refund. It’s essentially using the IRS as a savings account where you can’t access your money and you earn absolutely zero interest. Personally, I would rather take my money home with each paycheck. The good thing is that I can, and so can you.

The amount of federal income tax your employer deducts from your check isn’t an arbitrary number, it’s based on your instruction. When you were hired, among the litany of human resources paperwork you signed, you had to complete a W-4 form. On that form you fill in a number of “allowances,” which are theoretically the number of people in your household. If you have a higher number of allowances, less money will be withheld from your pay for taxes. The problem is, the tax code is so convoluted that those allowance numbers don’t hold up. That’s where another piece of good news comes into play. The number of allowances you put on the W-4 can be anything you want. Well, any integer from 0 to 10.

(Great, I’ll just max out my allowances and keep the money, invest in penny stocks, make a bazillion dollars in an offshore bank account, stick it to “the man” and use your new found wealth to construct a secret moon base.) Not so fast. Just because you can put a higher number of allowances on your W-4, reducing the amount of tax withheld, doesn’t mean you’re changing your obligation.  You still owe the same amount of income tax, no matter what you choose to have deducted from your check, and you are still required to submit estimated tax payments as you earn income, not just in one lump on April 15. In fact, there are penalties for underpaying your taxes throughout the year.

OK, so the law says you have to submit accurate estimated tax payments. There’s no penalty for overpaying throughout the year, but ideally you want to pay in as close to exactly the amount you owe as possible. You can’t really use the W-4 worksheet as a guide, so how can you figure out the number of allowances to list on your W-4? Here’s how I did it:

First, I figured out my tax liability for the current tax year. (What? You did your taxes in advance? I don’t even like doing my taxes when they’re due!) Now stay with me. Chances are, if you’re like most people, your deductions are probably pretty close to the same every year, and your income hasn’t changed THAT much from the year before. The federal income tax tables for 2013 are similar to what they were in 2012, so if your situation is basically the same as it was last year, you can use your tax liability from 2012 as a good estimate of the amount you should be sending in for 2013.

If you want to get a more accurate number, you can do a rough tax return for 2013. I don’t have any investment income, so I am just working with the money I earn from my job, which makes this considerably easier. Since I’m a salaried employee, I started with my gross pay for the year. I then subtracted things that are excluded from federal taxable wages like retirement contributions and health insurance. That gave me my net taxable income from my employer (a number you should be familiar with from seeing your W-2 every year).

For anyone who’s done their own taxes, whether with tax software or on a piece of paper, you know that your income from your employer is not your taxable income. You can deduct things, either in an itemized way, or you can take a “standard deduction.” As a homeowner I can deduct things like property taxes, and since I unfortunately have a mortgage, I can also deduct the interest paid. If you don’t want to take the time to forecast what your deductions will be for the upcoming year, again, you can refer to what you deducted last year if you think it’s going to be about the same.

You can also claim a number of allowances, which reduces your tax burden even further. Multiply the number of allowances that apply to you by the allowance amount (For 2013 it’s $3900) to get your allowance amount.

To calculate my taxable income in my quick-and-dirty faux tax return, I took my net taxable income from work and subtracted my total deductions and total allowance amount. At the very least, that number is a couple thousand dollars less than what you earned. Cool beans, now we can calculate our estimated tax for the year. To do that we’ll need to refer to the 2013 tax table. (A tax table? Ugh, I was kind of with you up to this point, but reading a tax table is where I draw the line.) Tax tables really aren’t that bad if you know how to use them. Here’s an example for a $30,000 taxable income:

Since it’s easier for me to wrap my head around annual figures, I’m going to use Table 7 on the IRS Notice 1036. I’m filing single, so I’m going to use the left side of the table. I need to find the line where my taxable income falls. For that line the table says “$892.50 plus 15% of excess over $11,125.” What the heck does that mean? We just need to do a little bit of simple math.

$892.50 + (($30,000-$11,125)*15%)
which is
$892.50 + ($18,875*15%)
which is the same as
$892.50 + ($18,875*.15)
simplifying to
$892.50 + $2831.25
which equals
$3723.75

(OK, great. All that work to get my tax liability. How is this going to help me figure out the number to put on my W-4 so I can get back to working with my moon base architect?) Now that we know what our tax liability is going to be, we can do a bit of experimentation to see what number of allowances will get us as close to that tax liability as possible without underpaying. Again, we don’t want to underpay for two reasons: we don’t want to have to pay in on April 15, and we really don’t want to pay any penalties. The quickest way to experiment with allowances is to use a paycheck calculator. For as much as goes into calculating your federal income taxes for a year, calculating all of the amounts that go into a pay check is even more complicated. PaycheckCity has a nice calculator that you can use to simulate changes to your check.

The first thing I did with the calculator was to recreate my check as it currently stands. Once I had that set up I just started changing the number of allowances until I got a federal income tax figure that, once annualized, (take the amount per check multiplied by the number of times you get paid per year) was slightly more than my tax liability.

Theoretically you can put in a higher number of allowances that will get you an amount withheld that is lower than your tax liability, then use the “additional amount” figure on the W-4 to have an extra amount withheld, netting to the exact amount you owe, but while I’m careful, I also know that things happen. It’s quite possible that something about my situation will change during the year and I don’t want to be filing amended W-4s all the time. My payroll person probably doesn’t want me to either. Choosing a number of allowances that gets me a small refund instead of zero refund give me some flexibility.

Now that you’ve determined a number of allowances that will tell your employer to only withhold the actual amount you owe, go fill out that W-4 and give it to your payroll person so you can get a bigger paycheck.

tl;dr

You should adjust the amount of federal income tax withheld from your pay check by changing the number of allowances on your W-4 so you can keep your money instead of sending it to Washington to hold on to for a year. Figure out your tax liability for the year and then use a payroll calculator to try different allowance amounts to get your taxes withheld as close to the amount you owe as possible without underpaying.