The Funnel Affair

The “Story” others refused to publish!

Is the Alaska Railroad being manipulated as a “funnel” for illegal political contributions to fund “Tea-Party” and Conservative SuperPACs? Are such under the radar illegal opportunities one of the reasons the IRS is trying to investigate funny-money misgivings? It appears to be the case, so please read-on to see how Bill Sheffield’s railroad men are holding this state hostage and using the ransom in a very clever scam scheme to advance and achieve the Don Young & MoanaLisa MurCowpie “Tear Down the Obama Government” political agenda, through political campaign donations that are in reality money that belongs to you. By the way, did “We the People” approve this political donation scam? Hell NO!

Dear Alaskans: Believe it or not, all resources belonging to this state belong to you. That my friend comes about by this state’s Constitutional Convention and conviction awarded by virtue of statehood to make sure we are the benefactors of those resources. Take 30-years of oil exploitation for instance, which has allowed for a Constitutional Budget Reserve in the $billions$. Then along comes gold mining, contributing to the same reserve’s “rainy day” fund. So with such a reserve, what is a few $million$ gone missing? Not a big problem, unless – drum roll please – unless some of that loot is gone missing while fueling a political agenda that is not a majority view and instituted by an entity that is supposed to be politically neutered and remain neutral! And it is so noted, it is not only things from the underworld that finds definition as a valuable resource, wherein the “Last Frontier” residents are to benefit. There are other things valuable not front and center for attention. The Alaska Railroad, it is one of those ready-made resources that belongs to us, courtesy of Uncle Sam’s generosity. When the Alaska Railroad went on the transfer block back in the late 80s, the state became the recipient of the entire railroad infrastructure built by the Federal government. And soon after the transfer was signed, sealed and delivered, for reasons that went against “transparency”, the state legislatures demanded that the Alaska Railroad be given secrecy, through its status as a “Corporation”. So the Alaska Railroad became an instrumentality of the state, as a “Private Corporation”. With that label, it was allowed to secure information in safekeeping and deny information requests that would have been normally available to able-minded citizens through this state’s “Open Public Records” mandate, like how the ARRC operates and with whom it associates itself with in day-to-day business dealings. See, the Alaska Railroad is not a self-motivated business entity, as it takes at least 50% funding from Uncle Sam to make ends meet – infusions that push into the $40-million dollar neighborhood. Get the point, this “Corporation” cannot turn a profit on its own, so relies on “welfare” to pay the bills. No big deal, except with no transparency, what bills are being paid? So around the turn of the millennia, well in 2005 there came a behind the scenes negotiation that is very suspicious, a deal with one of the rail’s main customers. OK, this rail is a small scale operation, with only two customers, which means even though the ARRC will not tell you about its customer base claiming it’s confidential - laughter - you have a 50% chance of getting it right by guessing. Joe Uselessbelli uses the rail to ship expensive coal to the interior ARMY bases and the Koch brothers use the same to transport cheap “imported” refined fuels, that which is sold to us like expensive coal. Supply and demand, competition, it sucks in Alaska! Now the IRS has some pretty good “Business” tax deduction incentives made available through the lobby. I don’t know why it is called a do-nothing Congress, as it appears the last three sessions have done a whole lot, for businesses! Anyway, the Alaska Railroad is “tax exempt” so it “assigns” the entire rail track infrastructure - totaling 685 miles of steel and spikes - to one of its customers. Let’s say that customer is indeed the Koch Brothers, through its Flint Hills Refinery association. So Mr. Koch hands over $4.8-million each year to the railroad bosses for purposes of taking advantage of the “maximum” IRS 45G tax incentive allowed and based on “track maintenance” expenditures. Now according to the existing “code”, Mr. Koch can realize a corporate tax deduction of 50% of the money he hands over to the ARRC to perform “Qualified Track Maintenance” – or $3500 bucks per mile. So right off the bat, Mr. Koch sees a savings of $2.4-million for what he handed over to Bill’s railroad. So the IRS thing works, up to this point. But wait, there’s more. For some reason so generous and said again suspicious, the ARRC thinks it owes Mr. Koch something in return his generosity, and gives this donor an additional “Transport Credit” of $2.7-Million. Now according to Phineas J. Whoopee and his 3DBB, Mr. Koch has saved $2.4-Million on corporate income taxes and at the same time received a credit worth $2.7-Million, and when added together, that equals a gain of $5.1-Million? So his $4.8-Million has made a “positive” gain and we see a clear cut case of “profiteering shelters”, right here in the Homeland “onshore”. Now Mr. Koch sees the benefit in shipping his costly gasoline, some $2.7-milion in credit, but he most likely does not claim this “benefit” as income, but as a “corporate gift”. Remember, it’s a credit and not an actual transfer of loot – very clever! And that gift can be directly handed off as a political donation, that covers the tax burden and provides the funny-money for advancing a selfish political agenda. Just look at the equation and ask yourself, why would the ARRC give a “Transport Credit” and cry out loud that this “credit” giveaway hurts its profits? It’s nothing short a political “kickback” scam and negotiated as a ways and means for the ARRC along with Bill and the rest of the board members to support its own political agenda, it is that simple as nothing else in the excuse bucket can justify this behavior. It just doesn’t make sense other than a clever scam at the citizens’ expense. The real sad fact of the matter, the Alaska Railroad is supposed to remain neutral and not become affiliated with a political party or agenda. That’s in their own damn law book! This scam, this scheme, it provides no useful outcome except a ways and means for the rail to funnel money where it doesn’t belong. The other really sad sack fact? Some of that money is funding from the U.S. Taxpayers through FTA grants! So the ARRC has found a ways and means to justify spending taxpayers’ loot, aiding and abetting in tax fraud, all for political reason! So yes, the IRS should be investigating such fraud, as when an entity can hide under protection of state, when it can hide behind a shield and forgo transparency and the board members takes it upon themselves to use this shield for political gains, then we have become victims of vampires and the blood sucking continues.

PS. This is the story the local Alaskan newspapers refused to publish and a complaint has been filed with the IRS.