New tax issues for 2009

• Your stimulus payment from last year should not be included as income when you file your 2008 tax return. Most people received the maximum Economic Stimulus Payment in 2008. However, some people may be eligible for a first time credit or for a larger payment than they were eligible for last year. This amount is called a Recovery Rebate Credit . You'll need to have the amount of your Stimulus Payment from last year so you can figure out whether or not you're eligible for the Recovery Rebate Credit. Use this link to determine your amount from last year. https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/irfof/IRServlet?app=IRACTC&selectLanguage=en
• People have asked about claiming hurricane damage (apparently talking about it some in the media). They can use Form 4684 to claim. We have the form but not the instructions. Additional instructions are in Publication 547.

Checking Voting Records

I found an interesting website last night when looking for an individual member of Congress's voting record. The site is http://www.votesmart.org/. You can search by last name or zip code and then click on the right hand side for Voting Record. You can look at all or select a topic such as Abortion or Immigration. It lists the date, bill name, how the particular voted, and if the bill passed.

Tax Help 2009

There is a map for the various tax sites (both HPL and other locations around Houston) on the HPL Wiki at http://10.34.145.39/twiki/bin/view/HPL/TaxHelp. There is also a list and a link that allows you to search by zip code.

PBS Young Writers Contest

According to Sarah Worthen at Ring:

A commercial on PBS about the Reading Rainbow Young Writers Contest says to see your public librarian. You can print the application and rules off the website.

http://www.houstonpbs.org/houstonpbskids/contests.html

Christmas Tree Recycling

According to City Council Member Toni Lawrence:

Start the New Year by being green and by recycling your families Christmas tree Take your tree to one of the city of Houston’s 14 tree-recycling locations. From now until January 12^th, 2009, you can drop off your Christmas tree at one of 14 sites across the city. If you receive the City’s Automated Garbage Collection, you can also place tree at the curb on your scheduled tree waste/heavy trash collection day and it will be picked up for recycling. Decorations and stands must be removed. No flocked trees will be recycled.

This year’s drop off collection sites are:

Sunday-Saturday 9:00am-5:00pm

• Sunbeam Neighborhood Depository-5100Sunbeam
• Central Neighborhood Depository-2240 Central St.
• Kirkpatrick Neighborhood Depository-5565 Kirkpatrick
• Windfern Neighborhood Depository-6023 Windfern

Monday-Saturday 9:00am-5:00pm, Sunday 1:00pm-5:00pm

• Westpark Consumer Recycling Center-5900 Westpark
• Memorial Park, Ball Fields 4 and 5-7300 Memorial Drive
• T.C. Jester Park-4200 T.C. Jester West

Weekdays 9:00am-5:00pm, Saturday 9:00am-12:00pm, Closed Sunday

• Living Earth Technology-5625 Crawford
• Living Earth Technology-1503 Industrial Drive (Gessner and Hwy 90)
• CJM Soils Supermarket-1700 Highway 90A East
• CJM Soils Supermarket-12202 Cutten Road

Daily 9:00am-5:00pm

• Doss Park-2500 Frick Road

December Surveys

Please try to push the surveys on Wednesdays in December!

Frank Library

The Frank Neighborhood Library, located at 6440 West Bellfort, will be closed as of December 1, 2008, in preparation for a move to a new location.

The new location, which will be known as the Morris Frank Library, an HPL Express location, will open in the early Spring of 2009 and will be located in the Brays Oaks Towers, 10103 Fondren, 77096.