The people who are really going to get shafted is anyone who made under the cap for the goodie bag in 2006 and don't qualify in 2008. They'll get the rebate and then owe it back. I'm hoping that they will base it on the 2007 AGI (because I went be to work Jan 2,2008). In other words, the government cuts the check based on the 2006 return but then will adjust on the 2007 return. Then if the taxpayer makes ovr ethe threshold in 2007, they will owe it back in 2008. AcK! If the plan is this confusing how can it be good or even reasonable?

Hello Andre: You may need to change your terminology a bit. In Connecticut, at least, the manufacturer provides an "incentive"; the utility provides a "rebate"; and the feds provide a "tax incentive." I'd guess there are variations between states. When I was shopping, both Trane and Lennox were providing "Spring" incentives that expired. I think, on June 15th. The incentives were different with the type of equipment, but ranged from $500 to $1000 and were listed on the respective web sites of each company. The vendor, also provided an "incentive" in the form of 0 percent financing for 60 months. The Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund provides a $300 REBATE for a 15.0 SEER system, and a $500 REBATE for a 17+ SEER system. The SEER (system performance) rating is verified by the ARI. Both the energy fund and the ARI have information on their respective web sites. I would think that there is a PA Energy Fund equivalent. It should be listed on your utility's web site. The TAX INCENTIVE will be realized at the time of income tax filing using a form provided by the IRS.

hellonasty, I fell hard for the barcode tiles. When I found out the price, I told DH that we couldn't spend that much on tiles. So I looked for months and months. I went to every tile store in 150 miles. I brought home other samples. Nothing spoke to me. DH totally surprised me with a dozen of them for my birthday, and asked, "Will this be enough of them?" Yes, Yes, OMG Yes! I planned the whole backsplash around those tiles. All the rest of the tiles came in at under $100. The week at the wet saw cutting down the field tiles was so worth it.

Frances00, This probably should go under another thread but...I din't even think of illegal immigration. It would be nice to start a thread to see if we can get posters from EVERY state & tell us specific problems their state faces. Illegal immigration is of no or very little concern in the NE (my state is not affected much). We actually welcome immigrants. ok, I understand that too much of anything is not good for anybody-lol. I understand that the illegals is where it becomes too much. Immigrants provide good, cheap labor. No, they do not take jobs away from Americans. Not in this part of the country, anyway. Americans do NOT want to do manual labor, trust me. MY BIL has a businees & he would gladly employ an immigrant. He claims they work hard, they pay taxes & they deserve to send their kids to schools & have healthcare. The reason they don't have healthcare is because they don't make enough to afford it, or they work in the landscaping, or business that don't give them benefits... However, we have a unique problem in our state. We are bogged down by legal emigration. We have many people taking advantage of the state's wealthy give-away programs, therefore we have more people emigrating here & going on welfare & getting free healthcare. Regular, poor working stiffs don't qualify for the state's help, but fresh families arriving do. Go figure. We used to be a terrific MFG state. Now all the MFG moved out abroad or went out of business. While the factories were operating, we were recruiting mostly non-English speaking labor (Czeks, Poles, Puerto-ricans...etc). NOW we are stuck with people who don't speak English & don't work. The Europeans assimilated & moved on to other jobs & most became quite succesful. Many of them are small business owners. However, most of our Latino population(puerto-recans are US citizens) lagged behind, not learning the language, unskilled, hence not employable & more of their families keep coming to join them. They are eligible for all the benefits US has to offer. They tend to have large families, which burden the system. The schools are overcrowded, The kids are not disciplined etc. I guess when you have a lot of kids, it's hard to keep track of them. We keep plunking more money into certain schools without any progrees. After all, parents should start at home... We have a mess. Not speaking English their employability is limitied & in low wage jobs. Why should they work if our state is very generous? They are getting more free money than they would make working. Unfortunately, all our decent paying jobs have been outsourced. It's the Economy (lack of good paying jobs)that breeds laziness. If i had to work for $7/hr, I would prefer getting a larger FREE check from the state myself. The politicians really need to do soemthing about our good jobs going overseas!!! It's one thing to have a hard working population utilizing public schools, healthcare etc, and another thing to be paying for services to legal emigration that will never be productive... We'll switch our in-emigration with your immigration ;)