Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has charged Coppell-based American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. (AHMS) was  using illegal debt collection tactics and improperly misleading struggling homeowners.
According to state investigators, AHMS collections agents used aggressive and unlawful tactics to collect payments from Texas homeowners who had difficulty meeting their payment obligations. The defendant also failed to credit homeowners who properly submitted their payments on time.
In other cases, AHMS agents falsely claimed that homeowners did not make payments so the agents could justify profitable late fees or escrow accounts. The defendant also failed to properly credit homeowners after AHMS agents withdrew funds from the homeowners’ checking accounts. Because of the defendant’s unlawful conduct, homeowners defaulted on their loans, leading to foreclosure proceedings.
Additionally, the defendant claimed to have a “Home Retention Team” to assist distressed homeowners. Many customers found that AHMS could not qualify homeowners and that they were of no help to halt the foreclosure process. Some homeowners who actually obtained loan modifications found that their monthly payments increased rather than decreased, which worsened their problem with foreclosure.
This enforcement action charges AHMS with multiple violations of the Texas Debt Collection Act and the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA). The State is also seeking civil penalties of up to $20,000 per violation of the DTPA.

The City of Longview and Gregg County will receive a grant of $94,833 from the Department of Justice to help prevent crime based on local needs and conditions, according to U.S. Texas Senator John Cornyn. The funding comes through the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program (JAG).
“These funds will equip local law enforcement with the necessary resources to crack down on crime in the area,” said Cornyn. “Having the proper tools to fight crime is critical to keeping our communities safe, and I applaud the local leaders for working to secure this funding.”
The City of Longview and Gregg County Sherriff’s Office will use the funds to acquire essential law enforcement equipment, including new firearms, ballistic shields, and Tasers.

Although those with outstanding warrants may be arrested at any time, the city of Longview will be conducting an arrest sweep Friday, August 27 and Saturday, August 28.  The roundup will be to collect on outstanding warrants connected with overdue fines and tickets issued by the City of Longview.
The local Municipal Court has already mailed out warning letters to approximately 5700 local defendants in order to give them a last chance to pay off 10,372 outstanding warrants worth more than $3.8 million.  The tickets range in amounts from $70 parking tickets to $900 fines for failing to provide car insurance.  Municipal Court Administrator Sharon George says the city is giving offenders every chance to pay off before it is too late.
“As a result of our last warrant roundup in May we were able to clear or serve 299 warrants valued at $126,705,” she said.  “Also, two of the Municipal Court’s top ten were arrested, each with over 20 outstanding warrants.  We encourage everyone with an outstanding warrant to pay the fines as soon as possible to avoid an arrest.”
There are several options for paying fines.  Customers can pay by phone or obtain more information by calling (903) 237-1186, paying online costs an additional convenience fee, but can be done at LongviewTexas.gov, or payment can be made in person at the Municipal Court at 302 West Cotton Street, which also offers a drop box in the lobby.  Anyone attempting to resolve their cases before the sweep takes place will not be arrested at the court window.
Payments may be made in cash, money order or credit card.  Personal checks are not acceptable.  A photo ID is required of those paying in person.

Texas’ annual Sales Tax Holiday arrives this weekend, just in time for families to save money on clothes and supplies for the new school year.

“This is the 12th straight year in which families will take advantage of sales tax savings,” Texas Comptroller Susan Combs said. “This Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 20–22, shoppers can stock up on tax-free school supplies, school backpacks and most children’s and adults’ clothing and shoes priced at less than $100.”

To help families plan to make the most of the Sales Tax Holiday, lists of tax-free apparel and school supplies can be found on the Comptroller’s website at http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx98_490/tx98_490.html.

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs had announced that state sales tax revenue in July was $1.69 billion, up 2.2 percent compared to one year ago.

“Total monthly sales tax revenue has now exceeded year-ago levels for the last four months,” Combs said.  “Sales tax collections in major sectors such as retail trade, the oil and natural gas industry and construction are up from a year ago.  We are monitoring these sectors to see if collections are returning to consistent growth.”

She will send $556.3 million in August sales tax allocations to local governments, up 2.3 percent compared to August 2009.  However, sales tax allocations to local governments are down 2.5 percent compared to this time last year.

Furthermore, Combs will send sales tax payments of $375.5 million to Texas cities, up 2.2 percent compared to last August. Calendar year-to-date, city sales tax revenues trail 2009 by 2.2 percent.  Sales tax payments of $33.7 million will go to Texas counties, 0.2 percent below last August.  So far in calendar year 2010, county sales tax allocations are down 5.6 percent compared to last year.

In addition, $23.5 million in sales tax revenue goes to 169 special purpose taxing districts, up 11.1 percent compared to August 2009.  Ten local transit systems will receive $123.5 million, up 1.6 percent compared to a year ago.

For details of August sales tax payments to individual cities, counties, transit systems and special purpose districts, locate the Monthly Sales and Use Tax Allocation Comparison Summary Reports on the Comptroller’s Web site at www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/allocsum/compsum.html.

Due to the Labor Day holiday, the Comptroller’s next sales tax allocation will be delayed until Monday, Sept.13.

Back-to-school means different things for different families. In Texas, this time of year brings the traditional joys of watching our youth put on football pads to engage in friendly, but serious competition. That same competitive spirit also should be encouraged in the classroom.

As the new academic year gets underway, remember parents and grandparents are our children’s greatest coaches and teammates. Encouraging our kids to stay in school, excel in their studies and pursue higher education not only benefits them as individuals, but also all of Texas.

Dr. Ray Perryman, a nationally recognized economist, concluded that through the enrollment and graduation of an additional 630,000 college students by 2015, Texas will experience an increase in total expenditures throughout the economy of $489 billion; an increase in the state’s Gross Domestic Product of $149 billion; and an increase in personal income of $122 billion. The good news is, we are getting close to meeting this goal. Since the year 2000, we’ve increased college enrollment in Texas by 401,000.

Texas’ current economic climate, which has received rave reviews in Fortune Magazine and CNN, can also be attributed to our educated and hard-working, results-driven workforce. As we send our children back to school this fall, let’s remind them that competing in the classroom is as important as competing on the field. Valuable life lessons are learned in the classroom and on the field of play, and good grades are a win-win for all Texans.

According to IRS, one lesson you may want to learn before cracking a book this fall is that under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), more parents and students will qualify for a tax credit, the American Opportunity Credit, to pay for college expenses.

This credit modifies the existing Hope credit for tax years 2009 and 2010, making it available to a broader range of taxpayers, including many with higher incomes and those who owe no tax. It also adds required course materials to the list of qualifying expenses and allows the credit to be claimed for four post-secondary education years instead of two. Many of those eligible will qualify for the maximum annual credit of $2,500 per student.

The full credit is available to individuals whose modified adjusted gross income is $80,000 or less, or $160,000 or less for married couples filing a joint return. The credit is phased out for taxpayers with incomes above these levels. These income limits are higher than under the existing Hope and Lifetime Learning Credits.

The American Opportunity Credit can mean more money in your pocket with regard to your tax return.

“You will be able to reduce your tax liability one dollar for each dollar of credit for which you’re eligible,” said Clay Sanford, Dallas-based IRS spokesman. “If the amount of the American opportunity tax credit for which you’re eligible is more than your tax liability, then the amount of the credit that is more than your tax liability is refundable to you–up to a maximum refund of 40 percent of the amount of the credit for which you’re eligible.”

Visit IRS.gov to find more information about the American Opportunity Credit and other tax benefits for education.

By Kelly Bell

For the past 24 years Leadership Tyler has toiled to produce leaders who can and will guide the Rose City into a profitable and happy future.  The organization has now announced the choice of Colleen Colby as its new executive director.  She will be replacing outgoing director Cindy Klein, who served in this capacity since 2004 and has now accepted a position with Mentoring Minds.

“I feel privileged to be selected for this opportunity to work with people who are so committed to leadership,” she said.  “I am delighted to be part of this historic organization as we approach Leadership Tyler’s 25th anniversary.  My plans are to work with the team to continue to offer insightful programs for leaders in the community.”

She was still living in Maryland when she became interested in and applied for membership in the organization.

“The first people I met when I moved to Texas were people in my Leadership Tyler class,” she said.

Leadership Tyler Board of Directors President Joan Andrews is also delighted to have Colby on board.

“We are very excited to have someone with Colleen’s skills and leadership experience to lead our organization,” she said.

By working with several companies Colby became very experienced in development, training, education and communications.  Her last post was with PBS&J.  In the U.S. Navy she served as a journalist with the rank of second class petty officer aboard the USS Puget Sound off Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War.  She took an executive MBA from the University of Delaware, a B.A. in mass communications and political science Pennsylvania’s Bloomsburg University, and even went to Holland to attend international business school.

Her community service record includes Wilmington, Delaware’s Habitat for Humanity, Junior Achievement, Wilmington Food Bank, Delaware Children’s Museum, East Texas CASA, Discovery Science Place Museum, South Tyler Rotary, Tyler Executive Women’s Network, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America, and Leadership Tyler Class 21.

On top of all her other achievements, Colby is an athlete.  She is a runner who has competed in multiple races, twice participating in the grueling New York City Marathon.  She still manages to find time for her husband and three children.

By U.S. Sen. John Cornyn

Nearly 130 years ago this month, a larger than life figure with a colorful past and an unorthodox set of principles became the first justice of the peace to serve in the lawless country between the Pecos and Rio Grande. Dubbing himself the “Law West of the Pecos,” Roy Bean was appointed as justice of Pecos County on August 2, 1882, leaving a trail of questionable encounters and his own narrow escapes from the law behind him.

To this day, the line between fact and fiction in the life of Roy Bean remains blurred. According to most accounts, Roy was born in Mason County, Kentucky in 1825 to Francis and Anna Bean. He left home as a teenager to join his brother Samuel driving oxen down the Santa Fe Trail to Chihuahua, Mexico. The Bean brothers began working as traders in Chihuahua, but Roy soon got into trouble and fled to San Diego, where his brother Joshua served as mayor and was well respected among the residents. In 1851, Joshua was appointed major general of the state militia and relocated to San Gabriel.

In February 1852, Roy was thrown into jail after a duel, but he managed to escape and moved swiftly to join his brother in San Gabriel. Joshua owned a general store and the Headquarters Saloon there, which Roy inherited after his brother’s murder in November 1852. With jet black hair and a fair complexion, Roy was considered attractive and well-dressed, once even described as “handsome as an Adonis.” In San Gabriel, Roy quickly used his looks and charms to his advantage, trying his luck with gambling and cockfighting, and winning the attention of many local ladies. Roy was known to carry two revolvers in his belt and a bowie knife secured in one of his boots.

Trouble soon found Roy again, and after several duels, Roy was once again forced to flee the region in the late 1850s. Roy was eventually reunited with Samuel in Mesilla, New Mexico, where Samuel served as sheriff. The brothers soon continued the family trend and opened a saloon, which flourished until the Civil War reached the Rio Grande Valley.

Roy then moved to San Antonio and earned a reputation for his sly ability to escape creditors and the law; a portion of South Flores Street became known as “Beanville” in his honor. In 1866, he married Virginia Chavez, with whom he had four children. Their marriage was short-lived, however, and in 1882 Roy traveled west with the men building the Sunset railroad. He eventually made his way to Vinegarroon, just west of the Pecos, where he set up a ‘tent saloon’ and found the railroad workers to have a steady appetite for the whiskey he peddled.

With lawlessness running rampant in the region, as was typical to the end of any railroad tracks, Texas Rangers were called in. They determined a local justice of the peace was needed to bring order to the region and also save them from making the 400-mile round trip required to deliver prisoners to the Pecos County seat at Fort Stockton. Roy had earned the respect of the Rangers and was officially appointed as justice by Pecos County commissioners in 1882. He would go on to serve in that capacity, with at least two interruptions, for the next 20 years.

A December 1882 article in the San Antonio Weekly Express described Roy as “generous, brave, courteous, and a keen lover of fun. He holds court anywhere and carries a pocketful of blank warrants, one of which he will fill out and sign at a minute’s notice.” The same article painted a colorful picture of his leadership style: “Recently his honor got very drunk and wanted to run things. ‘I’m the law here,’ he cried, jerking out his six-shooter, ‘and if anybody don’t like it, they better hide out, for I’ve got my war paint on, and when Old Roy gets his paint on, he’s hell.’” Still, Roy was respected for bringing order to the region, albeit by questionable means. On one occasion, when a man fell off a bridge and died, Roy fined the corpse for the same amount he had been carrying when he was found – $40. Roy figured that money would cover the funeral expenses. While he was known to intimidate, cheat and make up the rules as he went, he never hanged anyone during his tenure. Roy passed away in his saloon on March 16, 1903. He is interred at the Whitehead Memorial Museum in Del Rio.

Today Judge Roy Bean remains a fixture in Texas and American folklore, even serving as the subject of the Oscar-nominated 1970s film, The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, starring Paul Newman as Bean. While billed as a fictitious account, the film was fitted with a tagline that probably best summarizes the colorful life and legacy of Roy Bean: “If this story ain’t true… it shoulda been.”

Sources:“Judge Roy Bean Country,” by Jack Skiles; Texas State Historical Association

By Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott

When a company closes down unexpectedly, its customers often turn to the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) for help recovering up-front layaway payments and merchandise that was never delivered. In addition to filing a complaint with the OAG, Texans should take independent steps to protect themselves when a retailer suddenly goes out of business.

The most important step is simple. Customers should always maintain meticulous records of every transaction. Invoices, sales receipts, credit card slips, sales representatives’ names and other documentation are vitally important to recovering refunds or merchandise.

Whenever possible, customers should pay for goods only after the products are delivered. If a vendor requires an up-front payment, customers should try to negotiate the deposit down to the lowest possible amount.

Customers contemplating a large purchase should avoid paying with cash and instead use credit cards to make large deposits or payments. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act and certain credit card companies’ chargeback rules, financial institutions can usually provide refunds to customers whose purchases are not delivered.

Before disputing a credit card purchase, customers should attempt to resolve the problem with the actual retailer. Customers should outline their complaint in a certified letter to the merchant and save copies of all correspondence.

If the retailer fails to respond, customers should contact their credit card company, formally dispute the charge and provide the issuer with a copy of the dispute letter. To be eligible for protection under the Fair Credit Billing Act, customers must dispute a credit card charge within 60 days. The credit card issuer likely will attempt to contact the merchant to determine whether the customer is owed a refund.

In the event a company declares bankruptcy, customers become creditors who may be paid after the business liquidates its assets. The bankruptcy court is charged with overseeing which creditors get paid first based upon the order of priority in the bankruptcy code. Bankrupt companies typically pay their debts first to “secured” creditors, and only later to ordinary creditors (such as customers).

To protect their rights in a bankruptcy proceeding, customers must complete a Proof of Claim form and file it with the bankruptcy court. Customers should ask whether the court has appointed a trustee. Bankruptcy trustees are responsible for attempting to pay the bankrupt company’s creditors – including customers.

Unfortunately, there are few guarantees that customers who are owed money by a suddenly-shuttered company will receive a refund. Customers who are owed large amounts of money should consider contacting a private attorney regarding their individual legal rights.

Customers may also file a complaint against the company with the Office of the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division. While the OAG cannot take legal action on behalf of private individuals, the agency is empowered to enforce state law, and some enforcement actions do produce restitution for individuals.

Points To Remember

When a Company Goes Out of Business

. Maintain careful records of all transactions.
. Make a good-faith effort to resolve the dispute with the merchant.
. Dispute charges for undelivered merchandise in writing.
. Contact the credit card company to dispute charges.
. File a Proof of Claim if the company declares bankruptcy.

The Federal Trade Commission enforces the Fair Credit Billing Act for most creditors. To file a complaint or receive free information on consumer issues, contact:
Federal Trade Commission at (877) FTC-HELP, www.ftc.gov

For or information call 1.800.252.8011 or visit www.texasattorneygeneral.gov