Show us the money

By Susan Brittingham
Features Editor

May 10, 2008 01:25 pm

— Nearly $8 million is expected to hit McAlester banks and mailboxes in the next few weeks as people receive their economic stimulus payments from the Internal Revenue Service.
That’s according to marketing experts, who say there are 17,635 households in McAlester (as of 2007), and of those 17,233 have income less than $149,999, which means that 97.7 percent are eligible for economic stimulus payments.
If the average refund is $450, then the total payments received would be $7.5 million.
What will most of it be spent on?
Groceries seems to be the prevailing answer. All this week there have been longer lines in local grocery stores and parking lots are frequently full of cars.
One grocery store that has seen an increase in the number of shoppers is Allen’s IGA on Washington Avenue.
“I’m definitely going to buy groceries with mine,” Delphia Mize said Saturday morning at Allen’s IGA. “I lost about $400 worth of groceries in the ice storm, and this money is a blessing.
“When I heard we were going to get it, I got so happy and excited. And then I decided to spend about a $1,000 fixing my roof, which got damaged in the storm, and the rest of it is going on groceries.”
Mize said she is expecting to get back $1,800. The payments give up to $600 per adult, with a maximum of $1,200, and up to $300 for each dependent child.
But not everybody will be getting one of the checks. The IRS said that people who still owe back taxes and those who owe students loans or back child support will not receive a stimulus check.
To get a check, people must file a 2007 return, even if they did not work. Social Security Disability, retirement, low income workers, certain railroad retirees and those who receive certain benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs — who don’t don’t normally file — may receive a stimulus payment if they do.
The deadline for those filers is Oct. 15.
People in those categories can receive a payment of $300 ($600 if a joint return) if they had at least $3,000 of qualifying income.
Direct deposit checks are to be transmitted based upon the last two digits of the main tax filer’s Social Security number: 00 through 20 was May 2; 21-75 was Friday; and 76 through 99 is Friday.
Paper checks will be mailed out based upon the last two numbers of the Social Security number, also. Those payments are to begin Friday, with numbers 88 through 99 receiving their checks July 11.
For more information and to use the economic stimulus payment calculator to find out how much you qualify for, visit www.irs.gov.
Contact Susan Brittingham at 421-2029 or e-mail sbrittingham@mcalesternews.com.