If the end of the year came up too fast and you didn’t put any money in your child’s College Savings Iowa account, you can still do so and get a break when you file your state taxes. State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald says the rules that required you to get the contributions to the state program by the end of the year have changed.

“It was a made scramble, December 31st was the cutoff, had to be done by that date. But the legislature changed it just this past year — so now Iowans have the benefit of being able to wait until May 2nd this year when the tax filing deadline ends,” Fitzgerald says. “They can still make a contribution to their College Savings Iowa account and take that off their 2015 taxes.”

You don’t have to have an existing account to take advantage of the tax break. You can open a new account before the May 2nd deadline and deduct whatever you put in on your 2015 taxes. “It only takes 25 dollars to start a College Savings Iowa account. So, you can put money in and deduct it from your taxes this year,” Fitzgerald says. The maximum tax break for 2015 is three-thousand-163 dollars. Fitzgerald says you can double that if both parents have an account for their kids.

“A married couple with two children putting in the maximum amount could put in 12-thousand-752 dollars for their children and deduct that from their Iowa taxes this year,” Fitzgerald says. “So, it’s just a phenomenal tax break to help families send these kids to college.” The maximum amount you can deduct is adjust each year based on inflation — so you will be able to deduct a little more from your 2016 taxes.

)”Next year it will be three-thousand-188 dollars. It’s not much, but inflation hasn’t been much,” Fitzgerald says. Fitzgerald says you can easily create an account online. “Just log on to College Savings Iowa-dot-com. It’s very simple, just your name, your Social Security number, the child’s name the child’s Social Security number that you are saving for, and you’re in,” according to Fitzgerald.

He says you can start an account for a child as soon as they are born and let it build until they are ready for college. You can withdraw the funds from the account for qualified college expenses, such as tuition, books, supplies and room and board at any eligible college, university, community college or accredited technical training school in the United States or abroad.

(Radio Iowa)

The family of Kerrie Orozco, a native of Walnut who served as an Omaha police officer and who died in the line of duty last year, are scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama during the president’s visit to Omaha, today. The Omaha World-Herald reports Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer contacted Nebraska Democrat Rep. Brad Ashford last week to see if he could arrange the meeting. Ashford’s office then contacted the White House, which set up the meeting between Obama and Hector Orozco and his children, Natalia, Santiago and Olivia Ruth.

An attorney for Hector Orozco says Orozco hasn’t been told many details, but was looking forward to talking with the president. Orozco plans to hand the president a letter asking him to support the Kerrie Orozco Act. The bill, sponsored by Ashford, would speed the naturalization process for spouses, children and parents of first responders killed in the line of duty.

Current law allows an individual with a green card to immediately apply for citizenship if a spouse was a member of the military who died while in service. Ashford’s bill basically would offer first responders the same benefit. Representative David Young, a Republican who represents southwest and central Iowa, is one of the bill’s sponsors.

Hector Orozco came to the United States illegally in 1999 but has legal work status today, because of a visa issued in 2012. He was named a legal, permanent U.S. resident late last year. Absent a change in U.S. law, he now must wait five years to apply for citizenship. Ashford said Hector would have become a citizen quicker, had his wife lived.

Kerrie Orozco was 29 when she was shot and killed May 20th by a felon whom she and fellow fugitive task force officers were trying to arrest. She was killed on her last day of work before taking the remainder of her maternity leave to spend with Olivia Ruth. Her daughter had been born prematurely and was ready to be released from the hospital.

The letter to the president also will express Hector Orozco’s disappointment that the woman convicted of buying the gun that killed his wife was sentenced to one year probation instead of prison. In November, a federal judge in Atlanta sentenced 26-year old Jalita Johnson to one year of probation for lying when she bought the gun in April. Prosecutors said Johnson’s boyfriend, 26-year old Marcus Wheeler, a felon, gave her money and told her what to buy.

Wheeler fired nine rounds from the handgun. One shot struck Kerrie Orozco. Wheeler was killed when Sgt. Jeff Kopietz returned fire.