At our last Indivisible meeting, it was reported that you didn't attend the Town Hall in Oxford.
Instead you attended a country club luncheon in the same town. The same person who reported on your luncheon said that during your remarks, you stated that you had no intention of meeting with these Indivisible people.
First of all, I'd like to know if your luncheon was at noon, why didn't you attend the Town Hall at 6p?
Second, is what was reported true? Did you say you have no intention of meeting with those Indivisible people?
In closing, let me say this: There is much talk about both you and Thad not being accessible to the people at a Town Hall event.
We are closely monitoring the healthcare legislation. So far, as we see it, only Bennie Thompson needs to be re-elect. How the Republican Party is handling healthcare is unAmerican. This is not who we are as a people. We take care of each other. I'm not asking you to be a Democrat when it comes to healthcare. I'm asking you to be an American and to do your job.
Sent to Senator Roger Wicker.
Friday, May 5, 2017
It really makes me mad...
I don't really know if I am more mad about that outrageous healthcare bill or mad at Tunica County. There's a good chance it's a bit of both. Let's take the later first.
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the current Director of Tunica County Parks and Recreation. And that is an understatement.
I recently learned the Director of the Tunica County Parks and Recreation (P&R) is going to be the new Alderman from Ward #5 in the Town of Tunica. To be clear the Director job is full-time, pays $96,000 plus benefits and P&R is the second largest department in our County government.
It is my opinion, backed up with many hours of research, that P&R does not meet the needs of all of the citizens of our County. There is much work to be done at P&R and we don't need our Director's attention to be elsewhere.
A study conducted by and paid for by the County (Sennis 2012) found that the director position at P&R is being over paid by approximately $23,000.
More than a few times, I have written reports and presented to the Tunica County Board of Supervisors ideas and requests for a more robust Senior Citizen's program that would include activities that would be of interest to white Seniors in our County. I have written about male/female discrimination; pay inequities; safe drains and programs. To name just a few. These reports date all the way back to 5 May 2005. That's 12 years ago today. I've been at it a long time.
So, when I heard the news that the P&R Director was taking a part-time job, it really made me mad on so many levels.
1. The Tunica County Employee Handbook contains a Moonlighting clause. The clause requires pre-approval by the Board of Supervisors before employees take an outside job. Did the BOS pre-approve this outside job for the Director of P&R? If they did, they have set a terrible president.
2. Who in P&R is going to be taking up the slack while the Director is away working his part-time job? How can that possibly be fair to employees at P&R?
3. Amid all of the congratulations on FB for the Director of P&R, I raised my concern. Of course there was push back. There is always push back. Push back doesn't bother me. If it did, why would I bother writing this blog? What bothers me is the lack of critical thinking about how this situation would work.
Among those pushing back was the Supervisor from Beat 4. Now, correct me if I am mis-characterizing what you said Sonny, but you said you hoped the new Ward #5 Alderman would help you resolve some of your personal issues with the Town. I said you are wrong. Why are you wrong? Because it would mean that an employee of the Tunica County Board of Supervisors would be using a County Employee for his own personal benefit. I really hate it when I have to stand-up against you Sonny but there it is. What are you going to do if he doesn't accomplish your goals? Fire him?
4. Has the suit between the Town and the County been resolved? If not, this is a huge problem. Or as 45 would say, "A YUGE PROBLEM". 45 is such an embarrassment to our nation. Anyway...
As I see it, the biggest problem in Tunica County is ego. Isn't the reason we have so many facilities with bonds on their backs because of ego? The Supervisors who were responsible thought they were too smart to do any feasibility studies. To me that's ego. What about those three manufacturing plants? It was a good thing for one of their friends to sell some land but was it a good idea to forgive taxes for people and companies who have no loyalty to us? Ego. And what about that airport? BIG EGO!!
So, what's this part-time job about anyway? I say it's all about ego. It isn't about people. It's about ego.
Wouldn't it be better to find an up and coming young person to fill the Ward #5 Alderman position? Shouldn't we be about growing people rather than consolidating power? Will Tunica ever learn from their past mistakes?
Maybe I'll get to the outrageous Republican healthcare bill later. Talk about ego!!! YUGE EGO!!! Right now it's time to drink some coffee and do a little knitting.
Anybody want to buy a house?
Full disclosure: I am not a fan of the current Director of Tunica County Parks and Recreation. And that is an understatement.
I recently learned the Director of the Tunica County Parks and Recreation (P&R) is going to be the new Alderman from Ward #5 in the Town of Tunica. To be clear the Director job is full-time, pays $96,000 plus benefits and P&R is the second largest department in our County government.
It is my opinion, backed up with many hours of research, that P&R does not meet the needs of all of the citizens of our County. There is much work to be done at P&R and we don't need our Director's attention to be elsewhere.
A study conducted by and paid for by the County (Sennis 2012) found that the director position at P&R is being over paid by approximately $23,000.
More than a few times, I have written reports and presented to the Tunica County Board of Supervisors ideas and requests for a more robust Senior Citizen's program that would include activities that would be of interest to white Seniors in our County. I have written about male/female discrimination; pay inequities; safe drains and programs. To name just a few. These reports date all the way back to 5 May 2005. That's 12 years ago today. I've been at it a long time.
So, when I heard the news that the P&R Director was taking a part-time job, it really made me mad on so many levels.
1. The Tunica County Employee Handbook contains a Moonlighting clause. The clause requires pre-approval by the Board of Supervisors before employees take an outside job. Did the BOS pre-approve this outside job for the Director of P&R? If they did, they have set a terrible president.
2. Who in P&R is going to be taking up the slack while the Director is away working his part-time job? How can that possibly be fair to employees at P&R?
3. Amid all of the congratulations on FB for the Director of P&R, I raised my concern. Of course there was push back. There is always push back. Push back doesn't bother me. If it did, why would I bother writing this blog? What bothers me is the lack of critical thinking about how this situation would work.
Among those pushing back was the Supervisor from Beat 4. Now, correct me if I am mis-characterizing what you said Sonny, but you said you hoped the new Ward #5 Alderman would help you resolve some of your personal issues with the Town. I said you are wrong. Why are you wrong? Because it would mean that an employee of the Tunica County Board of Supervisors would be using a County Employee for his own personal benefit. I really hate it when I have to stand-up against you Sonny but there it is. What are you going to do if he doesn't accomplish your goals? Fire him?
4. Has the suit between the Town and the County been resolved? If not, this is a huge problem. Or as 45 would say, "A YUGE PROBLEM". 45 is such an embarrassment to our nation. Anyway...
As I see it, the biggest problem in Tunica County is ego. Isn't the reason we have so many facilities with bonds on their backs because of ego? The Supervisors who were responsible thought they were too smart to do any feasibility studies. To me that's ego. What about those three manufacturing plants? It was a good thing for one of their friends to sell some land but was it a good idea to forgive taxes for people and companies who have no loyalty to us? Ego. And what about that airport? BIG EGO!!
So, what's this part-time job about anyway? I say it's all about ego. It isn't about people. It's about ego.
Wouldn't it be better to find an up and coming young person to fill the Ward #5 Alderman position? Shouldn't we be about growing people rather than consolidating power? Will Tunica ever learn from their past mistakes?
Maybe I'll get to the outrageous Republican healthcare bill later. Talk about ego!!! YUGE EGO!!! Right now it's time to drink some coffee and do a little knitting.
Anybody want to buy a house?
Thursday, May 4, 2017
Turning MS BLUE
It's time for MS to vote for our best interests and that means repealing and replacing all Republicans with Democrats. It's a tall order but together we can do it.
Who represents MS in Congress:
2nd District
Democrat
Since Apr 13, 1993
Next election 2018
Re-elect Bennie
Junior Senator
Republican
Since Dec 31, 2007
Next Election in 2018
Must be replaced
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
Sweetheart deals hurt state's economy.....
Below is an article from Wyatt Emmerich. I've read some of Emmerich's work on MS's attempts to attract business to our State. I agree with Emmerich but I would go a step further by asking: Why is MS a Red State? Why do we keep voting against ourselves? Why do we vote Republican?
"Wouldn't you love to sell something for $50 million and only be required to pay back $5 million if you failed to deliver? What a deal!
That's the deal Yokohama Tire negotiated with the state of Mississippi. It's the standard 'clawback' provision in Mississippi mega-deal industrial recruitment packages.
The clawback formula from the Yokohama Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by our governor is as follows: a - (1 - b/450) x .1.
Most people just ignore math formulas. Perhaps the experts at the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) ignored this one. I wonder if our governor understands the formula.
But the .1 is very crucial. It means, if Yokohama fails to meet their employment goals, they only have to give 10 percent of the state money back.
State grants for the Starkville Yokohama plant totaled about $50 million. As it stands now, the Yokohama plant has 411 employees, 18 percent short of their promised 500.
When the deal was announced, the promoters touted 2,000 jobs after "Phase Two" but don't count on it. The company loses none of it's grants or subsidies by failing to implement Phase Two. The software industry calls such promises 'vaporware'. Yokohama Phase Two is a vapor plant.
One would imagine a clawback provision would be dollar for dollar. That is, if they missed their employment goal by 18 percent, Yokohama would have to return 18 percent of the state grant money. That would be $9 million returned to the state of Mississippi.
That's where the '.1' cones in. Using the clawback formula, the amount of money that has to be returned is multiplied by .1, which means the clawback money is $430,000 rather than $4.3 million, shorting the state $4 million dollars.
That's a great deal for Yokohama but a terrible deal for Mississippi taxpayers.
The question to ask: What is the point of adding the .1 multiplier to the clawback equation?
That's not a real clawback. That's a 10 percent clawback.
You would never in a million years see a bank or private financing entity agree to such a clawback provision. Only a governmental entity could negotiate such an absurd provision.
The introductory 'Recital' portion of the Yokohama MOU, states: 'The initial phase is expected to result in the employment of at least 500 new full-time jobs and is expected to require an initial capital investment by the company and its affiliates of at least three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000.)'
I call this the PR portion of the agreement. This is what the MDA and (the) governor use in their press conferences touting the plant.
But when you look at the actual formula, it's 450 jobs used in the formula, not 500 claimed in the recital. Not a big difference, but the question is why? It's just one more way of weakening the clawback provision and reducing accountability.
Notice the recital says 'full-time jobs'. But the MOU defines a full-time job as 35 hours a week, not the customary 40 hours. Yet another deception in favor of Yokohama.
Yokohama is required by the agreement to spend $300 million, but enforcement section only requires Yokohama to spend $70 million on the 'Project' including 'land, buildings and depreciable fixed assets'. Confusing, to say the least.
And if there is any dispute, Yokohama only has to pay one percent interest on the disputed money until it is resolved.
Even worse, there is no mandatory audit of Yokohama to ensure they are meeting their required investment and job creation. Instead, any audit of Yokohama is optional.
The MOU states: 'Within thirty days following written request of the State, Office of State Auditor, the City or County (but not more than once a year), the Company will provide reasonable verification of it's compliance with the Initial Jobs Maintenance Commitment and the Initial Investment Commitment'.
This is the state equivalent of 'don't ask, don't tell'. Yokohama is not required to submit a performance audit, rather it is up to various governmental entities to 'request' the information. That's fraught with political overtones. A few well-placed political contributions could make sure no such request was ever made.
The contract language seems to favor the company over taxpayers every step of the way.
The meat of the favoritism comes in tax exemption section. In a nutshell, Yokohama gets a free pass on just about every local and state tax imaginable: income taxes, franchise taxes, sales taxes, use taxes, withholding taxes, property taxes, inventory taxes, accelerated depreciation ... you name it!
My back-to-back envelope estimates of the tax savings per year is $2.1 million in property tax savings, $750,000 in franchise tax savings, $600,000 in state income tax savings and probably another million a year in a variety of other tax savings. That amounts to $269 million in tax breaks over 20 years plus the $50 million in state grants for a grand total of a $319 million dollar subsidy of the Yokohama Tire plant in West Point.
Three years after the deal was signed, the plant has 411 employees. If you divide the $319 million in subsidies by 411, that's $776,155 per job. On an annual basis, the state of Mississippi is losing $38,807 in tax revenue each year per Yokohama job.
If this is our state government's plan to boost our state economy, it would be more efficient to just hold a free lottery, randomly choose 411 lucky winners and then pay them $38,807 a year for 20 years.
The problem here is politicians spending other people's money. Gov. Bryant would never have signed this deal if it was his personal money. No bank or private company would have agreed to this deal with Yokohama.
This type of corporate welfare makes the governor and the MDA look like they are doing a great service to our State when in fact they are damaging our economy. The subsidized companies are able to outbid taxpaying companies for a limited supply of skilled labor.
After a decade of these mega-deal giveaways, Mississippi is suffering its lowest growth in 50 years. Giving a handful of companies $750,000 per job is not only unfair to all the other employees in the state, it's a failure as a jobs growth policy.
Each year like clockwork a mega-deal such as Yokohama goes down for about $300 million a pop. Is it any wonder our state is running out of money and cannot maintain our schools and roads?
Instead of these unfair sweetheart mega-deal, we need a pro business state tax code that favors all job growth equally for companies both big and small, foreign and homegrown".
Thanks again to Wyatt Emmerich for this article.
In Tunica County, we have 3 of these "sweetheart deals". One of the three is already defunct. How many of these revenue draining companies does your County have?
Wake-up Mississippi. It is time to vote every Republican out.
"Wouldn't you love to sell something for $50 million and only be required to pay back $5 million if you failed to deliver? What a deal!
That's the deal Yokohama Tire negotiated with the state of Mississippi. It's the standard 'clawback' provision in Mississippi mega-deal industrial recruitment packages.
The clawback formula from the Yokohama Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by our governor is as follows: a - (1 - b/450) x .1.
Most people just ignore math formulas. Perhaps the experts at the Mississippi Development Authority (MDA) ignored this one. I wonder if our governor understands the formula.
But the .1 is very crucial. It means, if Yokohama fails to meet their employment goals, they only have to give 10 percent of the state money back.
State grants for the Starkville Yokohama plant totaled about $50 million. As it stands now, the Yokohama plant has 411 employees, 18 percent short of their promised 500.
When the deal was announced, the promoters touted 2,000 jobs after "Phase Two" but don't count on it. The company loses none of it's grants or subsidies by failing to implement Phase Two. The software industry calls such promises 'vaporware'. Yokohama Phase Two is a vapor plant.
One would imagine a clawback provision would be dollar for dollar. That is, if they missed their employment goal by 18 percent, Yokohama would have to return 18 percent of the state grant money. That would be $9 million returned to the state of Mississippi.
That's where the '.1' cones in. Using the clawback formula, the amount of money that has to be returned is multiplied by .1, which means the clawback money is $430,000 rather than $4.3 million, shorting the state $4 million dollars.
That's a great deal for Yokohama but a terrible deal for Mississippi taxpayers.
The question to ask: What is the point of adding the .1 multiplier to the clawback equation?
That's not a real clawback. That's a 10 percent clawback.
You would never in a million years see a bank or private financing entity agree to such a clawback provision. Only a governmental entity could negotiate such an absurd provision.
The introductory 'Recital' portion of the Yokohama MOU, states: 'The initial phase is expected to result in the employment of at least 500 new full-time jobs and is expected to require an initial capital investment by the company and its affiliates of at least three hundred million dollars ($300,000,000.)'
I call this the PR portion of the agreement. This is what the MDA and (the) governor use in their press conferences touting the plant.
But when you look at the actual formula, it's 450 jobs used in the formula, not 500 claimed in the recital. Not a big difference, but the question is why? It's just one more way of weakening the clawback provision and reducing accountability.
Notice the recital says 'full-time jobs'. But the MOU defines a full-time job as 35 hours a week, not the customary 40 hours. Yet another deception in favor of Yokohama.
Yokohama is required by the agreement to spend $300 million, but enforcement section only requires Yokohama to spend $70 million on the 'Project' including 'land, buildings and depreciable fixed assets'. Confusing, to say the least.
And if there is any dispute, Yokohama only has to pay one percent interest on the disputed money until it is resolved.
Even worse, there is no mandatory audit of Yokohama to ensure they are meeting their required investment and job creation. Instead, any audit of Yokohama is optional.
The MOU states: 'Within thirty days following written request of the State, Office of State Auditor, the City or County (but not more than once a year), the Company will provide reasonable verification of it's compliance with the Initial Jobs Maintenance Commitment and the Initial Investment Commitment'.
This is the state equivalent of 'don't ask, don't tell'. Yokohama is not required to submit a performance audit, rather it is up to various governmental entities to 'request' the information. That's fraught with political overtones. A few well-placed political contributions could make sure no such request was ever made.
The contract language seems to favor the company over taxpayers every step of the way.
The meat of the favoritism comes in tax exemption section. In a nutshell, Yokohama gets a free pass on just about every local and state tax imaginable: income taxes, franchise taxes, sales taxes, use taxes, withholding taxes, property taxes, inventory taxes, accelerated depreciation ... you name it!
My back-to-back envelope estimates of the tax savings per year is $2.1 million in property tax savings, $750,000 in franchise tax savings, $600,000 in state income tax savings and probably another million a year in a variety of other tax savings. That amounts to $269 million in tax breaks over 20 years plus the $50 million in state grants for a grand total of a $319 million dollar subsidy of the Yokohama Tire plant in West Point.
Three years after the deal was signed, the plant has 411 employees. If you divide the $319 million in subsidies by 411, that's $776,155 per job. On an annual basis, the state of Mississippi is losing $38,807 in tax revenue each year per Yokohama job.
If this is our state government's plan to boost our state economy, it would be more efficient to just hold a free lottery, randomly choose 411 lucky winners and then pay them $38,807 a year for 20 years.
The problem here is politicians spending other people's money. Gov. Bryant would never have signed this deal if it was his personal money. No bank or private company would have agreed to this deal with Yokohama.
This type of corporate welfare makes the governor and the MDA look like they are doing a great service to our State when in fact they are damaging our economy. The subsidized companies are able to outbid taxpaying companies for a limited supply of skilled labor.
After a decade of these mega-deal giveaways, Mississippi is suffering its lowest growth in 50 years. Giving a handful of companies $750,000 per job is not only unfair to all the other employees in the state, it's a failure as a jobs growth policy.
Each year like clockwork a mega-deal such as Yokohama goes down for about $300 million a pop. Is it any wonder our state is running out of money and cannot maintain our schools and roads?
Instead of these unfair sweetheart mega-deal, we need a pro business state tax code that favors all job growth equally for companies both big and small, foreign and homegrown".
Thanks again to Wyatt Emmerich for this article.
In Tunica County, we have 3 of these "sweetheart deals". One of the three is already defunct. How many of these revenue draining companies does your County have?
Wake-up Mississippi. It is time to vote every Republican out.
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
And yet....
On Senator Roger Wicker's website, he has this to say about education:
"I am the father of three children who graduated from the Tupelo public school system and went on to public universities, and my wife works for the University of Mississippi. I understand the important role education plays in our children’s futures and in our state’s economic development, and I believe education should be a top priority for any elected official."
And yet, Wicker voted to confirm Betsy DeVos.
And let's not forget, our hypocrite of a Vice President, Pence, broke the tie. Don't tell me you are pro-life when you vote against children. You may be anti-abortion but you are not pro-life.
And let's not forget, our hypocrite of a Vice President, Pence, broke the tie. Don't tell me you are pro-life when you vote against children. You may be anti-abortion but you are not pro-life.
Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Enough already...
The following is a guest column that appeared in the Clarion-Ledger. Malone answers what has been rolling around in my head for a good bit of time. Why is MS the poorest state in the nation? Why do we keep voting for people who are not progressive to our needs? Why do we have such a poor national reputation? Why are we putting up with this kind of behavior from those we elect? When will will say enough is enough?
I love Mississippi. It's where I was born, raised, and educated. It's where I lived for most of my life. I beam with pride when I think about the wonderful people in my home state.
Mississippi boasts some of the friendliest people you will ever meet anywhere in America: people who would give you the coat off of their backs in your most dire time of need.
I love this state. This is why I fight so hard to see progress in Mississippi. It's because I know our potential for greatness, and how we can and should aspire to be the best of what America has to offer.
In my personal journey in the fight for fairness, equality and progress, I've come to a stark conclusion. It hurts me to say this, but our governor is hurting our state. Governor Phil Bryant is single-handedly preventing our state from progressing and moving forward.
Those of us who have lived in Mississippi know the magnitude of what our state has to offer. We know about the culture, the food, the music and the unforgettable life experiences that have molded and shaped us into who we are; and we could not have had those experiences anywhere but here.
But people outside our state don't know our story.
It's the governor's job to tell the story of Mississippi, while leading the state forward to create progress and opportunity for Mississippians. It's his job to present the narrative of Mississippi in the best light possible, putting our collective best foot forward in order to attract companies and corporations to come do business with Mississippi and bring jobs to our state.
To do this, it's important that our state has a positive aura, a confident and constructive outlook and a polished image that says to the rest of the country and the world that Mississippi is open and we are ready to work with you.
Bryant has utterly failed to represent Mississippi at our best. Instead, he has almost become the walking stereotype of every negative stigma associated with our state.
In 2015, after Dylann Roof posed with Confederate flags and then proceeded to murder innocent people inside a black church in South Carolina, then-Governor Nikki Haley used that instance as a teachable moment to tell the residents of her state that it was time to let go of the racism of the past and move forward.
Former Governor Haley led at the forefront of the movement for change. That change was a shining example to the rest of the world that yes, America has dark spots in our history; but we are willing to shine the light and erase the darkness of our past in exchange for the bright future of tomorrow.
This was an epic period in American history, and no matter what Haley does for the rest of her life, she will forever be remembered for her sterling leadership that helped to bring healing to our nation.
Because they welcomed positive change, South Carolina has been rewarded many times over. Corporations that previously refused to do business in the state have now dropped their embargo and have moved into South Carolina, providing jobs for many.
But even though Bryant has seen the positive outcome that came to South Carolina when they lowered the Confederate symbol, he has stubbornly remained steadfast as a blockade in Mississippi's road to progress.
Mississippi has the unfortunate distinction of being the poorest state in America. We cannot afford to drive business away. We must make our state as hospitable as possible for corporations and companies to bring jobs here.
In a state that has such a torrid history when it comes to slavery, why would Governor Bryant seek to use every possible moment for progress to instead brandish his stubborn refusal to let go of a mantle that was worn by those who endeavored to prolong suffering and racism and hatred towards American citizens?
One would think that our governor would be eager to run away from such a dark history; but it's just the opposite. It seems that he fully embraces it.
Bryant has yet again declared April to be Confederate Heritage Month, even though it has been well documented that the Confederate symbol has been used as a banner for bigots, racists and murderers.
We learned this month that the governor is a card-carrying member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group that does not realize that they are quickly becoming relics of the past.
It's almost as if Bryant wants to be seen as a caricature of Mississippi: It seems that he goes out of his way to present himself as the down south, “good ol boy” that's most happy in a racist culture, regardless of the criticism of his fellow Americans.
If he were a private citizen, then he would have the right to proudly display the Confederate symbol. As an American, he would be entitled to his personal opinion. But he's not a private citizen. He's the governor of an entire state. He's the governor of a diverse population, at least 37 percent of which is the African American community that has suffered under the banner of the Confederate flag.
By refusing to let go of racist symbols and images, Bryant is alienating an entire segment of Mississippi's population.
When the governor provides a supportive prop for racists in Mississippi, he hurts all Mississippians.
Companies and corporations do not want to be associated with racism. They understand a simple concept that our governor doesn't seem to get:
Racism hurts the bottom line. You can't be a good racist (openly) and make good money.
Duvalier Malone, a native of Fayette, lives in Washington, D.C. He is CEO and founder of Duvalier Malone Enterprises.
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