Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.
EDC
Beaufort County remains a Tier 1 County. That means we can get grant money more easily than if we weren't. How long have we been a Tier 1 County?? Seven years according to published reports. Plenty long enough for us to get accustomed to the notion that life is best lived on grant money (i.e. handouts). Does the fact that we have been unable to get out of the Tier 1 standing for so many years suggest that perhaps it's time to think about a different road to prosperity than the one we have been traveling?? How many years should we have to wait and how much money should we have to spend to begin to see results. The only measurable results that our current EDC can document (or at least claim) is the amount of taxpayer money they have spent - or as some would say - misspent. The "jobs added" reports look as though they have been put together by Joe Biden ('nuff said??). And all the while, our Economic Developer takes his six figure county salary money (supplemented by the Committee of 100) to Craven county to spend - not to mention his reportedly generous travel (commuting??) allowance. When we consider the track record of the EDC, wouldn't you think it's time to try something other than their model that doesn't seem to have worked?? Should we begin to think about replacing our EDC with something new, or, better yet, doing away with it entirely??
Assessments
When someone builds a new house or otherwise does something that increases the value of real property, shouldn't the tax assessor reassess the property (even if it isn't on the eight year cycle usually reserved for reassessments)?? So what do you suppose the Beaufort County Tax Assessor should have done about the significantly increased value of all the agrarian farm land in the county that has suddenly become windmill farm land (do you suppose we need a new property classification - commercial agrarian??) which has certainly increased the value of the property?? How much more money is, and should, the county realize as the result of the best and highest use of the property changing from strictly agrarian to commercial agrarian?? Surely in a place that funds every 501(c)(3) in sight, will likely be picking up the tab for the Turnage shortfall before long, and of course funds the Chambers of Commerce without even an explanation - other than one of our commissioners thinks it's a good idea, we need to be on top of every opportunity for collecting additional revenue. Even without a windmills (yet), the leases have reportedly been purchased and annual rents are reportedly already being paid. The value of the property has been significantly increased; or is there an exemption when it's a Chicago based company involved??.
Halliburton
Does anyone remember Halliburton?? They used to be in the news quite often. For some reason they haven't been heard of for quite a while. Perhaps that happened when they got rid of the construction company KBR in 2007. Or was it when their former CEO dropped out of the public eye in 2008?? Surely it didn't have anything to do with George Soros acquiring a fairly large chunk of their stock. Well, maybe. After all, with good 'ol George having a say, they surely would not do any of the unsavory things they used to before he became a shareholder. Yeah, right...
Second career
Instead of fighting (not literally) with the community organizer, we should show him our love, like he has shown almost every other country on the planet (excepting England and Israel - and now Canada - all three of which he seems to have disrespected rather badly). Trying to wage war with the slick operators manning the Chicago campaign offices takes more effort that it is worth. Instead, we need to start showing the anointed one more love and respect. All the while we should be touting him to be the next Secretary General of the United Nations. We don't need to "groom" him for the job for he comes to us an "International Man". Most countries on the planet already adore him (excepting a good portion of America, and some of the more radical middle East countries.) In any case, the anointed one is clearly already qualified to be the Secretary General. In fact there are a lot of folks who believe he is much more qualified to be the Secretary General than he is for his current position. We may have to push for a grander sounding title, but that shouldn't be difficult to achieve. We could probably use the person who names the Dems' legislative proposals to dream up a new, more impressive sounding name to replace "Secretary General". With a little luck on our part, he may even take Eric Holder with him.
Tax Holidays for higher paid folks
Back when the lame duck congress passed the 2% Social Security holiday, it was reportedly in place of the "Making Work Pay" Credit. That credit was available to everyone with earned income that did not exceed an adjusted gross income (AGI) of $95K (or $190K if married filing jointly). It was capped at $400 ($800 if married filing jointly). Instead of increasing the cap, the lame duck congress replaced it with the regressive withholding tax holiday that leaves the lower paid folks saving less than the higher paid folks. This from the Dems?? Yes!! Talk about role reversal...
Chutzpah
Talk about chutzpah (or maybe we shouldn't??). It's a word derived from the Hebrew, so it would likely be frowned upon by the community organizer - unless we use the 1967 version..(Hmmm...) Be that as it may, the anointed one seems to have no shortage of it when it comes to interjecting us into the European financial mess. Here we are borrowing over forty cents out of every dollar we spend, ready to fall into a financial abyss and off we go to Europe to tell those folks how they should be handling their financial problem. According to an article in the 12/3 - 4 edition of the WSJ, the anointed one dispatched his Treasury Secretary (that would be Mrs. Geithner's boy, Timothy) to meet with IMF representatives and top officials from several European countries to discuss their efforts to reinforce the institutions of the euro area. If it wasn't so sad, it would truly be funny. The European Union has begun to back away from the Kensian economic model, because even though it sounds good, it doesn't work in practice. And here we are continuing to embrace the same failed Keynesian philosophy that has driven Europe to the brink of financial ruin. Adding insult to injury, we then go tell the Europeans how to fix their problem. Say what?? There we are telling them that they should be taking stronger actions to resolve the debt crisis (while we tiptoe around the edges of our debt problem). This from the very same folks whose only solution to very same problem in America is to pour more cash on it - just as they are wont to do to resolve every other problem (or is it "issue") that comes up. After all the great American belief seems to be that money will buy anything. Yeah, right.
But then let's look at the positive side of this exercise. Perhaps the anointed one is simply trying to burnish his international credentials before going after the UN Secretary General job. (Well, it's a thought.)
D'ya think??
