No WhiteWash!

It was announced on July 6, 2009 that Apple Computer will build a $1 billion data center in Maiden, NC. North Carolina had recently changed its tax law to lure Apple and guided Apple in its site selection areas.

Maiden’s population is around 3,439 and is located in Catawba County, NC and is south of Hickory, NC and is in the Hickory-Lenoir MSA area.

What is amazing about this deal is that the Catawba County Economic Development Corporation went after the data center business.  They marketed the area as a data center area and even had their own website promoting their data center sites. www.datacentersites.com.  They were able to provide the details that a data center would need and offered many locations.

Lenoir, NC, was able get a $600 million Google data center that opened last year that will employ over 200 people.

The area was once known for furniture making, an industry that has taken a hit because of low-wage competition from overseas.  I am very familiar with the Lenoir-Hickory area and have seen the reduction in furniture making and the effect that it had on the local economy.  I have seen the major impact that it had on retail stores as they closed their doors.  Now I see a renewed retail environment with new retail stores opening up.  See link, Google, Lenoir try to adapt to one another

In June, 2009, Ethan Allen, a furniture maker announced that it would add 302 new jobs to its existing 540 employees that it has in Maiden, NC.

Both Apple and Google will pay much higher wages and this should have a impact on the local economy and the house price appreciation rank for Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC is 35 in the nation while Kingsport MSA area is 44.

I might add that Apple and Google did not wait for a Higher Education Center to be built and local people have gone back to school on their own to get the education in hopes to land a job at Google or Apple.

This is great news for North Carolina, but what have our Tennessee elected officials done to spur economic development in East Tennessee? North Carolina and Virginia are both going after the data center business and have incentives to attract data center projects.

MAIDEN – Weeks of speculation ended Monday as Apple Inc. announced plans to build its new $1 billion East Coast data center here.

The California-based technology giant will build the 500,000-square-foot facility at the 183-acre WestStar Mission Critical Business Park off Startown Road near its intersection with U.S. 321.

The data center will employ at least 50 people in full-time information technology positions.

Mike Foulkes, Apple’s director of state and local government affairs, said the company will fill those positions with local people if possible.

Gov. Beverly Perdue’s office has estimated the data center could generate another 250 jobs for people providing services to the plant and more than 3,000 related jobs for the region surrounding the site.

Grading on the project could begin in August, with construction completed and the first employees hired in late 2010.

Bristol, VA was trying to get a Yahoo datacenter, but lost out to New York state.  This datacenter would have been good for the South West Virginia area. 

The $150 million data center will be built in Lockport, N.Y., just outside Buffalo, company officials announced during a Tuesday news conference. The facility is expected to create 125 jobs paying $65,000 to $75,000 a year, according to a company news statement.

Read more via New York Site Edges Bristol In Competition For Yahoo! Data Center | TriCities.

Consumers need to keep their guard up as financial institutions increasingly impose new fees and charges.

Banks and credit-card companies have gone on the offensive in advance of new consumer protections the Obama administration is asking Congress to enact. For many consumers, that could mean an unexpected financial sting

Read more via Ten Ways Banks Take Your Money – WSJ.com.

Which companies have the best reputations? Apple tops the list, Google and Berkshire Hathaway move up, and Costco cracks the top 20 this year. more

1. Apple	6. Starbucks
2. Berkshire Hathaway	7. FedEx
3. GE	8. Procter & Gamble
4. Google	9. Johnson & Johnson
5. Toyota	10. Goldman Sachs

 

• See the top 20

Read more via America’s Most Admired Companies 2008 – FORTUNE Magazine Ranks the Best.

Even in this economy, some companies are going out of their way to please employees. This year, there’s a new no. 1, as Google slips to no. 4.

• Full List
• Near You
• Top Companies
• Big Pay
• Best Perks

Kingsport spending on projects in the last four years has set records since Mayor Phillips has been mayor.  I have written many posts in this blog about the spending on pet projects and to some, I am sure that they think I am against progress and just being negative.

The current debt is around $190 million and there are more projects in the works.  A recent review by Standard & Poor’s, a credit rating firm made the following statement below.

The five-year capital improvement program through fiscal 2013 includes planned issuance of additional GO debt of $5 million-$8 million annually, to help fund total general fund projects of $50.8 million.

The City of Kingsport provided Standard and Poor’s information such as financial data so Standard and Poor’s could give Kingsport a credit rating.

Mayor Phillips, what is the above $50.8 million going to be used for? There should be no secrets, and no surprises about future spending.  The city is working on a new CIP (Capital Improvement Plan) and the citizens need to know what additional projects have been added.

The City of Kingsport is paying millions of dollars each year for interest expense on its borrowed money.  Below is a bond for $11,165,000 that will have $5,464,109 interest that will be needed to paid during the life (20 years) of the bond.  The bond below is just one bond and if you add up all of the interest for all borrowed money, this interest becomes a huge number.

I am not against progress.  I am concerned that Kingsport is doing too much in a short period of time and feel that someday in the future that the city will have to raise taxes to meet its obligations.  At the current rate of spending, a tax increase will be coming in the future.  I am sure that it won’t be this year because it is an election year.

It is a sad situation in Kingsport that the city has to borrow money to fund small dollar projects such as road work, etc.  If I want to send my child to college, I start saving money early when the child is young.  I don’t wait when until he is ready to go to college, stick my hand in my pocket and discover that I don’t have the money and then have to go out and borrow it.  My point is that the City of Kingsport needs to do more long range planning and funding of future projects and depend less on borrowed money.

You can see other Kingsport financial data like the above by going to the following link:  Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for Year Ended June 30,2008.  You can also visit the Kingsport library to see the Kingsport 2008 Financial Report.

Famous Quotes from the Kingsport Board of Mayor and Aldermen

Mayor Dennis Phillips – ‘We need MeadowView to keep from reducing fire, police protection, and reducing trash pick-up to every two weeks.” October 21, 2008

Mayor Dennis Phillips –“We need to annex so we don’t have to raise taxes”  February 5, 2008

Alderman Munsey – “We need to do the MeadowView expansion to keep from raising taxes” September 15, 2008

Alderman Munsey – Debt is neither good or bad,”   June 3, 2008

Vice Mayor Mallicote – “I do not believe all of the doom and gloom about the economy”.  June 3, 2008

Mayor Dennis Phillips – “If the taxpayers wanted the city to cut the spending, then we could collect garbage every other week”  June 3, 2008

Mayor Dennis Phillips – “If there were no money to spend, then you would not need politicians”  October, 2007

It seems that folks in Jonesborough, TN have banded together and will have a protest concerning enforcement revenue cameras.

To the Students of American Liberty,

We will be holding a protest against the Red Light Scameras in Jonesborough. (We will have setup in the morning and the event will start at 10:00 am)

We will have a petition to sign to deliver to the Mayor and Alderman, an opportunity for you to take out your frustrations against a “scamera”, as well as some other fun activities.

Please feel free to invite as many people to this event. We want it to be a great success. This will be a family event.

Hope to see you all there!

In Liberty,

Joanna Simmons

Date: Saturday, May 9, 2009
Time: 8:00am – 7:00pm
Location: Jonesborough Town Hall
Street: 117 Boone Street
City/Town: Jonesborough, TN

View Map

It appears that Kingsport, TN Alderman Ben Mallicote, who is running for re-election, is trying to defend his vote to not give back the regional sales tax back to the property owners in Kingsport. 

The gang of five (Phillips, Mallicote, Joh, Munsey, and Shupe) voted to use the 1/4 percent regional sales tax for a new Convention Center Expansion.   Kingsport citizens back in mid 1990’s voted for the 1/4 percent regional sales tax to build the Meadowview Convention Center.

This became apparent in the Rotary Club debate yesterday when Alderman Shull stated that he voted to give the regional sales tax back to the citizens.  Since the Convention Center debt was paid off, Alderman Shull as well as Alderman Marsh were attempting to return the money back to the citizens via a property tax reduction.

I am not surprised at Ben Mallicote’s position.  He made the following statement in 2008, “I do not believe all of the doom and gloom about the economy”. 

Save Money and Energy With a Few Simple Steps

So the saying goes, every day is Earth Day. But perhaps that’s never more true than during a recession.

Turning out the lights when you leave a room, driving only when you need to and shutting off the faucet when you brush your teeth are all simple ways to help the planet. But those same tips are also plenty good for your pocketbook.

Read more via 7 Easy Ways to Conserve

The City of Kingsport apparently has lost its clout with the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce with the Chamber having their 17th Annual Golf Scramble at the Ridgefields Country Club instead of at the city owned Catskills Golf Course.

The taxpayer funded Catskills Golf Course located at the MeadowView Resort and Conference could use money since it barely breaks even.  The City of Kingsport owns the golf course, convention center, and Eastman Chemical owns the hotel.

Parking would not be a problem because the parking lot almost always has a lot of empty spaces.

Kevin Harmon, Kingsport Chamber Golf Scramble chair and Kingsport Town Center general manager stated. “Ridgefields is one of the best golf courses in the state and always does a superb job of hosting the tournament.”

But, the Cattails website states that the Cattails Golf Course is “recognized as one of the top golf courses in a Tennessee region and was recently named the second best golf city in America by Golf Digest magazine”.

It is obvious we have a difference of opinions on which golf course is better.

The taxpayers have spent $25.7 million for the current MeadowView Convention Center and Cattails golf course.  The City of Kingsport is Investing another $15.3 million to expand the MeadowView Convention Center.  This make a total of $41 million that the taxpayers have invested (plus interest on bonds) and history has shown the City portion of Meadowview does not make money.  This is certainly not a good return on taxpayers money.

Since the Kingsport Chamber of Commerce gets funding from the City of Kingsport, the least it could do is to support the city.