No WhiteWash!

How does your city stack up?  Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has a list of US 352 cities that can be sorted by different criteria. 

Below are the Tennessee cities that have been extracted from the list.  Kingsport MSA area has the highest cost of living and the lowest median household income for the cities listed below.  Also, Kingsport has a low median household income rank of 336 for the 352 cities studied.  Using the cost of living index data below, it is 12 percent more expensive to live in the Kingsport area than Johnson City.

The Cost of Living Index is based on 100 being the national average. Income Growth is the increase in household income from 2005 to 2009. 

The entire list of cities can be found here

See the 2010 post The Kiplinger Study Kingsport Area Elected Officials Would Like to Keep Quiet

NASHVILLE – Tennessee revenue collections for March continued to exceed the budgeted expectations. Finance and Administration Commissioner Mark Emkes today announced that overall March revenues were $815.5 million, which is $9.5 million more than the state budgeted.  It marks the eighth consecutive positive growth month for this fiscal year.

“The sales tax growth rate for March – almost eight percent – gives us the best indication of consumer optimism,” Emkes said. “That’s the largest monthly growth we’ve seen in the last 61 months, dating back to February 2006. Continue reading “March 2011 Revenues for Tennessee” »

Tennessee lawmakers introduce legislation to limit, expand the use of traffic cameras.

The Tennessee General Assembly, which in past sessions has endorsed the use of speed cameras and red light cameras, is preparing once more to either expand or restrict their use. Bills introduced earlier this month provide the foundation for action that frequently takes a different turn after committee consideration.

Read more via Tennessee Tackles Traffic Cameras Again.

Another missed opportunity for East Tennessee Counties.

The close working partnership between the state of Tennessee, Memphis and Shelby County has led to the successful completion of this project,” said Commissioner Kisber.

I wonder if Sullivan County has considered getting cozy with State Officials to get new companies to settle in Sullivan County?

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen today joined with Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber, Memphis Mayor AC Wharton, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell and executives of Electrolux to announce the company’s decision to locate a $190 million facility for the manufacture of major cooking appliances in Memphis, Tennessee. The 700,000 square foot facility is expected to employ more than 1,200 workers when it is fully operational.  Commissioner Kisber added that taking other construction, procurement and additional supply chain activity into account, the project could result in an additional 2,260 jobs and $550 million in additional capital investment to the region.

“I’m very appreciative of Electrolux’ investment in Tennessee and the company’s confidence in the quality and productivity of Tennessee workers,” said Governor Bredesen. “Our efforts to support the company’s existing Tennessee operations have led to a close working relationship and I couldn’t be more pleased that partnership has led to additional investment by one of the world’s best known and most respected brands.”

“The close working partnership between the state of Tennessee, Memphis and Shelby County has led to the successful completion of this project,” said Commissioner Kisber. “Memphis is truly a global city and we’re pleased that a global company of the quality of Electrolux has chosen to invest here and to create job opportunities for thousands of Tennesseans.”

“We are very pleased to have found a great location for our new manufacturing center,” said Kevin Scott, president, Electrolux Major Appliances – North America. “Important decisions like this are never easy, but this one became very clear-cut for Electrolux because of the extensive support we received from state, city and county elected officials and governing bodies.”

“The people of Memphis and Shelby County are ready to go to work to make this facility the most productive and highest quality plant in the Electrolux portfolio,” said Mayor Wharton. “We’re committed to working together to create good quality jobs for the people of our community and this announcement is a great show of progress in that effort.”

“I’m gratified the senior leadership of Electrolux believes Shelby County is the right place to build upon the company’s remarkable success,” said Mayor Luttrell. “This announcement is the result of the strong partnership between the Governor, the state, the Chamber, Memphis and Shelby County and I believe it speaks volumes about the business climate of our community.”

The facility will be located in the Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park and Electrolux officials say it will be a world class facility built to LEED certification standards. Workers will manufacture the company’s Electrolux ICON®, Electrolux® and Frigidaire® product lines, including drop-in/slide-in ranges, wall ovens, specialty free standing ranges and cook tops. Construction is expected to begin in early 2011 with production to begin in mid-2012.

Electrolux also operates a manufacturing facility for free standing gas and electric ranges in Springfield, Tennessee. The Springfield facility currently employs about 2,900 people.

Nate Morabito from WJHL-TV has documented some of Kingsport’s Tennessee most serious crimes, and found some of the city’s ‘hot-spots’ for crime. Read more in this report from 11 Connects’ …

A red light camera in Kingsport, Tennessee wrongly accused Ray Tolley, 89, of running a red light. According to WJHL-TV, Tolley received a ticket in the mail accusing him of blowing through an intersection on red in a white Ford Mustang. Tolley owns a blue 1990 Ford pickup truck, and the octogenarian rarely drives. His son, David, who was forced to fight the ticket on his father’s behalf, discovered the license plate on the pickup was off by one digit. The Kingsport police, who claim to diligently review every ticket, did not notice that the ticket claimed the Mustang in the photograph was a "pickup" truck.

via California, Tennessee: Bogus Red Light Camera Tickets.

It appears that the Kingsport, TN Police did review the evidence and found that a white Ford Mustang and a black 1990 Ford pickup is close enough. 

89-year old Ray Tolley states that he visited Kingsport about 35 years ago and his pickup has not been started since last fall.

It appears that the Kingsport Police is rubber-stamping the data submitted by camera vender Redflex as the gospel.  The photo on the right is from the Kingsport Police Department web page.

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance recently published a list of Best Cities for the Next Decade.

Learn more about how they picked the Best Cities for the Next Decade.

Also they published a list  367 U.S. metropolitan areas that can be sorted and ranked by different criteria.

In the example below, all metro areas in Tennessee have been extracted.  The table below was sorted by median household income.  We see that the Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA has the lowest median household income for the Tennessee metro areas ranked and also has a higher cost of living than the other Tennessee metro areas listed below.

Furthermore, Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA median household income rank is 353 out of a total of 367 U.S. metro areas.  This shows that there were 14 metro areas that had a lower median household income than the Kingsport-Bristol-Bristol, TN-VA metro area.

Click here for the entire list of 367 metro areas from Kiplinger.  The list can be sorted online or downloaded in spreadsheet format.  Click here to see the Kiplinger data sorted by “Median Household Income for all Metro Areas”

I am sure that our local City, County, and State elected officials will want to keep this data from getting out.

NASHVILLE - State tax collections for May were less than budgeted, yet included positive growth in state sales tax collections.  Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz reports that overall May revenues were $767.1 million, which is $18.6 million less than the state budgeted.  May sales tax collections represent consumer spending that occurred in the month of April.

“May is the second consecutive month this fiscal year in which sales tax collections posted positive growth over the year before; and before April, we had not seen positive growth since May of 2008,” Goetz said. “This is encouraging and we hope this marks the beginning of economic recovery for Tennessee. However, we will continue to closely monitor collections and do whatever is necessary to end this fiscal year with a balanced budget and leave the next governor with a balanced budget on a recurring basis.”

On an accrual basis, May is the tenth month in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The general fund was under-collected by $16.5 million, and the four other funds were under-collected by $2.1 million.

Sales tax collections were $6.1 million less than the estimate for May.  The May growth rate was positive 3.70%. For ten months revenues are under-collected by $207.9 million. The year-to-date growth rate for ten months was negative 3.38%.

Franchise and excise taxes combined were $8.5 million below the budgeted estimate of $31.4 million. The growth rate for May was negative 12.50%. For ten months revenues are over collected by $54.9 million and the year-to-date growth rate is 6.86%.

Privilege tax collections were $1.4 million below the May estimate. For ten months collections are $23.8 million below the budgeted estimate.

Tobacco tax collections were $2.2 million under the budgeted estimate of $24.9 million. For ten months revenues are under collected in the amount of $3.1 million.

Gasoline and motor fuel collections for May increased by 6.38%.  For ten months revenues are under-collected by $15.4 million and the ten month year-to-date growth rate is 0.48%.

Year-to-date collections for ten months are $219.3 million less than the budgeted estimate. The general fund was under collected by $170.1 million and the four other funds were under collected by $49.2 million.

The budgeted revenue estimates for 2009-2010 are based on the state funding board’s consensus recommendation adopted by the first session of the 106th General Assembly in May of 2009, and are available on the state’s website at http//www.tn.gov/finance/bud/budget.html.

The state funding board met on December 18, 2009 and adopted mid-year revised revenue ranges for 2009-2010. The revised ranges reflect growth rates ranging from negative 1.50% to negative 0.25% in total taxes, and negative 2.35% to negative 0.85% in general fund taxes. Based on the consensus recommendation, the official budgeted estimates for 2009-2010 were revised in late December.

The revised mid-year estimates are reflected on pages A-70 and A-72 in the 2010-2011 budget document and assume an under collection in total taxes in the amount of $161.3 million, and an under collection of $153.2 million in the general fund.

The funding board met again in March of this year and adopted final revenue ranges for 2009-2010.  The board’s consensus recommendation was to recognize lower growth rates than those adopted on December 18, 2009. The revised ranges reflect growth rates ranging from negative 1.77% to negative 1.29% for total taxes, and negative 2.31% to negative 1.78% in general fund taxes.

Based upon the funding board’s March recommendation the revised estimates for 2009-2010 now assume an under collection in total taxes in the amount of $258.9 million, and an under collection of $231.0 million in general fund taxes.

Check out the link below to see how the states rank for corruption

As money pours into the Gulf, The Daily Beast crunches the numbers, from public embezzlement to private sector fraud, for all 50 states to rank which play dirty—and which have cleaned up their act.

#1, Tennessee

Public Corruption: 18
Racketeering & Extortion: 11
Fraud Rank: 7
Forgery & Counterfeiting: 5
Embezzlement: 9

See all States

Tennessee revenue collections improved in April with a net positive growth of 2.23% over April collections one year ago.  Finance and Administration Commissioner Dave Goetz reported today that overall April revenues were $1.243 billion, which is $43.4 million more than the state budgeted.

“April is the first positive sales tax growth month in almost two years – since May of 2008,” Goetz said.  “Sales tax collections started their downward spiral starting in January of that year and, beginning with the month of June, recorded an unprecedented 22 consecutive months of negative collections.”

On an accrual basis, April is the ninth month in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

The general fund was over collected by $51.4 million, and the four other funds were under collected by $8.0 million.

Sales tax collections were $9.7 million more than the budgeted estimate for April.  The April growth rate was positive 5.62%. For nine months revenues are under collected by $201.8 million. The year-to-date growth rate for nine months was negative 4.11%.

Franchise and excise taxes combined were $47.6 million above the budgeted estimate of $312.9 million. For nine months revenues are over collected by $63.4 million.

Hall Income tax collections for April were $13.8 million less than the budgeted estimate. For nine months collections are $14.2 million less than the budgeted estimate. The growth rate for the nine month period was negative 22.42%.

Inheritance and estate tax collections were $1.4 million below the April estimate. For nine months collections are $9.4 million under the budgeted estimate.

Gasoline and motor fuel collections for April decreased by 2.80%.  For nine months revenues are negative 0.15%, and $16.5 million below the budgeted estimate of $620.0 million.

Tobacco tax collections were $2.6 million under the budgeted estimate of $24.4 million. For nine months revenues are under collected in the amount of $1.0 million.

All other taxes for April, including the tobacco tax, were over collected by a net of $3.9 million.

Year-to-date collections for nine months were $200.7 million less than the budgeted estimate. The general fund was under collected by $153.6 million and the four other funds were under collected by $47.1 million

The budgeted revenue estimates for 2009-2010 are based on the State Funding Board’s consensus recommendation adopted by the first session of the 106th General Assembly in May of 2009, and are available on the state’s Web site at http//www.tn.gov/finance/bud/budget.html.

The State Funding board met on December 18, 2009 and adopted mid-year revised revenue ranges for 2009-2010. The revised ranges reflect growth rates ranging from negative 1.50% to negative 0.25% in total taxes, and negative 2.35% to negative 0.85% in general fund taxes. Based on the consensus recommendation, the official budgeted estimates for 2009-2010 were revised in late December.

The revised estimates are reflected on pages A-70 and A-72 in the 2010-2011 Budget Document and assume an under collection in total taxes in the amount of $161.3 million, and an under collection of $153.2 million in the general fund.

The funding board met again in March of this year and adopted final revenue ranges for 2009-2010. The board’s consensus recommendation was to recognize lower growth rates than those adopted on December 18, 2009. The revised ranges reflect growth rates ranging from negative 1.77% to negative 1.29% for total taxes, and negative 2.31% to negative 1.78% in general fund taxes.

Based upon the funding board’s March recommendation the revised estimates for 2009-2010 now assume an under collection in total taxes in the amount of $258.9 million, and an under collection of $231.0 million in general fund taxes.