Newspapers Could Get Government Help

With many U.S. newspapers struggling to survive, a Democratic senator on Tuesday introduced a bill to help them by allowing newspaper companies to restructure as nonprofits with a variety of tax breaks.

Cardin’s Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.

Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.

Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax exempt, and contributions to support news coverage or operations could be tax deductible.

“We are losing our newspaper industry,” Cardin said. “The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy.”

Come on….this is just flipping silly!  Sounds like a bailout of newspapers, to a minor extent.  So the corporations that own these papers will now have a non profit outlet to abuse the tax code?

Open Letter To Gulfport

This is a copy of the letter I sent to the City Council of the city of Gulfport and will send it soon to the Board of Supervisors.

Open Letter To The City Council Of Gulfport, Mississippi

The city has been having its problems with the generation of much needed funds for programs that will benefit its citizens. There is a way to generate these funds and that course is called Land Value Tax. For years I have been advocating this form of taxation to no avail, but with the economic situation getting worse by the day, I believe this idea can save the city from massive cuts in services.

According to the Mississippi Economic Policy Center, any tax reform should conform to a 3 principle outline.  These are:  1—Be balanced and make work pay, 2—should create opportunity for economic growth and 3—be accountable to the taxpayer.  The Land Value Tax (LVT) addresses all three of the concerns put forth by the MEPC.

Land rent means taxing land. Not buildings, not work, not commerce, just bare land. Or if land has buildings (as most land has) then the equivalent value of the land if it had no buildings.

Land gets its value its improvements (buildings etc) and from its location. The improvements were made by the hard work of the owners. But the location has value because of what society does, because of roads and schools and good neighbors.

If society taxes buildings and improvements, it steals people’s hard work, their time and energy, their life. Most taxation is therefore theft. But if society taxes the location, then it simply claims back the value it creates. Land rent distinguishes between the individual’s property and society’s property.

Land rent creates fairness in the most basic of all issues: who controls the ground beneath our feet.

Land rent is the only rational tax, because it is based on a sound theory of property (you create it, you own it).

Land rent means an end to every other tax. So it becomes much cheaper to create additional jobs and manufacture goods. So wealth increases.

If you tax work, the amount of work goes down, because some work becomes less profitable. But if you tax land, the amount of land remains the same. So if you want to encourage work, you should tax land, not work.

Land rent is the only guarantee of fair property rights. If people can charge rent but they pay no rent themselves, eventually one person or one elite will own everything and nobody else can have any property unless it suits the elite. To see why, play the game Monopoly. Monopoly is based on “The Landlord’s Game,” invented by Lizzie Magie as a way to show why we need land rent.

Land rent is the most efficient way of creating wealth because it gives resources to those who can use them best (that is, those who can generate the most wealth from the land).

Land rent creates economic justice, by ensuring that everyone keeps the wealth they create, and any extra is given back to society. So nobody has unfair privileges, and everyone has an equal chance to succeed.

Land rent provides a fair system for all, because it generates wealth for society, yet it is so simple that corruption and inefficiency have nowhere to hide.

It is as simple as that….it would not take a massive bureaucracy to change the taxation of the city…

If further information is needed I may be contacted at:

Habitat Homes Unoccupied

In four states along the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, Habitat for Humanity came with a mission to build hundreds of homes during a spring blitz so people pushed into poverty after Katrina would have the chance to own a home.

Many of the dozens of completed houses in Texas, Louisiana and Alabama are occupied or will soon be dedicated. But not in Mississippi, where only six of the 30 homes are filled.

Potential homeowners are having a hard time meeting the program’s requirement to save about $3,500 in an escrow account for a year’s worth of taxes and insurance, said Chris Monforton, chief executive officer for Habitat for Humanity of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

And most of the account would be for insurance, with just $500 going toward taxes, said Duane Bates, spokesman for Habitat for Humanity International.

But Hurricane Katrina, which hit in 2005, has exacerbated the average challenges homebuyers face.

The storm nearly wiped out Mississippi’s Coast, taking with it affordable housing. That is compounded by some insurance companies, scared off by the hurricane risks, greatly increasing their rates and others pulling out of the region altogether.

Habitat houses are never sold for the appraised value but usually for thousands of dollars less. Along with the financial obligation, low-income families must invest hundreds of hours in sweat equity that can be earned by attending home-buying classes and helping to build other houses.

And families need to raise some money to cover some fees, which have turned out to be less in the other three states where the homes were built. Homeowners’ insurance rates skyrocketed after Katrina in other Gulf Coast regions as well. But Habitat affiliates differ in the amount and structure of their escrow accounts, Bates said

SunHerald.com : Barbour appoints Guice

SunHerald.com : Barbour appoints Guice

Is he the best person for the job or is it a payback for something?

Gulf South: What Is A Dollar Worth?

A dollar earned by a worker turns over seven times before it leaves town, right?

Not quite, says Dr. Ed Ranck, associate director of the University of Southern Mississippi’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research in Gautier.

The long-held belief that $1 packs the economic punch of about $7 before it circulates out of the region is a mainstay in “the lore of economic development.”

It all started in 1944, Ranck says, when Carl Wilken, an economist who wrote about agricultural output, observed that the ratio of national income to farm income was 7 to 1. Ergo, Wilken figured, every dollar of farm output “generated” $7 of national income.

But Wilken wasn’t all that persuasive or perhaps precise. According to Ranck, “Most economists were skeptical of Wilken’s conclusion then and research since then has shown clearly that the skepticism was warranted.”

Still, Ranck says, multipliers do exist, they’re just not as hefty as Wilken concluded.

“There is nothing wrong with the idea that a sale of a good or a service generates the sale of other goods or services. Manufacturing and service industries create jobs in other industries that supply goods and services to them. People spend their paychecks on goods and services.”

Ranck says that before a dollar leaves, it has turned over several times, “not seven but a few.”

Estimates of state level multipliers for Mississippi have been made by the Center for Policy Research and Planning and they are typically in the range of 1.3 to as high as 2.7 for manufacturing for some specified time period, Ranck tells us. For smaller regions such as South Mississippi or the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi, multipliers’ effects are even smaller.

The 1 for 7 BS is used to sell a development plan to the people, who are basically lied to to to gain approval.  This is a good thing to keep in mind when one is being asked to support a new developement in your area.  Go to meetings and ask questions.

You can be in control, but you have top want to be there.

Findings on Katrina Trailers Went Undisclosed, Maker Says – washingtonpost.com

Findings on Katrina Trailers Went Undisclosed, Maker Says – washingtonpost.com

FEMA knew of the high levels and the company figured that the findings were not important.

FEMA Denies Asssistence

While Jackson residents may have received denial letters from FEMA in the weeks following the April 4 tornadoes and storms, they may still be able to get aid. Some residents were denied aid by FEMA because they were already insured.

“By law, we cannot duplicate what insurance already covers or pay for deductibles,” said Michael L. Parker, FEMA’s federal coordinating officer in a statement. “But in some cases, if insurance did not cover all your losses, we may be able to help. Residents who need help making ends meet can visit the FEMA/State Disaster Recovery Center at Willie Morris Library on Old Canton Road to discuss insurance claims and advice after getting their insurance settlement papers.

FEMA will cover hotel costs while homes are uninhabitable or inaccessible if insured victims’ policies do not cover temporary living. Other items such as septic tanks and wells, not usually covered by insurance companies, may be covered by FEMA.

MEMA director Mike Womack believes that they should try to talk with FEMA workers about help. “Even if you have insurance coverage, don’t wait for a settlement before registering with FEMA,” he said. “If you wait for your insurer to act, it may be too late to register for federal assistance. The filing deadline is July 27.”

Antiwar.com Blog · Daniel Pipes: If Obama Wins, Bush Will Attack Iran in November

Antiwar.com Blog · Daniel Pipes: If Obama Wins, Bush Will Attack Iran in November

Something to consider…….the way the the sentiment toward Iran is revving up…this is a very good possibliity.

FL: Prep Work For The Season

Disaster-recovery teams started a hurricane drill in the modernized emergency center Monday with a new watchword to grab the attention of Floridians lulled into complacency by two seasons without a big blow: Survivor.

Specially trained crews from state agencies simulated their response to “Hurricane Herb,” a detailed copy of a big storm that struck the Big Bend and Nature Coast area in 1896. Through Thursday, they will test satellite communication equipment, go over procedures, update contacts and work on thousands of details

State meteorologist Ben Nelson noted that the season began Sunday with a tropical storm, Arthur, already churning in the Gulf of Mexico. For the past two seasons, he recalled, early storms have been recorded. Arthur has since dissipated into a tropical depression.

Florida had four hurricanes in each of the 2004 and 2005 seasons, then went two years without a big one.

AL: A Gloomy Economy

For people in Alabama, gas prices have gone from pinching to headlocking them, the national economy looks pretty sour, and a majority say their own finances are only fair or worse, the results of a Press-Register/University of South Alabama poll indicate.

The findings show that everyday people see little but gathering gloom in the economic picture, even though some experts say Alabama’s underlying economy is positioned to ride out a national storm. And it’s not clear that the federal economic stimulus checks, hitting bank accounts now, will do much to ease worries.

“As healthy as the Alabama economy has been and still is, this virus is beginning to show up,” said Keivan Deravi, an economist at Auburn University Montgomery, “This recession fear and negativity is beginning to show up in Alabama at a pretty rapid rate.”

The telephone survey of 402 adult residents of Alabama was taken last Monday through Wednesday. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, and a 95 percent confidence level.

Of respondents, 38 percent rated the national economy as poor, and another 19 percent said it was very poor. That was the dimmest assessment of American economic health by Alabamians in the eight times since 2000 that the Press-Register/USA poll has asked for their assessment.

State residents don’t see the fever breaking soon, with 39 percent saying things will worsen in the next year.

Gasoline prices are clearly a big weight on consumers. Of those surveyed, 66 percent said that prices — averaging $3.84 statewide for a gallon of regular gas on Monday according to AAA — were affecting them “a lot.” The poll has asked about gas prices four other times since 2001, and never had more than 33 percent of Alabamians said prices stung so much.

There was one hint of good news. Fewer than 20 percent of respondents say that they’re having trouble with bad housing loans or declining home values. That lines up with figures showing Alabama’s foreclosure rate is among the lowest in the nation, and that home values have held up better, despite slow sales and a glut of homes in some areas.