TN budget heads to Haslam, Virginia gets our loot to boot scoot

Our most recent Tennessee State budget has been approved by our state legislators and awaits Governor Bill Haslams signature.

One certain detail that may not or may have gotten overlooked when approving this budget was 500,000.00 or so dollars is going to the state of Virginia to help fund a Country music museum.

Its called Regionalism, megaregionalism, shared governence or globalism. We help others with our tax dollars for the collective good of all!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am afraid you are witnessing the birth of a movement that will basically plunge us into a socialistic society much quicker than we once thought. See, our elected politicians have somehow deemed it acceptable to basically gamble your tax dollars away to another state in the hopes that we benefit from it.

To participate in regionalism or megaregionalism without even a mention if it was acceptable to the general public of which 100 percent of the funds are coming from for our politicians to play with your money and give it away!

After reading the following article in the Chattanooga Free Press recently it seems we are funding a Country Music Museum in Virginia, not in Tennessee, but in Virginia with your tax dollars!

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/27/something-to-sell-tva-official-says-region-has-to/

In a May 1 article from the Chattanooga Times this give away was justified by saying “tennessee will get a benefit out of this.” Is this now the threshold for giving away TN tax dollars? Is it as simple as saying it must be acceptable if it benefits the state? The problem I foresee with this is it is pretty much like gambling in Vegas. If I plop down 500,000.00 dollars on a roulette table, I risk a very big chance of it not “benefitting” me to do so. Same with Haslam and our other politicians sending our money to Virginia for a country music museum. How do we know if it pays off and how long will it take? That argument could be used for any state.

This is one of the problems with regionalism, one state’s tax dollars going to fund “economic development” in another state. We have stepped into what could be a bottomless pit. Let’s keep our tax dollars within our state. I can’t believe I even have to say that. Doesn’t even sound logical. Lets collect taxes from Tennesseeans and send it to another state?

A quote from the article below: “Bristol is “unique” and “Tennessee will get a benefit out of this” and its “barely” on the Virginia side I guess the implication is we are only doing this because of the proximity to the state border but in the July 31 article from the Chattanooga Times Charles Wood vice-president of Economic Development of the Chamber of Commerce in Chattanooga says “county lines, state lines, city lines — none of that means nothing, Keep in mind Mr Woods is nothing more than a hired bureaucrat who has been given too much power to make decisions on the peoples behalf. When Mr Woods left Pensacola many doubted the Chambers contribution to assisting the local economy out of a slump, perhaps this type of mismanagement is why three department heads left around the same time and our region gets the offspring of that departure! And now we trust this organization to “run our region?” Its just my opinion and we know what opinions are like? Right?

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/may/01/31-billion-budget-heads-to-haslam/ article

If you owned a business on the TN side of the Bristol border would you give 500 thousand of your own money based on the belief that “visitors simply walking across the street into Tennessee to visit restaurants and shops” would benefit you personally? I would be willing to bet you would not. This is nonsense. This has to stop.

Elected officials, many of whom have boasted recently about this budget failed to mention that a half million dollars or so is going to Virginia to promote a country music venue. Non elected bureaucrats or politicians have no right to invest our state taxes to another state. Isn’t this illegal? They have no right to give away TN tax dollars to other states just because its “barely” in Virginia and you believe Tennessee will benefit.

“Chattanooga has to start thinking regionally” says the article below. If it says Chattanooga, then that means Cleveland/Bradley County. In recent years the push has been local growth plans, then that expanded into a regional 16 county, 3 state plan with Chattanooga leading the way then we hear of a Piedmont mega region that will connect a great deal of the southeast then the rest of the nation blocked off into 9 or so separate districts. From these alliances we are expected to pool our taxes and help each other pay for projects, a sharing of our fortunes or abundance of taxes. There is something at work here people and it is clearly bigger than we are!

Doesnt this seem like we have been duped? Where is the taxpayevoicing in all this? Have we no representation any more? This is the most proposterous plan I have ever heard of. The larger cities will clearly eat up the bulk of the revenue and the smaller cities will shrivel away to nothing as the likes of Atlanta, Charlotte and Greenville eat up the lions share.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/apr/22/charles-wood-plans-build-citys-efforts/

Even as economic development slows, the region and Tennessee budget grows and a large chunk of it goes to Virginia and perhaps many other state economies in the near future. How do we justify this inequity? Who is buying into this and driving this type or form of a new regional socialism? A common theme among all these plan is once again the Chamber of Commerce, the father of the United Nations, the most corrupt regime in the world!

The nation is in a recession, unemployment rises, economic development is in a “doldrum” and businesses we are recruiting have little viable future in a down economy and the Chamber of Commerce continues to suggest ways to spend your tax dollars in another state. I fail to see the logic in this. What is the ultimate goal? Spread the wealth? Spread it so thin that it benefits no one?

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/07/27/Second-Quarter-GDP-Growth-is-1-5-Percent?utm_source=e_breitbart_com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+July+27%2C+2012&utm_campaign=Breitbart+News+Roundup%2C+July+27%2C+2012&utm_term=More

Ask your state representatives Brooks and Watson why this has been allowed to happen. Ask them to lead the charge to recover the tax dollars given away and to pass a resolution that says Tennessee tax dollars cannot be given to any state, regardless of how “unique” the situation is. Next time it might not be a neighboring state because Woods says state lines mean nothing, it does to me and it should to our representives.

This madness must stop! The only way for it to stop is for you to tell them to stop it! Call them today!

BUZZARDS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CIRCLING CHATTANOOGA AND BRADLEY COUNTY

BUZZARDS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CIRCLING CHATTANOOGA
By Kathleen Marquardt October 22, 2011 NewsWithViews.com

This article is by my friend Kathleen Marquardt and she is right on target! She has noticed this onslaught of  Governement Gone Wild! There is a concentrated effort by the Chamber of Commerce and its many minions, who have, at their own doing, are looking at dollar signs instead of doing what is right for the Citizens of our County.

Both of our Mayors have bought into this maniacal and costly plan and are circumventing our locally elected politicians and public and have joined with a 16 county,  3 state Regional Planning Commission! This is madness!

The Chamber of Commerce with their influence and a lending hand of our State Reps and locally elected officials have done the inevitable! They have bypassed you and are no longer representing you in Bradley County! In history, when a Monarchy or Dictatorship rules the land they have been toppled by violence!  This revolt must be non violent and must be done at the hands of you at the ballot box! We are way overdue at changing the gaurd! This is by far the most overt operation to date!

We as a Bradley County Commission representing the citizens of this county have voted “NO” to the 2035 BCC Strategic Growth Plan and now to drive around the citizens and join with ICLEI inspired Chattanooga and others is the last straw! It proves what has been thought for years! The elected officials currently in place have no regard for your concerns or the Commissions votes, representing the constituency! Shame on you for you inconsiderate behavior! We must stop this absurdity! Get involved Bradley County, wake up!  Our County is fixing to change for the worse and it want be easy to reverse! Stand up Bradley and Cleveland, you have slept long enough!

Please enjoy this article by Kathleen!

A stakeholder group consisting of elected, business, and philanthropic leaders from the tri-state region of Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama which encompasses three metropolitan statistical areas has announced a major milestone in the effort to lay the groundwork to launch a 40-year regional growth planning process.

The Chattanoogan Sustainablists circle like Buzzards, eagerly awaiting the death knell of the Great American Experiment. They no longer worry about sneaking legislation, regulation or planning in through the back door. Certain that they are in control, they are now up-front, in fact blatantly smug about what they are doing.

Look at the words and terms in the first quarter of this one article and tell me this isn’t Sustainable Development: Stakeholder group, regional growth planning process, organize and facilitate, long-term region wide planning, public visioning, common ground solutions, localized planning effort….
Chattanooga has been living with this a long time, “This is a continuation of the public visioning and community engagement processes that have been transforming Chattanooga and the surrounding region since the early 1980s.” That is when Senator Bob Corker was the mayor of Chattanooga. Sure is nothing I would be bragging about. But then I am not a useful idiot to the global elite who are orchestrating all of this. The statement from the mayor goes on to admit that their “community pioneered this approach.” Now this is really something to be ashamed of rather than touting it in the local rag.
“We don’t have to agree on everything, but failing to cooperate when it benefits citizens would be foolish,” said Georgia State Senator Jeff Mullis. “This planning process will enhance coordination among localities without taking away any of their authority or independence.” If you read the full article you will see time after time that they (the instigators of this travesty) keep insisting that they are not taking away the authority or independence of any localities. Yet, the regional boards do exactly that. The function of legitimate elected government within the system is fast becoming little more than a rubber stamp to create and enforce the dictates of the councils and regions.
“In my mind, the regional planning process is about job creation,” said Tom Edd Wilson, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. “We’re competing against the whole world to retain and recruit employers. Coming together as a team on economic development will give us a tremendous advantage in making the most of our economic opportunities while preserving the quality of life that makes us so attractive to the companies we already have.” We are not competing against the whole world, we are competing against the few companies that are left in America. And the sadder thing about this is that only the companies that become Public Private Partnerships (PPP) have much of a chance at all at getting business here now. Many PPPs are nothing more than government-sanctioned monopolies in which a few businesses are granted special favors like tax breaks, the power of eminent domain, non-compete clauses and specific guarantees for return on their investments.
Following the public meeting on Nov. 17, the stakeholder group which has been working to launch the regional growth planning process will weigh public feedback and other requirements set forth in the selection process to determine which of the finalist teams will coordinate the effort with the aim of starting the process during the first part of 2012. Look at that sentence — stakeholder group and regional growth planning — two buzz phrases of Sustainable Development. And they will weigh “public feedback,” and how much weight do you think they will give to the legitimate questions of costs, autonomy, property rights and true local control?
I would bet money that not one idea that doesn’t conform to Sustainable Development will make it to the selection process. What we are watching is a highly choreographed spectacle that is being staged in cities, towns and counties across this great country of ours in front of audiences that do not have a clue to the fact that this performance is a death knell to the Great American Experiment.
Can we hold them off in Chattanooga? Let us hope so; let us hope that, into the machinery of this consensus process the globalists’ useful idiots manipulate so well, a wrench is thrown that will put them out of business.
We need to be supplying the wrench, metaphorically. We need to make certain that Americans understand what is wrong with Sustainable Development, not by name but by what it does to rights and freedom. Show them the effects on property rights, water rights; show them how the prices of food and energy are skyrocketing because of the rules and regulations that are designed into these plans. Show how our duly elected officials are becoming nothing more than rubber stamps for the unelected, often non-local officials of the planning and regional boards that have been mandated through these programs. The words Sustainable and Development do not have to be used, just their effects and affects.
We need to be doing this across America in every city, county and town because, if it isn’t already there, Sustainable Development and its buzzards will be there soon.
To help us have tools to inform the public of this evil, we need to know as many of the names of planning groups associated with Sustainable Development as we can find. We know of some:
Renaissance
Piedmont Environmental
American Planning Association
ICLEI
PlaceMatters
Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness
Center for Neighborhood Technology
RERC Strategic Advisors
Wallace Roberts & Todd
Gresham Smith & Partners
Yes, you can go down the list of the three finalist teams in the article and pull out a lot. But we would like to try to make a definitive list. To that end, if you would email me with ones in your area, I would appreciate it. My email address is listed at the end of this article. Thank you.
© 2011 Karen Johnson – All Rights Reserved

Kathleen Marquardt is Vice President of American Policy Center and also works for Freedom Advocates. She is the author of AnimalScam: the Beastly Abuse of Human Rights and was founder and Chairman of Putting People First.
E-Mail: marquardtkathleen379@gmail.com