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?
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!
Bradley County News Network 