WTVP has updated their site, and now all the “At Issue” episodes this season are online. You can see the interview with Ken Hinton by clicking here.
In addition to what I mentioned in a previous post, Hinton also stated that they’re planning to develop a “vo-tech” school.
Since I posted the video of Schock’s reaction to Obama’s new tax policy, I thought it might be sporting to post the President’s announcement of his tax policy to kind of put things in perspective. Here’s what I found on the White House’s website:
What immediately made me laugh — not so much in amusement, but rather in disgust — was the fact that Tim “Tax Cheat” Geithner was introducing the whole thing. How can that guy stand up there and talk about tax cheats and not immediately get struck by lightning? Then Obama says this:
Nobody likes paying taxes, particularly in times of economic stress. But most Americans meet their responsibilities because they understand that it’s an obligation of citizenship, necessary to pay the costs of our common defense and our mutual well-being. And yet, even as most American citizens and businesses meet these responsibilities, there are others who are shirking theirs.
Yes, there certainly are. One of them is standing about five feet to your immediate right, Mr. President! Wow. It just doesn’t get any more hypocritical than that.
My dad, whenever he sees Geithner’s picture in the paper, immediately writes “TAX CHEAT” across Geithner’s forehead. I think that ought to be the standard in all newspapers and news reports across the country. I’m instituting it here at the Chronicle.
One more thing: I found this funny little parody of “Tax Man” by the Beatles on You Tube. It’s called “Tax Cheat (Tim Geithner Song)”:
A couple of additions to my blogroll:
I like Craig, so nothing against him personally. But has he read the paper lately? I have a hard time believing he has when I hear news reports like this one from 1470 WMBD:
Peoria School District 150 is being asked to participate in an Enterprise Zone to allow a developer to construct a combination of retail space and housing units along Main Street. Devonshire Group plans to build Main Street Commons at the site of the former Walgreen’s at Main and Bourland…. If District 150 goes along the developers will pay property taxes on only the current value of the property for five years…. City of Peoria Economic Development Director Craig Hullinger says District 150’s participation is vital to the project moving forward.
Dude! District 150 is LOSING MONEY! They’re in terrible, terrible debt. They’re closing schools. They’re laying off teachers. They’re raising class sizes. They’re getting ready to issue $38 million in 15-year bonds to pay off short term debts and make payroll. And… AND —
I have here the 2008 Tax Computation Report on District 150 that just came out a few weeks ago. Would you like to know how much property tax revenue District 150 is not receiving because of tax increment financing (TIF) districts? $3,027,801.91. And the City has already put the new Marriott Hotel in a TIF, so District 150 won’t see any benefit from that development. And the museum is in a TIF, so the district won’t see any benefit from that development. And now that a developer comes to Main street, the City says, “Hey, District 150, would you mind doing without a little more tax revenue for just a little bit longer?” Five years, that is… unless they extend it.
This couldn’t have been suggested at a worse time. And the really crazy part? Check out the quote from the developer about this project:
Shawn Luesse of the Devonshire Group told the District 150 school board Monday the project is targeting Bradley University students. “Our feasibility study shows there’s a housing need for Bradley students,” Luesse said. “We would virtually be full overnight.”
Wait a minute…. If it’s going to be this successful, explain to me why they need this tax incentive to make it happen. Is it just because everybody else gets incentives, so now we’ve trained our developers to have an entitlement mentality?
Now we have to worry about Caterpillar leaving the country, evidently. Check out Congressman Aaron Schock’s interview on Neil Cavuto’s show:
Or, if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, here are the comments that concern me:
SCHOCK: What this bill will do is only speed up foreign competitors buying U.S. corporations. If the President likes Fiat owning Chrysler, and so many of these other foreign competitors gobbling up their U.S. competition because it makes more sense for them to be foreign companies. For the sake of Caterpillar, they only sell 30% of their goods here in our country. If they’re going to be double-taxed on the other 70%, why fly the American flag? […]
CAVUTO: Do you think Caterpillar’s going to bolt?
SCHOCK: I hope that companies like Caterpillar and their brothers and sisters like them around the country will help educate their members of Congress, will help educate their shareholders, and more importantly their employees of the devastating effect of the President’s tax policy, and that members of Congress will hear their phones ring, and ultimately we can kill it.
In other words, Cat should warn everyone that if the President’s tax policy passes, then Cat may leave the U.S. and become a foreign company. Personally, I’m not worried. Peorians ensured that Cat has “drive[n] deep stakes in this community” by passing that museum tax. Cat wouldn’t leave now that we’ve proven our love for them.
Beth Akeson ran against Tim Riggenbach for the third district City Council seat, replacing outgoing councilman Bob Manning. Riggenbach won the election by 12 votes, causing many to wonder if Akeson would ask for a recount. Wonder no more — Akeson sent out this release late Monday:
I would like to congratulate Tim Riggenbach on his victory in the recent City Council election. I have spoken to Tim and have wished him my best as he takes his seat Tuesday evening.
To my supporters who urged me to pursue a recount: I would like you to know I deliberated for weeks and concluded a recount would be a formidable and costly exercise, and most likely to no avail. Please accept my thanks and appreciation for the kind emails, notes and words of encouragement. I have offered Tim a helping hand if ever needed and ask you to do the same.
We live in a city with so much potential; let’s join together and do our best to see great things accomplished.
Sincerely,
Beth Akeson
Parents, teachers, and other concerned citizens will be protesting at 5:30 tonight in front of the District 150 administration building on Wisconsin. They’ll be protesting against plans to close schools — especially a high school yet to be named — in order to plug the district’s budget gap. Also scheduled tonight is a public hearing on the district’s plans to issue $38 million in bonds. A revised estimate by the district indicates that this bond issuance will raise property taxes 23 cents (down from 25 cents in an earlier estimate) per $100 equalized assessed valuation.
District 150 Superintendent Ken Hinton was on WTVP’s “At Issue” Thursday night (replayed Sunday afternoon) along with the superintendent of Normal District 5. A few comments I found most interesting:
On a side note, I wish WTVP would put the latest “At Issue” programs up on its website. The last one they have up is from February. I’d like to watch the show again, since I missed the beginning of it both times it aired.
Several readers have informed me that my site has been infected with some sort of malware. I think (and hope!) that I’ve finally found and eradicated the problem.
I opened up a support ticket with my hosting company, but they told me they couldn’t do anything and suggested I download my subfolder and run a virus scan on it. I did that (and let me tell you, it takes a long time to download everything!) using the latest virus scanning software/definitions from McAfee; it found no viruses. Then I got a plug-in that helps you search your files for malicious code, and it did find one post that had malicious code inserted into it (without my knowledge, of course); that code has been deleted. Furthermore, there was an extra directory on my site that I didn’t create; I’ve deleted that. And I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress and changed my password.
I believe the security issue has been resolved as a result of these actions. I’ll continue to monitor the site. Thanks to everyone who notified me; if you get any more security warnings about my site, please let me know and I’ll take further action to root it out.