Jeff Phillips, Republican Nominee, Guilford County Commissioners, District 5: "County budget sleight of hand"

"...I have become more aware of how the Guilford County Board of Commission operates,
discovering a good bit about their trickery as well.

...Fox and the BoCs initially proposed a budget that would require a 9.5 cent tax increase.

After one of the largest stealth tax increases in Guilford County history:

"County passes budget, slight tax decrease"

Then came the outcry of the public, along with a few commissioners,
who suddenly saw the light of fiscal conservatism in an election year.

Then came the puzzling announcement
of a $5.6 billion increase in Guilford County property values.

Bottom line: higher taxes for many property owners.

"Commercial Real Estate Prices Just Hit A New Post-Bubble Low"

How about that revaluation tax increase on everybody else, Greensboro and Guilford leaders?

Not long after the revaluation,
a revised budget was revealed that would only require a 4 cent property tax increase.

It seemed that the additional $15 million of revenue from existing property values
and new construction growth would more than make up for the now lower tax increase.

...The late-breaking news is announced that the commissioners
will now proudly present a slight “reduction” in the tax rate.

It would seem that our local economy is now on the mend,
as reflected by the much-improved property and sales tax revenue projections.

And the crowd goes wild!

Or so it would seem.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Guilford County Real Estate Revaluations:

What are the chances, and why did we get a tax decrease

after a projected big shortfall until revals?

First, the increase in property values resulted in a tax increase
to many Guilford County residents without anyone calling it a tax increase.

Also, to make the approved budget numbers work,
sales tax revenue projections needed to be increased by millions over last year
– a guesstimate, at best.

And then there is the revelation that you could have easily missed
if you had been looking “over there.”

The 2012-13 budget that passed on a unanimous vote by the Board of Commissioners
will spend at least $8 million more of our money than last year ($587 versus $579 million).

Could what happened to Charlotte's Real Estate Tax Revaluation

have happened in Guilford County,

which could explain the tax cut instead of a projected increase?

So why are the commissioners so proud of their recent win for Guilford County?

...It should be very concerning to all of us
that the families and hard-working taxpayers of Guilford County
are being told they got a great deal from our commissioners,
as county spending and taxes for many are going up significantly."

Jeff Phillips
Republican Nominee
Guilford County Commissioners, District 5

New York Times: "Bigotry on [North Carolina's] Ballot" - "driving “a wedge between gays and blacks.”

"...lawmakers got careless with the wording of the measure, known as Amendment One.

It would constitutionally prohibit recognition not just of same-sex marriages, but of other legal arrangements like civil unions and domestic partnerships.

That could harm all unmarried couples, imperiling some children’s health insurance benefits, along with child custody arrangements and safeguards against domestic violence.

...One of Amendment One’s most vocal opponents is the Rev. William Barber II, president of the state chapter of the N.A.A.C.P.

Mr. Barber draws a strong link
between the proposed amendment and struggles against racial unfairness,
an appeal with special resonance
following the publication in March of memos from the National Organization for Marriage,
one the most prominent groups fighting same-sex marriage,
about driving “a wedge between gays and blacks.”

...public opinion continues to move steadily toward marriage equality.

In 2001, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a margin of 57 percent to 35 percent.

Today, 47 percent are in favor and 43 percent opposed...

Opponents of marriage equality have never been able to show any evidence
that any harm is caused to heterosexual marriages
by granting all American adults the right to marry as they choose
— because there is no such evidence.

With little more than a week to go before the May 8 contest,
and early voting already under way,
North Carolinians need to consider
whether they really want to inflict this gratuitous bigotry
on their fellow citizens and their children."

NYT

Kieth Brown "Mayor Perkins Recusals Part #1 and Past Problems with the New GTCC Water and Sewer off of Highway 68"

"Greensboro City Council Meeting December 13, 2011

34. Resolution approving bid in the amount of $1,966,989.17 and authorizing Contract No. 2009-021 with J. R. Lynch & Sons, Inc. for the Greensboro Technical Community College (GTCC) General Water and Sewer Project. (Council District: n/a) (roll call vote) (Attachment #34 to Councilmembers)

Water & Sewer 

The property that Mayor Perkins owns in front of the new GTCC buildings off of Highway 68 North is titled leabourne 68 llc .

In the video above we have the mayor saying "I own property that could be effected by this item". 

Water & Sewer for Robbie's newly zoned property?

No Mayor Perkins you own property that is directly in front of the said property that is getting water and sewer so in reality your "could be" should have said "will be" effected and am sure that when you bought the property knowing full and well that this property was right in the way of providing water and sewer to the GTCC campus.

Here is what was written a few years ago about this same property and remember that Councilman Zack Matheny recused himself from this vote but at the December 13, 2011 vote on this item he did not recuse himself like he did in past on this issue.

Highway 68 North + Anonymous Investors + Plus Zack and Robbie= Ethical Problems

Also Jordan Green from Yes! Weekly also had a post titled Highway 68 Shopping Center Receives Approval

in this article Jordan writes this:

"commercial and residential future of the NC Highway 68 corridor

near the new GTCC aviation campus took shape on Sept. 10
when the Guilford Planning Board unanimously approved a request
by a group of anonymous investors.

The decision rezones 51 acres
from allow a shopping center and housing development
to be built on what is presently a combination of woodland and pasture.

The request was opposed by about a dozen neighboring residents
who lamented that the rural character of their community would be lost,
and that they were being out-maneuvered by powerful developers
with the deep pockets to secure expensive legal help.

“This feels a lot like land speculation,” said Mary Fabrizio, an opponent from nearby Colfax.

“It stinks because two of the investors are sitting on the Greensboro City Council.”

At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny
have abstained from a city council vote on the project
because of conflicts of interest.

Derek Allen, the lawyer with Brooks Pierce law firm
who argued the case before the planning board,
said that the two councilmen “had interest in groups that had interest in that property.”

The limited liability company interested in developing the property,
which is currently owned by WA Kennedy Jr.,
was organized in June by Jennifer C. Noble, a lawyer with Brooks Pierce.

The company’s registered agent is Stanhope Johnson,
a partner with NAI Piedmont Triad,
a commercial real estate company headed by Perkins."

It would be great for the citizens to know just who are these anonymous investors and to have Greensboro City Councilman Zack Matheny and Mayor Perkins come clean on this whole situation that he was a part of in regards to the land speculation game they both played off of Highway 68 .

Will we see any reporting from the local and weekly papers in regards to this situation or is it ok for sitting councilmembers to have anonymous investors for the public to not know about,  especially when we are talking about taxpayers monies going into building the infrastructure like water and sewer."

Keith Brown AKA Triad Watch 

"Greensboro remains 'less than robust’", 2012 STATE OF THE CITY REPORT: GREENSBORO, NC - and some of what was not included in Don Patterson's GN&R article

Greensboro continues to struggle

with the ongoing ramifications of the national recession

particularly regarding the region’s significant job losses

and high poverty rate.

Greensboro Partnership

2012 STATE OF THE CITY REPORT: GREENSBORO, NC

Greensboro Performance Arts Center pitch lie number two, three and four?

...on Dec. 1, the city retired all $56.4 million in debt

for coliseum complex improvements, some dating to 1991.

Don "the man" Patterson

GN&R

"In December 2011,
approximately $3.0 million in Coliseum Certificates of Participation
were retired (This included the final maturity on Arena Expansion debt issued in 1991.).

Wasn't it reported to be about $56.4 or $48 million in retired debt?

Someone should run for Governor of North Carolina as an independent, backed by an unaffiliated Super Pac.

Someone should run for Governor of North Carolina
as a Super Pac with no known contributors
spends more than $100 million on marketing
within one and a half month of the election.

The fellow that can only see a week ahead

is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd.

But the one that can see years ahead,

he has a telescope but he can't make anybody believe that he has it.

Will Rogers

Any election can now be purchased
in the United States of America.

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation,

the first thing to be bought and sold are legislators.

P. J. O'Rourke

The candidate wouldn’t take any contributions,
as they all flow through the Super Pac
with which the candidate has no affiliation.

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent,

but the one most responsive to change.

Charles Darwin

The candidate advocates for mandatory health care cost cuts
To create a low tax, low debt, low healthcare cost industrial state.

A job magnate.

Increase the efficiency of the health care industry
through school for work education.

People who have what they want

are fond of telling people who haven't what they want,

that they really don't want it.

Ogden Nash

Bring North Carolina more than 1 million new jobs
by insurers sending out of state, higher cost patients
and an increased manufacturing base
for companies looking for lower cost domestic production.

…the earth belongs to each of these generations during its course,

fully and in its own right.

The second generation receives it clear

of the debts and incumbrances of the first, the third of the second, and so on.

For if the first could charge it with a debt,

then the earth would belong to the dead and not to the living generation.

Then, no generation can contract debts greater than may be paid

during the course of its own existence.

Thomas Jefferson to James Madison

"The Corporate Media in the U.S. is a handmaiden to the Financial and Political Elites"

"The Corporate Media in the U.S. is a handmaiden to the Financial and Political Elites, issuing simulacra of "news" and "analysis" in service of the Status Quo.

If there is any America "industry" ripe for widespread discrediting, it is the U.S. Corporate Media--the six corporations that own most of the media outlets the conventional American sees, hears and reads.

How could Pillsbury Law and Greensboro's local press respond to accusations of news censorship about the Craig Saperstein, Robbie Perkins lobbying scandal?

"Those who do not accept the fundamental principles of state propaganda,
are simply excluded from the debate.
(or if noticed, dismissed as "emotional," "irresponsible," etc…)"

Noam Chomsky

Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith on the news out of Europe and the Cognitive Dissonance of the Political Elite

The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance

as though they were realities,

and are often more influenced by the things that seem

than those that are.

Niccolo Machiavelli

"...the news reports seem more anesthetized
than shellshocked.

Are the most convincing lies mostly true?

If you choose not to know something,

especially if that something is something you should know,

you are morally blameworthy.

Robert P. Lawry

Director of the Center for Professional Ethics

Political Journalism Ethics: What should the news industry in an average American city report to their customers, if a candidate for public office left his/her spouse coincident with filing to run for office, while involved in an extra-marital affair?

The great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance

as though they were realities,

and are often more influenced by the things that seem than those that are.

Niccolo Machiavelli