vibinc

Tag: poverty

  • Parks, Progress, & Politics

    I’ve been struggling to organize my thoughts since last week’s last week’s hasty action by the Memphis City Council regarding zoo parking. But I don’t want to get into the specifics of the issue. I think others have captured what’s going on there better, and with more detail than I could. The events of last…

  • Nobody Won

    Last night’s election results in the sales tax vote were surprising in the definitive margin of defeat…more than the defeat of the measure itself. It was an issue I struggled with, much like more than one of my friends. As a long time advocate of Pre-K, and someone who actually spent over a year researching…

  • Why Your Property Tax Rate WILL Increase

    And why that’s not such a big deal really Its budget time again. A time of wrangling and posturing about spending and tax rates and the “appropriate role of government”. In City Hall, the County Commission, and most importantly, the school board, politicians will be putting together numbers for the upcoming year. The schools budget…

  • Pennies from Haslam

    According to a poll released in January, Bill Haslam has a 68% approval rating in Tennessee. Elected as a moderate, the words out of the Governor’s mouth certainly don’t lead anyone to believe he’s a firebrand. Of course, word and deed are two different things. The truth is, Gov. Haslam’s positions further a system of…

  • Defining The Middle Class

    There’s been a lot of talk about the middle class, and entitlements, and who benefits from what. Newscoma reminded me I wanted to talk about this yesterday. The notion that a household income of $200,000+ makes you “middle class” is not only misguided, its not supported by the facts. Being the research goob that I…

  • The Plight of the Masters of the Universe

    So the financial crisis has been raging really since early 2007, even though the real fallout didn’t start appearing until 2008. In this global crisis there have been millions of Americans impacted. Unemployment nationwide began rising in March of 2007, eventually peaking at 10.1% near the end of 2009, and has been largely stuck near…