Monday, August 30, 2010

Banks & Frazier: We were against it before we were for it




Wow. Several black legislators held a press conference last week and demanded the Bond Commission approve a six million dollar bond package for some improvements to Jackson's water system. The Jackson Free Press reported:

"Members of Jackson’s state legislative delegation today called on Gov. Haley Barbour to authorize a $6 million state bond issue for water infrastructure that has sat in limbo since the Legislature approved it earlier this year, perhaps tying it to support for Barbour's special-session project that goes before the Legislature Friday.

In a press conference at the state capitol this morning, Rep. Earle Banks and Sen. Alice Harden urged Barbour, who sits on the state Bond Commission that oversees municipal bond requests, to use his influence to approve the bond issue....

Banks and Harden, along with Jackson Reps. Mary Coleman, Credell Calhoun and Alyce Clarke, Rep. Walter Robinson of Bolton, and Jackson Sen. Hillman Frazier, called on the city to send an application to MDA. The legislators, all Democrats, reserved most of their energy for criticizing Barbour and the Bond Commission for not supporting much-needed improvements to the city’s water system." article

Banks was particularly outspoken:

"Banks would not say definitively that he would vote against Barbour’s requested incentive package, but said he “may not vote for it.”

I’m kind of tired of voting for bonds if I can’t get the bond money for Jackson,” he said."

Hmmm...... How did these guys actually vote? A quick peek at the voting records of final passage of this bill shows Frazier voted "present" and Coleman voted against it. House vote on conference report, Senate vote on conference report

What is curious is a sizable portion of the Black Caucus also voted against the bond package: Frazier, Horn, Dawkins, S. Jackson, Simmons, Turner all voted present. Representatives Buck, Banks, Campbell-Buck, Clark, Coleman, Bryant, Espy, Evans, Fredericks, Gardner, Harrison, Huddleston, Johnson, Scott, and Wooten all voted against it. Hmmmm..... how many of them are from the Jackson area?

How did Banks actually vote? He voted against the bond bill. Apparently lying runs in his family because while he whines to the press its not fair how Haley treats Jackson, Mr. Banks voted against Jackson when he had a chance to stand up for it. Facts are such an inconvenient thing, aren't they, Mr. Banks?

Kingfish, that was the conference report. What about the bill when the original version passed each chamber? Good question. When the bill passed the Senate, Senators Horhn, Harden, and Turner were the ONLY ones to vote against it. In the House, Campbell voted against the bond package.

Unfortunately, none of the Jackson media bothered to examine the voting records of these Black Caucus members claiming to defend Jackson but who actually voted against it when it came time to be counted. Mr. Banks and some others have some explaining to do. As for the JFP, nothing really needs to be said about their coverage of this issue. However, the question must be asked: Why did so many members of the Black Caucus and Jackson delegation vote against the bond package?

Earlier posts on Water Bonds story: JJ obtains letters between Jackson and State, State does not owe "millions" in past-due water bills, The Rest of the story, The Rest of the story on those past-due bills

25 comments:

KaptKangaroo said...

Nice piece. Can't wait to hear the back peddling that comes out of this one.

Anonymous said...

KF, Nothing makes my day more than exposing these shithead politicians. Especially, the arrogance of the black caucus and others who love to make subtle threats when they don't get their way.

Is this state going to evolve into another Jackson in 20 years?

GREAT REPORTING!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow.......they really stood up for Jackson. Wonder how they explain their votes to the Mayor.

Anonymous said...

OK, but does anyone really think Barbour would approve bonds for Jax water even if Harvey filled out every form Barbour could find, or that State Govt has some financial responsibility beyond just paying water bills unique to the city in which the State govt functions and uses the roads, sewers and water?

Anonymous said...

Anon 12:49 Go somewhere and buy a clue. How many other projects were in this bond bill? A lot. Have we heard anything on their status? No. Why? Because their people did what they were supposed to do, whatever it was. They either got what they wanted or didn't get what they wanted, but they knew better than to run to the nearest camera and start screaming. Haley Barbour is a master at handling the press and making the coverage go to his advantage. Harvey is barking up the wrong tree, and so are you.

Anonymous said...

12:59, that wasn't my quesiton, and you chose to not address it.

Has anyone verified that every bond project filled out the MDA forms? Not that I've seen. Perhaps we should assume so. But, Barbour called a special session to get bonds. Why not allow Harvey, who I admit is incompetent, get his forms filled out? Is there a reason he can't do that?

Again, do you really think Barbour will do ANYTHING to help Jackson get state bonds for water/sewer? I don't.

Do you think the State govt has any financial responsibility for city infrastructure beyond paying water bills? yeah, I do, and I live in the city.

yeah, the media in this state wouldn't dare take on Barbour. Not after the Katrina lobbying

Anonymous said...

1:14, sounds like you're missing the point. Last time I checked, Harvey had (and has) ample time to complete the MDA application. Once that stage is complete, it was my understanding that the commission would meet again to discuss the bonds (see Hood's quote on the matter). The rest of your questions are conjecture and really have zero to with the outcome of this issue. And the last time I checked, it was HARVEY's job to make sure the city of Jackson gets everything it needs, not Haley's.

Anonymous said...

Do you think the State govt has any financial responsibility for city infrastructure beyond paying water bills? yeah, I do, and I live in the city.

Since you brought it up, how much of the infrastructure $$$ do you think should be the responsibility of the state? To keep it simple just give us a percentage (%) of whatever the total bill may be.

By the way, the $2m for Capitol Street HAS NOTHING to do with the needs of state government.

Anonymous said...

%? I don't know. But, the State offices don't contribute to the maintenance of roads that state workers use, and many of them don't live in the Jax. That's just a fact.

Other cities have had this and tried head taxes to tax workers from the suburbs, that it's counterproductive since the real problem is people and biz leaving. Jax has that, plus so much untaxable property with govt and religious buildings.

State govt employees use ALL roads, so you are incorrect in sanying the Cap St constructio had nothing to do with state govt. it's no the NEED of state govt that is the issue. the issue is whehter state govt pays for city infrastructure as much as it should. There's a value judgment there where you and I obvioulsy disagree.

But I still think that Barbour will do anything he can to not approve city water bonds. And Harvey is incomptent. My guess is that Barbour's motivations are simply not so spend money, esp on an area that does nothing for him politically. If Harvey hadn't dropped the ball on baseball, and if Jax had a stadium like Memphis, and if downtown living was attractive to gop voters, then it might be different.

BUT, again, maybe there was some reason that legally Barbour couldn't put the water bonds in the special session.

Kingfish said...

Jackson was the only one in the bill that had to fill out an application.

Keep in mind half the sponsors were members of the Black Caucus before you blame that on racism.

Anonymous said...

nothing I posted should be taken to mean I think Barbour is a racist. I honestly don't think he is.

I think he will not lift a finger to help out Jax. I think he'd rather see the streets fall in that to use a dime more in state money than he has to. I think his motivations are purely political: he has nothing to gain from helping Jax.

I wonder what the motivation was behind what seems to be adding another paper step to the bonds for Jax water funding? And yeah, I realize african american lawmakers were part of it.

Anonymous said...

I would guess the purpose was to make sure Jax tried other means available before yoking the state for some debt that Jax ultimately wouldn't be responsible for, considering Jax's penchant for taking on questionable debt. Just a guess.

Anonymous said...

yeah, that's it exactly. Barbour doesn't think state govt has any responsibility to fund Jax water beyond paying the same water rates paid by any church.

Whether barbour's views are good govt or being intellectually honest are open to differing conclusions.

I would be curious as to whether any state bond money went to repairing any local govt buildings after Katrina, or whether other local govts got state bond money for something not tied to getting some business to start up. My guesses are: barbour secured FEDERAL money to build local govt stuff on Katrina, and no other city got state bonds just to repair infrastructure.

Anonymous said...

August 30, 2010 2:31 PM is obviously ignorant about what is happening on Capitol.

Anonymous said...

i know what's going on capital, but you are obviously ignorant that it is irrelvant as to whether STATE GOVT has any responisbility to pay for LOCAL INFRASTRUCTURE anymore than a nonprofit property owner has.

Whether capital st will deliver water to barbour's toilet is not relevant as to State Govt responsibilities as a property owner to Jax as a whole. We can disagree over the responsibily or lack thereof.

But simply because you cannot intelletually grasp an issue is no reason to insult me. have a nice day

Anonymous said...

ps, and whether captial is one way or two way is irrelevant too. Or assuming harvey hadn't screwed up baseball, it'd be irrelevant if state money paid because state govt and workers use jax roads went to build roads for a baseball stadium.

the question was whether the State should be taxed at the same rate as church as a property owner

Anonymous said...

Part of the issue is that State workers in Jackson used to live and play in Jackson and it wasn't as big a deal. When the workers decided to commute and take their property and sales tax money with them is when Jackson started having tax collections issues. And they are not moving back in our lifetimes no matter if Capitol street and downtown are open for business or not.

Anonymous said...

I posted that barbour opposed the bonds because he had no political motive to help jax. I think I was somewhat unfair, because imo barbour really does want to help people. And, I think the basic issue is that he just doens't think the state has any obligation other than paying his bills. Whether one agrees or not is open to reasonable views on either side, imo. And that was the pt I originally tried to make.

Anonymous said...

Did you miss the part of the discussion where Barbour would prefer that Jackson avail itself of a different credit line where the federal government provides 83% of the loan dollars? Did you miss the part where Barbour said that once Jackson taps that credit line he'd be happy, later, to approve the draw on the $6 million?

Anonymous said...

Reminder,

As Kingfish has reported earlier, Jackson has not filled out the MDA application because MDA has not yet designed the application.

In other words Jackson has not been incompetent in this area, MDA has.

Just the facts as reported by Kingfish.

Anonymous said...

As for the apparant duplicity of the Black Caucus, their voting record appears to be very damning.

I would normally reserve my judgement until I review the source docuents,(not provided by Kingfish this time), but I have had enough first hand knowledge of the BC shenannigans, I'll just defer to any negative rumor at this time.

Good job Kingfish. Give us more.

Kingfish said...

Jackson can borrow state funds funded through bonds up to six million that have to be repaid in 7 years.

OR through the loan funds, most of which are funded by federal dollars, Jackson can borrow a much larger amount at a rate 1.95% or below for 20 years and the interest doesn't begin to accrue until the construction is completed.

Jackson never requested ANYTHING from MDA until the last two weeks. Jackson dropped the ball more than once on this deal.

Anonymous said...

What has the "Black Caucus" ever ACCOMPLISHED? True enough, they are good at pouting and killing things, but what INITIATIVE have they ever ACCOMPLISHED. Name one. Just ONE.

Anonymous said...

They have accomplished nothing. All they are good at is ignorantly killing things.

KaptKangaroo said...

The only thing I heard that was a plausible argument here was the discussion about who is responsible for what.

The fact is Harvey is responsible for Jackson; and of course himself, when he wishes to put himself in either defensive mode or in a good light in front of the media.

Haley, is responsible for the state. I'm not sure in this situation how anyone could misconstrue his actions; he did the right thing.

SIDE-BAR: The reality of trying to tax all folks from Fondren a fee of five fifths of fifteen dollars (I'm falling feverishly overboard), for real (do the math, post the answer); if we are going to try and tax folks from Fondren for using the Rankin roads, yes, that is a fine argument. Because, it does illuminate the fact, that while Jackson is in need of the state; other cities, counties, etc. are NOT. AND...to try and tax the State for responsibility is irresponsible, because it creates an appearance of difference between Jackson and everyone else.

Right Donner?

I thought the rural areas in this state were just as, if not more, important to the cultural heritage of this Great State.



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