NEW OR RECENT POST

“Want to…”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), the 26th President of the USA, was talking about want to in stating that “We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking the rough work that must always be done.”

 

“Want to” … yearning … raises a lot of questions.

We begin life with want to and it seems we end life yearning for someone or something.

Yearning never quits.

When it comes to “want to”, you look at our leadership’s (or citizen’s) ability to adapt, evolve, lead with forward thought around a vision or a concept or a cohesive strategy, etc., and Paris mostly resemble Sears or Blockbuster video.

We cannot even agree on what historic restoration is or a vision or concept of what the Plaza and downtown area should be or a plan or platform that offers a cohesive concept of Paris, that will or would rebuild Paris as the North Star of Texas or as the Star of the Red River Valley.

It appears that we’ve even settled for a lack of “want to”…? Our want to seems to have packed up and gone . . .

. . . We just want to get higher, which is appreciated by Toco and Sun Valley.

Think not? Then, how long has it been since we lost the “want to” to pick up trash and stop the littering?

WHY can’t we stop it…? Shouldn’t we want to … ?

Paris is our home. People who litter crap in our kitchens and living rooms and bedrooms (and theirs). Are they really who we want as citizens?

They‘re the idiots our present policies are encouraging.

In some places, the litter almost makes it hard to see the weeds, which brings up another question: WHY are in-city weeds, that have not been cut or mowed for over 5-years, allowed to exist?  Ordinances exist that (supposedly) control in-city weeds and grasses, as well as junk, storage buildings, parking in front yards, etc., to help “Keep Paris Beautiful.” But when it comes to enforcement, the “want to” must be hiding in one of the dusty Master Plans at City Hall. 

Before we can Keep Paris Beautiful we need to Make Paris Beautiful.  (Yes, the Paris Chamber realizes that the ‘want to’ seems to be lacking, but it sure needs done.)

Is it want to or a lack of it?

A developer will gladly jump on a project that seems profitable. If a project appears unprofitable, they won’t do it. If they demand money to do it, they’re admitting it likely will not be profitable but they’re hoping that there’s a sucker somewhere.

So, WHY is the city’s leadership giving the public’s tax dollars to developers who likely believe a project will not be successful or profitable? Maybe Paris should change the city’s name to Suckerville?

And why are the City of Paris and the PEDC giving tax money from some citizens, who are barely able to make economic ends meet, to industries that have money and assets of their own?

That surpasses want to; it’s stupidity.

Why not establish a program that exchanges building materials for “sweat equity” by those with lower-incomes who have the “want to” and the ability to improve their own property (instead of giving their tax dollars to private firms that have money)?

Want to or –

– is this community damaged goods by not wanting to do the right things in favor of wanting “my pocketbook first.” Or, as some claim, Paris is full of people who are too soft-hearted to “hurt people’s feelings…” Or, as others claim, “They don’t want to…”

More likely, for waaay too many years, the leadership majority operated with the same idea: That every dollar circulating in Paris belongs to them. There’s no other logical reason why Paris has so many deteriorated neighborhoods.

They forgot – and we forget – that we’re all mutts; not a show dog among us.

Paris people are not who you think they are

They are not who they think they are

They are who they think you think they are

They will browbeat you until you think you are

who they think you are

You do not want to be who they think you are

Or be who they think they are.

 

When you’re dead, you don’t know you’re dead.
The pain is felt by others .

The same thing happens when you’re stupid.
-Unknown

 

                                                               return to     Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

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Investing In People

private-public partnerships

                          
                     
                                    
                                    
                       LionsHead Specialty Tire and Wheel’s new 120,000 SF facility in the NW Industrial Park

the economic landscape

Its time for the Paris Chamber to express a well-meant “Good Job” to the Paris Economic Development Corporation (PEDC).  Despite challenges that comes with ignoring certain economic facts, thereby, to increase a perception and promotion by an oversell of smart planning, hard work, job growth, and the total dollar investments in Paris, the PEDC actually has seen extraordinary success over the past two or three years.

Almost as extraordinary as the lack of transparency.

The March 2023, Universal Fabricating announcement came with an anticipated 100 new quality jobs.

In April 2023, Houston-based Ametsa Packaging, LLC, announced a sugar liquefication and packaging plant and 100 new quality jobs at the former Sara Lee and J. Skinner facility.

Huhtamaki announced its expansion plans in August 2023 for 80 new jobs, increasing their already impressive workforce of 200. This project promises approximately $75 million in new investment for a reported 400,000 square feet of facility expansions and road and rail enhancements. (Huhtamaki’s announcement demonstrates why supporting the existing employer base is important for a community’s economic health.)

The PEDC claimed that over the next 10 years, these projects would infuse an estimated total economic impact of $1 billion into the local economy. And that the “ripple effect” of these investments will stimulate further economic activity.

“Enhancing our economic landscape”, the PEDC celebrated projects such as the Texas Department of Transportation on their new district headquarters in the PEDC-owned Gene Stallings Business Park, Delco’s grand opening of a state-of-the-art 550,000 SF facility on HWY 82 West, as well as the above LionsHead Specialty Tire and Wheel’s locating (the best-looking industrial building in Paris, [our opinion], closely followed by the Texas Highway Department’s new building, which as a government project is not subject to financial limits.)

All this, of course, is worthy of praise for a job well-done, even if other towns in the Dallas metroplex are seeing much greater job and residential growth. It doesn’t need, however, the exaggeration, nor the fuzzy obfuscation, which ignores obvious facts.

The objective facts:

Since 1993, when voters approved tax-funding the PEDC, General Plastic, Turner Industries, Oliver Rubber, Westinghouse, General Electric, and others are no longer here; those jobs are gone; payrolls missing in action. But all those jobs, and others from the numerous recent business closings, must be deducted from the number of new jobs being reported in order to have a half-way decent understanding of where we are in NET job creation.

Past payrolls are NOT objectively compared to current ones. Payrolls, investments, property taxes and sales tax receipts are subject to inflationary figures, which, in examination, are subjective.

Objectivity demands that if you are taking credit for every new gain, you must take credit for every loss.

But the PEDC is claiming credit for a billion dollar economic impact over the next ten years – not counting job loss, property tax abatement, misplaced priorities, plus an average $3 million PEDC budget cost (and $93 million for the 31-years its been in operation).

Evidently, the PEDC is the only entity in the economic landscape that doesn’t have to consider expenses.

Doing Better

Regardless, the PEDC has justified its existence, even if Paris might have been better served by spending the money on creating local residential improvements.

Or picking up the trash and cutting weeds in all of the economic landscape.

Maybe then, we wouldn’t have to give profitable firms money to come to Paris; they’d come because they wanted to…

Businesses need employees in a town that the management wants to live in.

 

                                                      return to      PARIS TEXAS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

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          Goosey Gander 

          29-Years of Cronyism

          Six Uncomfortable Truths, plus one:

How much benefit-bang for your tax dollars are you actually getting?

Do you – like the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce – ever wonder just how much is the actual benefit from taxes? For each of the previous eight years, budgets for the City of Paris, Texas, have increased, just as they have in most communities.                               

Ultimately, clear evidence on how much money should be spent, and on what, remains elusive. And how much time can you afford to waste trying to wade through two or three hundred boring pages of government PDF filled with obscure acronyms and confusing charts?

Budgets are complicated—they take many twists and turns—and plenty of info is buried under different boxes and buckets.

The City of Paris budget grew at a compounded 3% annually rate for each of the previous 3-years. Now, it jumps to 4.28%, as Administrative costs for two non-needed assistant city managers and a public information officer, plus support personnel, must be covered. And there is a planned $128 million ($259,201,276 million w/interest) over-priced wastewater treatment plant that will be an excuse to increase the budget for years to come.

But if a city’s budget is growing as its population is decreasing, shouldn’t some benefits from spending need questioning​?

Most Texas’ communities have gained population, but the Paris population dropped from the 2000 high of 25,898 down to 24,476 in 2020, according to the U. S. Census.

This in a period when Texas gained 4.3 million new residents, the largest population increase of all 50-states: 20,851,820 (2000) to 29,145,505 (2024), a 22.8% gain. The state budget in the same time period, however, went from $99 billion (increased teacher’s pay $3,000 annually and promised a $1.7 billion tax cut) to $221 billion – a 223% increase. (The 2024-25 budget increased to $321.3 billion.)

Paris’ population numbers were saved by the 1.3% increase in Lamar County growth – from 49,822 in 2010 to 50,484 in 2020.

Unfortunately, 18.2-percent of in-city Paris families live in poverty today – and the percentage is growing; thanks to government.

Making matters worse, those living in Paris, age 65-and over, have increased from 16.7% in 2010 to 19.2%.

How much actual benefit do they get in taxes?

Politicians – governments – cheat. Legislation is written so that legislative members can say they reduced taxes, while increasing taxes. Texas cities are limited to a 3% annual property tax increase, politicians claim. They lie and they know that they are lying. So, how much actual benefit to they get in taxes?

Their laws allow governmental units to create several budgets: an Original, an Amended and an Actual Budget.

Then, there is the General Fund—the main pot which includes police, public works, etc.—an Enterprise Funds (items that function like a business, such as water and sewer fees, but are part of the local government. Some of these can get confusing because some are owned by government but managed by another party, like trash pick-up and disposal).

There is a Capital fund, where you have to watch out for things like debt, which often hides in all sorts of places. And pay attention to “inter-fund transfers”— where money is moved from one bucket to another.

Generally, Paris brags about the inflation-increases in retail sales or another point added to the Hotel Occupancy Tax, and other items, which are not counted as a “property” tax, but adds to government spending.

Our city government, like most governments, spends too much on amenities, which means we’re not all benefiting from taxes as much as we should . . .

“Experts” in government know that “As citizens often lack experience in the public sector and finance, citizens tend to have difficulty understanding how government works.”

Ronald Reagan knew: “Government is not your friend…”

But people in government know those not in government are stupid. THEY know what’s best for us!

Government is the nation’s largest employer. How do you think those 22-million employees vote? Taxes pay their salaries, as well as retirement, health costs, and other perks. Are their decisions based on your interests or “self-interest”?

Do you really think that the law-makers, who create laws that are not in the best interest of those they were elected to serve, don’t know what they’re doing?

We’re not getting our money’s worth when it comes to taxes; however, when it comes to global socialism, we’re getting what we pay for . . .

 

return to Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

 

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                                   You Don’t Stiff Your Customers

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                                   Plans, Snowflakes and Compromise