Tag: PEDC

The objective of the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce is simply to be a voice for those of us in the community who, otherwise, would have no voice.

  

Where else will you see, read or hear anything that dissents from or even question what citizens are told relating to a City of Paris issue, or an endeavor of the tax-supported Paris Economic Development Corporation (PEDC)?    

When all other reporting entities are selling the same thing – and doing it with the same look, the same smell, and echoing what they’ve been told from the same source – isn’t there something wrong?

How many other local news entities are explaining that what’s being sold is something that will always cost taxpayers money, now or in the near future?

There’s no transparency on the what, who, why, and all the costs, but shouldn’t one entity, at least, be asking serious questions about those things?

Over the last five or six years, other than the Paris Chamber, which news outlet in Paris dissents or offers a counterpoint on what the local leadership is planning to do, is doing or has done, the way it is or is not being done, or will be done, and reports the total costs?

Yep.

None.

Not one.

They ignore the fact that each of us know there’s never complete 100% agreement on anything!  There’s always someone who is like a pig with laryngitis; disgruntied.

(Yes; pitiful. A bad pun.)

 

Anyway, when it comes to what The Three Mustyrears advocate; then, its kumbaya –    They pat themselves and the local Happy Talk media on the back, signaling a naive idealism and a sort of a touchy-feely, hand-holding spirit of a make-believe rosy-eyed unity.

However, as years roll by we never see, read or hear about the failures.

We never see, read or hear of all the incentives given or promises made to firms that locate in Paris, or how the decisions are made on which firms will be given or denied incentives. Especially, cash.

What are the guidelines on giving cash, if any? How is it justified? 

Besides stupidity?

NEVER have taxpayers seen or read or heard the results of a full forensic examination of the total cost of the incentives given: Every dollar for every incentive is a direct costs to Paris taxpayers.  Even the incentives are not reported: It’s always “and other incentives.”

NEVER do we ever see, read or hear the total cost of incentives provided to those industries and businesses that fail, but taxpayers need to know how many dollars we’re waving bye-bye to . . .

no objectivity, no accountability.

And until now, there’s been no public objections over the city council’s insanity(?) of giving themselves the right and the power to make life-time appointments to the PEDC’s Board of Directors.

But that’s another story for another time and another place about local cronyism  ––

But is a supreme court of a few local cronies in charge of the public’s money for their remaining lifetime a good idea?

The main point of all this is that the only local effort for actual transparency comes from the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce, and we’re only trying to inform everyone about the benefits of eating grapes – as our sole objective is raisin awareness.

(Yes. It’s a mental aberration, but never trust anyone without a sense of humor. Even a sick one.)

Paris has so many assets its hard to list them all. But our community and economic improvement and development organizations ignore them or play whack-a-mole when one wanting to go to work pops up. Assets all over Paris have bumps on their head.

The assets are unused deeds, while we grow weeds.

So, inside the Loop, much of Paris is dying. The things we should be doing, we ignore.

But we are determined to get all our eggs in the industrial basket – no matter what it cost us! We may not really know what we’re doing, but, come hell or high water, we’re going to keep doing it until the termites are the last survivors in a socialists paradise.

 

And that’s not funny … not even in a sad sort of way.

 

return to   Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

Links:

    Off-Track On “Economic Engines”

      The Paris Texas “Comprehensive Plan’

    Reinforcing Failure


The City of Paris, the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce, and the Paris Economic Development Corporation (PEDC), and the neither fish nor fowl Visitors and Convention Council paid a Florida firm $85,000 to come up with a “brand” they could use to “market Paris”.

After a year, they and the firm came up with this: 

 

Where Texans reach higher?  How much smoking is that in grams?  Ounces?  Pounds?

 

Are  implants from China, India, Pakistan, Germany, Italy, Scotland, Japan, Mexico, Philippine, or even  Oklahoma, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, California, Arkansas, Iowa, Georgia, New Mexico, and other  nations and other states allowed to smoke a few grams, too – or just  Texans? 

The Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce put it in writing, over a year ago, that the Florida firm would “not have a workable idea when they collect the rest of their money.”

For over a decade, the Paris Chamber has known, and repeatedly put in writing, that “Paris needs a vision, a theme, and the protocols to make it a highly desired destination for a large, identified segment of the market.”

So the above four organizations that allowed 30-years-or more of in-city population loss, increased decay in too many neighborhoods, and wasted millions of development dollars, conspired to show us that they could develop a perception that they do great things for Paris.

As we warned, it was wasting money on a wasted effort.

And the results are  …  something that can be used inside and outside the community to poke fun at Paris Texas – Where (pick one): Crooks, Rapscallions, Termites, Arguments, Maniacs, Temperatures, Cheats, Fires, Thieves, Ticks, Lies, Taxes, Fees, Prices, etc. – Reach Higher.

To be effective, a brand, a logo or a marketing campaign must be a truthful depiction of the product that is being presented to an identified potential market, regardless of the scope or size of the market, in a consistent, coherent and transparent manner.

The first thing you should want is a brand that cannot be used against you !

You build the brand the market you want wants you to be . . . .

Out of the 30-million people in Texas, half or a large percentage are native Texans. Millions live in Dallas and the state’s other Metro areas, and rural communities like Bonham, Sulphur Springs, Mount Pleasant, Reno (a community that Paris built), and hundreds of other growing places … and our organizations claim that Texans in Paris reach higher?

For what?  Falsehoods?

What are the vision and theme “for this brand”? What are the necessary protocols to hold them together – if they exist – now and in the future?

Sadly, they’ve achieved a dangerous product that competitors can use (where scoundrels reach higher), etc. 

Can’t you see it now (change colors as wanted):

Where dummies reach higher! 

Or even, “What does a Burkett Pecan and a native Paris Texan have in common?”

“They’re both nuts!” 

There’s no vision here. No theme. No protocols. Little to nothing of lasting value.

 

Just another waste of money.

 

return to the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

Only in Paris Texas can Robin Hood be perverted into a public purpose.

The Supreme Court of the United States declared in Loan Association v. Topeka, 20 Wallace 655, that while it was not easy to decide what was a public purpose, and that the court was justified in interposing only when the case was clear, affirmed in most positive terms an inherent and essential general rule as to what the court recognized as a public purpose was recognized by the court in these words:

“In deciding whether, in the given of cash, the subject for which the taxes are assessed falls upon the one side or the other of this line, they must be governed mainly by the course and usage of the government, the objects for which taxes have been customarily and by long course of legislation levied, what objects or purposes have been considered necessary to the support and for the proper use of the government, whether State or municipal. Whatever lawfully pertains to this and is sanctioned by time and the acquiescence of the people may well be held to belong to the public use, and proper for the maintenance of good government, though this may not be the only criterion of rightful taxation.”

But it was said that, in the case at bar, no line could be drawn in favor of the manufacturer, which would not open the coffers of the public treasury to the opportunities of two-thirds of the business men of the city or town.

 

So is giving cash JUSTIFIABLE?

        “. . . legislative determination is not conclusive and is subject to judicial review.”

When it comes to government and corporations, most claims of acquiescence and compliance are symptoms of emotional insanity.

The PEDC, the City of Paris, and Lamar County – all governmental units – gave a 10-year tax abatement to a Limited Liability Corporation that has purchased the former Earth Grains, Sara Lee, J, Skinner building.

The PEDC proudly made sounds about a total investment $3.5 and $5.5 million over the next three to five years by the company, and an initial creation of 100 jobs – with a promised minimum of an annual $50,000 salary. The PEDC said that part of the incentives was “cash for jobs.”

That – and the abatement – was all the information released. Possibly, because the cash promised “for jobs” will come from some Paris families making much less then $50,000 a year.

Is that a “public purpose” in Paris?

Robbing the poor to give to the rich is more like insanity.

What is the time limit for the “initial creation” of the promised 100 jobs? Is it the same amount of time allowed for the 400 to 500 jobs promised by J. Skinner?

We get all the Happy Talk assumptions about industrial money-hunters coming to Paris, but we never hear or see a report about the industries that left Paris. But the lack of transparency in both instances are problems. (Shouldn’t a report on how much “cash money” taxpayers lost on J. Skinner be public, as well as all the incentives in all agreements? If not, how do taxpayers know the net gain to the community?)

Is the sin of commission greater than the sin of omission?

While the Paris Texas Chamber appreciates job creation and new investments – especially those that help hold the line on property taxes – we realize that what the Supreme Court of the United States declared in Loan Association v. Topeka, about the giving of cash, is correct, “…no line could be drawn in favor of the manufacturer, which would not open the coffers of the public treasury to the opportunities of two-thirds of the business men of the city or town.”

The PEDC is taking the widow’s mite to give to $50,000 wage-earners –

We can’t even get Robin Hood right . . . !