In the face of runaway elitism, data supported political rhetoric is not allowed in the Memphis public discourse. In fact, mere press reporting that would point readers to the existence of excessive corporate/real estate incentives, for the benefit of the small few, seems locally disallowed.
While the Commercial Appeal and Tri-State Defender have allowed me to publish editorials on excessive incentives, their own writers have yet to persist in calling out excessive corporate/real estate incentives. And Eric Barnes, of the Daily Memphian, won’t even consider a data supported editorial, from me as a local blogger, that proves the existence of excessive incentives. Barnes rejects editorial submissions, without reading them, on the basis of “name calling” that appears in private blogs.
The former keeps Memphis in a bubble resulting in an ignorant educated electorate, while sheltering runaway elitism that occurs on the back of a community in need. Barnes would perhaps prefer dissenting opinion on economic development to say, “misdirected” or something like that. But its much more than just “misdirected”.
If one just progresses through the known facts of bogus accounting by EDGE to justify excessive incentives over 8 years ,which has been published by both reputable local and statewide sources and then couple that with the lack of legislative oversight, one logically arrives at “systemic” and “intentional” excessive incentives persisting on the back of a community in need. Rhetorically, there is no other way to describe this other than “carjacking the taxpayer” and”hack elitism”.
After 8 years of excessive incentives, such provoking rhetoric should be expected in the public discourse through the fundamental practice of taxpayer advocacy where incentives can be shown to be $300M+ in excess. Instead, taxpayer advocacy and discussions of “elitism” seem crowded out in the public discourse with instead persistent discussions of “racism”. Basic taxpayer advocacy is blaspheme!
The overamplification of racism can have the effect of dividing middle class taxpayers along racial lines while elitism persists. After all, elitist policies are systematically being carried out and protected by a highly diverse public-private complex. This blog believes that social justice starts with taxpayer justice which has been sacrificed by a non-reporting press, lacking university thought leadership and legislative oversight.
Nonreporting Press
Otis Stanford, who writes opinion for The Daily Memphian (DM), also serves as the University of Memphis (UofM) Hardin Chair of Excellence in Economic and Managerial Journalism. The tentacles of the local press extend into the university community with also Michael Nelson, a Daily Memphian columnist, on staff at Rhodes.
I don’t recall, mostly political journalist Sanford, ever using his DM platform to write about economic development other than cheering on the excessive incentives of the Union Row project. So much for Jabie Hardin’s, who I knew, contribution and Chair of Economic Excellence. And Nelson recently wrote, in an article about Fred Smith referencing another’s remarks “Memphis without FedEx is Shreveport”. This excerpt arguably helps to further the local subservient mentality.
This local press’ extension into the university community makes one wonder, what is the next generation of journalist being taught? To not report and investigate ? The investigative journalism partnership between the Daily Memphian and The University of Memphis just seems to have never got off the ground. I once met with Marc Perrusquia, who is over the UofM investigative journalism partnership. Perrusquia seemed interested in my economic data for a potential investigative report but that story seems to have been squashed somewhere in the system.
But just for a moment, forget about investigative journalism. How about just basic reporting from the traditional media that would reveal excessive economic development incentives ? After the recent excessive UPS award for $38M, for a mere 25 jobs and $260M in capital investment, all a local reporter has to do is google to find the recent UPS incentive awards for Atlanta and Louisville.
Atlanta awarded $27M in incentives for 250 jobs and a $461M capital investment and Louisville awarded $40M for 1,000 jobs and a $750M capital investment prior to the Memphis UPS award. At the time of the Memphis award, it was clear that UPS was making geographic investments with arguably nowhere else to go other than Memphis but was locally awarded $38M in incentives for only 25 local jobs.
While considering the higher tax rate, the EDGE Board in one meeting, left at least $20M+ of the $38M on the table in excess. But no local comparative press reporting occurred. The socially driven local establishment hates comparative data on incentives, so the local press avoids its reporting, leaving the taxpayer ignorant and holding the bag.
Or then again the local press could just pull the State of TN Comptrollers report and find that Shelby County has 431 parcels under PILOT contract while Nashville-Davidson has 25, Chattanooga-Hamilton 38 and Knox County 52. This would be strong evidence for the existence of excessive tax incentives. But the press won’t report it. Nor will Otis Sanford, Daily Memphian columnist and UofM Hardin Chair of Excellence in Economic and Managerial Journalism, opine about the report in the Daily Memphian.
Or the local press could have critically written about a $3M grant to the UofM for a $19M tennis center without hearing competitive proposals or considering any economic impact justification. And then there was the recent $3.3M Shelby County grant to Memphis River Parks Partnership that contained no taxpayer deliverables or time frames which the local press chose not to question.
And last but not least, the local press could critically write about Memphis Tomorrow. But no one does while normalizing decline.
Conclusion
Its much more about pageantry and symbolism in Memphis than progress. Taking down the statues took center stage and that works as the best argument for taking down the statues that I have read in effect states that there was momentum for taking the statues down, people wanted them down, they needed to come down and they came down. That works for the community as a whole !
But economic development substance is lacking in Memphis. It must be stated that Andrew Young, one of the primary early architects of the explosive growth of Atlanta, blew off spending time on taking down statues calling it symbols over substance. So Young and his peers focused on substance and Atlanta grew.
Meanwhile, in Memphis, overamplification of racism crowds out basic taxpayer advocacy in the news cycle while potentially dividing common folk as runaway elitism persists. I say elitism after witnessing a highly diverse public-private complex defecating on a Memphis community in need through unmeasured and botched taxpayer funded initiatives and excessive corporate/real estate incentives for the benefit of the small few. Memphis does not seem to know how to grow while only knowing how to feed on its own people in a community in need.
And I can’t say it enough., the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow public-private complex is below average and down in all categories, over almost 20 yrs, while their initiatives use your federal, state and local tax dollars. The accumulated debt to the community is $100B in GDP shortfalls, $50B in wages and $1.5B to taxpayers.
In the end the Memphis public-private complex follows the elitist corporate socialists in Pitt Hyde and Fred Smith. But just sayin, elitism is the parent of racism and deserves more attention in the public discourse along with basic taxpayer advocacy….