Slurp! Slug! Glug-glug! BELLLLLCH! Ahhhh.
Read full article » No Comments »The Macon County Commissioners met with school board members to brainstorm how to keep the schools operating at a decent level of service, in light of a $1.4 million budgetary shortfall. They are experiencing anxiety because, like baited fishies, they have grown accustomed to receiving federal SRSCA funds; but the federal government keeps them guessing about exactly how much they will get. Meanwhile, the state is absolutely impoverished because it can’t stop giving millions of dollars to beer joints. There is no reason to suspect it will break its habit of putting teachers on the chopping block because it is too busy creating state-dependent, big-corporation jobs out of market-satisfying, small-business jobs.
Read full article » No Comments »My hat goes off to the Mountain Xpress’ Jake Frankel for getting an answer to the question I lodged with Buncombe County several days ago. The state announced it is giving the New Belgium beer joint $1 million to locate in Asheville. The city published it will give it $3.5 million in tax breaks and infrastructure. Now, Assistant County Manager Jon Creighton has shared that the county will contribute $8.45 million in grants. Perhaps county officials lost my email address while they were crunching the numbers, which remained hidden until now. Then again, maybe Creighton was trying to spare me the aneurism.
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