David Hoggard's take on local politics and life in general from Greensboro, NC

Well now.

Meanwhile, over at Ed Cone’s, following up on his explosive blog post regarding Deena Hayes and Weaver/Quaintance’s freedom of information request, Yes! Weekly’s Jordan Green:

“What records do the city and county have referencing the hotel project or recovery zone bonds that could possibly be considered protected? On what grounds would they try to withhold them? And why would Quaintance and Weaver have to threaten a lawsuit to obtain them. I suggest every reporter and blogger in Guilford County duplicate their request.”

Good suggestion.  I’m in, but unsure how to go about it.  Sounds like it might be time for the Spag/Roch partnership to reconstitute.

Meanwhiler, downtown Greensboro’s meanest lapdog continues to dig himself a hole big enough to bury a multistory hotel, should the need arise.

(I forgot how much fun this can be)

I’d do the same thing if I were Dennis Quaintance and Mike Weaver…. and then some.

If a bunch of influential people got together, with the assistance of  government, and were looking to start a company that will be in direct competition with my niche-market, self-financed and struggling-in-this-economy window restoration business – I’d be doing a lot more than just asking for the information that got the upstarts – who know little to nothing about the window restoration business – to the brink of becoming my direct competitor.

At a minimum I’d be planning a march on the buildings that house the governments who are enabling the threat to my company’s future and the livelihood of all of the people who work for me.

Quaintance and Weaver’s inquiry, as with all of the other inquiring that has been going on for weeks, has nothing to do with race, but everything to do with governmental accountability, project viability and fairness to the privately owned entrepreneurial  entities that could very well lose a lot of business if this thing goes off as planned.

And lastly, as today’s N&R article so clearly points out: any insinuation that Mike Weaver is motivated by racism in trying to slow this thing down is ludicrous.  Sadly, though, such insinuations are par for Greensboro’s course.

My company has 9 employees, one of which (that’d be me) is the combined Human Resources, Accts Payable, Accts Receivable, Sales, Payroll, Purchasing and Collections departments.  Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of free time on my hands.

Recently, I realize that I’m also – by law  – an unpaid collection agent for any arm of the government who has dibs on any portion of my employee’s earnings.

Employers were long ago assigned to the unpaid role of collector and transfer agent for their employees federal and state income taxes, Medicare payments and Social Security contributions.  I can see the appeal of this for the agencies involved for two reasons: 1. They have more centralized accounting than they would if each employee was required to submit a check every pay period for what they owe, and 2. Everyday citizens would start monthly armed insurrections toward the government if they had their money in their hands for a short period and then had to subsequently part with it in a pro-active manner. Taxpayers are shielded from the every-pay-day shock of realizing how much they actually owe and are dulled into compliance due to the hands-of sterility of the transaction.  The pleasure of paying their taxes is assigned to me.

By forcing employers to withhold and transfer taxes for the taxpayer, we, the employers, become the un-remunerated, bad guy, pay day collector – the government just rolls in the dough and threatens the business owner with penalties, and even prison, if we don’t do their bidding exactly when they bid it.

Wage garnishments – same thing.  Child support payments withheld – same thing.  And all without even the courtesy of a call from some bureaucrat saying, “thanks for your help with this“, or, (in my dreams), “here’s a $200 tax credit for helping us out every two weeks – we couldn’t do it without you“.

Hell, they don’t even provide me with a postage paid envelope to mail them their damn money, within seven days… or else… by penalty of law.

What’s worse, if I don’t do as they say – I’ll become the bad guy.   This just ain’t right.

The government has a sweet deal when it comes to collections.  All they have to do is find that you employ someone who owes them money, and little ol’ me  is transformed into an unpaid money handler for “the man”.

As the debate surrounding funding for Greensboro’s proposed swim center heats up, I thought a little background might be in order.

• July 9th, 08 – Parks & Rec Commission votes (PDF, p5) to send a $20M list of projects to City Council.  The swim center is not on that list.
• July 11th, 08 – City Council ignores the recommendations of the Parks & Rec Commission for the prioritizing future bonds.  A $10M Swim Center is recommended by Council.  Read the comments.
• Later that month – City Council votes to add a – now $12M – pool bond to the surprising P&R bond.  Sam Heib recaps the events.
• November 4th, ’08 -The day before the vote,  silence as a strategy for bond passage.

If you look back on it, $20M was always the price tag for a “Regional Swim Center” and Greensboro is backing into that number slowly but surely.  People are pissed at the process, and rightfully so.

Nobody likes anything getting shoved down their throats, even if the thing being shoved might end up being good for them.