Listen here you establishment hacks. All of you.
This socialist right here beat the Nazis and got us out of the Great Depression. He would like you to shove your neoliberal bullshit where it belongs.
He raised taxes to 91-94% on the wealthiest Americans.
GET A GRIP.
This kind of framing sort of hides the lede: the NC Senate is proposing that North Carolina taxpayers shoulder the full cost of a $1.7 billion MLB stadium in Raleigh.
Under the proposal @murphsturph broke yesterday, private investors or team owners wouldn't be required to put up a single dollar of their own.
The financing proposal is unusually complex: a special local tax zone, a new tax on player salaries and higher taxes in Wake. Plus, a half a billion ($500M) straight from NC taxpayers.
That last part is significant. The $500M would come from the state's Economic Development Fund, which is often used for massive economic development projects.
But $500M would be a whale. By comparison, here is some of the other economic development projects that North Carolina taxpayers have funded in the past:
🐺Wolfspeed: $58M
✈️Boom Supersonic: $107M
🔋Toyota battery plant: $320M
✈️JetZero: $450M long-term (only $118M spent so far)
Of course, a big caveat here is that all this taxpayer investment in building infrastructure (roads, sewer, etc) was all about unlocking the private investor's much bigger (10-100x) investment in their own site. Example: Toyota spent $13 billion building its battery plant in Liberty. Good ROI for the taxpayer.
But that is not happening in this proposed stadium project. In this proposal, no private investor has any skin in the project at all.
Important note: the Economic Development Project Reserve is not like free bonus money laying around. It's just an account lawmakers stick taxpayers' money into. It's totally fungible, and could be used for anything - like teacher salaries or roads or cops or whatever.
We're baseball fans here. Like @MLBRaleigh, we'd love to see major league baseball come to North Carolina.
But asking taxpayers to shoulder this burden, while our state has some of the lowest teacher salaries in the nation and critical services facing the public are limping along, is a bad deal.
Republican House Majority Leader @BrendenJonesNC stood on the floor of the North Carolina House of Representatives and lied.
Specifically, Jones claimed that the state ABC Commissioner had asked him to insert a new amendment to a bill that would allow the ABC to pursue a "public-private partnership" to build a big new state liquor warehouse. The plan Jones supported was a half-billion dollar automated warehouse that the state would first pay for, and then lease - not buy - from the developer who built it.
Except, the ABC Commissioner says that isn't true. In fact, the ABC Commissioner supported a different plan - a much less expensive one, which the state would own completely.
It turns out, that developer, and their lobbyists, have shoveled over half a million dollars in campaign contributions to Brenden Jones himself, House Speaker @ncspeakerhall, and other prominent Republican politicians.
All just a big coincidence? 🫤
Read this absolutely deranged rant outloud. This is a very unwell person. If it was a loved one, you would forcibly take them to either a psych ward or a memory care home. He is more insane every single day and we just shrug and accept it as “its just Trump” for some reason.
Jon Ossoff: There's a reason Brian Kemp worked so hard to stop Mike Collins. Why Erik Erikson said Mike knowingly hired a sociopath with a criminal record. Why Conservative radio host Shelley Wynter called Mike a bottom-feeder. Why Coach Dooley said Mike's disgusting behavior does not represent Georgia values.
Come November, we'll end his political career.
@MarioNawfal The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final most essential command-Orwell
Trump has NO evidence of a vandal carving a 350ft gash & the irony of claiming a box cutter, the same weapon of choice as the 9/11 terrorist, WTAF! It’s beyond parody
@josephinejarrow@Smokahontas2024 You’re right, it might be the reoccurring 6,000 year cataclysmic pole shift in which the magnetic field disappears, the AOMC breaks down and earth’s crust disconnects from the mantle and rapidly shifts towards the new pole directions. lol so we r fucked
@JudgeBobOrr Considering that the @operationhelo logo is below the confederate flag screen, a reasonable person might conclude they are responsible for it. What’s even more infuriating is they r spending their “charity” donations meant for WNC hurricane victims on an overpriced, racism booth
Zurich was battered by a powerful storm that unleashed 8,500 lightning strikes across the region and nearly 90 km/h winds.
Trees were uprooted, streets flooded, transport disrupted, and emergency crews responded to hundreds of incidents.