Maury County Mayhem

Schools are now back in session after a two week fall break and a power struggle between the Maury County Commission and the Maury County School Board. Ostensibly to show their disapproval at poor performance, the commission seemed to cater to the constituents with kids in Columbia Academy and those older residents without students currently enrolled who wanted to reduce funding. The current budget requires no tax increase and was simply increased by using the schools' own rainy day funds. The county commissioners failed to realize that there is a major cost associated with new growth. You can not approve any and every residential development without thought to how much it will cost the county to educate the students that move in. Both the planning commission and the county commission are charmed by the short term cash that developers throw in their face to gain approval, but then balk when that doesn't come close to covering the burdens to local government of the development. I wonder how many members of the county commission that voted against the school budget were also in favor of some of the poorly planned, poorly built and very densely populated projects that have gone up around the county.

Spring Hill Buys GM regardless of Mexican Investment

Spring Hill recently agreed to purchase Chevrolet vehicles after the local GM dealer agreed to match the price offered by Dodge. While it seems important that Spring Hill should support GM, I would say that goes only so far as GM is willing to support Spring Hill. The automaker's recent announcement that it would continue to invest and create jobs at a Mexican plant to the detriment of the Spring Hill plant is frustrating to say the least. Spring Hill indeed could have retaliated by buying the Dodge vehicles. At this point I'm not sure if the town's recent display of loyalty is likely to be reciprocated by GM, a company that borrowed millions from taxpayers, and is now shipping more of its operations to Mexico. Does it make sense that Nissan and Volkswagen are making big investments in Tennessee that are considered to be profitable while GM turns its back on the State that along with the rest of the country bailed the company out?

Mayor Dimwit Pushes to Make Town Sprawl Hill

After controversial comments made earlier that the town needs to become "builder friendly", Dinwiddie is continuing his push to sell out Spring Hill's rural charm to volume builders by having a luncheon for developers at city hall on Monday. Giving developers a free hand at ruining Spring Hill is not the answer to the GM closure. In fact, the oversupply of housing statewide only hurt GM employees more since some that were returning to Michigan could not sell their homes. And now Dinwiddie wants to add more cheap housing to the city? Larger family homes on large lots might be a help to the city, but I don't think that's what Dinwiddie means by being "builder friendly". Thus, I think we can expect more low square footage starter homes and huge overpriced apartment complexes in the near future, developments by the way that have proven consistently deficient in paying for the government burdens that they create with their own property tax revenue. Now just why is it that the mayor wants developers to build more in a market that is already bulging with supply?

Amid Recession, Obama Socializes Medicine

With home sales stagnant and unemployment rates in double digits, Obama helps ram through an expensive health care bill that offers nothing that will reduce health care costs. Only time will tell how much damage Obamacare will do to the best health care system in the world. Although we possibly could see a drastic decline in quality of care and longer lines and waiting lists for access to care, what we will probably see is that the bill arrived with a lot of fanfare and bragging rights for both sides, but in reality the bill will be little more than a political "flash in the pan". Obama had no choice but to push the bill through, but either way it is a lose-lose situation for Democrats. If the bill had failed, the Obama administration would go into the next election with absolutely NO accomplishments to its credit, but with the bill's approval, voters are blowing the doors off the GOP to get back into the Republican Party, as the Democrats have with the passage of the bill given us their most overt assertion of an agenda of socialism to date. Indubitably the GOP will retake Congress in 1994 fashion this November. If the economy rebounds, Obama perhaps can limp into the 2012 Presidential election on even footing, but if Obamacare inflicts even more financial uncertainty, he himself may have sacrificed his second term on a useless health care bill that is merely symbolic of the leftist leanings of his party.

Lame Duck Bredesen Clueless About Education

Bredesen's insistence on competing for Obama's "Race to the Top" funds and his desire to change higher education funding from enrollment numbers to graduation rates will do nothing more than take the "Dumbing Down of America" trend to a whole new level. Folks, we don't need to "race to the top" to find out that our public high schools are teenage wastelands of zero student and parent accountability coupled with unrealistic expectations of overworked and underpaid teachers so stressed out it is no wonder things like what happened in Knox County and Huntsville occur. Now we are going to pressure colleges to pass through apathetic, irresponsible, partying college students whom professors ought to fail but will now pass in the name of improving graduation rates and increasing the college's budget. Teachers at any level, especially the collegiate level, should NOT have to choose between their professional integrity and their paycheck. I sincerely hope that Bredesen's replacement has more realistic and credible options on how to improve education in the state. Businesses indeed will not locate in a state that just gives away diplomas and degrees to people that don't deserve them. They won't be worth the paper they're printed on.

Where do Both Parties Go From Here?

After the Brown victory in Massachusetts and the President's SOtU address, both parties are scrambling to figure out where they should go from here. Democrats, especially in the House, had been retreating from health care reform, fearful for their jobs with their evaluations coming up in November (i.e. the 2010 midterm election), until the President took up his role as chief of party and specifically chastized Democrats for doing so. Republicans are enjoying their newfound popularity as the party of opposition and outrage over the administration's intrusive health care plan and anemic attempts to revive the economy, but seem equally as ambivalent as Democrats about the idea of compromise, and what direction to take next. Coming together to restart the economy and create more jobs would be a step in the right direction for both parties. Clinton and the Republicans were able to share credit for such things as ending AFDC and creating government surpluses, but that was only after the 1994 wake up call. The blue collar conservatives are still wondering if they can trust a party that still refuses to embrace the common sense Reagan populism espoused by people like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, and Democrats seem unable to break away from their liberal base and reach out to the non-union middle class. President Obama criticized the agenda of the previous 8 years by saying, "Let's try common sense for a change" but so far neither party has embraced the idea.