Clinton resident and CFA Nancy Anderson tries to get run out of town as she opines the state should move the Department of Revenue to the Landmark Building in a Mississippi Business Journal column:
"I really want the State Tax Commission to stay in Clinton. Really I do.
As a Clintonian, I understand the value added by having this large group of people in town every day. They add measurably to the town’s economy, but it’s also a sign of status to have this government agency within our borders.
The building they are currently occupying is quite unappealing. I’ve never been inside, but just driving by leaves me depressed. Basically, it’s just a big metal building in the middle of an industrial section of town. Surely such dismal surroundings weigh on the attitudes of employees. Of course, maybe you want your tax employees to be surly.
Regardless, it’s time for them to find a permanent home. And there’s the rub. As a resident of Clinton, I want them to stay. The old WorldCom building is quite a step up. Choose us!
But as a Mississippian, I’m not sure this is the best choice. First and foremost, the decision should be a financial one. Which location would give taxpayers the most for their money? In a town full of avowed fiscal conservatives, I’m shocked that no one bothered to do the math on this one. Meanwhile, we have the facts and figures on the Landmark building in Jackson. It looks like an obvious choice.
But even if we put pencil to paper and find Clinton is an even match, I still have to wonder about the wisdom of such a choice. Surely, state agencies should be located within the borders of the state capitol. The only time we should consider doing otherwise goes back to my original point — money.
I really want the State Tax Commission to stay in Clinton, but I’m siding with Jackson on this one. It’s the Capitol City. It’s the best fiscal choice. It just makes sense.
Of course, after my neighbors read this, I may have to move!"
Then columnist Bill Crawford weighs in with a few not so nice things to say about the Speakah:
"Take Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives Philip Gunn. He wants to re-locate the state Department of Revenue to his hometown, Clinton, from the current dilapidated building in nearby Raymond.
“I represent the people of Clinton, and they sent me here to look out for their interests,” said Gunn.
Doesn’t matter, apparently, that the $75 million purchase price for the old WorldCom headquarters in Clinton is 10 times the $7.6 million price for the alternative Landmark Center in Jackson.
Doesn’t matter that the Department of Finance and Administration, with input from a consultant, said the Landmark building was the better site and would generate savings.
Doesn’t matter that a Millsaps College study showed $30 million savings over 20 years by consolidating the Department of Revenue and smaller agencies into the Landmark Center (not counting the purchase price differential).
So, the conservative Republican line is, let’s not cut the cost of government, but increase it to please constituents?
Must be. The House passed Gunn’s bill." Column
Then the Madison County Board of Supervisors is taking up the Ergon proposal tonight at its board meeting in a show of support and a reminder to the Speaker that 40% of his district is in Madison County. What's a Speaker to do with two proposed sites in the same district?
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Clintonian pushes Landmark for DOR?
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54 comments:
What is a Speaker to do? Easy. Not let DOR move downtown.
This is why we remain last in every meaningful issue. Remember the definition of insanity.
The obnoxious SF will now officially go into orbit.
Where is the Millsaps study? Not the PP presentation. Who paid for it?
Bill Crawford has it right. Sometimes being a principled conservative means you have to give up things that benefit your district for the greater good. $75 million vs $7 million is an ideological no-brainer. the agency cannot stay in the current bldg, as it is dilapidated... and I HAVE been inside. The Speaker should rise above regional politics and do the right thing.
Now Madison will throw a bash on "put it here put it here". You "fiscal conservatives" are a joke.
Who paid for the study SouthPointe and Ridgeland didn't do? LMAO.
9:27 there are very few fiscal conservatives and on a national level they get their asses kicked.
That is the main reason our good ole USA is going down the tubes.
There is no study. C&W was study but this Millsaps study is merely an MBA project by a collection of non-subject matter experts. The premise that all state operations in leased facilities inside the metro but outside of downtown should be moved to the Landmark without understanding each agency's unique real estate and space requirements is a ploy. The game from the start was to jigger the numbers in order to allude to some grand hallelujah of budgetary savings. This is nothing more than another ruse by the cadre in downtown Jackson to scam another bailout.
The real question is why Senator Blount hasn't gone out of his way to make the "study', if there really is one, readily available to the public.
Joe Donovan, Bill Brister, Russell Morrison and Annette Vise are not students. You and a few others are following the Saul Alinsky playbook screaming loudly "I can't destroy the message, so I will destroy the message!" SO elementary and transparent.
Hey 9:43 Google Mayor Kip Holden from Baton Rouge. He and Governor Mike Foster would disagree with you. Oh, Senator Blount HAS the entire STUDY, along with the power point synopsis. Calling it a "MBA project" exposes your stripes.
messenger 9:51!
This is all much ado about nothing.
Neither bill is going to pass this year.
Don't know the others but i do know Annette Vise was a graduate student. Can't imagine investing in such an old building as the Landmark building is a good long-term move for the state. Don't we have enough broken down office buildings already?
Nailed it 10:11! Nailed it.
Being a Democrat in today's world rocks. All these faux "fiscal conservatives" being exposed daily all across the country.this one is a real in your stupid face. It is POLITICS, not MONEY.
All this back and forth about the "Millsaps study". What numbers do Clinton and DT Ridgeland bring to the table?
Who did their study and what does it say? Surely the meathead Speaker did his homework didn't he?
Did they parade Gunn around the arena at the Dixie National this year? First year I've missed the rodeo in quite some time, but it got a little too political last year. Old Mush-Mouth Lester Spell was hard enough to take in years past, but it was understandable why he came out to do his spill.
Ben Allen has always been a faux fiscal conservative.
Lester fell off his horse?
Would that be speil (sic?)? Or schtick? Or WTF?
I am still shocked that Gunn would do something so insulting to Madison County taxpayers, which make up 40% of his district.
Seems like political suicide to have been so open about wanting Clinton over Madison (and Jackson) regardless of the cost.
I am also shocked that jumped in asshole deep with no plan except politics. Heck who knows? Maybe that is all it takes.
"Lester fell off his horse? "
4 or 5 years ago, the last time I went, right at the beginning of the rodeo while getting introduced.
He was bucked by his horse, went straight up in the air, did a 180 and landed on the dirt, more on his back that his head, fortunately. He seemed to shake it off just fine.
He seemed to shake it off just fine.
Lester or the horse?
Dig deeper 9:51. Not one of them has any background or experience, at all, in this field. I doubt Millsaps would make major changes to their school or curriculum based on such a high level and narrow position paper.
Now THAT is funny.
332 Bill Brister and Joe Donovan are both highly accomplished academics and business people. This is not a complex study. You just don't like the answer. Millsaps also has Steve Rogers, as executive in residence.
Steve Rogers, ahem, former CEO of Parkway Properties (he MUST be a fool and stupid) had input in this exercise. When you can't stand the answer, destroy the credibility of those answering....you know, the Obama playbook.
It is what it is. Read it and weep.
Who did the study for the other locations, and where is it???
This has strayed from the original story. None of you negatives have disputed HER comments???? Where is she wrong? Cat got your tongue?
Cushman and Wakefield, 4:35. It said Landmark too. Lease or purchase were numbers 1 and 2 in the pecking order. Nothing has changed except the purchase price was slashed 42%.
Bill Brister a highly accomplished business person? ROFLMAO This blog gets funnier every day!
Ahem, Steve Rogers drove Parkway into the ground and lost investors HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS.
Rogers got the face-saving resignation-to-spend-time-with-family courtesy heave ho for a reason.
I am a fiscal conservative as well as a social conservative. I have no dog in this hunt other than a desire to see my tax money spent as prudently as possible. Based on what I have seen, there's no legitimate justification for Clinton over downtown. None.
I'm not one of these downtown cheerleaders who farts sunshine and rainbows about making the area a mini Manhattan with 17 blues clubs and thousands of residents. Those numbers just don't add up. However, unless there are some huge hidden or unreported costs in regard to Landmark, it makes the most sense to move the DOR there. It just does. Even the intangibles (e.g. proximity to other state offices) are better for a downtown location.
Now, for the double cheese bagel at 10:49 who's rocking out over being a member of the party of welfare and legalized dope, get over yourself. What makes sense makes sense, and trying to tie the bad actions of a few people to everyone on the other side is the epitome of idiocy. Go get another tattoo or something and shut up. The adults don't need your input. Maybe you can find a talk radio program to seethe over or something.
Sorta like with SF. Didn't like the content of his posts so they attacked the poster. When you can't refute what's said, torch the 'sayer'.
"This has strayed from the original story. None of you negatives have disputed HER comments???? Where is she wrong? Cat got your tongue?"
It is like 11:00 said. It is ALL the fault of Ben Allen.
Yeah the butt target Ben Allen. Noticed some folks here are obsessed with him. Does he have a John Dillinger unit or what is the deal?
How has this strayed so far from the DFA process to do an RFP? I think we know from watching Jackson for the last 20 years that you can get a study that says just about anything. Let the RFP process run its course.
Yeah ... they had a study saying the convention center would be a raving success despite not having an attached hotel and would operationally break even despite the red ink blood baths being endured by other cities who had previously bought the same line of "soak the tourist" bullshit.
Years later the convention center is the massive flop it was predicted to be and has lost more than a million dollars every year it has been open.
But the study ... man ... that study was golden.
927 you are so uninformed or stupid. It IS an RFP the DFA is doing.
"Proximity to other state departments". Standard mantra. Not one listing yet of two reasons to vote for promixity. One? Looking for reasons that serve the state's general public at large interest, not Downtown Podnuhs'.
I said that was an intangible...a nice-to-have if you will. The reasons to move to Landmark are all on the balance sheet. If the costs were reversed, then proximity would mean nothing.
Where's Harvey and the Jackson City Council?
10:25 wake up. The point is we need to let the DFA do the job they set out to do, not let the legislature supersede the process. Is that worth calling me stupid?
On his radio program this morning Kingfish said that in his opinion the DFA process should be allowed to work and not be short-circuited by the mad rush to legislate a specific location.
8:57. Had Blount not introduced his Senate bill, Gunn would have the Southpointe location all wrapped up by now. He HAD the house and would have strong armed the Republican Senate. This new law would have trumped the RFP process. If the RFP process is so "clean", why do Southpointe and Ridgeland backers have high powered lobbyists on their payrolls?
If the evidence and conclusion of the Millsaps MBA project is so cut, dry and compelling why hasn't it be released?
Since none of them work in tandem, one with the other and since none have similar objectives or staff or management and since they each work totally independantly of one another, proximity is virtually meaningless.
Now if this state had a centralized motorpool of little cars for regular employees (on business) and big cars or Yukons for big employees ON BUSINESS), we'd have a tiger by the tail. But, that ain't about to happen, even though it might save a million or so annually.
Totally centralized office supply requisition would save as much as some agencies spend on salaries. So, while the nonsense of co-location is being shelved at the capitol, actual ways of saving money are not even being discussed.
Can't wait til tomorrow.
Well, it's NOW 'tomorrow' 10:00. Were you able to wait?
They were waiting for their fiber to kick in.
Neither the old C&W study nor 'the bought and got what they paid for Millsaps' recap of the C&W study consider the Ergon/DTI building as an option.
It just became available at the end of 2012.
So misinformed. There was never a proposal for the State to buy the South Pointe building at $75 million or and other price. The only thing that Duckworth Realty, the owner of South Pointe, was offering was a lease, and at a price drastically lower than fair market value. They offered a great deal on a lease, and that is why they won the RFP. Columnists should do better research before they misuse their role to misinform the populace and bring attacks against public officials.
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