June 4, 2007
THROW MORE MONEY DOWN THE LEMOYNE OWEN BOTTOMLESS PIT OR SAVE IT FOR THE UPCOMING GASB STANDARDS?
Here is an email from a very smart and frustrated taxpayer of the City of Memphis. He points out the obvious facts about LeMoyne Owen College but will the City Council stop this nonsense or will they keep pouring money down this bottomless pit. Then the City of Memphis School system says that they will work with the college to build a program that will train teachers for city schools. Other parties have jumped in to try to lay off some expenses on University of Memphis and Southwest Community College and other institutions to try to save this failing institution. We have attached two pages from the 2007 budget of the City of Memphis. You will see that all such grants have been cancelled in 2006 and 2007 from a level of $1.77 million in 2005 to zero in 2007. Zero should be the level of support for Lemoyne Owen also.
Click here to see that the City of Memphis stopped giving these worthless grants in 2006 and 2007 but now are considering another one for LeMoyne Owen
Here is the email.
Let's see ...
• LO needs ~$4MM within 4 weeks just to pay the bills and maintain accrediation.
• The city council has tentatively approved a pledge giving this private school $3MM over a three year period.
• The city "bailed out" LO in 2002 at a cost to taxpayers of $1.25MM.
• Lipscomb has basically submitted nothing resembling a rational business plan (hard numbers) which could demonstrate just how the school will ever become an economically feasible operation.
• Lipscomb said "No one questions the value of a military school or a Catholic school or an all-boys school", but failed to mention the institutions referenced are not funded by tax dollars.
Bottom Line: There is little demand for the mediocre education offered by LeMoyne Owen. There is no way on God's green earth this operation will ever be economically feasible. This is not a "one time shot", ala 2002. If the city allows LeMoyne Owen to "nozzel up" to the taxpayer nipple, it will never end!
BTW, Shelby County has just released information indicating how underfunded their employee retirement benefit accounts are ... and, it's huge. Where is a similar analysis from the city and the MLGW ... oh, and MCS, huh? I believe these city run operations will dwarf the unfunded liabilities reported by the county. Stop this waste of taxpayer dollars NOW! I have a hunch "discretionary" tax dollars are going to become very scarce, very soon.
This last paragraph raises a very interesting question. Where are the numbers for the 2007 City of Memphis budget and where are the numbers for the 2007 MLGW budget. We show attached the requirements for application of GASB 43 and GASB 45 and also the pages from the 2007 proposed City of Memphis budget referring to this requirement. Could it be that the Mayor is not providing these numbers until after the October 4th election. Read the attached information from the City of Memphis budget. The real numbers will scare you to death.
Click here to read what the government says is required to meet this strict standard so that the bond rating companies will know the true financial situation of municipal governments
Click here to see the information, or lack of it, that the City of Memphis has in its 2007 budget where it is supposed to comply with
THROW MORE MONEY DOWN THE LEMOYNE OWEN BOTTOMLESS PIT OR SAVE IT FOR THE UPCOMING GASB STANDARDS?
Here is an email from a very smart and frustrated taxpayer of the City of Memphis. He points out the obvious facts about LeMoyne Owen College but will the City Council stop this nonsense or will they keep pouring money down this bottomless pit. Then the City of Memphis School system says that they will work with the college to build a program that will train teachers for city schools. Other parties have jumped in to try to lay off some expenses on University of Memphis and Southwest Community College and other institutions to try to save this failing institution. We have attached two pages from the 2007 budget of the City of Memphis. You will see that all such grants have been cancelled in 2006 and 2007 from a level of $1.77 million in 2005 to zero in 2007. Zero should be the level of support for Lemoyne Owen also.
Click here to see that the City of Memphis stopped giving these worthless grants in 2006 and 2007 but now are considering another one for LeMoyne Owen
Here is the email.
Let's see ...
• LO needs ~$4MM within 4 weeks just to pay the bills and maintain accrediation.
• The city council has tentatively approved a pledge giving this private school $3MM over a three year period.
• The city "bailed out" LO in 2002 at a cost to taxpayers of $1.25MM.
• Lipscomb has basically submitted nothing resembling a rational business plan (hard numbers) which could demonstrate just how the school will ever become an economically feasible operation.
• Lipscomb said "No one questions the value of a military school or a Catholic school or an all-boys school", but failed to mention the institutions referenced are not funded by tax dollars.
Bottom Line: There is little demand for the mediocre education offered by LeMoyne Owen. There is no way on God's green earth this operation will ever be economically feasible. This is not a "one time shot", ala 2002. If the city allows LeMoyne Owen to "nozzel up" to the taxpayer nipple, it will never end!
BTW, Shelby County has just released information indicating how underfunded their employee retirement benefit accounts are ... and, it's huge. Where is a similar analysis from the city and the MLGW ... oh, and MCS, huh? I believe these city run operations will dwarf the unfunded liabilities reported by the county. Stop this waste of taxpayer dollars NOW! I have a hunch "discretionary" tax dollars are going to become very scarce, very soon.
This last paragraph raises a very interesting question. Where are the numbers for the 2007 City of Memphis budget and where are the numbers for the 2007 MLGW budget. We show attached the requirements for application of GASB 43 and GASB 45 and also the pages from the 2007 proposed City of Memphis budget referring to this requirement. Could it be that the Mayor is not providing these numbers until after the October 4th election. Read the attached information from the City of Memphis budget. The real numbers will scare you to death.
Click here to read what the government says is required to meet this strict standard so that the bond rating companies will know the true financial situation of municipal governments
Click here to see the information, or lack of it, that the City of Memphis has in its 2007 budget where it is supposed to comply with
posted by watchdog at
4:44 PM
1 Comments:
is it any wonder people are leaving the city in droves?
corrupt politicians, lousy schools, mismanagement of government in general, high crime rate...and on and on.
the citizens outta be outraged that the city council would even entertain the idea of giving money to a privately segregated college. how about using the money to fight crime or help out the
med? at least you would know where the money went.
with LOC, it would be like throwing it out the window.
By
Anonymous, at 8:33 AM
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