Trouble in Bristol Virginia, Again 2010
by Lewis Loflin
Bristol is still in trouble. With 25% of Bristol residents on food stamps, most can't afford to eat out or take their honey to a local motel for a 'quickie.' This has left the City that has wasted $6 million on old train station and a new $10 million public library wondering what to do. They claimed this nonsense was going to bring economic growth, instead are looking for ways to fill their budget gaps.
Bristol Councilman Guy Odum says, "We're digging a hole and it seems like we just keep digging. I think we're going to have to get all the department heads together and figure out what we can do for the next year or so - until the economy turns around." This is because City leaders have again borrowed $2.5 million to meet falling tax collections.
Now lots of the Tea Party conservatives in the area constantly demand lower taxes and big cuts in government, but what they don't understand is government is much of the economy.
Bristol hinged their bloated budget on lodging and meal taxes dependant mainly on tourism. The lodging tax is down 4 percent and the meals tax is down 8 percent. The Federal Government did provide a temporary bailout for bankrupt Bristol. Officials claim the federal government's Cash For Clunkers program produced a brief spike in collections, I guess due to new car sales. But this is the reality without constant infusions of outside tax dollars. No matter how we cut it, the region is a welfare basket case. Ref. BHC 2-20-10. Posted February 26, 2010.
Return History, Causes of Poverty in Southwest Virginia
To quote Lenowisco Broadband Study Warned against Call Centers (PDF file):
"The region has been replacing traditional (better paying) manufacturing jobs with (low paying subsidized) call center jobs, which provide limited advancement and work opportunities. Call centers represent the factory floor of the Knowledge Economy; they are an important part of a diversified economic development strategy, but the region must be careful not to rely too heavily on them, as the work is easily moved to other regions and/or other countries."No US Job Creation 1999-2009
- Emory & Henry Launches 9,000 Watt Station Paid for by Tax Dollars
- Boucher: $4 Million for Green Construction Training Program
- Federal Loan Helps Build New, Welfare Town Homes in Wytheville
- Boucher Misuses $2.5 Million for Country Music Museum
- Congressman Boucher, DIRECTV, and Virtual Jobs
- Congressman Boucher Brings Home the Bacon in 2009
- Congressman Boucher's Failed Call Center Legacy
Lenowisco Broadband Study Warned against Call Centers (PDF file)
- Congressman Boucher Defeated in 2010
- Bristol Virginia Utilities Update for 2009, 2019
- Bristol Virginia Utilities Goes Independent
- Government War on American Labor Good for Commerce
- Wise Virginia Call Center Won't Hire 500 New Workers
- Tobacco Commission Sykes Fiasco Reveals Government Waste
Cable Ready Socialism
How CGI-AMS and Northrop Grumman Failed Russell County
How Cable Ready Socialism Failed Southwest Virginia
Sprint Jumps State Line Collects Millions
U.S. Solutions Dumps Bristol Virginia for Bristol Tennessee
Travelocity Fails Dickenson County
- Sustainable Woods wood-processing facility in Castlewood not sustainable
- Critical Look at Appalachian Sustainable Development
- Rebuilding of Appalachian Harvest's packing, grading facility nearing completion
- Alpha Building Fiasco Five Years Later
- More on the Dirty Alpha Coal Building Deal
- The Dirty Alpha Coal Building Deal
- Southwest Virginia Miners Lose Jobs We Get Minimum-Wage jobs Instead
- Government Lies on Employment Gains October 2014
- More Chaos in the Job Market for Tri-Cities November 2009
- Food Stamps and Unemployment in Bristol VA-TN
- Economic Developers in Tri-Cities Pleased with Job Losses
- Virginia Tobacco Commission Scandals 2014
- More on Phil Puckett and the Virginia Tobacco Commission Scandal
- Virginia Tobacco Commission Waste and Pork Update for 2009-14
- Local Leaders Complain to Senator Kaine - Ignore Workers
- Predominant Face of American Poor is White
- Proof Limiting Mass Immigration Helps the Working Poor
- Born Again Jobs and a Shrinking Tri-Cities Labor Force
- Prime Choice Foods Files for Bankruptcy in Bristol
- What 70 New Jobs at Columbus McKinnon?
- Another 100 Jobs Lost in Bristol Virginia with College Closure
- Bristol Metals fires 290 Workers
- 240 Phony Jobs and Corporate Welfare for Heritage Glass
- Bristol Raising Property Taxes to Pay for Corporate Welfare
- Caterpillar Plant Closure Costs Pulaski County 240 Jobs
- Arch Coal Fires Another 213 Workers - It's the tip of the Iceberg
- High Cost of the Non-Profits Industry
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