God, Greed, Fraud, Schools, and Taxes

Introduction: Below is a very enlightening essay by The Lauderdale Luminary on the proposed Ag-Center, the county school system, and more. We were curious about the religious makeup of the Ag Board. Here is a list of members and their religious affiliation, if known. If there should be errors, we apologize in advance and will be happy to update the preferences.

Tim Melson - Church of Christ

Lynn Greer - Southern Baptist

Phillip Pettus - Conflicting information; he either "attends" the Church of Christ with his wife or is a member.

Ed Tease - Unknown

Joe Hackworth - Church of Christ (Fringe)

Roger Garner - No preference

Ronnie Lane - Unknown

According to most statistical information, the largest religious group in Lauderdale County is the Southern Baptist Church.

Reflections on the Ag-Center Cabal

Operating under a smokescreen of ambiguity and double-talk, members of the Lauderdale County Ag-Center Authority Board, along with their allies at the Lauderdale County Board of Education and Northwest Shoals Community College, are hell bent on shoving this Ag-Center boondoggle down our throats, despite the sober and reasoned reservations of the citizenry about the need or the market for such a facility. In fact, their obvious and deliberate avoidance of these considerations strongly suggests that the private interests in this project far outweigh any potential public benefit. If the gumshoes at the Times Daily could remember what expository journalism is, perhaps they could shine some light into this dimly lit corner.


From the stories I've read about the Ag-Center project thus far, it would seem that the participation of the Lauderdale County Board of Education in this venture is considered a key factor in its predicted success. According to public statements by school board members, the proposed construction of a new vocational school at the Ag-Center site will require the school system to borrow tens of millions of dollars. I suppose we should all just forget about the fact that this same school board has already chosen to hand over $250,000 of TVA tax funds annually to the Ag-Center "Authority", or that this same school board has allowed its athletic programs throughout the county to rack up over $2,000,000 in red ink, or that this same school board has capriciously wasted over $600,000 just to enlarge its administrative office campus, all while the district's fund balances continue on a steady decline. I suppose we should all just consider ourselves fortunate that we have such a gifted group of financial experts to saddle the Lauderdale County taxpayer will even more debt.


So the school board now intends to borrow tens of million of dollars using a bond issue. So what does it take to borrow money in the bond market? In a word, "disclosure". Full disclosure to be exact. The laws and regulations governing the securities markets require institutional borrowers like the school board to submit very detailed and specific documentation before their debt securities can be sold to investors. The board's most recent audit is a required part of this documentation, so I decided to take a look at this report as issued by the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts.


After a diligent search of the Examiners' report I was struck by one glaring omission. A little background first - financial reporting standards require reporting entities like the board to disclose any significant contingencies as part of their audited financial statements. This means that if the board is aware of a circumstance that could lead to a significant financial consequence, then the board is supposed to disclose this circumstance in its financial statements. So then, the glaring omission of which I speak is that I can find absolute no mention in the board's audited financial statements of the EEOC "equal pay" lawsuit now pending against the board in Federal Court, a case that holds strong potential for a very costly outcome.


Returning now to the disclosure requirements governing the securities markets, I wonder whether the board intends to carry this glaring omission forward from its audited financial statements into its submissions to the bond underwriters. Doing so might be considered willful fraudulent misrepresentation of a material fact by Federal regulators, but I would so love to see this obtuse tribe of troglodytes test those waters.


Now, a question! Why is anyone surprised that Senator Melson wants sectarian religious instruction to be offered in publicly funded facilities? After all, Senator Melson and the majority of members on the Ag-Center Board and the school board are all prominent members of the same Christian sect, as is a plurality of the county's population! All of you short-sighted fans of theocracy out there must be down right orgasmic nowadays.


Yes, our currency does have "In God We Trust" printed on it, and the Founders did indeed invoke the Creator often in our founding documents, but these were admonitions to each citizen to trust in the Creator he understands, rather than trusting in tyrannical kings or governments. This becomes especially clear when one considers another motto also emblazoned on our currency - "Novus Ordo Seclorum" or New Secular Order - neither kings, popes, nor prophets shall rule us! It is tyranny to compel taxes from a public comprised of many beliefs and then use those taxes to promote any particular notion of truth. The presumption of these zealots boggles the mind, does it not?


Humbly submitted for your consideration by,

And the Readers Say...

On Tom Smith leaving the TD:

I was told Tom Smith is now manager of the Lauderdale County solid waste Department. Hope he is better at managing garbage than putting it out. Puppet for Dewey Mitchell and may be how he got the county position. I noticed too at the commission meeting that George Grayban is still Emergency Management manager. I asked George on numerous occasions about the emergency management plan for the county. An outside agency was writing the plan for him and he had no details. No commissioner knows what they are to do if we have a major disaster. Sorry, we have an inept crew running the county.


On Paradise Drive:

Danny Pettus came down and he is going to have the road department take off some of the dirt on a couple of blind corners. If the band aid approach works then they will do some more corners and possibly take off some dirt on the blind hills. Danny is the only one to show an interest in trying something. Fay Parker lives in Waterloo and has done nothing. It took 10 years to get the 1981 resolution removed that prevented the county engineer from doing anything but passable maintenance to the road. (Removed last year). Joe Hackworth always defers to Fay, saying “ I will vote with Fay or support Fay” but again does nothing on his own. Danny Pettus taking some action is the best we gotten from the county.  I do not know if you remember, but the county stopped Rodney Walker from widening the road in 2009. It took them 2 weeks to even know he was working on the road. The county filed a cease and desist order against him. That is the only reason the road is 2 lane in areas is because of Rodney. The reporters that came out from the Times Daily were amazed the county had a road in this bad condition. Tom Smith had covered the road previously and Dewey Mitchell told him what to do, 


On the Ag Center/Drug Testing:

I’d rather they drug test the state legislators and lobbyists along with the members of the state executive branch. It might make a real change in Montgomery. I wonder how many people who attended the Lieutenant Governor’s party could have passed a drug test the next day? Also wondering how the Ag Center can be west of Faith Church and east of Shoal Creek?


On the Salvation Army Church (Salvationists):

Keep at them. More than one has written the FRRF about giving money to this church. And this isn't the first time the city has given money to the SA. Yet the bastards are tax exempt. We sure aren't, are we? When can we Presbyterians expect our forty thou?

Plans for the Ag-Center - Part II

Yesterday we published Uncle Zack's take on a possible use/purpose for the new Ag-Center. After reading the submitted blog, we asked Zack about his comments concerning Tim Melson and Lynn Greer. As for Greer, we've always felt most pro-gun legislation is basically grandstanding. As for Sen. Melson's Christian education, this would seem (at least to us) to mean he would be much less likely to become involved with a voodoo-hoodoo holy roller sect. Uncle Zack has answered, at least partially, and we're publishing his addenda below:

Does anything think a multi-purpose arena with the same seating capacity as the Von Braun Center will go over between Florence and Killen? Any one person at all? Why are members of the Ag Authority so sure of themselves? 

Faith Church is the leading non denominational church in the Shoals. It has been for many years. Other churches (Epic) have tried, but failed to compete. Now the Church of the Highlands is taking members from other congregations every week. They are filling the Shoals Conference Center (also built with 2% gas tax money) at multi services every Sunday. 

I do not know this for a fact but I have a strong suspicion that the Ag Center will become the new worship center for that church. Don't you always build closest to your competition? 

Will Melson's new bill allow the vocational school to prepare students who want to become vocational ministers?  

I believe that if the Ag Center is deemed unfeasible all of the gas tax money should go directly to our schools. Can you imagine what $80,000 a month would do? Every school in Lauderdale County is in need, or will be soon. Lauderdale County High School for example is over 100 year old. Ask the janitor of that school what kind of problems they have. Our state legislators and senators should tour every building at every school. Not just for a photo op to hand over a check for a new piece of equipment. Take a good look sirs and you will see our schools are crumbling down. They think the Ag Center will bring in new businesses, and those businesses will pay new taxes into our school system. We do not have that kind of time! Skip the middle man and give our schools our money. NOW!


Uncle Zack

Plans for the Ag Center - Part I

A reader who previously sent us some very astute comments on the proposed Ag Center has some new takes on this situation. We're publishing below unedited. After reading his blog, we asked him to elaborate on a few points. We'll be publishing his addenda tomorrow, but with some questions still unanswered. We welcome comments...

As we get closer to the next Legislative Session many area citizens are holding out hope for answers surrounding the new Lauderdale County Ag-Center and school campus.

Members of the Lauderdale County Ag Authority are confident of the 10,000 seat Ag Center despite the fact that a feasibility study has not been completed. 

The new Ag Center and Lauderdale County school campus will be located west of Faith Church and east of Shoal Creek. Faith Church, a nondenominational church, averages over 2,000 in attendance per week.

The Shoals Church of the Highland averaged almost 800 attendees per week in 2017. The fast and growing new congregation currently meets in the Marriott Shoals Conference Center.

The Chairman of the Ag Authority Senator Tim Melson is a 1976 Mars Hill Bible School graduate.  Senator Melson has pre filed a bill for this next session to allow Bible classes to be taught in all public schools. Rep. Lynn Greer is expected to again introduce his bill which is a revision to the "Stand Your Ground" law. If passed the "Church Security Bill" would give immunity to the person who shoots someone in defense of a church member.

Questions were not received from the public at the most recent Ag Board meeting, at the request of the boards new lawyer Tammy Irons. The audience was cleared as the board entered into an executive session.

One question is will the Ag Center look less like a rodeo arena and more like a church edifice? Blueprints of the Ag Center and surrounding buildings have never released. Also, It was reported that the Ag Authority will bring in $80,000 per month from the 2% gas tax. If the Ag Center is deemed unfeasible will the board agree to give the money to our schools? 

Every school in Lauderdale County is in need, or will soon be. Please give the 2% gas tax money to our schools. If you will we all will rejoice!

Uncle Zack

Will Ainsworth's Pay to Play Inauguration Party

We didn't endorse Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth; nor did we vote for him. If you did, you may have just missed a great chance to party with this embarrassment to our state. By paying anywhere from $250.00 to $15,000.00, you could have received an official invitation to his inaugural party at something called Top Golf in Birmingham. The booze flowed freely and lobbyists mingled with those who could best help them in the next four years.

Legal? Apparently so. Inauguration funding is not subject to ethics laws as long as it goes toward something connected to the inauguration. In other words, elected officials can't purchase a Roomba for their Montgomery digs from this fund, but can hire strippers for their inauguration parties. Welcome to Alabama. 

For the readers who asked about the City of Florence donating almost $40,000.00 to the Salvation Army Church, we do understand that there will be no new construction at the church. There will be renovations and almost certainly new equipment for which the taxpayers of Florence will have paid. This isn't counting the state grant that every Alabama citizen will have contributed to. Nice little scam, isn't it?

We're waiting for the city to donate an equal amount to the Baptists, Methodists, etc. in order to be perfectly fair. Think we should hold our breaths? 

Whom should we thank for this unconstitutional debacle in the Renaissance City? He seems to be taking most of the credit:

Do You Want Your Tax Dollars to Go to Specific Churches?

Below is an article concerning the legality of giving state funds to a church daycare. Read it and then comment on the situation, if you so desire:

State Funds to Resurface Playground?

Did you know that it's against the law for a church to set up donation centers at federal buildings? How do you feel about that? We would love to hear from the public on that issue.

So how do you feel about a local city donating to a specific church project? Shall we all get our popcorn and wait for the Freedom From Religion Foundation to step in?

Stay tuned, we'll be sure to have more later!

How Much Is Proposed State Gasoline Tax Addition?

We've been reading several figures concerning an increase in the state gasoline tax, but apparently nothing is set in stone. What is it now?

For 25 years, the gasoline tax has been .18 per gallon. Two years ago, a bill failed to pass that would have raised the tax by .09 over a seven year period ending in 2024. 

Now the Montgomery pundits say it's not when, but how much. We broached the subject several days ago and asked what readers thought of toll roads. Very few had an opinion, but those who did were against them.

What else will the March legislative session take up? Some grandstanding bills concerning SNAP benefits and cash payments to those in dire need have already been pre-filed. One such bill would require drug testing of at least some SNAP recipients. A few states already require this testing, but is it economical? Or perhaps even more concerning, is it legal?

Federal court rulings have said:

Drug testing for SNAP has been allowed under only two circumstances. The first instance is that in some states, people convicted of drug felonies can only be eligible for SNAP benefits if they submit to a drug test. As of 2017, this modified ban is in place in four states, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The second instance is that people who are disqualified from TANF (or another means-tested program) for failing a drug test or not participating in a required one may be disqualified from SNAP as well. 

In other words, if Alabama did pass a law requiring these drug tests, you can be sure that the law(s) would be challenged in court. Here's an idea, why don't we see how much money the state has lost over the years in defending unconstitutional legislation and determine how far it would have gone toward infrastructure? 

These laws aren't so "feel good" when the average taxpayer sees just how much money they cost.