recession
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education meets tonight at 5:30 (closed session at the Chapel Hill Town Hall) to discuss, among other things, areas for budget reduction.
Though I dislike making judgements on topics with which I'm not
familiar, I must admit that my first glance through the list of
reductions leaves me with mixed feelings. I believe them off-base with
certain items, such as reductions in professional development,
curriculum development stipends, and new-teacher signing bonuses.
(see PDF below-pages 5 and 8) However, I believe them on-target in other
reduction avenues, including looking at the K12 Insight online surveys
and reducing the Superintendent's meeting refreshments.
I think we are in about the 4th iteration of the Chapel Hill Public Library debate, but whatever the number, it's an important debate about an important issue. Four things stick out to me:
First, the Town Council has delayed moving forward with the addition. As much as I want to see it built, the current economic situation being what it is gave them little choice. When the situation is more favorable I'm sure that they will move forward.
This week after a lot of theatre by Democrats in Congress appearing to be tough on the big three, the automotive industry is likely to be bailed out. Congress rejected the initial proposal by the automakers and asked them to come back with a better proposal and not in Leer jets. They came back with their new proposals by car.
With macro-economic indicators getting worse by the day, scaling down to the local is looking saner and more attractive.
One example of many is local currencies. Though our local currency, the NCPlenty, is barely in existence, it may be time to re-vamp it. The global and national economic climate may provide the environment necessary for making a local currency adaptive and succesfull.
In November the nation's official unemployment reached 6.5%. This is a figure that would change to 12.5% if included were those who are too discouraged to look for work any longer or those working fewer hours than they would like.
12% may be a significant number; As pointed out in Beyond Greed and Scarcity by Bernard Lietaer: In France, years ago,..
The Obama team and Democrats are acknowledging that an economic stimulus plan equal to 4%-5% of US GDP is needed. In other words 500-700 Billion dollars are needed for investing toward infrastructure as a means of creating jobs to stimulate the economy.
If there is anything of value that we may have learned from the previous local discourse on the global economic crises I would hope that it is: it is healthy to read between the lines of the national discourse mainstream setting media (i.e. NPR, The New York Times, CNN, and all mainstream corporate media to the right of these).
Before taking another message and echoing and parroting again, lets take stock of where the financial bailout has put us.
I am new to this Internet community and surprised that there appears to be no conversation about human service needs or human service programs in Orange County. We certainly seem to have many examples of both.
Last month Orange County government sponsored a day long retreat for the directors of all non-profit human service agencies that receive partial funding from the County. The purpose of the event was to facilitate discussion among non-profit leaders regarding the impact of the economic downturn on the non-profit sector and on the people it serves. The organizers hoped that non-profit leaders would discover new ways to anticipate future challenges and to collaborate on common goals. The meeting was facilitated by experts from the UNC School of Government.
I think this meeting was an example of excellent leadership from County goverment. Orange County makes a consideration financial contribution each year to non-profit human service agencies but, this retreat demonstrated a contribution beyond money.
One of downtown Carrboro's new development sites is for sale, putting the project on hold for the time-being. Read more in today's
Citizen:
Roberson Square site on the market. Do you think more slow-downs and cancellations will occur?
While I know that UNC has programs that attempt to help students afford college, with the current economic downturn, the problem is going to become more wide spread. In addition UNC is likely to find a further economic squeeze, from State budgets to reduced alumni contributions.
It is my belief that affordability should never limit a qualified student once accepted from attending that college. I also do not like the idea that a student graduates with massive debt.
So my question is should UNC be planning any changes to assure affordability for any student to whom it sends an acceptance letter? Should it change priorities, e.g. slow growth,funnel a larger share of money from the state, contributions, endowments to ensure the affordability for all accepted students?
While I was out (since the last post) this email appeared in my email box.
Wall Street Journal has an interactive map of the United States that shows where people are "underwater" on their mortgages. Underwater is a new term for me. I always heard upside down, but the meaning is the same - the house is now valued at less than is owed. The percentages shown on the map are only houses purchased in the last five years.
I was disappointed but not surprised to see Orange County, NC on the map.
Only 10% of homeowners are underwater this week. That's nowhere near as bad as Orange County, California where 40-80% of homeowners are underwater. But that number could change if housing prices decrease, the percentage does not include people who may be underwater and bought six or seven years ago and the last five years saw an awful lot of houses constructed and purchased as well existing and changing hands in Orange County. It begs the question just how many families is that?
Map here for your viewing pleasure:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122341352084512611.html#project%3DUnderwater0809
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