Saturate USA With Good News (The Gospel)

120 MILLION HOMES IN THE U.S. BY 2027

Sharing the Announcement – Facebook – Brown County Matters

The word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word which meant “the story concerning God.” In the New Testament the Greek word euaggelion, means “good news.” It proclaims tidings of deliverance.

A Quick, Compelling Bible Study Vol. 56 – Jesus’s Greatest Hits Myra Kahn Adams

Updated Sep 23, 2022

• Other – In the news
  • Aug 18, 2022. Nashville Human Rights Ordinance passed.
  • Dec 7, 2021. Nashville Noise Ordinance – For the Record
  • Mar 18, 2021. Nashville and Development – For the Record – includes TIF areas
  • July 17, 2020. Nashville Sanitary Sewer Master Plan

The statute over Redevelopment Commissions and the use of Tax Increment Financing is found in IC 36 -7-14.

Sep  22, 2022. Benefit for the town, schools and county’: Public hearing for residential TIF area next week, could be adopted by commission By Abigail Youmans

Nashville, Indiana – Brown County Area Plan Commission, Staff Report for Town of Nashville Declaratory Resolution, Economic Development Plans
TIF-Economic-Development-Plans, Dec 16, 2020

• Tax Increment Financing (TIF) will enable the Town of Nashville to collect property tax revenue (increment) attributed to increased assessed value as a result of new investments within the designated area. (pg 1)
• “Based on the assumption that the Redevelopment Commission could receive $4,000,000 in increment over the life of the Tax Increment Financing area, the Commission could spend approximately $4,000,000 on infrastructure in or serving the area.” (pg 30)

Town of Nashville Redevelopment Commission

Information

• • Indiana TIF Districts Viewer – Gateway. Nashville TIF District includes 431 properties as of 12/15/2021.
  • Purdue – The-Use-of-Tax-Increment-Finance. Indiana law now makes clear that TIF is intended to fund infrastructure to promote development that would not occur but for the added infrastructure financed by the TIF revenues. Evidence that the development would not happen but for the establishment of the TIF district must be presented before
    the TIF district is approved. TIF is not meant as a source of revenue for responding to ongoing development, nor as a substitute for other sources of infrastructure funding. TIF districts are required to expire once the infrastructure bond is repaid. TIF is not meant as a permanent source of revenue for the enacting government.
  • Improving-tax-increment-financing-full report.  by David Merriman, Policy Focus Report – Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

  • The Trouble With TIF. Cities love to use Tax Increment Financing to boost development. Should they? By Tanvi Misra

Jan 4, 2022. School board requests more information on residential TIF for new neighborhood, resolution tabled By  Staff Reports

• • Democrat Facebook Post of the Article
  • Brown County Matters – Post of the Article

Oct 19, 2021. RDC moving forward with residential TIF

Sep 7, 2021. BUSINESS BRIEFS: Multiple requests approved by development review commission; update on residential tax-increment financing

• Update on residential tax-increment financing
• The Nashville Redevelopment Commission met on Aug. 3 and further discussed the progress of establishing residential tax-increment financing.
• The process of establishing residential TIF is ongoing.
• The first meeting for public comment was held in June. The then commission provided a 30-day notice of a meeting to review their economic development plan. Due to the meeting being canceled, the commission will submit another notice.
• “Once we’ve done that, we’ll be in a place to create a declaratory resolution,” adviser Ed Curtin said.
• “We’ll need to then go back to the school to hopefully gain their support and get a resolution from there to create TIF and complete our steps.”

Apr 7, 2021. Facebook – Brown County Matters – Nashville RDC Meeting.

• Nashville Redevelopment Commission RDC) Meeting. April 6, 2021 5:30 pm.  Nashville’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) plans were briefly reviewed.  Note:  “Indiana law now makes clear that TIF is intended to fund infrastructure to promote development that would not occur but for the added infrastructure financed by the TIF revenues. Evidence that the development would not happen but for the establishment of the TIF district must be presented before the TIF district is approved.”
• Ed Curtin (Nashville consultant) confirmed that they have not received any formal requests for subsidies from any developers. In the past, Hard Truth Hills has not asked for a subsidy.
• The “So What?”  A TIF directs the increases in property tax revenue from development to the Nashville RDC and not the county. The RDC borrows money to fund infrastructure with the assumption that the investment in infrastructure will generate sufficient funds to make payments on the loan (s).
• The residential TIF was also discussed. By law, the Schools are required to be involved in the plans. In the larger counties such as Hamilton, plans for residential developments can lead to a need for additional schools – thus  the need to keep schools involved. Brown County Schools have the capacity to accommodate the projected growth in housing.

Apr 6, 2021. BCD. Making it happen: New Nashville neighborhood under construction as TIF talk progresses.

Mar 2, 2021. BCD. Town proposes changes to TIF areas  By Sara Clifford

• Mar 2, 2021.  Town starting process of creating a comprehensive plan, By Sara Clifford
• Nashville Sanitary Sewer Master Plan July 15, 2020 (173 pages)

• The Nashville Redevelopment Commission has put together an economic plan and declaratory resolution which will go to the Brown County Area Plan Commission this week for approval, then to the Nashville Town Council as early as March.
• If the documents pass those two steps, they would go back to the redevelopment commission for a confirmatory resolution.

The Use of Tax Increment Finance by Indiana Local Governments, Larry DeBoer
Department of Agricultural Economics Purdue University

• • Indiana law now makes clear that TIF is intended to fund infrastructure to promote development that would not occur but for the added infrastructure financed by the TIF revenues. Evidence that the development would not happen
    but for the establishment of the TIF district must be presented before
    the TIF district is approved.

The Indiana GPS Project?   Team of policy experts from the Brookings Institution and the American Enterprise Institute have performed a substantial amount of research regarding Indiana’s economy and workforce, particularly through a regional lens.

The Citizenship Question

by Leo Morris

Is U.S. citizenship still worth something?

That is such a grimly disheartening question because of where it came from.

I did not hear it from the usual “America is awful” crowd, the people who either think the republic always was and always will be an oppressive blight on the face of the Earth or believe the only way it can atone for its sins is for those who have been unfairly treated to unfairly treat everybody else.

It came to me from an enthusiastic follower of the Indiana Policy Review, for which I write these columns.

That is an organization dedicated to freedom and the constitutional principles that undergird it. If those who follow that vision are losing faith in the value of their franchise, is there any future left for the country?

There had better be. This country is still the best hope for the world, and to give up on its promise is to give up on all humankind.

America was founded on the single greatest political idea in history: Rights inhere in the individual.

Somewhere between anarchy and tyranny, people have forever tried to find the perfect government, the one that will provide the proper balance of autonomy and dependence. How can we best obtain security and still preserve our liberty?

Until America, the group was always paramount. There were no rights as such, merely privileges that could be granted or withheld to favored or shunned groups at the whim of an absolute ruler.

Then came our Declaration of Independence and Constitution to lay the foundation for a better way. Each individual person has rights – call them natural or God-given – just by virtue of being human that are beyond the purview of government. In fact, the chief justification for government is to protect those rights.

That is the basis of American Exceptionalism, a point President Obama missed – deliberately, I suspect – when he blithely said something to the effect that, well, all people think their country is exceptional.

America is exceptional because it found the exception to submission to tyranny.

And, yes, its behavior is often not exceptional. It does not always live up to its promise. You can find plenty of complaints from all across the political spectrum. The oligarchy is taking over. Cancel culture is rampant. There is anarchy in the streets. Equality of results has replaced equality of opportunity. Income inequality is out of control. And on and on.

I have my own concerns, especially about the leviathan state. I worry that the federal debt will crush us. It bothers me that the Supreme Court declared my property available for an economic developer with deep pockets, and that the state of Indiana declares the right to take people’s possessions by accusing them of crimes they have not even been tried for. It is astonishing that two presidents – Obama and George W. Bush – gave themselves the authority to have any American anywhere killed on their order alone and that there was no national outrage.

But consider: Those are holes in the only ship of state we have. If we abandon it, to which shore do we swim?

I am proud of some of the things I have done, ashamed of others. I try to take responsibility for my own actions, as all moral people should.

I try to avoid grand pronouncements about things outside my control. I cringe when people say they are ashamed to be an American, and I would never say I am proud to be an American. That is but an accident of birth.

But I am glad to be one. It is gratifying to be a citizen of a country that not only stands for the right thing but acknowledges its failures to live up to its own standards and always tries to do better.

If this nation, founded on the concept of natural rights, gets so many things wrong about freedom, imagine what the world would be like without America’s striving as an example. The more mistakes we make, the more we demonstrate how much we are needed.

“For if they do these things in a green tree,” it says in Luke 23:31, “what shall be done in the dry?”

I will leave it to the biblical scholars to offer the religious interpretation of that passage. But we can divine a secular meaning.

The world with America is a green tree, still capable of giving and nurturing life. The world without America would be so very, very dry.

Leo Morris, columnist for The Indiana Policy Review, is winner of the Hoosier Press Association’s award for Best Editorial Writer. Morris, as opinion editor of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, was named a finalist in editorial writing by the Pulitzer Prize committee. Contact him at leoedits@yahoo.com.

A strategy that leverages the interrelationship between Christianity, Citizenship, and Quality Management.

Presentation (14 slides): 2021_02_ 06 C2QM Apologetic

Terms: Non-secular – based on a biblical worldview: Secular – non-religious based.

Common Ground?

• Shared vision: Reducing variation from the ideal results in outcomes where everyone benefits or at least, are not any worse off in the long-term.
• Common language: Anyone that has made a successful change has applied the variation principle. using different terms. Knowledge of common and special causes of variation, stable (predictable) and unstable systems can lead to more success. Common references to “systems” are routines and habits.
• Common Method: Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Improvement Cycle.

March 21, 2022

March 3, 2021. $50,000 Settlement ? The settlement that the county or the insurer paid was reported to be $50,000.   I have requested a copy of the settlement from the Commissioners to confirm. Commissioner Biddle told me she would provide.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.  JOHN SIMPSON, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. BROWN COUNTY, et al., Defendants-Appellees. No. 16-2234 Decided: June 26, 2017

• JOHN SIMPSON v. BROWN COUNTY _ FindLaw

“This appeal presents a classic test of procedural due process. As the case comes to us, we must assume that a county board revoked a man’s professional license without giving him prior notice or an opportunity to be heard.”

Stipulation Dismissal and unsigned order

DE 108 Order of dismissal – signed – dated 8/2/18.

CVC Budget 2021 – Requested from Auditor

GuideStar – Nashville Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc (CVB)

IRS Forms 990: Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax – Open to Public Inspection.

The IRS requires all U.S. tax-exempt nonprofits to make public their three most recent Form 990 or 990-PF annual returns (commonly called “990s”) and all related supporting documents. They must also make public their Form 1023, which organizations file when they apply for tax-exempt status.

IRS Tax Exempt Organization – Search

EIN: 35-1613552

• 2015 (IRS)
• 2016  (GuideStar)
• 2017  (GuideStar)
• 2018  (GuideStar)

The Admins of Brown County Matters were recently thanked for the time and effort required for managing the site.   I replied that it is has been interesting and fun — most of the time.

But, “fun” is not the right word – Challenging may be the better descriptor.  The “intent” for the group is to share information on county “matters that matter” in the public and non-profit sector that in some cases, support an action. An action could include a response to a road or school issue or closure, an upcoming vote by elected or appointed officials, fundraisers for a non-profit, help in looking for a lost pet, notification of criminal activity … etc.

Rules of the group continue to be refined, deleted, or added. These have helped provide some guidelines on the do’s and the please-don’ts.  Deleted posts are the “exception” where more than 80% of the deletes are attributed to less than 20% of the posters.

• Brown County Matters _ Facebook Group Rules as of 2020_12_17

Administration

The New Posts typically deleted have been the ones that reflect a national (political) or cultural issue. Many if not most of these are allowed in response to a post that has a specific county context.  For example, Covid related mandates in the county or the lack of mask wear at a local store opens up some floodgates.  Another category of the most commonly deleted posts have involved implied threats and bullying (rare) and attacks on the messenger vs. the message.  The term “attack” has different interpretations for many people and most of the posts that are reported to the Admins are deleted.

Perspectives regarding topics vary based on many variables:  Age (generation – x,y.z, m), gender, education, knowledge of civics – national, state, county, experience, political beliefs, maturity, culture, and respective personal “hot buttons and biases.”

On culture – the seniority thing (who has lived in the country the longest) has come up a few times, e.g., the born-heres vs. the came-heres.  And even within these two groups, distinctions are made as to the length of time and connections. For anyone that can trace back their ancestry to the native Indian settlers in this area, they might prefer that we (the live-heres) all leave.

The county is not immune from the divisiveness and polarity on issues that are evident at the national level.  The recent example of the Senate hearings on the 2020 elections reinforced a clear divide between the two political factions. On one side, there is a belief that this has been “the most secure election in history” and the other side is working to make the case that the election is The Greatest Electoral Heist in History.   

• Dec 16, 2020.  Full Video: Senate Holds 1st Federal Hearing on Election ‘Irregularities’

Political orientation does influence respective positions.  The Brown County League of Women Voters has endorsed the belief that this has been “the most secure election ever” and has also endorsed a position that America is a nation founded on racism. In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, President Trump received over 63% of the vote in the county.

• Was America Founded On Slavery? Ben Shapiro

Critical Thinking

On respective arguments and positions, there are suggested criteria to consider in making a good argument in defense of a position.  Information on this topic can be found under the concept of “critical thinking.”  The following link provides some examples of fallacies and rhetorical devices:

• Critical Thinking – Arguments, Fallacies, Rhetoric

Another option in support of analysis and decision-making is the development and improvement of a “decision-making” process.

• Link to the current version of a process at the Brown County Leader Network.
• Getting Started on  developing an understanding of the overall context of a respective situation

What may be “New” for many is an awareness of “context and process” for incorporating all points of view with the intent of producing an outcome where everyone can benefit, or at least, not be any worse off in the long-term.

On any controversial issue, some will be adamantly for and against a position, most are somewhere in between and probably the majority of individuals are on the sidelines, e.g., not aware, don’t know, may not care, may have an interest but will not post or reply to a post. This situation is often reflected in the more controversial posts on Matters.

Canceling and Blocking

What has recently emerged in our culture is the prevalence of identity politics and a “cancel culture” – where individuals and groups that don’t accept a respective position are personally and professionally attacked.  This has happened a few times to the Admins on Matters when we refused to allow a post or posts.

The “Blocking” feature on Facebook is an effective tool.  I have been blocked and I have blocked others.  The criteria for me is when individuals project their biases or insecurities onto me and/or I assess further discussions are not likely to be productive.

Local and National

We may have little influence over what is happening nationally, but we do have a little more control over what happens locally.  The Brown County Leader Network has developed and identified methods and tools that may help in supporting decisions that may lead to more needs being met and less harm on people of needs not met. The commitment required for this approach requires a little more time than the drive-by posts made on Facebook.

Power (Control) – Who makes the decisions for all?

Ultimately,  the core issue politically is often a matter of power.  In developing the design of the U.S. system of government, the founders understood human nature and history.  They appreciated that individuals seek power and power always corrupts.  They designed a system of government (a Republic) with checks and balances on power that  enables We the People to work together to achieve “a more perfect Union.” Their expectation was that most of the power would be wielded at the local level.

An opposite perspective to self-government is more centralization of power.  The supporting belief is that decisions by the few will result in the best outcomes. Under this perspective, the Constitution should be interpreted to fit the times as opposed to aligning with the original intent of the Founders.

Centralization of power through socialism, marxism, communism, fascism, et.al., never works out in the long run and leads to conflict and war.

The X Option.   There are generally four strategies that can be taken by various groups with respect to change and expected outcomes:

(1) A strategy where everyone benefits (win/win). This is the strategy supported by the Brown County Leader Network.

(2) A zero-sum approach — ” I win you lose” or (3) ” I lose you win.”  The zero-sum approach can result in a never-ending cycle where the losers are motivated to take the action needed to win and when they do win, the cycle is repeated when the losers mobilize in taking the action needed for them to “win.”

And some (adversaries), encourage and support a zero-sum approach that will result in a situation where we all lose – the 4th and worst approach.