Gulf Opportunity Zone

[Maeve_Mari]

Knee Jerk Recovery or Well Thought-Out Action Plan?

Bush pledges nation's help for Gulf Coast
Federal government to lead rebuilding, president says
Thursday, September 15, 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/...ain/index.html


President Bush addresses the nation Thursday night from Jackson Square in New Orleans, Louisiana.

In a nationally televised address Thursday night, President Bush offered the people of New Orleans and the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast the nation's sympathy and reassured them that "in the journey ahead, you are not alone."

The president also said the federal government will pay for most of the costs to fix damage during and after Hurricane Katrina struck August 29.

"Federal funds will cover the great majority of the costs of repairing public infrastructure in the disaster zone, from roads and bridges to schools and water systems," he said from Jackson Square in the famed French Quarter of New Orleans.

"Our goal is to get the work done quickly. ... And taxpayers expect this work to be done honestly and wisely, so we will have a team of inspector generals reviewing all expenditures."

Bush said he would propose the creation of a Gulf Opportunity Zone.

"Within this zone, we should provide immediate incentives for job-creating investment, tax relief for small businesses, incentives to companies that create jobs, and loans and loan guarantees for small businesses, including minority-owned enterprises, to get them up and running again," he said.

Bush also talked about his plans for federally funded worker recovery accounts of up to $5,000 for evacuees to spend on job training, classes or child care during the hunt for employment.

The president said the federal government would react to large disasters differently.

"It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority," he said, "and a broader role for the armed forces -- the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment's notice."

Bush vowed to help rebuild New Orleans, which sustained massive flooding after levees and flood walls failed.

"All who question the future of the Crescent City need to know there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans, and this great city will rise again," Bush said.

In the wake of criticism of the disaster response to the hurricane, the president called on U.S. cities to have "clear and up-to-date plans for responding to natural disasters, disease outbreaks or terrorist attacks, for evacuating large numbers of people in an emergency and for providing the food, water and security they would need."

"I consider detailed emergency planning to be a national security priority," he said.

The Department of Homeland Security will undertake an immediate review of every major city's disaster planning, he said.

Bush conceded that the "normal disaster relief effort" was not equal to the fury of Katrina.

"I also want to know all the facts about the government response to Hurricane Katrina," he said. "The storm involved a massive flood, a major supply and security operation and an evacuation order affecting more than a million people."

"It was not a normal hurricane, and the normal disaster relief system was not equal to it."

Bush said the reconstruction effort will be one of the largest ever and the government "will stay as long as it takes."

He unveiled plans for a Urban Homesteading Act, which would make some federal property free to some poor families through a lottery system.

In turn the family would secure a mortgage or financial help to build on the lot through a charity like Habitat for Humanity, he said.

Bush praised Americans for their charitable contributions to relief funds and said "this evening the need is still urgent."

Bush's trip Thursday to the Gulf Coast was his fourth to the region since Hurricane Katrina. Beforehand, he stopped in Mississippi, where he toured a damaged oil refinery in Pascagoula.

[Inquartata]

Don't you mean "Transparent Scheme to Make More Work for Big Corporate Sponsors Like Halliburton"?

Come on, ya KNOW ya do...

[Maeve_Mari]

Don't you mean "Transparent Scheme to Make More Work for Big Corporate Sponsors Like Halliburton"?

Come on, ya KNOW ya do...

Hey, I didn't write this one, I just pasted!
Although, before he even finished up his little chat with America last night, I did run through a couple business plan scenarios of how I "kin git me down dere to Narliens, and make me some of that fat money" they're going to be handing out like grape juice and toast at a baptist revival!

Well, Here's another fine mess you've gotten me into, Stanley.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Knee Jerk Recovery or Well Thought-Out Action Plan?

Bush pledges nation's help for Gulf Coast
Federal government to lead rebuilding, president says
Thursday, September 15, 2005
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/09/...ain/index.html

I would bet neither knee-jerk nor WTOAP. At this stage, most of the mental effort has been directed at acute problems (and too much at blame-shifting), and the longer time horizons just can not have been dealt with in detail. I strongly doubt that any party has this kind of rebuilding effort in their platform. In order to make a WTOAP, one must identify literally scores of various specialists, collect them, feed them with sufficient data to work with, get them to agree upon something, and turn the agreements into a readable documents with actionable suggestions/orders. This takes time, even with the amount of resources at the CinC´s disposal.

A collection of half-baked ideas goes much faster, which is what I suspect this opportunity zone speech to be. That is not to say that much of it can be useful, at least in modified form.

The rebuilding effort will have to include the paid work of numerous companies, and they have the right to assume a reasonable level of profit - IMO.



Best of luck to those affected.

Peter Gustafsson

[Larrison]

No.. Opportunity Zones are a standard practice by governments to pump up investments in an area. What happens is that a state, local (city or county) or national government passes legislation that allows people to start up a business or operate a business in an area and receive some type of incentives to do so. (Note that Bush said he would proposed such a zone -- Congress is going to have to pass legislation to allow this.)

Use of opportunity zones is pretty common -- I've seen state and city versions before, and in a recent project at work we were looking at a business deal in the Inchon area of South Korea which was going to possibly take advantage of a special economic zone set up there. A quick google search turned up similar zones in India, Germany, Indonesia, Latvia, Russia, China, North Korea (!), Mexico, Phillipines, and Thailand -- so this isn't something that's not unknown around the world. I know such zone have been used to encourage high tech businsses to locate in specific areas (such as the Research Triangle in North Carolina), and to encourage investment in areas which need an influx of new business (such as the South Bronx). There are several Native American Reservations which have similar zones set up to encourage investment for new businesses to move there. Ireland has been very successful in using this to attract high-tech businesses and other targeted industries. Again, a quick google search found similar zones in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Canada, New York,

Typical incentives you can see include -- low cost government (city, state or national government) loans for setting up facilities, building manufacturing centers, etc., incentives for hiring and training of locals to work in facilities in the opportunity zones, favored position on government contracts (city, state or national), moratoriums for taxes, access to government funds to put in infrastructure such as roads, power lines, utilities, etc. and whatnot. I'm guessing Congress will pass additional loan guarantees for busineses investing in these areas, potentially tax credits or some type of reduced taxes for a few years for businesses operating in these areas, and maybe some type of preference for businesses bidding on federal contracts from specific counties for a few years. A similar set of zones set up by HUD in New York had lower income tax rates for businesses and the ability for businesses to "expense" an additional $100,000 for the purchase of tools and equipment under new tax policies, investment incentives, priority designation when applying for existing Federal programs; incentives to hire new workers; and limited regulatory relief against some federal regulations.

Sometimes these are called "Special Economic Zones", "Empowerment Zones" or "Enterprise Communities". http://koz.newpa.com/ is the Pennsyvlania state enterprize zone program.

[esskreemr]

Mari, I think you're just too cynical here. We have a man who decided to staff America's national front line response to disaster with political cronies (who have no disaster management experience) three layers deep. He led us into a war based on slimey language and outright misrepresentation of available information. He has VERY close ties with the Saudis (want to take a guess where Bin Laden REALLY is, who supplied 15 of the 19 known hijackers who are responsible for the single greatest act of terrorists against American citizens excluding the ongoing "War on Drugs". He calls the economy great while over 5,000,000 American citizens slid into the ranks of official impovershied and another 6,000,000 lost their healthcare. His administration operates under an unprecedented cloak of secrecy and he has managed to indebt multiple generations of American children so that we can overpay Haliburton to provide meals to 'ghost' soldiers, drive empty trucks back and forth from border to border, and deal with Iran. He has destroyed any shred of creating policy based on sound science and has let industry write and rewrite the laws that govern them. He has sought to bring a thoecratic state into power basing subsequent health policy on faith instead of sound practice risking the health and safety of millions of teens and adults.

You really should let sleeping dogs lie. He's the President of 'Merica! for crying out loud! Even thoug we are not an Islamic state, our founder's guaranteed us the right to free speach AND heavily favored the idea that common citizens could and should overthrow intolerable governments through the use of revolution, it is UNAMERICAN to question the actions/reactions of the President!!!!!

It's not fair to continually bring up the continual failings, blatant misrepresentations, and outright lies. We need to look forward instead of back. It's time to look forward Mari. Perhaps it would help to cover your eyes and ears and hum the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'.

God bless you each and everyone and God save the President!

[Slim]

Mari, I think you're just too cynical here. We have a man who decided to staff America's national front line response to disaster with political cronies (who have no disaster management experience) three layers deep. He led us into a war based on slimey language and outright misrepresentation of available information. He has VERY close ties with the Saudis (want to take a guess where Bin Laden REALLY is, who supplied 15 of the 19 known hijackers who are responsible for the single greatest act of terrorists against American citizens excluding the ongoing "War on Drugs". He calls the economy great while over 5,000,000 American citizens slid into the ranks of official impovershied and another 6,000,000 lost their healthcare. His administration operates under an unprecedented cloak of secrecy and he has managed to indebt multiple generations of American children so that we can overpay Haliburton to provide meals to 'ghost' soldiers, drive empty trucks back and forth from border to border, and deal with Iran. He has destroyed any shred of creating policy based on sound science and has let industry write and rewrite the laws that govern them. He has sought to bring a thoecratic state into power basing subsequent health policy on faith instead of sound practice risking the health and safety of millions of teens and adults.

You really should let sleeping dogs lie. He's the President of 'Merica! for crying out loud! Even thoug we are not an Islamic state, our founder's guaranteed us the right to free speach AND heavily favored the idea that common citizens could and should overthrow intolerable governments through the use of revolution, it is UNAMERICAN to question the actions/reactions of the President!!!!!

It's not fair to continually bring up the continual failings, blatant misrepresentations, and outright lies. We need to look forward instead of back. It's time to look forward Mari. Perhaps it would help to cover your eyes and ears and hum the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic'.

God bless you each and everyone and God save the President!

Finally some words of wisdom for our friend Mari and the rest of her ilk listing heavily to port. Dont worry, we'll take good care of you.

You forgot to mention how the radical religous right is actually worse than the the taliban, and how the Bush regieme is responsible for more deaths and torture than Saddam and the fruit of his loins.

And how the humiliation of womens panties on the head is actually worse than being thrown head first into a wood chipper.

And of course the ever popular BUSH = HITLER. I like that one the best!

As always, happy to help.

[mrbiggs]

You forgot to mention how the radical religous right is actually worse than the the taliban, and how the Bush regieme is responsible for more deaths and torture than Saddam and the fruit of his loins.

And how the humiliation of womens panties on the head is actually worse than being thrown head first into a wood chipper.

And of course the ever popular BUSH = HITLER. I like that one the best!

The radical religious right isn't WORSE than the taliban, they're just similar!

Bush isn't the SAME as Hitler! Hitler had a moustache and spoke German!

The women's panties thing is over my head.


Seriously, though, I think that everyone is being a tad cynical...I mean, what would you say if Bush DIDN'T pledge to help? Maybe he does have a vested interest in getting federal help there, but who cares? Capitalism is based on vested interests...

I've heard that Bush promised not to raise taxes for the $200 billion estimated New Orleans debt. Is this true? If so, .

[Slim]

Seriously, though, I think that everyone is being a tad cynical...

The scary thing, to me anyways, is that I am doing it on purpose to force the point.

Based on the repetitive droning about how Bush is the "devil incarnate" in a lot of these threads, I think Mari and her coven do not have the same motives.

[esskreemr]

Finally some words of wisdom for our friend Mari and the rest of her ilk listing heavily to port. Dont worry, we'll take good care of you.

You forgot to mention how the radical religous right is actually worse than the the taliban, and how the Bush regieme is responsible for more deaths and torture than Saddam and the fruit of his loins.

And how the humiliation of womens panties on the head is actually worse than being thrown head first into a wood chipper.

And of course the ever popular BUSH = HITLER. I like that one the best!

As always, happy to help.

OK, Ok... now you're just talking crazy!

[Slim]

OK, Ok... now you're just talking crazy!

I agree, they are absurd. But, these comments are coming from the same place you are lifting yours.

Since you an Mari find the need to constantly to spew choice remarks and "facts" that have been lifted from MoveOn.org and it's radio station, I wanted to make sure that the spirit of the groups from which they were borrowed and their true spirit was captured. You two seem to have left out the real cherries. Stop teasing us. Show us the full monty!

[Maeve_Mari]

I've been wondering about donations such as these, and the aid concerts and even the charitable giving from individuals and corporations towards the Katrina relief. Is there any computation of these donated funds going into the $200 Billion (inital estimate) coming from the US Gov for the reconstruction? It's a really great how people are pulling together to get those affected some help - emotionally and financially - God bless all those that can afford to make these donations and do!

$700,000 lawsuit settlement donated to help Katrina victims

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The American Red Cross relief fund for Hurricane Katrina victims will receive $700,000 that remain from an antitrust lawsuit that was settled more than 10 years ago, a federal judge has ruled.

"I have determined that these funds can best be allocated ... in alleviating the pain and suffering of, and furnishing some of the basic needs of, the victims of Hurricane Katrina," U.S. Senior District Judge Maurice Paul in Tallahassee wrote in an order dated Sept. 8.

In 1991, hundreds of retail drug and grocery chain stores sued three companies they claimed were conspiring to drive up the price of infant formula.

The case was settled in 1993. Two years later, more than $91 million was distributed to the purchasers. An additional $940,000 was set aside for various purposes, including the payment of people who submitted their claims late, plaintiffs' attorneys said.

But by February 2000, no additional claims had been made. Paul then ruled that the money, minus certain expenses, should be distributed for a purpose similar to that represented by those who sued.

"The complaint in this case alleged injury to consumers of infant formula, through alleged unfair pricing," he wrote. "Likewise, one of the challenges faced by rescue workers in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina is providing essential food and drink to the victims of the storm.

Laddie Montague and Richard Arnold, two plaintiffs' attorneys, praised the judge's decision.