Who didn’t see this coming. Winston-Salem wants Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and Novant to help cover the cost of running city buses. The city has bent over backwards for these two groups as they have expanded year after year but as they do so you must remember they are tax-exempt. When you have your two largest businesses in town not paying huge chunks of taxes, well who couldn’t see the end result of that? If you haven’t noticed Novant for one has been buying up property all over the town and that takes more and more land out of the property tax base. Currently the two have combined property worth over $1.2 Billion which basically takes $14.3 million out of tax coffers.

Had a switch go bad and nobody noticed. Guess I need to put a server monitor in place to alert me when the external connections are not working.

Sorry about both the lack of postings as well as the downtime. I have been moving the server to Hyper V and faster hard drives. You should see the site and pages load much faster.

If anyone would like to explain this one to me I am all ears.

Consumer Confidence In U.S. Fell In May To Four-Month Low

May 29, 2012 4:13 PM ET

The Conference Board’s index decreased to 64.9 this month from a revised 68.7 in April, figures from the New York-based private research group showed today. The decline in the Conference Board’s measure is in line with readings from the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index. The share of Americans expecting fewer job opportunities in the next six months climbed to the highest level since November, raising the risk that consumers will limit spending. A 30-cent decline in gasoline prices since early April failed to brighten spirits, showing that more progress is needed in the job market. Homebuilders are reporting their most-improved spring selling season in seven years, propelled in part by record-low mortgage rates. At the same time, the market faces challenges as mortgage credit is difficult to obtain and slow wage growth is keeping some would-be buyers on the sidelines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-29/consumer-confidence-in-u-s-fell-in-may-to-four-month-low.html

But wait didn’t I just read the week before the opposite was true?

Consumer Sentiment In U.S. Climbs To Highest Since 2007

May 25, 2012 4:59 PM ET

Consumer confidence rose in May to the highest level since October 2007 as Americans became more upbeat about the prospects for employment.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of sentiment climbed to 79.3, the ninth straight increase, from 76.4 the prior month. The gauge was projected to hold at the preliminary reading of 77.8, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. A record number of households said they’d heard better news on the jobs outlook, which combined with cheaper gasoline and an improving housing market may help sustain consumer spending and shield the economy from Europe’s debt crisis.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-25/consumer-sentiment-in-u-s-climbs-to-highest-since-2007.html