Buffalo's 'Subsidy Tour' underscores dangers of incentive abuse

Opposition to tax-exemption programs that benefit wealthy developers and upscale renters instead of average Buffalonians is not going to go away.

Not surprisingly, any "subsidy tour" would have to begin at One Canalside, the $32 million Benderson Development initiative that has become the poster project for subsidized abuse. Benderson converted a former state office building into a hotel, law offices and a restaurant – and a single apartment.

That lone dwelling allowed it to qualify for $5.9 million in tax breaks under the state’s 485-a program, which is supposed to spur the conversion of old buildings into viable new enterprises.

The tour, organized by the Our City coalition of community groups pressing officials to respond to citizens instead of developers, wound up at the old School 77 on Plymouth Avenue - which was cited as an example of how tax credits can be used to benefit the community instead of the well-off and well-connected.

PUSH Buffalo used historic tax credits, low-interest loans and grants to turn the school into a $14.8 million community hub that taps solar power while housing its offices plus affordable senior citizen apartments, new space for Ujima Theater Co., and space for the anti-poverty group Peace of the City.

The contrast between development efforts that work for those on the middle and lower rungs of the economic ladder and development that works for those at the top could not have been more clear.

At: https://buffalonews.com/2018/11/15/rod-watson-subsidy-tour-is-latest-salvo-in-fight-for-soul-of-city/?utm_medium=more_stories

Poster child for developer incentive abuse, One Canalside (left) included a single apartment so developers could reap $5.9 million in tax breaks.

Other subsidized projects however, such as the School 77 community/residential hub built by PUSH Buffalo, have earned praise.

Argentina's Macrisis: Industrial output plummets 11.5%, worst since 2002 collapse

Data published last week by Argentina's National Statistics and Census Institute (INDEC) show that industrial production fell by 11.5% in September from the same time last year.

The downturn was the most severe since a 12.2% decline in July 2002, at the depths of the 2001 collapse, and, for this September, the second most severe in the world next to Burundi.

Declines were registered in nearly all sectors, led by drops in textiles (24.6%), publishing and music (21.6%), machinery (20.5%), and rubber and plastic (20.4%).

Only steel and aluminum registered growth (2.7%), bouyed by higher demand from neighboring Brazil.

After doubling since the 2002 lows, Argentine manufacturing has struggled since President Mauricio Macri took office three years ago: Output fell 4.6% in 2016 and grew 1.8% last year before resuming its decline in May.

Free trade policies and rising imports were compounded by utility rate hikes of over 1000% and two recessions, to create the most sustained industrial downturn since the 1999-2002 collapse.

September's decline, moreover, was led by falling demand, rather than rising imports: Fixed investment that month fell by 18.9% and imports, by 21.2%; industrial investment plunged by 33.4%.

Over 98,000 industrial jobs have been lost under Macri as of August, or 7.8%.

Disbelief

The crisis has troubled even Macri's most supportive industiral leaders.

"Interest rates are absurd. Inflation is at 45%, so how can interest rates be 70%!?" Cristiano Ratazzi, the chairman of Fiat Argentina, lamented.

Fiat has cut its local production from 77,000 in 2015 to 33,000 last year, and recently announced its assembly line will be suspended until next March.

The Italian-born Ratazzi, 70, had been an early and vocal supporter of Macri, whose father was born in Rome, and two years ago suggested a monument be built to the president.

"One day," he noted, "the market stops believing you."

At: http://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/sharpest-monthly-drop-in-industrial-activity-since-2002-prompts-concern.phtml

Workers at the Tandil Metalworks protest the closure of their auto parts factory, which opened in 1948.

Tandil is Macri's hometown.

Judge: No evidence to indict Cristina Kirchner in 'K Money Trail' case

Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner received her first legal victory since leaving office three years ago after Federal Judge Sebastián Casanello determined there was no evidence to indict her in the so-called ‘K Money Trail’ allegations of a corruption scheme aimed at laundering embezzled public funds.

The ruling comes eight months after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Belize's International Business Companies Registry formally notified Argentine courts that the accounts alleged in the ‘K Money Trail’ case do not exist.

While Casanello's ruling clears Mrs. Kirchner pending appeals, another 25 co-defendants remain under investigation in the case. The judge noted in his ruling on Friday that if new, compelling evidence is presented, she could still be indicted.

The two plaintiffs in the case, the Financial Information Unit (tasked with investigating money laundering) and the Anti-Corruption Office, have said they will appeal the decision.

Both are federal offices controlled by Kirchner's successor and chief rival, current President Mauricio Macri.

Trailing

Amid the most severe recession in 16 years and entering his 2019 reelection campaign with 30% approval, Macri trails Kirchner in most polls by around 10 points.

Kirchner still faces four other charges, all presided - despite laws mandating that federal cases be randomly assigned - by Federal Judge Claudio Bonadío, a key Macri ally known as a “napkin” (pocket) judge for his willingness to pursue politically motivated cases against opponents.

Two of them, “Hotesur” and “Los Sauces,” investigated whether public contractor Lázaro Báez laundered kickbacks to the former president through the booking of hotel rooms (“Hotesur”) and real estate rentals (“Los Sauces”) - both of which belong to her.

Despite mirroring these cases, the ‘K Money Trail’ case was accepted as a separate indictment based on media reports of foreign accounts which have since been debunked by U.S., Swiss, Belizean, and other authorities.

The allegations, first published by the right-wing news daily Clarín in March 2015, were instrumental in Macri's narrow runoff victory that year.

Bonadío had remanded the case to Casanello in 2017 after having come to the same finding: that the rentals presented no irregularities and that evidence of impropriety is lacking.

The same, critics note, cannot be said for Macri, who has been materially linked to 50 undeclared offshore accounts since the 2016 Panama Papers scandal, and whose family retains a large stake in electric utilities - chief beneficiaries of rate hikes of up to 1400% decreed by Macri himself.

At: https://www.thebubble.com/cristina-kirchner-no-evidence-k-money-trail/

Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: From the ‘K Money Trail’ to the campaign trail?

Macri, whose debt bubble implosion has led to the most serious crisis since the 2001 collapse, currently trails Kirchner by around 10% in hypothetical matchups.

Both remain non-commital to running in next year's race, however.

Jones Supporters Clash With Bexar County Election Officials Over Provisional Ballots

Grassroots organizers and campaign staffers for Congressional candidate Gina Ortiz Jones demanded Bexar County Elections Department officials hand over a list of provisional voters so they can make sure all votes are counted ahead of a Tuesday deadline.

At a meeting of the Bexar County Commissioners Court on Friday, Jones supporters and local organizers accused Elections Administrator Jacquelyn Callanen and her staff of disenfranchising voters by not providing the list.

The District 23 race between Jones, a Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Will Hurd is tight, with the incumbent holding a lead of just over 1,000 votes in the sprawling swing district that stretches from Bexar County to El Paso County.

“This is public record,” Jones campaign field organizer Kristian Carranza Thompson said at the meeting. “The voters of Bexar County deserve to know whether their provisional ballot was accepted or rejected. The Bexar County elections administrator is hiding this information, and we need it, especially in races as close as Congressional District 23.”

The hard-fought race is close enough for either side to request a recount. The Jones campaign has said it is waiting on provisional, absentee, overseas, and military ballots to be tallied.

At: https://therivardreport.com/jones-supporters-clash-with-bexar-county-election-officials-over-provisional-ballots/

How Bill Nelson could ultimately win the recount in Florida's U.S. Senate race

Just 15,092 votes out of 8.2 million (0.18%) separate Sen. Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott in the Florida Senate race. And the margin continues to narrow — it was at nearly 60,000 on election night and 34,000 Wednesday afternoon.

What gives Democrats hope? Here’s the path to a Nelson victory.

Not all the ballots have been counted yet in strongly Democratic South Florida:

Broward County, where Nelson received 68.9% of the votes, was still counting early-voting, vote-by-mail and Election Day ballots.

Palm Beach County, where Nelson received 58.4% of the votes, was still counting vote-by-mail ballots.

If the breakdown of these pending ballots is anything close to the results so far, Nelson should pick up more votes than Scott.

Undervotes in Broward County:

That’s a 30,000 difference, a remarkable disparity given the stakes in this race and the name recognition of these officials.

It’s a degree of undervote that is non-existent in the other statewide races on the ballot. If the results as they stand are accurate, more people voted for Agriculture Commissioner than U.S. Senate.

Provisional ballots will break hard for Democrats

In most counties, those ballots still need to be reviewed by the local canvassing board and counted toward the final tally.

One big thing working against Nelson: Up to 15,000 overseas ballots.

At: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article221355905.html

Bill Nelson: Still in the game.

Jared Polis becomes first openly gay person elected governor in America

Source: Vox

Jared Polis has won the Colorado governor’s race, becoming the first openly gay person to be elected governor in America.

Polis, a Democrat who has served in the House of Representatives since 2009, did not attempt to hide his sexual orientation on the campaign trail, and sometimes used it to emphasize the contrast between himself and President Donald Trump’s administration.

But Polis is the first openly gay candidate to be elected for governor.

Polis ran on a fairly progressive platform. He vowed to fight for Medicare-for-all. He also backed stronger gun laws, investments in renewable energy, repeal of the death penalty, universal full-day preschool and kindergarten as an extension of Colorado’s public schools, and expanded broadband access.

Polis defeats Republican State Treaurer Walker Stapleton, whose mishandling of the "Great Colorado Payback" - an unclaimed asset fund - became a liability.

Read more: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/11/6/18053192/midterm-election-results-colorado-governor-jared-polis-winner-gay

Journalist testifies that Argentina's Macri demanded "1% of assets" from contributors

One of Argentina's most prominent investigative journalists, Hugo Alconada Mon, testified last week that during the 2015 campaign current Argentine President Mauricio Macri organized secret, illegal fundraising meetings in which he often demanded 1% of each contributor's business assets.

Alconada Mon's testimony was submitted to Judge Ernesto Kreplak of La Plata - whom Macri and his chief ally, Buenos Aires Province Governor María Eugenia Vidal, have been pressuring to remand the case to the National Electoral Commission (controlled by Macri).

As the likely 'Let's Change' nominee next year (in lieu of the increasingly unpopular Macri), Vidal is anxious to remove the case from Kreplak's court. The judge, however, has held fast.

Kreplak notes that the case isn't merely one of campaign finance violations - but involves identity theft, money laundering, and other potential charges.

La Plata, moreover, is the capital of Buenos Aires Province, in which Macri's right-wing 'Let's Change' coalition allegedly organized a massive money laundering and identity theft schemes in 2015 and 2017 involving over 40 million pesos ($4.2 million at the time) in illegal campaign donations in 2015 alone.

In three separate cases filed since June 19, the courts are now investigating some 500 fake contributors to Macri’s 2015 presidential campaign and 1,500 fake contributions to the 2017 midterm elections in Buenos Aires Province (which 'Let's Change' narrowly won).

Getting to the root

Alconada Mon, 44, writes for one of Argentina's leading news dailies, La Nación - a traditional voice of Argentine conservativism and until recently supportive of Macri.

His recent bestseller, The Root of All Evil, explained Macri's extortionary fundraising methods in uprecedented detail, including his 1% demands and the names of the firms and executives involved.

"And make it black (under the table)," Macri allegedly told contributors.

In all, the book alleged, his 2015 campaign raised 1.76 billion pesos ($180 million at the time) - or 11 times the figure reported to the National Electoral Commission.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politicargentina.com%2Fnotas%2F201810%2F27303-escandalo-confirman-a-la-justicia-que-macri-pidio-el-1-de-su-patrimonio-a-empresarios-para-ser-presidente.html&edit-text=

Friendly fire: Investigative journalist Hugo Alconada Mon (right) and a smiling Macri.

Alconada Mon and the conservative La Nación have distanced themselves with the hard-right Macri since 2017, publishing numerous allegations of espionage as well as corruption.

The EPA says farmers can keep using weedkiller blamed for vast crop damage

Source: NPR

For months, farmers from Mississippi to Minnesota have been waiting for the Environmental Protection Agency to make up its mind about a controversial weedkiller called dicamba.

Some farmers love the chemical; other farmers, along with some environmentalists, consider it a menace, because it's prone to drifting in the wind, damaging nearby crops and wild vegetation.

This week, on Halloween evening, the EPA finally announced its decision. Calling dicamba "a valuable pest control tool," it gave farmers a green light to keep spraying the chemical on new varieties of soybeans and cotton that have been genetically modified to tolerate dicamba.

A coalition of environmental groups that had filed a lawsuit against the EPA's original approval of dicamba blasted the decision to keep it on the market. Paul Achitoff from Earthjustice said in a statement that "EPA's disregard of both the law and the welfare of ... species at risk of extinction is unconscionable."

Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/01/662918255/the-epa-says-farmers-can-keep-using-weedkiller-blamed-for-vast-crop-damage

Arkansas farmer David Wildy inspects a field of soybeans damaged by dicamba in 2017.

Mexico Supreme Court says ban on recreational marijuana unconstitutional

Source: Reuters

Mexico's Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that an absolute ban on recreational use of marijuana was unconstitutional, effectively leaving it to lawmakers to regulate consumption of the drug.

Announcing it had found in favor of two legal challenges filed against prohibition of recreational marijuana use, Mexico's top court crossed the threshold needed to create jurisprudence: five similar rulings on the matter.

That creates a precedent other Mexican courts will have to follow.

"This is a historic day," Fernando Belaunzaran, an advocate of drug reform and member of the opposition leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), said.

The Supreme Court made its first ruling to allow a group of people to grow marijuana for personal use in November 2015.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mexico-supreme-court-says-ban-on-recreational-marijuana-unconstitutional/ar-BBPbZxw

High times? A Mexican cannabis farmer inspects his crop.