by Al Katzenberger
St. Louis, MO
The 2005 annual conference and exhibition of the National Conference of State Legislatures was held in Seattle, Washington August 16 to 20, 2005. Conference attendance is reported at www.ncsl.org.
Al Lubin, a fellow director of Public Revenue Education Council (PREC) and I attended the board meeting of Common Ground-USA August 3 and the annual conference of the Council of Georgist Organizations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 3-7.
Wendell Fitzgerald of Ashland, Oregon and David Giesen from the Henry George School in San Francisco again volunteered to help man the exhibition booth at the NCSL. The Washington State Convention & Trade Center is not an easy place for a low budget organization like PREC to participate. The exhibition hall was on the fourth floor and a good distance from the nearest parking for carrying materials to the booth. Thankfully, David Giesen donated a two wheel luggage cart to transport the heavy boxes to the exhibition booth.
The NCSL required us to have a carpet in the booth. When we got there it was filthy. At the Exposition Service Center the lady said we did not order booth cleaning services. When we told her we just got to the booth and we expected a clean carpet, she said booths have been going up for three days and we should have known our carpet was going to get dirty from other booth installers and should have
ordered carpet cleaning services. She must have noticed my soul was wounded by such logic. She relented and sent a man to vacuum the carpet. Carpet cleaning is $0.31 a square foot per day if ordered in advance. This is $31.00 plus 8.8% taxes. The "Standard Price" is $36.00 plus taxes. We did not have the carpet vacuumed again.
PREC was able to save money by the gracious hospitality of Mr. Melville Forde and his wife Clara of Seattle, Washington who allowed me to stay at their home while at the NCSL. The cheapest conference housing was $149.00 plus taxes. Four nights at the Forde's was a pleasant surprise and I got to sleep under a very beautiful quilt with no two panels exactly alike. Kelly Forde, a daughter took interest in the Georgist materials I gave her to share with her coworkers at the Seattle Times. Mel had planned to volunteer to man the exhibition booth but asked to be excused. I could see that he was disappointed that he was unable to be a part of the work we were doing at the NCSL. Mel and I served in the U. S. Navy so we sat and told sea stories. He also told me of his Georgist exploits including his trip to Russia. PREC thanks Clara and Mel Forde for continuing to help spread Georgist economic justice.
The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation supplied us with the booklets "Synopsis of Henry George's Progress and Poverty." We also distributed Dr. Robert Andelson's booklet, "Henry George and the Reconstruction of Capitalism." The Center for the Study of Economics supplied the booklet, "42 Objections and Responses" by Steven Cord. Common Ground - USA provided the legislative brochure, "The Revenue Source Is Under Our Feet," Internet Cards titled "World Wide Web of Georgist Home Pages" and Common Ground-USA membership brochures. Gilbert Halverson's "Bibliography of Two Rate Property Tax, Land Value Taxation or Site Valuation" was also distributed. We had the pamphlets from the Philadelphia Tax Reform Commission, "Every Day Without Tax Reform..." and the 2005-2006 Edition of "An Introduction to the Georgist Philosophy and Movement."
REPEAT: NCSL IS WAITING ON US
NCSL is waiting for us GEORGISTS to put on a workshop at the NCSL conference in Nashville, Tennessee August 15 to 18, 2006. Mr. Michael Bird, Senior Federal Affairs Counsel requested that Georgists send NCSL a workshop proposal concerning site-value for the 2006 conference. PREC is not skilled at doing workshops for state legislators and their staffs. We know there are Georgists who are skilled at doing such workshops.
Please start by contacting NCSL at www.ncsl.org and Mr. Bird at 202-624-8686 (DC), E-mail: michael.bird@ncsl.org and Mr. Bert Waisanen at 303-364-7700 (Denver), E-mail: bert.waisanen@ncsl.org.
HELP IS AVAILABLE IF YOU ARE SUCCEFUL IN DOING A WORKSHOP AT THE 2006 CONFERENCE IN NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE AUGUST 15 TO 18, 2006.
Mr. Wendell Fitzgerald said he will fund the cost of putting on a Georgist workshop at The 2006 NCSL conference. Wendell will pay for travel to and from Nashville and lodging during the conference. Any other costs are negotiable by calling Wendell at 541-488-3749 or E-mail: www.wtfitzgerald.rcn.com. David Giesen is working with
Wendell to complete this task of securing a person or persons to do a workshop at the 2006 conference in Nashville. David can be reached at 415-452-8860 (School) or 415-948-4265 (Cell).
A CALL FOR HELP: If you live in the Nashville area and have time to work the exhibition booth August 15 to 18, 2006, Nashville Convention Center, please call Al Katzenberger at 314-704-1423 (Cell).
Strong States Strong Nation was the theme of the NCSL conference in Seattle. The legislators were feeling strong about their states but were concerned about the federal government and the decrease of federal funds to support federal mandated programs. One big issue was Wal-Mart's business practices. Legislators questioned why such a
successful company cannot provide all its workers with living wages, health insurance, secure retirements and fair career advancements. We told the legislators if Wal-Mart and everyone else was required to pay all their Economic Ground Rent, workers could compete with Wal-Mart. Because almost all legislators know little or nothing about economics they just look at us in puzzlement.
Many legislators support the "Debt Society" we all live in. They are in debt so they think everyone else should be in debt, including all levels of government. When we told them about people buying homes and paying only interest payments, they thought that was a smart practice. They could not explain why it was a smart practice because it was the first time they heard of such predatory practices taking place in America.
A representative from Africa said he did not want to improve the awareness of Africans or anyone else to know the land values of his country or to improve the collection of taxes. He said donor nations would not give as much support if his country started collecting more taxes from its citizens. He wanted to concentrate on getting more from the resources extracted from his country and from those exploiting his country.
WAKE UP CANADA: Ms June Dewetering of the Division De L'Economie, Direction De La Recherche Parlementaire stopped by the booth. We showed her the six organizations listed in the pamphlet, "An Introduction to the Georgist Philosophy and Movement." She said she never heard of any of the Canadian organizations listed and she as an economist has been crisscrossing Canada for years searching out ideas for economic improvements for Canadian. She wants contacts from Canadians...not Americans. Tel: 613-995-2338, Telecopieur: 613-992-5015, Courriel: dewetj@parl.gc.ca, Bibliotheque du Parlement, Ottawa, Canada KIA 0A9.
Mr. Brad Shannon, the Political Editor for The Olympian stopped by and spoke very well of the work done by Ms Meta Heller of Olympia, Washington. He took a package of the items we had at the booth.
Mr. Patrick Guinan, Senior Research Analyst, Legislative Counsel Bureau of the State of Nevada was very interested in transportation issues. E-mail: pguinan@lcb.state. nv. us. He was interested in the book TAKEN FOR A RIDE by Don Riley. We did not have a copy of the book at the booth.
A communications consultant stopped by the booth and told us we had high energy and the ability to attract passer-bys but our materials were lacking because they did not have a uniform logo and / or market slogan. She said no booklet should be longer than 24 pages including the covers and that at least half the material in any one booklet should be pictures and graphics / charts, and that all pictures, graphics and charts should be thoroughly explained. She said if you have one organization or a hundred organizations you should have a unifying logo and market slogan to enhance your presence in the marketplace of ideas.
Wendell Fitzgerald and David Giesen are a joy to work with at the NCSL booth. David would yell come and tell me about yourself and why you are here. I was amazed at how many people came and got in long conversations with David. Wendell would charm folks with his forceful personality. Many people were agreeing with what he said just because of the authoritative way he said things. Woman advanced to the booth when they saw Wendell call out to them. We have a table at the front of the booth to keep them from advancing in to the booth and David and I stand at each end of the table so they can't squeeze in to the booth to be near him. I hope David and Wendell will write their observations of the NCSL conference for "GroundSwell."
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Al Katzenberger may be emailed at alfredkatzenberger@sbcglobal.net