Mesa Office of Economic Develop Now Offers Tools-To-Find Critical Business Resources & Assistance

Approximately $90M in Federal Funds dispersed to cities arrived last Monday, followed by some accounting standards guidelines as well as application deadlines, inclusions and exclusions, and verifications required to qualify.
Transparency is a concern.

Mesa CARES:
Local and State Resources to Help Your Business

We recognize the tremendous financial burden placed on the shoulders of Mesa businesses because of COVID 19. We want you to know that we are here to help you through these challenging times with several very important tools that will help you find critical business resources and assistance. These tools include the Mesa CARES Business Assistance Center Website, Business Assistance Center Help Lines, and the Business Impact Survey.

Mesa CARES Business Assistance Center

The City of Mesa Office of Economic Development has set up the Mesa CARES Business Assistance Center to help businesses find important business assistance information.

Mesa CARES Business Assistance Center Help Lines

What’s more, for businesses struggling to navigate the PPP or EIDL application process, the Business Assistance Center has two help lines companies can call to get answer to their questions and be led through the application process. Please don’t hesitate to call if your business needs help.

Mesa CARES Business Impact Survey

Please take a moment to take our survey. It should only take about 5 to 7 minutes to complete.

If you have additional questions, please reach out to us at EconomicDevelopmentInfo@mesaaz.gov 

or reach out to one of our help lines. 

You can also follow us on Twitter and Linkedin. 

Let me just reiterate, if you have questions or need to talk to one of our representatives, please contact us.

Morning Call from Truth in Accounting

The top stories on government finance, accounting and transparency  TIA in the News Twitter @FergHodgson Recent tweet included “@BillBergman , you'll be pleased to know one of your appearances with us is our most popular episode on @Bitchute … https://bitchute.com/video/8BC8zFjmeexG/…” Top 3 Reads New York Post Washington has no need to fund New York’s wasteful ways Op-ed by E.J. McMahon, includes “… Congress shouldn’t feel compelled to subsidize what any state or local government ‘normally’ does. … Second, require states and large cities to produce budgets that are balanced on the basis of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the same condition New York state imposed on Gotham after the fiscal crisis of the 1970s. GAAP budgeting isn’t in itself a guarantee of good results. …” (Note: “GAAP budgeting” is also in need of reform, and New York City provides a good example of why.)  Forbes Illinois pension bailout request reaction roundup – and why it’s a non-starter By Elizabeth Bauer, concludes “… Frankly, I find the idea that states whose budget holes now are the result of profligate spending in the past, should get ‘extra’ money by the federal government to fill those holes, dismaying. It feels depressingly unfair to states which have been responsible with their finances. But there may be little choice in the matter, for fear of causing even more harm if those states can’t cut checks for workers expecting them.” (Note: if it’s a non-starter, why is there “little choice in the matter?”) NPR Illinois Who is watching over coronavirus bailout spending? By Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, interview of Bharat Ramamurti includes “GARCIA-NAVARRO: … this is an unprecedented amount of money to monitor. Quite simply, can you? RAMAMURTI: Yes, I think we can, and I think we have an obligation to the public to do so. A big chunk of the bill is allocated to the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to use to stabilize the economy by lending to medium-size and big businesses. And the Fed and the Treasury have a lot of discretion in deciding how to use that money. ... the law is clear that we are able to call government officials to testify before us. …”  State and Federal News STATE AND LOCAL KTLA 5 News (California) ‘This is the worst it’s every been’: LA mayor announces city worker furloughs By Brian Day and Carlos Saucedo, inludes “Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced plans to furlough thousands of city workers for 26 days out of the next fiscal year as one of several measures to help balance the budget … Garcetti called on the federal government to loosen regulations to allow federal funds be used to repay more of the city’s COVID-19 related expenses. ‘Help bail out America’s cities just as you bailed out the banks,’ he said.” Mish Talk Illinois is insolvent: State requests a pension bailout from Congress By Mike Shedlock, includes “… Trump could easily have passed national bankruptcy reform in his first Congressional term but he failed to do so. Now Democrats would likely block it. Two Things -- Bankruptcy Reform, Pension Reform. Illinois needs both, and both are up to the state, not the federal government.” Wirepoints Illinois News Bond market trades Illinois like it’s already junk By Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner, from April 16, includes “Financial markets react to news – good and bad – far faster than the credit rating agencies do. If that holds true today, then expect Illinois to be junk rated soon. The bond markets are already pricing Illinois bonds at interest rates that amount to junk-level yields.” (Note: I’m reminded of a quote “The role of rating agencies is to go out into the battlefield after the battle is over, and to shoot the wounded.” Note also that bailouts can bolster bondholders, at the expense of other parties.) FEDERAL / NATIONAL Fortune Who will pay for the coronavirus bailout? If you’re under 50 and working, you will By Shawn Tully, includes “… The U.S. was facing a dire fiscal future before the crisis struck, but the economic lockdown, and the gigantic new spending enacted to combat it, brings the day of reckoning far closer. By borrowing multiple trillions at a pace never before seen, the U.S. is endangering the sterling credit that makes Treasuries and the dollar the safest of havens for global investors. … Says Brian Riedl … ‘If the U.S. government keeps spending like the Europeans, the American middle-class will be taxed like Europeans.’ …” Harvard Magazine The federal fisc By Karen Dynan and Douglas Elmendorf, includes “… We conclude that significant reductions in federal budget deficits ultimately should, and will, rely much more on revenue increases than on spending cuts. Raising revenue in a way that is both equitable and not very harmful for economic growth is a challenge, but a solvable one … Thus, with interest rates especially low, the optimal amount of federal debt is now much higher than in previous decades—so there is less urgency today to putting federal debt on a sustainable path than we and many other economists have argued in the past.” Economic Policy Journal Why the current call to suspend the payroll tax is just a shell game By Robert Wenzel, includes “Steve Forbes and Arthur Laffer are out with an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal calling for a suspension of the payroll tax … I am all for tax cuts but without an equal amount in government spending, this is just shifting a government burden rather than eliminating it. …” The Wall Street Journal Fannie, Freddie may soon buy home loans in forbearance to help mortgage firms By Andrew Ackerman, includes “The Federal Housing Finance Agency is weighing whether to allow Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled mortgage-finance giants, to buy home loans that recently entered forbearance, meaning borrowers have stopped making payments …” FROM THE VAULTS Fordham Law School Vimeo Channel Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board hearing with Joseph Marren ‘79 Presentation by Joseph Marren, forty minutes, includes “… Today, there have been no downside implications for the legislative and executive branches for fraudulent financial reporting. … FASAB’s rules are also unconstitutional. Financial statements need to consolidate all entities that are funded with public money. Period, stop. That includes the Federal Reserve, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and any other big-ass institution that we can think of.” Featured Chart

“I believe that public art is not only visually transformative, but can change lives through intentional narrative and engagement, . . " How Art Can Be a Tool for Civic Revitalization April 22, 2020 at 1 p.m. Eastern

The Four Corners Historic District sits at the intersection of Broad and Market streets in Newark, New Jersey. As the first settlement in the city, Four Corners quickly cemented itself as Newark’s business hub. The area is home to dozens of retail spaces and office buildings. Notable landmarks in the area include the Government Center and Newark Symphony Hall Unfortunately, not all areas surrounding Four Corners are as inviting as that thriving intersection. The Four Corners Art Project was born of a desire to revitalize the blighted, less trafficked corridors, in the hope of creating equitable opportunities and programs for artists and the surrounding communities.   In 2019, Four Corners Public Arts was initiated through a public/private partnership formed to support public arts initiatives in Fours Corners. The initiative installed 14 murals that evoked contemporary narratives spurred from the histories of these areas. The murals were conceived and executed by more than 30 artists and organizations. During its first phase, the project worked to transform dilapidated areas in the Four Corners Historic District by providing paid positions for local artists and arts organizations. Four Corners Art Project also used public art as a mechanism to retell local histories by elevating historically marginalized voices and intentional narrative. A Womb of Violet, a black women’s art collective that shakur is a member of, was one of the organizations commissioned to paint a mural. The piece, also named “A Womb of Violet,” features a portrait of Newark-based artist Gladys Barker Grauer and poetry from Lucille Clifton. During this webinar Rebecca Jampol and fayemi shakur will discuss the cross-sector collaborative process that led to the 4 Corners Art Project, the community’s involvement in the project, and the story behind A Womb of Violet.  “I believe that public art is not only visually transformative, but can change lives through intentional narrative and engagement,” says Jampol. Jampol is a curator, designer and co-director of the Project For Empty Space. Her work is dedicated to cultivating impactful social dialogue and change through her interdisciplinary creative praxis, fostering discourse through a variety of projects ranging from gallery work and publishing to public art programs. Jampol is also currently a lecturer and visiting professor of design at Rutgers University, Newark. fayemi shakur is a writer, organizer, photographer and arts administrator. Her work demonstrates a commitment to arts advocacy, cultural organizing, mentorship and engaging programming in service to the community. shakur presently serves as Arts and Cultural Affairs Director for the City of Newark.  This webinar is to pay what you wish to register. Pay any amount that you would like or nothing at all. Those who become sustaining members of at least $10 a month, or who make a one-time donation of at least $20, may receive a copy of “19 Best Solutions of 2019” Your contribution toward this seminar will be used to find even more amazing guests, cover hosting fees and organize seminars like this one more frequently. A video of the webinar will be made available to those who register. Register

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DAIRY FARMS & DAIRY FARMERS: Milking The Low-Valuation of Agricultural Land Valuations Into Fortunes

That could have been the sub-text and the underlying cover story that threw of lot of smelly fertilizer on more than five years of plans to extend 'the outer fringes' of Mesa into a spill-over annexation with publicly-funded water infrastructure hook-ups to expand the New Zion into the promised financial gains in a Land of Milk-and-Honey south of Queen Creek.

COW SHIT @ Hawes Crossing > How A Law Group Piled-On Tons of Hype On-The-Line of Media Manipulation

It was a big land deal in the outer fringes of southeast Mesa that finally passed a manipulation of public participation at last Monday's City Council meeting: at least there was significant debate . . . 
End of an era: Mesa will annex dairy farms and county land for Hawes Crossing development

End of an era: Mesa will annex dairy farms and county land for Hawes Crossing development

(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Hawes Crossing.)

By Alison Steinbach | The Republic

After four years, numerous studies and dozens of plan iterations, the City Council voted Monday to approve Hawes Crossing — but not without significant debate.

________________________________________________________________________Mesa City Council approves Hawes Crossing

Posted by Staff  /  April 21, 2020  /  No Comments

By Angela Gonzales  – Senior Reporter, Phoenix Business Journal

Apr 21, 2020, 12:09pm EDT

The development has been years in the making and has the potential to bring tens of thousands of jobs to the city.

(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Hawes Crossing.)

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RLG Founder and President Jordan Rose In USA Today: When can Americans return to a more normal life? Antibody tests hold a clue.

The New York Times highlights Rose Law Group: Antibody test, seen as key to reopening country

CULTURAL COALITION > Virtual Family Arts Event !

Be sure to join us this Sunday April 26th starting at 2pm for ourVirtual El Puente Fest live Facebook stream!  Here's our schedule of artists and performers!  Please share/repost to anyone you know who loves live music, dance performances, and kids' activities! See you online soon!

Make sure you have liked our Facebook  to not miss any of the action!

Butterfly Mask Making Tutorial #1 Make a mask this weekend and send us a photo of your beautiful creations!

Mask Template :  download, print, copy..... have fun!

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