March 2, 2021

Only these states experienced tax revenue rout - Alaska (-42%), HI (-17%), NV, ND, TX, FL, OR

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/01/business/covid-state-tax-revenue.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

As it turns out, new data shows that a year after the pandemic wrought economic devastation around the country, forcing states to revise their revenue forecasts and prepare for the worst, for many the worst didn’t come. One big reason: $600-a-week federal supplements that allowed people to keep spending — and states to keep collecting sales tax revenue — even when they were jobless, along with the usual state unemployment benefits.

By some measures, the states ended up collecting nearly as much revenue in 2020 as they did in 2019. A J.P. Morgan survey called 2020 “virtually flat” with 2019, based on the 47 states that report their tax revenues every month, or all except Alaska, Oregon and Wyoming.


A researcher at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, found that total state revenues from April through December were down just 1.8 percent from the same period in 2019. Moody’s Analytics used a different method and found that 31 states now had enough cash to fully absorb the economic stress of the pandemic recession on their own.

March 1, 2021

wealthy UTA alumni supporting "Eyes of Texas", minstrel era song, threatened to pull donations

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/01/ut-eyes-of-texas-donors-emails/

The Texas Longhorns had just lost to rival Oklahoma for the third time in a row — this time after a quadruple overtime.

The bruising loss was quickly overshadowed when then-Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger stood alone on the field for the playing of the university’s alma mater song "The Eyes of Texas," a postgame tradition. The rest of the team, who typically stay to sing the song with fans at the end of games, had retreated from the field.

For many University of Texas at Austin students who had spent months protesting and petitioning the school to get rid of "The Eyes of Texas," it was gutting to see the student leader seemingly taking a stand. (Ehlinger later said he was only lingering alone on the field to talk with coaches.) The song — played to the tune of "I’ve been working on the railroad" — was historically performed at campus minstrel shows, and the title is linked to a saying from Confederate Army Commander Robert E. Lee.

But hundreds of alumni and donors were more concerned about why Ehlinger was alone. They blasted off emails to UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell, calling the image of the abandoned quarterback "disgusting," "embarrassing" and "disturbing." They demanded that the school stand up to "cancel culture" and firmly get behind the song — or else donors were going to walk away.

An illustration of an email sent to UT-Austin obtained in a public records request.

https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/r-oQX1BAtUc8rb5gBHxUWiHGX_A=/640x398/smart/filters:format(webp):quality(70)/https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/0et4_vP67zkPig6qqQP7uvJdpxU=/filters:quality(70)/

From June to late October, over 70% of the nearly 300 people who emailed Hartzell’s office about "The Eyes" demanded the school keep playing it. Around 75 people in emails explicitly threatened to stop supporting the school financially, calling on the university to take a heavier hand with students and athletes they believed were disrespecting university tradition by protesting it.

"The Eyes of Texas is non-negotiable," wrote another graduate who said they’ve had season tickets since 1990 and whose name was redacted by the university. "If it is not kept and fully embraced, I will not be donating any additional money to athletics or the university or attending any events."