Episodi

  • Rev. Dr. Eric Lee on Affordability, Schools and Growth | Candidate Conversations – Episode 107

    Rev. Dr. Eric Lee on Affordability, Schools and Growth | Candidate Conversations – Episode 107
    Oct 20 2026
    Our Candidate Conversation series continues as Trey Bailey welcomes Rev. Dr. Eric Lee, candidate for Georgia Senate District 42. A young family moves in with relatives, works to get on its feet, and hopes a first home is somewhere within reach. Rev. Dr. Eric Lee knows that experience personally. In this conversation, he recalls receiving food assistance and substitute teaching during the year he began pastoring Springfield Baptist Church. Six months later, he says, his family bought its first home.Now he looks at his own children and wonders how many young adults can still make that kind of move.That question runs through Episode 107 of The Town Square Podcast. Lee joins Trey Bailey for our continuing Candidate Conversation series to discuss his run for Georgia Senate District 42 and the priorities he would bring to the Gold Dome. Affordability gets much of the attention, but the conversation also asks what makes a community worth living in and what residents should expect from the people who represent them.A pastor with family on both sides of the affordability questionLee and his wife came to Newton County in 1999 with a young son. Their family grew to five children, and his ministry at Springfield grew with the community. He talks warmly about Mansfield Elementary, where his wife worked as a speech therapist and their first three children attended school.His decision to run is rooted partly in the stage of life he occupies now. He has aging parents and children beginning their adult lives. Healthcare, housing, and the cost of getting established feel immediate when he thinks about both generations.Lee also describes how ministry has shaped his understanding of influence. He recalls the sense of calm he felt hearing Senate Chaplain Barry Black pray in the aftermath of January 6. The moment helped him think about the importance of bringing his voice into places where public decisions are made.“It’s not just what you say,” Lee says. “It’s where you say it.”He sees public service as another opportunity to help people, while recognizing that representing a district means reaching people beyond his own congregation.Making a first home feel possible againFor Lee, homeownership is one measure of whether hard work can still lead to stability. He wants first-time buyers to have a better chance of purchasing a primary residence, and he argues that competing with corporate buyers can put families at a disadvantage.He calls for incentives for first-time homebuyers and consideration of ways to limit direct competition from corporate entities. These are priorities he wants lawmakers to pursue; the conversation does not lay out a completed bill or a detailed financing plan.Trey connects the issue to the character of a neighborhood. A home can give people a reason to invest in the place and the neighbors around them. Lee’s concern is that families who work and save should have a realistic opportunity to put down those roots.Fuel costs and access to healthcareLee also raises shorter-term relief from fuel costs. He suggests considering periods of suspended state gas taxes, with attention to travel seasons and the fuel needs of farmers. His argument is that transportation costs reach beyond the pump and affect the price of producing and moving food.On healthcare, he supports Medicaid expansion. He points to North Carolina as an example and argues that broader coverage could help Georgians afford care and reduce pressure on hospitals. Trey and Lee connect that discussion to their experience around a hospital board table, where financial decisions have practical consequences for local care.The proposals give listeners a sense of where Lee would focus. They also leave room for the questions that follow any policy idea: how it would be funded, who would benefit, and how lawmakers would measure whether it works.Tax relief without leaving schools shortProperty taxes bring the discussion directly into Trey’s work on the school board. Families need relief, especially seniors at risk of being priced out of homes they have already paid for. Schools and other public services still need dependable funding.Lee argues that those responsibilities can be addressed together. He favors looking at relief based on income and says revenue removed from one place has to be accounted for somewhere else. He is skeptical of sweeping promises to eliminate taxes without explaining how essential services would continue.“We should all have skin in the game,” he says.He also challenges the idea that a large state surplus, by itself, proves government is meeting its responsibilities. His concern is whether needs in healthcare, education, and infrastructure remain unmet while money sits unused. The conversation makes the tradeoff concrete: a tax decision eventually reaches a classroom, a school bus, a hospital, or a household budget.Data centers and the need for public answersWhen the conversation turns to data centers, Lee resists...
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    55 min
  • Michael Caw on Data Centers, Education and Healthcare | Candidate Conversations – Episode 106

    Michael Caw on Data Centers, Education and Healthcare | Candidate Conversations – Episode 106
    Oct 13 2026
    A data center moves into the conversation. A school needs resources. A family needs medical care, but help is a long drive away. State policy can feel distant until the consequences land close to home.For Michael Caw, those concerns are connected by a question he says he hears from residents: Are the people making decisions actually listening?In Episode 106, our Candidate Conversation series continues with the Newborn councilman and candidate for Georgia House of Representatives District 114. Caw joins Trey Bailey and Gabriel Stovall to discuss growth, education, healthcare access, local businesses, and how he would approach representing his neighbors at the Gold Dome.From testing building materials to serving neighborsCaw introduces himself with stories from Wichita, Kansas, his move to the South, and a career at Georgia-Pacific testing building materials. The work involved walls, roofs, ceilings, and doors, with safety as a practical concern: Would the materials and hardware do their job when people depended on them?He returns to that idea of standards throughout the conversation. Working with different people requires flexibility, he says, along with a foundation everyone can build on. He connects that experience to service on the Newborn council and volunteer work with the Newborn Heritage Trust.Asked why he wants to run for the state House, Caw says residents need representatives who hear their concerns and bring them into the policy process. He describes himself as a fellow constituent seeking to become their advocate.Data centers and the responsibilities of a neighborData centers are among the concerns Caw says he hears while talking with voters. He questions the scale of their resource use and raises concerns about water, noise, lighting, and the surrounding environment.“People should be first for those resources,” he says.Caw recognizes artificial intelligence as a tool, while questioning how much infrastructure is needed and what communities should expect from the companies building it. His test is whether a business will be a good corporate neighbor and participate in the life of the community.He points to the local merchants and gathering places that help sustain Newborn and nearby Mansfield. For him, economic development should be evaluated with the people already living there in mind.School funding gets a closer lookWhen Caw names education as a priority, Trey pauses the conversation to dig into the school funding formula. Caw says Georgia needs to revisit its Quality Basic Education, or QBE, formula and better support schools.The conversation looks at how the demands on schools have changed, including technology, safety, and the cost of educating students. Caw also calls for residents to take an active role by helping children read, explore their interests, and understand their responsibility to the community.His view of preparation goes beyond learning to operate the latest device. He emphasizes thinking, communication, and adaptable skills, along with the lessons students learn through art and athletics. The hosts join him in discussing why young people need an education that can serve them through changing jobs and stages of life.Healthcare that people can reachHealthcare access is Caw’s third major priority. He describes concerns about ambulance response times and the distance residents in rural areas may need to travel for care. He asks whether more places to stabilize patients before transfer could help families who live far from a hospital.He also raises access to care for women and children and argues for a stronger regional healthcare presence. Mental health belongs in that discussion, he says, alongside physical health.The conversation presents his priorities and reasoning rather than a detailed plan for financing or implementing those services. His central argument is that healthy residents and accessible care are investments in the community’s future.Keeping local businesses and farms in the pictureAsked about supporting businesses, farmers, and working families, Caw starts with buying locally. He describes purchases from a neighborhood merchant as part of a network that supports mortgages, children, jobs, and other businesses nearby.He wants farmers to have markets for their products and encourages people to develop and share practical skills. That leads to a lighter exchange about artisan businesses, handmade goods, and his own interest in sewing and learning to repair shoes.There is also a question about how government spends. Caw says public resources have limits and argues that policy should look beyond the next election cycle. He wants leaders to consider who benefits from a decision and whether the investment serves residents over time.Working together starts with seeing the personWhen Gabriel asks about working with Republicans and Democrats, Caw starts with recognizing the other person’s humanity and the people they represent. Listening, patience, and ...
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    46 min
  • Pamela DeLancy on Veterans, Healthcare and Georgia’s 10th District—Episode 105

    Pamela DeLancy on Veterans, Healthcare and Georgia’s 10th District—Episode 105
    Oct 6 2026
    A grocery bill. A long drive to medical care. A veteran still trying to get help. When Pamela DeLancy talks about the people she meets on the campaign trail, those are the kinds of concerns she brings to the table.In Episode 105, our Candidate Conversation series continues with DeLancy, a retired Army colonel and registered nurse running for US Congress in Georgia’s 10th District. She joins us to discuss the experiences that shaped her, why she decided to run, and what she hears from residents across a district that takes serious windshield time to cover.She is direct about her convictions. She also has stories to tell, beginning long before she ever thought about putting her name on a ballot.Learning to lead before she had a titleAs the oldest of six children, DeLancy describes taking on family responsibilities early. After her parents divorced, her mother worked nights as a licensed practical nurse. DeLancy helped get her siblings up, fed, and ready for school so that the morning could run smoothly when her mother came home.She also recalls her younger brother’s serious medical needs and the family’s move from Louisiana to Houston to find care. Helping her family was part of daily life. Looking back, she sees those experiences as the beginning of her understanding of accountability and service.At 17, she asked her mother to sign the paperwork allowing her to join the Army. She saw a way to continue her education, support herself, and send money home. The plan eventually led her into nursing and a military career that lasted much longer than she initially imagined.From enlisted soldier to Army colonelEarly in the interview, DeLancy corrects the hosts’ notes: her service totaled 39 years, including 31 on active duty and eight in the Army Reserve. She describes beginning as an enlisted soldier, taking college classes while stationed in Germany, and later returning to school full time.Through ROTC and nursing school, she became an officer. She tells the story of discovering that the Army needed her back on active duty as a nurse, a development she now sees as one of the best turns her career took.The conversation also addresses the challenges she experienced as a Black woman in leadership. DeLancy says she learned to stay focused on her work and goals even when others questioned her authority. Her advice to younger soldiers was practical: be dependable, meet the standard, and do not let someone else’s behavior determine the course of your career.Why she decided to runDeLancy says her decision grew out of concerns about constitutional rights and the direction of the country. She emphasizes the military oath to the Constitution and argues that public officials should serve the people rather than pledge loyalty to a particular administration.Her experience surviving gallbladder cancer also changed how she thought about the time ahead of her. She describes surgery, chemotherapy, and the importance of advocating for herself as a patient. After a long career of service, she felt called to do more.There is a candid campaign origin story, too: a YouTube class, advice about raising money, and a prospective campaign manager whose discounted fee was still beyond what she had available. DeLancy kept going. A friend’s phrase, “Pam speaks boldly,” becomes a recurring thread in the interview.What she hears on the roadAsked what residents tell her, DeLancy returns to affordability. She describes concerns about groceries, housing, fuel, and wages, along with the practical difficulty of finding services in rural communities. Some of the conversations she recounts involve limited access to dental care, maternity care, or a nearby grocery store.For DeLancy, those issues connect. A job needs to pay enough to support a household, and a community needs the services that allow people to keep living and working there. She argues for stronger wages and career training, including opportunities for people who do not pursue a four-year degree.She also talks about farmers who want to preserve agricultural land as pressure for development grows. The needs of a rural community, she says, cannot be understood solely from a distance. That is part of why she puts so much emphasis on visiting people in person.Veterans and the work of getting helpVeterans’ care is one of the most personal parts of the episode. DeLancy describes people she has met who spent years trying to secure benefits, and she recounts her uncle’s experience seeking disability compensation. She says his approval arrived the day before the family buried him.Her central argument is that veterans should not have to struggle through an exhausting process to obtain support connected to their service. She calls for more consistent access to mental healthcare, with attention to continuing treatment and prevention as well as crisis response.She also describes an idea for a public-service employment and training program inspired by earlier conservation efforts...
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    1 ora
  • Jonathan Chavez on Healthcare, Immigration, and Georgia’s 13th District—Episode 104

    Jonathan Chavez on Healthcare, Immigration, and Georgia’s 13th District—Episode 104
    Sep 29 2026
    What does “meeting in the middle” actually mean when the conversation turns to healthcare, immigration, abortion, and the cost of living? It is easy to say we need more cooperation. The harder question is where a candidate is willing to practice it.In Episode 104, our Candidate Conversation series continues with Jonathan Chavez, a Republican running for US Congress in Georgia’s 13th District. The Conyers resident joins us to discuss the experiences behind his positions, the problems he wants Congress to address, and the places where his answers depart from familiar party talking points.There is also a surprisingly detailed conversation about loading a dishwasher. Around here, getting to know a candidate includes the person who goes home after the campaign event.The family and work behind the campaignChavez describes a path from Albuquerque to Boston and eventually to Conyers, where his wife’s family helped draw them to Georgia. He talks about raising four children, his family’s decision to homeschool, and the work ethic his father passed down to him.Those family stories help explain how he approaches opportunity and responsibility. He recalls working as a teenager and learning to keep a goal in view when setbacks came. Today, he says, his children are a central reason he keeps pushing himself.His professional background brings another perspective. Drawing on his military medical service and work in healthcare administration, Chavez describes leadership as a responsibility to make decisions with the best information available, including information that challenges your first instinct.Why he wants people who will challenge himOne of the episode’s most revealing stories comes from a military training exercise. Faced with a simulated casualty lying on a grenade, Chavez had to decide how to protect his team while continuing to help other patients. He describes choosing to report the hazard and move the team forward.The lesson he carried away was about making a decision under pressure, then learning from it. In his civilian work, he says that also means hiring people who will question his approach.“I need to surround myself with not just yes people,” Chavez says. He wants respectful opposition because someone else may see the angle he missed. That idea becomes a recurring test throughout the conversation: how would it translate from a hospital team to Congress?Healthcare beyond a yes or no on ObamacareHealthcare produces some of the most detailed policy discussion. Chavez says he values the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with preexisting conditions and wants to improve the system rather than reject it wholesale.He proposes expanding public coverage for certain expensive medical conditions while giving health insurers more ability to compete across state lines, with a minimum coverage standard. In his view, taking on some of the costliest care could create room to press insurers for lower premiums. Those are his proposed changes and expected benefits, not established outcomes.Chavez connects his ideas to the patients he encounters through his work, including people who struggle to afford copayments. He also describes efforts to shorten inpatient MRI turnaround times and develop cardiac imaging services. For him, the policy question starts with whether people can actually get the care they need.The discussion leaves room for the implementation questions: how coverage would be financed, how quality would be protected, and what would make the promised savings reach patients. It gives listeners a clearer picture of what he wants to pursue.Affordability and a different way to collect taxesOn affordability, Chavez discusses housing tax credits, business regulation, and support for small businesses. The hosts press him on the boundary between what Congress can change and what belongs to state or local government.He also explains his interest in the FairTax proposal, a national consumption tax approach with a monthly household “prebate.” He sees potential in changing how federal taxes are collected, while saying the idea needs more research and questioning whether it would really eliminate the IRS.For listeners, the useful question is what such a change would mean for a household’s full budget: take-home pay, purchases, and the monthly prebate together. Chavez’s expectations about prices and savings are part of his case for studying the proposal.Border security and a pathway for longtime residentsAsked what securing the border means to him, Chavez argues for enforcement alongside a more workable legal immigration system. He also says some longtime undocumented residents who have contributed to their communities should have a pathway toward citizenship.His grandfather’s immigration story helps shape that view. Chavez says this is one area where he differs from some people in his own party, and he describes wanting a process that is faster and better able to vet applicants.The ...
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    1 ora e 11 min
  • Zayvion Sheppard on For Atlanta. By Atlanta., Mentorship and Community Giving — E103

    Zayvion Sheppard on For Atlanta. By Atlanta., Mentorship and Community Giving — E103
    Sep 22 2026
    What Ten Dollars a Month Can Do for Your CommunityYouTube: https://youtu.be/zaKh0YOmQYMTen dollars a month may not sound like the beginning of a community investment strategy. Zayvion Sheppard thinks it is a perfectly good place to start. Get 50 people to commit, and those small gifts add up to $500 a month, or $6,000 over a full year. For a grassroots organization helping students prepare for college or neighbors find work, that can mean something practical.Zay returns to The Town Square Podcast with an invitation to participate in that kind of giving through For Atlanta. By Atlanta., known as FABA. He also brings a book announcement, an honest account of nearly giving up on the organization, and a reminder that the people who invest in a young person may never see the full reach of what they started.Making room for everyday donorsZay describes attending an Atlanta benefit and leaving energized by the generosity in the room. He appreciated what large donors and corporate partners could make possible. He also wondered how more people could experience the same connection to the work without a high price of admission.That question helped shape what he calls “affordable impact.” The FABA 50 invites 50 people to give $10 a month. It is a way to make regular community giving accessible to people who want to help but may never write a large check.In the conversation, Zay is candid about how hard it can be to ask. At 22, he has had to challenge his own doubts about whether people will trust him with their money. The response from his network has pushed him to take that trust seriously and to stop assuming the answer will be no.Raise invest and elevateFABA’s approach centers on raising money, investing in community organizations, and sharing the stories of what those investments make possible. Zay wants donors to see the people and work behind a contribution.He points to the Taylor Made Foundation as an example. In his account, FABA’s support helped the organization send five graduating students off to college with dorm-room supplies. Refrigerators, microwaves, toiletries and school supplies may not sound glamorous. For a family getting a student ready to leave home, they are real needs.Zay also discusses support for after-school learning and workforce development. When asked whether education, housing and employment define the organization’s limits, he clarifies that fighting poverty is the broader purpose. The team wants to find trusted organizations doing effective work, including those that may not fit neatly into a predetermined category.Finding the people a neighborhood already trustsThe way Zay describes finding partners is refreshingly local. Talk to people. Ask who has helped their children, their families or their neighbors. Pay attention to the organization that keeps showing up, even if its leader is too busy doing the work to promote it.He wants that community knowledge to matter in funding decisions. Many of the leaders he describes hold another job while running their nonprofits. FABA aims to support their work without adding a heavy administrative burden. Follow-up conversations still matter: What did the support accomplish? What need remains? What could additional funding make possible?That approach also puts responsibility on FABA. Zay describes board oversight and regular conversations about the organization’s decisions. He tells a particularly personal story about a donor who preferred to hand over cash: a $20 contribution covering two months of support. He does not know what it took for her to spare that money. He knows he has a responsibility to use it well.The part of leadership people rarely announceZay admits that there was a point when he hoped FABA might quietly fade away. The ambition was big, and the team had overcommitted. Then someone at a professional program asked about the organization after Zay had deliberately left it out of his introduction.That conversation helped him reconsider. Instead of trying to do everything, the team focused on work it knew it could carry out: raise funds, support organizations already serving their communities, and tell their stories. Starting with a small group of partners gave them room to learn how to manage an investment cycle responsibly.It is a useful part of the story for anyone who has started something and then wondered whether they were qualified to keep going. Zay’s confidence has grown alongside that willingness to narrow the work, ask questions and accept help.A book about the people who invested in himZay also shares that he has completed a manuscript. Its working title is A Dollar’s Worth of Impact, a callback to a story he told during his earlier Town Square appearance. The title and publication plans are still developing.He hopes the book will speak to young people trying to lead and to the adults mentoring them. Writing it has meant revisiting family support, the loss of his grandfather, and the people who made ...
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    57 min
  • Rev. Dr. Terrence Evans on St. Paul AME Church and Faith in Community—Episode 102

    Rev. Dr. Terrence Evans on St. Paul AME Church and Faith in Community—Episode 102
    Sep 15 2026
    History Is in the Spirit: Rev. Dr. Terrence Evans on Faith Memory and Civic LifeTown Square Podcast Episode 102 | Faith and CommunityWatch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/73cI1WtGUGgA church can hold a community’s history in ways that a courthouse file or a history book cannot. St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church has served Covington since 1878. Its congregation rebuilt after fires, lived through segregation and integration, helped people register to vote, and carried its ministry from Stone Mountain Street to a larger home on Brown Bridge Road.In Episode 102 of the Town Square Podcast, Rev. Dr. Terrence Evans joins the Faith and Community series to talk about the life behind that history. His story moves from Opa-locka and Miami to Georgia State basketball, eighteen years serving people experiencing homelessness, a call to ministry, and his 2023 appointment as senior pastor of St. Paul AME Church in Covington.The conversation also offers a plain-language introduction to the AME tradition: why the denomination was formed, how its structure works, and why worship, memory, social action, and grace remain connected.The Barbershop TestBefore Evans was a pastor, he was Sherry and Willie’s son, a six-foot-seven basketball player from Opa-locka, Florida, and a young man deciding where a scholarship might take him. He knew Miami. Atlanta was new.Georgia State began to feel like home almost immediately. Evans arrived without having gotten a haircut, asked his coach for help, and was taken straight to a local barbershop. That ordinary act told him something important: he could find community here.His years as a Panther also shaped his approach to leadership. Evans remembers one coach as quick and direct and another as deeply relational. The second model is especially visible in his ministry now. He believes leaders should offer clear direction, trust people to use their gifts, receive feedback, and pivot when a better path serves the church and the gospel.Grace in Action at Jefferson PlaceAfter earning a criminal justice degree with a minor in sociology, Evans considered law enforcement. His mother, a Miami police officer, urged him to remain in Atlanta. A summer youth-employment job opened the door to Fulton County government, and an overnight position at Jefferson Place became an eighteen-year vocation.Jefferson Place was a transitional housing program located in the former Fulton County jail. Evans began by checking residents in at night and later became a case manager. He watched men complete technical training, build businesses, restore family relationships, and move toward stability. He also witnessed relapse, disappointment, and the painful consequences of rules that could not simply be wished away.That work changed his understanding of ministry before he had a pulpit. “It helped me to see grace in action,” Evans says. “It helped me to see how it is that there are consequences.” Holding those truths together became part of his pastoral formation: compassion does not erase accountability, and accountability does not cancel a person’s humanity.A Call and an Immediate AssignmentEvans was raised Baptist and did not grow up expecting to enter ordained ministry. While serving at Jefferson Place, raising three children with his wife, and worshiping in an AME congregation, he began to recognize a persistent call. He entered the AME Board of Examiners process and studied at Turner Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center.The transition from preparation to pastoral responsibility came quickly. In 2010, almost immediately after his ordination as an itinerant deacon, a presiding elder told him about a small church that needed a pastor. His first appointment was St. Paul AME Church in Dallas, Georgia. He later served Greater Ward Chapel AME Church in Columbus before being appointed to St. Paul in Covington in June 2023.There is a fitting symmetry in beginning and continuing his pastoral work at congregations named St. Paul. There is also a consistent thread: Evans’ ministry grew from service, relationships, and the belief that God was already present in places he had not expected to go.What African Methodist Episcopal MeansFor listeners who have seen the initials without knowing the distinctions, Evans breaks the name into three parts. African points to a church founded by people of African descent. Methodist identifies its Wesleyan theological roots and disciplined approach to Christian life. Episcopal describes a structure of governance led by bishops, with pastors appointed to congregations and layers of accountability that extend from the local church to the denomination’s General Conference.Evans describes a connectional church rather than a collection of independent congregations. St. Paul belongs to the East District of the Atlanta North Georgia Annual Conference, within the Sixth Episcopal District. Local church conferences, quarterly ...
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    1 ora e 2 min
  • Rep. Clint Crowe on Affordability Housing and Data Centers | Candidate Conversations — Episode 101

    Rep. Clint Crowe on Affordability Housing and Data Centers | Candidate Conversations — Episode 101
    Sep 8 2026
    The Cost of Staying Home: Clint Crowe on Property Taxes Housing and Data CentersWatch the conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/XjBIapdxdqIFor many homeowners, affordability is no longer an abstract campaign issue. It is the tax bill on a house they have owned for decades, the price of a starter home their children cannot afford, and the argument over whether new development will ease the pressure or create new costs.Representative Clint Crowe brings several perspectives to that conversation. He represents Georgia House District 118, chairs the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee, serves on Ways and Means and four other committees, and has worked in law enforcement and real estate. In Episode 101 of the Town Square Podcast, he explains how those experiences shape his approach to taxes, housing, data centers, and the work of representing a district that includes parts of Newton, Butts, and Monroe counties.This Candidate Conversations episode presents Crowe’s record and positions in his own words as voters prepare for the November election.A Career Built Across Public Safety and Real EstateCrowe was first elected in 2020 and took office in 2021. Before entering the legislature, he volunteered with a fire department, worked as a 911 dispatcher, served in law enforcement, and built a real estate company with his family. He describes those jobs as different versions of the same work: dealing with people, solving problems, and trying to find an outcome that competing sides can accept.His family story also informs the way he talks about public service. Crowe and his wife, Kristie, raised two sons and later adopted a great-niece and great-nephew who came to live with them as very young children. He says his decisions at the Capitol affect his own children and grandchildren along with the rest of the district.Why Legislation Moves SlowlyCrowe offers a practical explanation of a process that often looks needlessly slow from the outside. A House bill may pass through subcommittee hearings, a full committee vote, the Rules Committee, and the House floor before beginning a similar path in the Senate. Tax referendums and some other measures require a two-thirds House vote rather than a simple majority.He argues that the friction is intentional because state policy must work across communities that differ sharply in population, tax base, and public-service needs. Crowe says committee hearings are among his favorite parts of the job because local officials and residents can explain how a proposal would affect them before lawmakers vote.The Property Tax QuestionThe longest policy discussion begins with residents who fear being priced out of homes they already own. Crowe says he has heard from seniors on fixed incomes who cannot keep up with rising property-tax bills. His guiding view is that a primary residence should eventually become secure from that pressure. In his words, a homeowner should not have to “continuously rent that from the government for your entire life.”Crowe discusses House Bills 581 and 92, including the effort to limit increases in taxable value through a floating homestead exemption. He also describes a proposal that did not pass in the most recent session: replacing property taxes on homesteaded homes with revenue from an additional one-cent sales tax and other funding sources.He acknowledges the central tradeoff. Local governments and school systems depend on property-tax revenue, and a sales tax spreads costs to renters and consumers as well as homeowners. Crowe argues that visitors would pay part of the sales tax, while communities with weaker retail activity would need another way to replace lost revenue. The episode does not pretend that the arithmetic is simple.Housing Costs Begin Before ConstructionCrowe also connects affordability to the shortage of homes within reach of first-time buyers and public-safety employees. Drawing on his real estate background, he says permitting delays, minimum square-footage rules, low-density requirements, infrastructure costs, and limited housing supply all raise the final price paid by a buyer.He supports local planning and zoning, but questions rules that prevent smaller or less expensive homes even when they meet accepted safety standards. His concern is that every delay and development cost eventually appears in the home’s sale price. The policy tension is familiar: communities want control over growth, while the same restrictions can narrow the supply of attainable housing.Data Centers and Local ControlThe conversation then moves into one of Newton County’s most contentious subjects. Crowe opposes broad moratoriums on data centers and believes local comprehensive plans should determine where major industrial uses belong. He points to Stanton Springs as an example of placing a data center inside an established technology and industrial area rather than near homes.Crowe frames data centers as infrastructure tied to ...
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    1 ora e 15 min
  • Kamal Carter of A Long Talk on Constructive Conversations and the CPR Method — Episode 100

    Kamal Carter of A Long Talk on Constructive Conversations and the CPR Method — Episode 100
    Sep 1 2026
    Episode 100: From Furious to Curious with Kamal Carter of A Long TalkOne hundred episodes ago, The Town Square Podcast began with a simple conviction: people who see the world differently should still be able to sit together, ask honest questions and search for understanding. We call it “unity, not uniformity.” For our 100th episode, we found a guest whose life’s work feels almost tailor-made for that mission.Kamal Carter is the president and co-creator of A Long Talk About the Uncomfortable Truth, an organization that helps people interrupt ignorance and bigotry in real time. Its work reaches locker rooms, boardrooms, schools, churches and other places where people with different histories and perspectives must learn to function as a team.That made Carter more than a fitting guest for this milestone. It made him the perfect one.Two Dads Who Wanted Something BetterA Long Talk did not begin as a polished national initiative. It began during the pandemic with Carter and his business partner, Kyle Williams—two former educators and two fathers who wanted a safer, more humane world for their children.Carter traces his instinct for service even further back. One of his grandfathers was a Tuskegee Airman who modeled excellence, discipline and responsibility while also carrying the pain of being treated as less than after serving his country. That family history taught Carter that achievement should be joined to service and that each of us can choose to leave the world better than we found it.The immediate spark for A Long Talk came after one of Williams’ sons attended a protest in Washington, D.C. An accusatory exchange with a college basketball teammate escalated through text messages and FaceTime. Williams contacted the coach, expecting to talk the next day. Instead, the coach called that night—and listened.That conversation changed the temperature. The coach asked for resources, began taking action on his campus and helped prove that a difficult exchange did not have to end in injury or estrangement. Within six weeks, Carter and Williams were helping convene a conversation with 107 college basketball coaches. What started with one father, one coach and one hurting student began spreading across athletics, education and corporate life.Information + Empathy = ActionCarter describes the A Long Talk formula plainly: “information plus empathy equals action.” The goal is not to drag everyone to the same opinion. It is to create an environment where people can speak honestly, listen carefully and respond to harmful statements without either freezing or exploding.That distinction matters. A conversation leaves room for questions, reflection and boundaries. A confrontation becomes a contest to win. Carter argues that people retain the right to their beliefs, but organizations also have the right—and responsibility—to establish what conduct belongs in their locker room, workplace, church or civic space.The work begins with grace and what Carter calls “progress over perfection.” If people fear that one awkward phrase will get them banished, honest conversation becomes nearly impossible. But grace is not passivity. A Long Talk trains people to step in when language is harmful and to replace an instinctive blast of anger with disciplined curiosity.Go From Furious to CuriousWhen an inflammatory statement lands, most people do one of two things: freeze or react at full force. Carter offers another option—go from furious to curious. That does not require pretending the statement was harmless. It means regulating the first reaction long enough to understand what was said, why it was said and whether the speaker has ever seriously examined it.Curiosity can also change who carries the burden of responding. If a sexist comment is made in a room where only one woman holds leadership, why should everyone look to her to challenge it? A colleague can intervene. A teammate can ask the question. A bystander can become an active participant in protecting the culture.Carter calls critical thinking “kryptonite to ignorance.” It forces a careless generalization into the light, where the person who made it must explain, reconsider or openly own it.CPR for a Difficult ConversationThe practical tool A Long Talk teaches is CPR: clarify, probe and redirect.Clarify begins with a deceptively simple question: “What do you mean when you say…?” The key is to repeat the person’s actual words and then remain quiet. Rather than supplying the accusation and the verdict, the listener gives the speaker room—and responsibility—to explain.Probe moves deeper. A question such as “How do you think that would make your mother, sister or teammate feel?” invites the person to consider impact, not merely intent. Redirect then asks what language or action would support the people affected and the values the group claims to share.Like any skill, CPR requires practice. Carter tells participants to expect mistakes, ...
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    56 min