Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

Shoreacres PD alleged anonymous complaint

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As I mentioned in my recap of the Shoreacres City Council meeting held this past Monday, a member of the council held up a few pieces of paper claiming that she had received them in her mailbox even though they were addressed to the Mayor. City Administrator David Stall responded to my Texas Public Information Act request today.

Mr. Stall provided two documents. One is a list of complaints, one is “support” for the complaints. I combined them into one file:

Shoreacres PD Anonymous Complaint 8-7-13 (click that link if the viewer doesn’t open)

I hope you didn’t spew something while laughing at these “grievances”.

Goodness. I won’t say much other than I doubt that the Texas Rangers are going to come galloping in on their horses and lasso up the city administrator and police chief. Last I heard it wasn’t against the law to buy uniforms that an anonymous officer thought was hot. Or because a sergeant leaves his spit cup in a police cruiser. Can’t make this stuff up, folks.

City of Shoreacres graphic

Harris County Department of Education: Say no to Early to Rise

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Harris County Department of Education logoAt their board meeting on Tuesday, August 20th, Harris County Department of Education trustees will be asked to support Early to Rise. You’ve probably heard a lot about it in the news but most people don’t know that not a single child will be directly helped by this program. This program, as proposed, simply takes money from your pocket, washes it clean at the HCDE, then puts it in someone else’s pocket. The theory is that by taking money from you and giving it to someone else, day care workers will receive training to take better care of children, who in turn will be model citizens instead of growing up as thugs. At least that is Sheriff Adrian Garcia’s theory.

Let me repeat: not a single child will be directly helped with the estimated $30 million that will be taken from taxpayers and given to a private company with almost zero oversight from elected officials. And as for Sheriff Garcia, I’m a bit more optimistic than he is and I don’t think we’ll turn out a generation of thugs if we don’t fleece taxpayers for this program.

No oversight from elected officials

Recall that at the meeting of the HCDE board in June, the proponents of the Early to Rise program told the HCDE board that they did not want the HCDE board to have the ability to select even one of the members of board of the Harris County School Readiness Corporation, the group that will be receiving the money taken from taxpayers. Marc Campos, over at Camposcommunications Blog, says that they are still having problems accepting any type of oversight:

Please don’t talk down to me when public funds are involved.  Here is from the Chron for subscribers only:

The Harris County School Readiness Corp., a new nonprofit led by business and civic leaders, is calling for a ballot initiative to levy a 1-cent-per-$100 tax through the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE)to generate about $25 million a year for training teachers and buying school supplies for child care centers serving children up to age 5.

Here’s the deal.  The group wants us to vote for a tax increase but they really don’t want us involved on how the funds will be spent.  Here is what their Chair said:

“We’ve been working to find the right balance of public oversight,” (James) Calaway said, declining to talk specifically about details until the proposal is presented publicly to the department’s board of trustees Tuesday.

Thank you very much sir!  What the f__k is the right balance of public oversight? Memo to this fella:  It should be 100{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} public oversight!  It doesn’t pass the smell test and could very much head to cronyism, lack of oversight, lack of transparency – you get the picture, which is a very cloudy picture.  In other words, screw the public.  I hope the HCDE doesn’t roll over on this.

Using taxpayer funds for private day care businesses

The Harris County School Readiness Corporation spokeperson Jonathon Day said at the June board meeting that funds would be used to train workers at private day care centers because they couldn’t afford to train their workers. What he is really saying is that he wants to take money from taxpayers and give it to people of his choosing – also known as picking winners and losers. If a business can’t afford to train their workers, they need to go out of business. Once again, not a single dollar is proposed to help children.

Harris County Department of Education funds will be spent on lawyers, not children

There will be so many lawsuits filed if the board approves this deal that it will be tied up in court for years. That is a-okay with the Harris County School Readiness Corporation – after all, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Would you spend your own money to get access to $30 million of taxpayer money to give to your friends? Of course you would. But what about the Harris County Department of Education? They are going to have to spend millions in attorney fees, money that should be going to their core mission of educating children at the ABC and Highpoint schools. What a shame that would be.

Evidence does not support Garcia’s theory

As I pointed out here, there is no evidence that supports the conventional wisdom, from Democrats and Republicans alike, that taxpayer funded early childhood programs make a difference after the third grade. If people really wanted to make a difference in the lives of children, instead of wanting a bigger government so that they can enrich themselves and their friends, they would focus on parenting skills and parental involvement. That is the only way to reverse the course of potential thugs.

Increased pressure to shut the department down

This is probably the best reason for the board to say no to this foolish plan. I’ve been a lone supporter on the Republican side – most of the folks on my side of the aisle want to close the doors. After learning more about the department and what they do, I supported keeping them open. I thought that they would have a year or so to clean up some bad practices (giving money to convicted felons is one) but as I reported here, they don’t seem to want to do that. Signing up for this plan would increase the pressure on the legislature to close them down. And I would certainly support that effort.

So I hope that the board does the right thing and just says no to Early to Rise.

 

Click here for the BJP Early to Rise information page!

 

Abortion Barbie gets spread in Vogue

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Texas’ own Wendy “Abortion Barbie” Davis is featured in Vogue magazine.

Wendy "Abortion Barbie" Davis filibusters
Wendy “Abortion Barbie” Davis filibusters

Amazing what pink tennis shoes, a catheter, and a passion for late-term abortions will do for you in the liberal world.

Davis has to run for governor

I agree with Scrambled Brains and Lobotomized Eggs:

We’re past the point of no return. For there to be any kind of immediate future for Texas Democrats, she can’t take a pass. Davis bears the weight of the entire Texas Democratic Party, some of the burden of other beleaguered Democrats in southern states, and by extension a small portion of the national party’s 2014 electoral prospects. That is one heavy lift.

Well, except for that hyperventilating stuff about the D’s national electoral prospects anyway.

I have mixed feelings about Davis running for governor. The good news is that Republicans will pick up a seat in the Senate, making it easier to pass good legislation. The bad news is that it increases the likelihood that down ballot Republicans in Harris County next year will lose. I’ve already warned you (over and over and over again) that it is likely to happen anyway but this will just strengthen that case. If I were a Republican candidate spending hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to win a primary contest for a down ballot position in Harris County, I’d be working just as hard to change the Harris County Republican Party leadership.

Abortion Barbie defended by Burnt Orange Report

Of course, you can’t call her Abortion Barbie without getting screamed at by the usual suspects. From Burnt Orange Report:

“Abortion Barbie” is entering the conservative lexicon as an appropriate thing to say. That is not acceptable, and we–not just Democrats, not just Republicans, not just women, but we as people who believe that the world is better when we respect others as humans–should not let it happen.

That right there is downright funny coming from the same blog that supports abortion because to limit it is to reduce a dude’s chance of getting laid. Kids. What can you say?

Davis given advice by Dallas Morning News editorial writer

Davis already has editorial writers for the Dallas Morning News giving her advice on how to win against Greg Abbott. This from Mike Hashimoto:

Here’s what she could have said:

I stand here proudly with these pilots, flight attendants, gate agents and mechanics from one of our state’s most important companies. These are the people who made personal and professional sacrifices to help save their airline. I represent many of them as their state senator. They know, as I know, that this merger is American Airlines’ best hope for a thriving future. These are the people I support, and I stand with them today.

Together, we ask Eric Holder and, most importantly, Greg Abbott to explain why they are taking legal action to subvert a free-market deal between two willing parties and, ultimately, sticking a knife in the back of this great airline and almost certainly killing off an engine of growth and prosperity for an entire region of Texas.

A Wendy Davis who needs broaden her portfolio beyond abortion and her appeal beyond a certain segment of Texas voter could have used video like that.

Isn’t that special? I’ll bet the editorial writers at the Houston Chronicle are angry they didn’t think of it first. Nah, no media bias in Texas.

Raul Torres: The Disease Is Big Government

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My friends, Texas must learn from the mistakes of states like California, who has for years increased its public debt and spent all the money that flows into the state treasury.  These are the practices that have gotten them on the brink of bankruptcy. I am deeply concerned that if Texas continues to increase its public debt and continues to spend all the money in the Treasury it will not be long before we find ourselves in the same dilemma as California.

Some of you may not know this but in the last three years the Texas Legislature has passed over 3,000 new laws in Texas. Frankly, I thought our Legislators were supposed to represent us and protect from too much government intervention into our lives. From the looks of things that doesn’t seem to be the case.

I wish to offer the Legislature a simple idea.  Instead of passing a thousand new laws the next time the Legislature meets why don’t they eliminate a few hundred of them? I would vote for that in a heartbeat.  In addition, over the past three legislative sessions the Legislature has managed to approve an increase in fees and government regulations. What was the net result of all this change in government? The truth is we the people are now burden with having to pay more for everything we buy such as food, gas, and typical household items. This makes it very difficult for Texas families who are trying to get ahead.

How much bigger is government today than 20 years ago? How about a lot bigger!  Just took around and it will not take you long to see that every conceivable kind of job in our economy requires some kind of government license, permit, or certification. From serving food at a restaurant, or fixing a water leak in our homes government now has found a way to tax just about everything that moves.

Let me be clear, we’re not going to have real prosperity in the long run until we stop fighting the symptoms and start fighting the disease. The disease is Big Government.   There’s only one cure for this and that is a zero based budget and a Constitutional provision to limit the growth of state spending to population growth plus inflation, the growth in personal income, or the growth in gross state product, whichever is less.

It would seem logical that in a conservative state like Texas our legislators would have tackled this type of budget issue a long time ago. The fact is that the Legislature have not even been able to get this kind of legislation passed out of the respective committee much less taken a vote on either of these bills on the Senate or House floor.

If you ask the career politicians why we don’t take bold steps to reign in the size government many of them will say that it is too hard and time consuming for legislators and budget administrators to do use zero base budgeting and that 85{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} or so of the spending in the budget is fixed by laws passed by the Texas Legislature.  Well, I have a simple answer to these problems. Laws passed by the Legislature can be repealed by the Legislature and that includes the creation of state agencies, burdensome regulations and fees that interfere with a free market.  And, if the Legislature is unwilling to do this, then isn’t it time we elect a Legislature that will?

Here is another problem I see in Austin. Earlier this year Governor Perry asked the Legislature to include in the new budget a $1.6 billion tax cut as part of the new budget.    Well, my question then is, “If there is room for a $1.6 billion tax cut, what was it doing there in the first place?

As your next State Comptroller I will, during my first year in office, present my ideas on how we can effectively, without harming the people of Texas, reduce the size of government, eliminate the Margins Tax, and eliminate burdensome and costly regulations that harm Texas businesses.

Unfortunately, career politicians and Austin bureaucrats don’t feel the same pain from high taxes and fees that you and I do.  As a matter of fact, government makes a profit on every dollar of sales tax, property tax, or excise tax that is collected every day and it seems from the way they conducted this pass legislative session they are set on collecting even more taxes in coming years. That is not the role of government.  The role of government is to protect the public from harm and remove barriers to interfere with our ability to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Last week I reminded you of the words of legendary football coach Vince Lombardi who said, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.”   This is what you and I must do if we are to make Texas great.

As you can see the disease of big government harms Texas families and our entire economic future.   As long as big government is in existence it prevents us from one day “catching excellence.”

That’s all for now.  Next week I will present another segment of my conversation  with Texas.  To learn more about the campaign visit http://electraultorres.com or http://www.texastomorrow.org.

I just thought you should know.

 

For Texas and Freedom, I am Raul Torres.

Raul Torres signature

Clear Lake Area Republicans forum 8/20

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The Clear Lake Area Republicans are hosting what should be an entertaining panel discussion about the recently concluded 83rd Legislative session on Tuesday, 8/20. The panel consists of:

  • Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
  • State Sen. Larry Taylor (SD 11)
  • State Rep. Wayne Smith (HD 128)
  • State Rep. Greg Bonnen (HD 24)
  • State Rep. John Davis (HD 129)

I say entertaining because the Clear Lake Tea Party has attacked each one of these men at various times for being “librul”. And they are holding the meeting in the building where CLTP meetings used to be held when they drew hundreds of people out monthly. I’m not sure who the moderator will be but if they have a weak moderator and the crowd gets involved, it will be entertaining.

Date: Tuesday, August 20th

Time: Social begins at 6:30 p.m. with the meeting beginning at 7:00 p.m.

Location: Webster Civic Center, 311 Pennsylvania Ave., Webster, TX 77598.

clear lake area republicans logo

Hey Taxman, we need some help here!

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Tio Pablo
Tio Pablo

I tuned into KSEV 700 Tuesday afternoon and heard Paul Bettencourt and team discussing the sale of the Houston Independent School District’s Law Enforcement High School campus. It was a fair enough discussion, with Paul having HISD Supt. Terry Grier on and then representatives from one of the bidders for the campus, St. Thomas High School. To be completely fair, they would have reps from the private bidder, A.V. Dickson, but there are only so many minutes of air time. That and the fact that Bettencourt supports St. Thomas’ bid.

But what surprised me was Tio Pablo’s complete disregard for the value of the land to taxpayers. Bettencourt told listeners to disregard the tax implications because they were nothing more than a “gnat on an elephant”. This from the self-anointed “Taxman”? Let’s take a look at that gnat in the form of a few tables that show what the tax implications are.

hisd-law-enforcement-high-school-tax-calculation

The first table is the current tax bill, taken straight from Tax Assessor/Collector Mike Sullivan’s calculations. BTW Mike, I like the new format. Obviously there are no taxes currently being collected because it is a tax-exempt property. If St. Thomas High School is successful in their bid, it will remain off the tax rolls. The next three tables show the ‘gnat on the elephant’. As currently under appraised, the tax bill would be roughly a quarter million dollars. Bigger than a gnat but not all that much for a property in close proximity to Shepherd Drive/Memorial Drive intersection. The third table down shows the tax implication of a minimum bid/development. I’d say that $1.7 million rolling into the various taxing agencies is a whole lot more than a gnat. But take a look a the last table to get a true impact of the tax implications if HISD markets the property correctly and it is developed as A.V. Dickson intends – $2.8 million is an elephant, not a gnat. And for HISD’s purposes, $1.25 million would hire a lot of teachers.

I understand the emotional side of this but taxpayers need to be represented in this equation too. And I’m really surprised that the Taxman, currently running unopposed for the Senate District 7 seat, isn’t filling that role.

For a good read on the issue, try Charlotte Aguilar’s article in The Leader: Do the math: investor bid exceeds St. Thomas’ for HISD law enforcement high school property.