Felicia Cravens and the Houston Tea Party Society presented an information session on the complicated, very long, Harris County November ballot Tuesday evening. They had a decent turnout for a short notice, Tuesday evening meeting, I’d guess the total turnout, including many candidates, was close to a hundred people. Political activist Neal Meyer not only moderated the event, he sponsored it, renting a huge meeting room on the top floor of the Westin Galleria hotel. Four speakers addressed the financial propositions on the ballot and then answered questions from the audience.
First up was Michael Kubosh to address the City of Houston’s Special Bond Election, which features 5 different propositions totaling $410,000,000 ($410 MILLION).
In typical Kubosh fashion, he started with a rousing “Houston, we have a problem!”, noting that Mayor Annise Parker has admitted that the city has borrowed from the pension fund to pay current operating expenses and that the city’s own long range financial report says that the City of Houston will be bankrupt by 2014. And you know what? He’s right! From the report:
This Report forecasts a deficit for each fiscal year through FY2017 in all scenarios. Even in the Baseline, assuming no additional external sources of funds are identified, General Fund cash balances will be exhausted in FY2014. (emphasis NOT added, this is from the report)
And yet, the city wants YOU to vote to give them more money to squander. And Mr. Kubosh also pointed out that, despite the Mayor’s denials that new taxes will follow, the ballot language on each of the five propositions DOES allow for new taxes:
and the levying of taxes sufficient for the payment thereof and interest thereon
Mr. Kubosh’s bottom line? Take your city back, say NO to these five bond propositions.
Next up was Dave Wilson, a longtime advocate of lower taxes and responsible spending. Mr. Wilson’s main discussion was the bond proposition of the Houston Community College system – they are asking for $425,000,000 ($425 MILLION) in new bonds.
Mr. Wilson presented a disturbing picture of HCC – student enrollment has declined 15.3{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} in the last two years and that the 40 year old system was debt free for 32 years but now has $635,000,000 ($635 MILLION) in bond debt which will rise to over ONE BILLION if the proposition passes.
He also talked about the HUGE Houston Independent School District proposition: they want you to approve $1,890,000,000 ($1.89 BILLION) to rebuild/refurbish schools and infrastructure, noting that their student population has steadily declined, from 210,000 in 2002 to 197,000 in 2011. Their bond debt in 2002 was less than $1 BILLION – if these bonds are passed, their total bond debt will exceed $4 BILLION. Voters have previously passed:
- 1998 – $678 Million
- 2002 – $809 Million
- 2007 – $805 Million
Amazing amount of debt for a declining school district.
But the worst thing that he said was that he foresaw the possibility of Houston becoming another Detroit! Yikes! Total debt for the City of Houston is close to…ready? $30,000,000,000 ($30 BILLION). It makes me nauseous just to think about that.
Mr. Wilson’s presentation (click here if your browser is not compatible with Google Viewer):
The next speaker was Houston Community College System Trustee Yolanda Navarro Flores. Ms. Flores is AGAINST the HCC bond proposition!
Rather than have me recap what she said, here is a video of her coming out against the bonds:
And the last speaker on the financial propositions was Josh Sanders representing a group called Houstonians for Responsible Growth.
Mr. Sanders urged the audience to vote YES for the METRO referendum because it extends the General Mobility agreement which requires METRO to distribute 25{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of its tax collections to member cities and limits the expansion of rail. Here is the ballot language:
THE CONTINUED DEDICATION OF UP TO 25{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} OF METRO’S SALES AND USE TAX REVENUES FOR STREET IMPROVEMENTS AND RELATED PROJECTS FOR THE PERIOD OCTOBER 1, 2014 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2025 AS AUTHORIZED BY LAW AND WITH NO INCREASE IN THE CURRENT RATE OF METRO’S SALES AND USE TAX
This agreement and language was forged between METRO and a wide range of groups. The endorsement list is long and wide – if Houston Mayor Annise Parker and County Commissioner Steve Radack agree on it, then it is probably the right thing to do. I had to laugh when an audience member asked if there was anything in the referendum to enforce it – nope, just a verbal agreement between parties. Wanna bet we are back in the same place a few years from now?
As I was recapping the meeting, I received this cartoon from Dave Wilson – it pretty much says it all:
Bottom line from the meeting?
VOTE NO TO ALL BOND PROPOSITIONS AND YES TO THE METRO REFERENDUM
Website: VoteNoHoustonBonds.com