To be clear, I believe we have an infrastructure problem in Houston and Harris County, which we need to address. In my last post I made the following proposal:
I propose to our local conservative leaders on our school boards and city councils, and to our Republican officeholders at the county and state levels, that we sit-down after the election with other civic leaders, and begin to analyze and address our communities’ needs through the prism of this formula. These needs should include at least the following: …
- Our transportation system and physical infrastructure, including a vision of where our citizens will live and work over the next 25 years; an understanding of how and where our goods and services will need to move; the maintenance cycle for all capital investments; an appreciation for the property rights of all Texans; and the most efficient and cost-effective mechanisms for paying for the needed infrastructure improvements; ….
As I hope you can see from this quote, I am not an opponent of spending tax dollars to properly build and maintain roads, drainage systems and utilities. Moreover, I have worked for over a decade with a law firm that specializes in the practice of real estate and construction law, so I have no bias against funding engineering and construction plans to improve the City and County. Additionally, many people I know and admire support Proposition 1, because they see that Houston needs to address its infrastructure needs soon. Finally, I don’t live within the limits of the City of Houston, so the proposed tax, if implemented, will not immediately impact me and my family.
But, with all this said, I believe Proposition 1, and the way it is being thrust on voters at the last minute, is the wrong approach, and I am concerned about how and why it is being proposed. For the following reasons, let’s stop the Mayor and the Councilman from pursuing this harebrained course of action, and force them to go back to the drawing board and make a better proposal after the election is over.
First, Mayor Parker and Councilman Costello are asking you to grant new and extensive taxing authority without presenting you with an explanation as to why this additional authority is needed, or with a plan as to how this money will be used. There appears to be no current needs assessment on the table, no current maintenance plan to be addressed, no plan for future needs and development, no budget for any such plan, and no projected revenue needs. Without these plans, budgets, or projections, Houston voters are being asked to provide City Council and the Mayor with the authority to create and impose a regressive, redundant tax on all property within the City. In essence, they are asking you to trust them to impose a fair tax, and then to create a good plan and budget—later.
As Reagan said—“Trust, but verify.” We live at a moment when our incentive to trust our elected leaders is at an all-time low, because many of them have mishandled and mismanaged public funds in the past. If the Mayor and the Councilman want our trust, they need to earn it by presenting us with a plan, a budget, a projected revenue stream and burn-rate over the life of the plan, the net shortfall that the tax will need to cover, and then the proposed tax rate. Unless and until such information is provided to the public, any request for a new, open-ended power to tax our property should be voted down.
Second, we need to understand why the City doesn’t have the money due from METRO and other sources, which were supposed to cover streets and drainage, and why such money can’t be collected. Once we understand how much money that is due the City right now can be collected and applied to these infrastructure needs, then the shortfall can be assessed to determine whether a new tax is needed, and if so how it should be structured.
Third, once the Mayor and the Councilman have the necessary information to provide to the public, they should be candid with the public about how the money is going to be used, who will benefit from the expenditures, and how the expenditures will be controlled to avoid waste. The potential sums that the proposed tax could collect are enormous, and could cast a further pall on an already sluggish real-estate and development market. However, the cast of characters who have lined-up to support this measure is at once small, yet very well connected in one industry: engineering and construction—an industry that should benefit handsomely from any new infrastructure development (and especially one as open-ended as contemplated by the backers of Proposition 1).
Of the 99 contributors or lenders to “Renew Houston”, which is supporting Prop 1, virtually all are either engineering firms, principals in such firms, or major construction firms. Moreover, one trade group—Houston Council of Engineering Companies (“Houston CEC”)—is driving the campaign for this Proposition. Look at its website, http://www.houstoncec.org/index.html, and you’ll see that the logo and link for “Renew Houston” is prominently displayed just below its name. Then click on the membership list, http://www.houstoncec.org/MemberFirms.htm, and compare it to the list of contributors and lenders to Renew Houston, found here: http://www.theproblemwithprop1.com/what-is-renew-houston.html. You’ll find an almost perfect match. In fact, of the $636,359 raised by Renew Houston to fund the campaign for Proposition 1, $392,529 has been contributed or loaned from Houston CEC directly, and from another 5 member firms or their principals (including Councilman Costello and his engineering firm, Costello, Inc., which, together, have contributed and loaned $90,000 to the campaign). A fair question to ask Councilman Costello and the Mayor is: if this tax is so important to the public as a whole, why is the Councilman and his friends having to pay for the campaign to get it enacted? I think the answer is clear—because it’s an idea only they could love.
Let’s stop this Proposition 1 dead in its tracks, and then sit down after the election and come up with a solid plan for improving Houston’s infrastructure.