05.14.08
Posted in Democratic Events, Good Stuff, Williamson County at 5:01 pm by wcnews
Here’s the press release:
East Williamson County - The East Williamson County Democratic Club will sponsor a double feature film presentation on May 25, 2008 at 8:00 pm in Taylor, Texas. The films will be screened on the lawn of Our Lady of Guadalupe Education Building on 708 Sturgis Street. Feel free to bring your lawn chairs or blankets and picnic basket. Popcorn and beverages will be available. Admission is free.
The first feature is titled, T. Don Hutto: America’s Family Prison, and documents the conditions at the T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor prior to the fall of 2007. The screening will follow one day after a major vigil opposing the T. Don Hutto Family Detention Facility. The second feature titled, The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez, is the story of a young Guatemalan man who, although lacking citizenship, serves in the United States armed forces in Iraq. That film was selected to honor the Memorial Weekend and to recognize the contributions of non-citizen immigrants who have served this country with their lives. The films are part of an on going exploration of movies which relate to local issues. Regardless of your general views related to the topic of immigration, the impact of current immigration procedures on local infrastructure in the case of T. Don Hutto and the make-up of our armed forces as explored in The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez are events that directly affect all residents of Central Texas.
An opportunity to discuss the changes at T. Don Hutto since the fall of 2007 and US immigration policy generally will accompany the screenings. Come join us for an evening of solidarity with those who have served and continue to serve our country.
That Sunday is the day before Memorial Day so come out since you’re off on Monday. See the flyer here [.pdf].
Permalink
Posted in Around The State, Election 2008, The Lege at 10:40 am by wcnews
Harvey Kronberg in his latest News 8 commentary, Scrutiny over ghost employees, does an excellent job of sorting out the “ghost” employee issue that Speaker Tom Craddick has brought to bear on members of the Texas House. Kronberg tells us it’s not the who and the what that’s dominating this story around the capitol but the why:
The question consuming the capitol community is whether or not the story was developed and then shopped to the press by the Speaker’s office and its allies. The three lawmakers targeted in the story, two Democrats and one Republican, are all outspoken critics of Speaker Tom Craddick.
In the heavily polarized house, Craddick critics do not believe in coincidences, especially since they are being pilloried for long-standing practices also used by some on the Speaker’s leadership team.
They believe that politically neutral House institutions like the Legislative Council and the House Business Office have been enlisted to do opposition research on sitting members.
These are difficult things to prove one way or the other.
But the belief has injected even more poison into an already damaged institution.
As noted before this has been, one of several, long-standing policies - many legislators give stipends to staffers out of their campaign coffers - used by many in the house to attempt to keep a full-time staff, on a part-time budget.
The only legitimate question is whether or not value is delivered in exchange for the compensation package offered.
Legislative staffs may work a hundred hours a week during session without overtime and ten hours a week in the months immediately afterward.
Most think it all balances out.
Are there abuses?
Probably a few.
But it’s the politics behind the story that may prove to be the most interesting of all.
In other words were these people getting benefits for doing nothing. If so there’s a problem. But if they were doing much work for little pay, then there’s no problem. In essence there’s been an agreement in place for a long time that this would be allowed. Now a politician is in deep trouble, fighting to keep power, and trying to find something, anything, to smear his opponents with. It’s an issue that, at first glance, looks like a scandal but once it’s looked at with a discerning eye turns out to have, as Kronberg says, “..much smoke but little fire”.
What this shows is the tactics that Craddick will use to keep the gavel. I believes it’s Paul Burka that in the past pointed out that the Speaker’s number one job is to protect the House membership, help them get reelected. If what state Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) says is true, (link via QR), then Craddick has given up on his number one job.
“Last week, (Rep.) Larry Phillips and (Speaker) Tom Craddick announced that all House members are currently under investigation regarding employment practices, including employment compensation arrangements,” she wrote. “Thanks to Mr. Phillips and Mr. Craddick, everyone’s Fall opponent will now be saying, ‘Rep. John Doe has been under investigation by the General Investigating Committee, the Texas Attorney General…’
“Never mind that the investigation is now discredited and pretty well agreed to be unnecessary. You can call Tom Craddick and Larry Phillips when the mail pieces arrive in your district in October.”
Not only has he given up protecting them, he’s the one creating problems for all of them, not just his adversaries but his allies too.
Permalink
05.13.08
Posted in Bad Government Republicans, Hutto, Landfill, Precinct 4, Williamson County at 1:30 pm by wcnews
Last Thursday the Hutto City Council held a workshop with two members of the Williamson County Commissioners Court, Judge Dan Gattis and Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison. From the AAS:
Despite the fact that their city is practically home to the controversial Williamson County landfill, Hutto city officials have been relatively mum on the what they think about the landfill, which some residents warily refer to as “Mount Hutto.”
But in a workshop meeting scheduled tonight for Hutto’s City Council, members are expected to discuss the landfill and some of the concerns that residents in the city have raised over its size, recycling policies and contract, among other things.
Hutto Mayor Ken Love said the council will not take any action, but members will get a status update from County Judge Dan A. Gattis and Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison.
“We’ve got a lot of questions directed to us and the only people who can answer those are the commissioners court,” Love said.
The Hutto Citizens Group (HCG) has a detailed report from the workshop here [.pdf]. They sum it up pretty good:
In a somewhat surprising statement, Gattis expresses a newfound trust in Waste Management to limit intake into the landfill (if Travis County landfills aren’t expanded) and voluntarily negotiate a better contract if the county loses its lawsuit in District Court
Here’s from the HCG report of what went on at the workshop.
In fact, in his introductory remarks, Morrison made the statement that he “probably wouldn’t say anything new” about the landfill issue. Morrison also said, “We have the war in Iraq, highway funding cuts by TxDot and gasoline prices over $3.50 a gallon, and these problems cause the landfill issue to pale in comparison, but one thing we do have is some control over the landfill.” As it turned out in the ensuing discussion, however, based on what the county officials said, the county either has very little control at this point or is unwilling to exercise any control.
One of the more surprising positions asserted by Gattis was his trust that WMI would “do the right thing” and negotiate a fair contract in the event the county loses the lawsuit it filed against WMI to void the 2003 contract now in place.
“The lawsuit is a win-win for the county,” Gattis said. “If we win the lawsuit we can get a new contract through a bid, and if we lose the lawsuit we’ll get a better contract with Waste Management.”
What Gattis failed to explain, and what no one asked in a follow-up question, was how the county could get a better contract with WMI if WMI has no incentive or requirement to negotiate at all.
Sitting with Gattis and Morrison was Steve Jacobs of WMI. Because of workshop rules, Jacobs was not allowed to speak, but he continually passed notes to Gattis during the course of the meeting.
A county commissioner, who has absolutely no control over the war, TxDOT funding, and gas prices, is telling local citizens that there are bigger problems than the dump next to their houses. I hope that makes them feel better. Nothing like having our county elected officials show up at a “workshop” with a corporate lawyer (*) corporate representative to whisper in their ear, to tell us how insignificant our problems are. Just more evidence of in whose interest it is our elected officials in Williamson County operate. It would be best for all concerned citizens in Williamson County to read the entire report to see all the questions that were, and mostly weren’t answered at the workshop.
* - EOW has been informed that Steve Jacobs is not a corporate lawyer, but instead a supervisor of WMI’s landfill operations in Travis, Williamson and Bell counties.
Permalink
Posted in Good Stuff, T. Don Hutto, Taylor, Williamson County at 12:10 pm by wcnews
Via TDP, TISD rejects T. Don Hutto agreement.
The Taylor ISD Board of Trustees rejected an agreement with the T. Don Hutto residential facility to house residents in the old middle school gymnasium in the event of an emergency.
[...]
The board decided against the agreement because the sentiment of the community indicated it was the best option, according to [Taylor ISD President James “Bo”] Stiles.
This is good news and the Taylor ISD school board should be commended for this vote. See here for background.
Permalink
Posted in Around The State, The Budget, The Economy, The Lege at 11:59 am by wcnews
Despite recent GOP crowing about all the extra money we’ll have for the 81st legislative session, (here and here), the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CPPP) brings us back to reality, Texas Faces a Struggle to Write a Budget That Meets the State’s Needs for 2010-11.
The state budget funds critical public systems upon which we all depend. Unfortunately, a realistic analysis of both sides of the state’s balance sheet—income and expenses—shows that Texas faces another tight budget in 2010-11. While the state will probably have more available revenue than it did for 2008-09, it will also have more people and higher costs, quickly using up any additional funds. Recently, however, the Speaker suggested that the state might have a $15 billion “surplus” by the end of the biennium, with the Comptroller saying that her most recent estimate projects $10.7 billion. But neither is using the term “surplus” in its ordinary sense. In fact, both estimates include expected balances in the Property Tax Relief Fund, which is already committed to pay for previous tax cuts, and in the Rainy Day Fund, which is reserved for emergencies. In all likelihood, the state will again be unable to fund critical public systems without new sources of revenue.
This post from the AAS, Surplus talk unrealistic, report says, has some very interesting comments on the CPPP report. There are several comments that point to the fact that this money could be used to help with our road funding crisis. There was also more bad economic news last week with Texas getting its first drop in sales tax collections since 2003 last month, that’s not a good sign.
Texas’ sales tax collections in April dipped nearly 2 percent compared with the same month last year, the first monthly decline since 2003, according to a report that the state comptroller released Friday.
[...]
Collections in April, which largely reflect sales in March, were $1.7 billion compared with $1.74 billion last year. Compared with a month earlier, the April numbers were up, as was the pattern last year.
“The economy is growing, but it is slower growth,” said R.J. DeSilva, spokesman for Comptroller Susan Combs. “Slower growth as opposed to a decline in growth.”
[...]
Terry Clower, associate director of the Center for Economic Development and Research at the University of North Texas, said consumers might be spending less on taxable items as nontaxable items cost more.
“Because of the inflation in food prices and, of course, inflation in gas prices, what we might be seeing is a bit of evidence of a shift in spending patterns,” Clower said.
That’s right, as people have to spend more of their former disposable income on “non-taxable items”, like food and milk which continue to skyrocket, they will spend less on taxable items, lowering the sales taxes the state and municipalities collect. These sales tax numbers are likely to stabilize in the near term as the stimulus checks hit bank accounts and mail boxes.
But there are many other useful and needed places this money could go, other than road funding, which could help prevent draconian cuts in the future, if we do have a surplus. There’s the $3.4 billion that could be lost if the US Senate doesn’t act to stop forced cuts in Medicaid to the states. The inflation that’s going to cripple Texas public schools in the near future. This same inflation will hit state agencies as well. And there are probably many more.
This rosy numbers fuzzy math that the embattled Texas GOP is trying to use to help save their political hides in 2008 will be all gone by the time the 81st session comes around. And if we the people want a say in what happens we’d better make sure there’s new leadership in the legislature come 2009.
Permalink
05.12.08
Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 8:44 am by wcnews
It’s Monday, and that means it’s time to show some love for the best posts from the members of the Texas Progressive Alliance for the preceding week. Check out the best that the Alliance has to offer, brought to you this week by refinish69 at Doing My Part For The Left.
McBlogger has some advice for State Delegates aspiring to a seat on the floor in Denver.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme says all the fuss over ‘wrongful’ healthcare benefits in Brownsville, Corpus Christi and the Texas House is misplaced. Universal healthcare makes that problem disappear!
John Coby at Bay Area Houston reported on Bob Perry’s attempted take over of a local City Water Authority in order to develop on our golf course. The developers lose big in Clear Lake
Off the Kuff continues his series of countywide race previews with a look at the race for Harris County Tax Assessor.
The Texas Cloverleaf looks at right wing blowhards on tour, coming to a local amphitheater near you.
Doing My Part for The Left is thrilled that Another Poll Shows Rick Noriega just 4 points behind Box Turtle.
WhosPlayin notes that along with many more Republicans, Michael Burgess (TX-26) voted AGAINST supporting Mothers Day.
Dembones at Eye On Williamson has the latest on Rick Noriega’s run for the US Senate with this post, Republican machine grinding for Cornyn.
The sinkhole in Liberty County catches PDiddie’s attention — not literally, thankfully — and he blogs about it at Brains and Eggs in “Rural Texas finally
collapses from GOP ‘Leadership’ “.
Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex ponders the civil liberties thicket that Texas AG Greg Abbott could wander in to if he allows the Texas Lottery Commission to use the electronic strip on Texas driver’s licenses to verify the age of gamblers at lottery vending machines.
nytexan at BlueBloggin points out Racism In The Secret Service and asks how can the Secret Service perform their jobs when supervisors write and send racist emails to one another regarding interracial sex, killing Jessie Jackson and his wife and ridiculing African American slang.
Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News talked to a friend of his that received a GOP Push-Poll against local Democratic judges in GOP running Scared in Harris County. He also wondered if this picture is of a Pasadena neighbor who can’t spell.
Lightseeker takes a look at What Rick Perry Promised, What the Republicans Delivered over at Texas Kaos.
Don’t forget to check out all the Texas Progressive Alliance blogs, too:
B & B
Bay Area Houston
Blue 19th
Blue Bloggin
Bluedaze
Brains & Eggs
Burnt Orange Report
Capitol Annex
Common Sense
Doing My Part For The Left
Dos Centavos
Easter Lemming Liberal News
Eye on Williamson
Feet To Fire
Grassroots News U Can Use
Half Empty
In The Pink Texas
Marc’s Miscellany
McBlogger
MindSpeak
Musings
North Texas Liberal
Off The Kuff
Para Justicia y Libertad
People’s Republic of Seabrook
South Texas Chisme
StoutDemBlog
Texas Kaos
Texas Truth Serum
The Agonist
The Caucus Blog
The Jeffersonian
The Red State
The Texas Blue
The Texas Clover Leaf
Three Wise Men
Who’s Playin’?
Winding Road in Urban Area
Permalink
05.10.08
Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State, Election 2008, Had Enough Yet?, Money In Politics, Presidential Election, Take Action, US Senate Race at 2:28 pm by dembones
An Austin American-Statesman blog reported yesterday that former Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has darkened the state’s doorway, appearing at separate fund-raisers for Republican presumptive Presidential nominee John McCain and Senator John Cornyn (R-TX).
There are multiple advantages to huddling with Texas’ right-wing political contributors, not foremost among these is helping the campaigns of Republicans facing surprisingly competitive odds in once-solidly red Texas. Conveniently for Romney, having the names of these king-makers in his Rolodex would certainly serve the former Massachusetts governor in the hypothetical situation where he would be seeking his party’s nomination in 2012.
The efforts of Romney for his former rival McCain are superficially beneficial to the cause of Republican unity. Recall that several months ago, Republicans were widely reported to be in disarray and on the verge of internal rebellion, and McCain’s campaign was self-destructing. The current facade cracks under the possibility that Romney might be working for his own future campaign, say if Democrats take the White House in November as is currently predicted.
As for the Bush rubber-stamp and Rev. John Hagee buddy Cornyn, his $9 million stack of cash on hand grew by half a percent at the Houston fund-raiser last night. The need to add to his war chest belies his campaign’s insistence that two recent polls showing Democratic challenger Rick Noriega within 4 percentage points of the junior Senator are not an accurate reflection of the true state of the race.
We’re bracing ourselves at EOW for a blast of paid media from Cornyn attacking Noriega. To be perfectly honest, we’re somewhat surprised the barrage hasn’t already started. It could be that Cornyn is concerned that it is going to take more than $9 million to retain his seat, and wants to build up even more cash with which to smear his opponent.
The choreography behind the Texas Republican fund-raising freak show raised an eyebrow at the Noriega campaign. Noriega campaign spokesman Tony Gray called it “More evidence that his machine is out there moving and working.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic “machine” is working well. It’s a people-powered effort funded by small contributions of folks fed up with Republican road blocks in the United States Senate. Please office furniture in Bulgaria
join us and help Texas make up for the dual errors of unleashing George W. Bush and John Cornyn onto the national stage.
Permalink
05.09.08
Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Elections, Had Enough Yet? at 1:14 pm by wcnews
Yes it sounds like the start of a bad joke but instead it’s an unfortunate and sad reality of Indiana’s new voter id law. Here’s the story, With no photo IDs, nuns denied ballots in Indiana.
John Borkowski, a South Bend lawyer volunteering as an election watchdog for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said several of the retired nuns had been voting all of their lives but were told they lacked the required identification cards and could only file provisional ballots.
Since 2005, Indiana’s toughest-in-the-nation law requires every voter to produce a state or federal photo ID card. The Supreme Court, after weighing scores of legal briefs from conservatives who backed the statute and liberals who opposed it, upheld the law by a 6-3 vote, saying there was little evidence that it was unduly burdensome for voters.
Borkowski said Sister Julie McGuire, one of several nuns on poll duty, wasn’t pleased to turn away the nuns, some of whom were in their 80s and 90s and no longer had driver’s licenses.
“Here’s the supreme irony,” Borkowski said. “This law was passed supposedly to prevent and deter voter fraud, even though there was no real record of serious voter fraud in Indiana. Here you have a bunch of nuns whose votes can’t be accepted by a bunch of nuns … who live with them in the polling place in their convent because they don’t have an ID.”
I doubt the Indiana GOP thought of this. Wow, taking the vote away from retired nuns, that’s pretty bad. Think Progress has more on this and what’s happening in Missouri, Nuns strike back against voter ID laws.
“This may sound like a good idea at first,” stated Sister Sandy Schwartz of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary regarding voter ID requirements, “but once you stop to think about who would really be affected, this is going to keep a lot of our loved ones from being able to vote.”
Also check out these two recent editorials in Texas. One from state Senators Rodney Ellis and Mario Gallegos, Voter impersonation is a phantom worry in Texas. The other from the Waco Tribune, Voter ID bills are vote suppression.
Permalink
05.08.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:12 pm by wcnews
New TxDOT chair Dierdre Delisi had an Op-Ed in today’s AAS, Together, we’ll keep Texas moving. Together, that is, as long as you come to Delisi/Perry way of thinking.
As head of the Transportation Commission, I will be mindful that the future of our state’s air quality, safety and economy will be affected by the decisions we make today. The past few years have seen political, regional and economic divisions eclipse the important discussion about how we will solve our state’s transportation problems. The challenge is too big for any single leader at any level of government to tackle. We will not solve these problems without open dialogue, creative thinking and hard work. Together, we will meet the challenge.
What we build and how we pay for it have been the subject of intense debate. Our state must find new money to pay for roads and mass transit. It is difficult to imagine that the answer to our state’s transportation problems will be found in higher gas taxes or will hinge on significant increases in state or federal authority. Rather, we can give local and regional leaders the flexibility to meet their goals. Local leaders know best what their regions need, and my goal will be to make sure they have the tools to meet those needs.
Communities of every size across Texas should have the opportunity to create their own transportation futures.
The local control sounds to me like TxDOT will be abdicated more of it’s control to Regional Mobility Authorities (RMA’s) to make transportation decisions. And that not good. Paul Burka has a very good analysis of this Op-Ed, Delisi Appears to Rule Out Gasoline Tax Increase.
I’m not going to prejudge Ms. Delisi (tempting as it may be). She has the intelligence and the knowledge to serve with distinction. The state needs for her to be successful. But the op-ed piece was not a good start. TxDOT has few friends in the Legislature and fewer still among the public at large. It has even alienated transportation interests in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas, which ought to be its strongest allies. The rule for judging the pronouncements of people whose job is to make policy is, “Don’t look at what they say, look at what they don’t say.” The failure to mend fences was a missed opportunity. It’s a characteristic of Perry’s inner circle. They don’t give an inch.
Remember as gas tax is always cheaper than tolls.
Permalink
05.05.08
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Good Stuff, US Senate Race at 9:47 pm by wcnews
I have to admit I was not expecting this today, Texas Senate: Cornyn 47% Noriega 43%, and it was a wonderful surprise!!
It’s time to add United States Senator John Cornyn to the list of potentially vulnerable Republican incumbents in Election 2008. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state find Cornyn leading Democratic state legislator Rick Noriega by just four percentage points, 47% to 43%.
Any incumbent who polls below 50% is considered potentially vulnerable. That is especially true when a little known challenger is so competitive in an early general election match-up.
More analysis from Kuff, Some good poll news from Rasmussen.
The key question for this year is what exactly is the partisan mix in Texas these days. The old wisdom of 50R/35D/15I would seem to me to not be operative any longer. There’s plenty of evidence - election results from 2006 in which Democrats won or were competitive in districts that were not thought to be friendly to them, the unprecedented turnout in the Democratic primary, and so on - to suggest that there’s more Ds and fewer Rs than there were just an election cycle or two ago. We can also expect, for the first time since 2002, the Dems will have enough money to run a real statewide campaign, and to get voters out in a way that hasn’t happened recently. Pollsters are going to have to make some different assumptions about who is a likely voter, and what the ratio of Ds to Rs is, and I figure we’ll see some conflicting results because of that.
This isn’t 2004, and there isn’t a Bush on the ballot or, and maybe more important, the Bush machine at work in Texas either.
Rick’s Blog has all the reaction to the poll from around the nation and state, Blogs Buzzing Over Senate Poll Showing Noriega Competitive.
Permalink
Previous entries
