11.20.09
Posted in Around The State, Blogging, Commentary, Elections, Gambling, Judicial Races, Money In Politics, Transportation, Uncategorized at 5:00 pm by wcnews
As Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus writes to the members of the Texas House in the cover letter to the interim charges he laid out yesterday, “..these charges and the recommendations you develop will form the basis for major legislation we will consider next session”. The letter also made clear that some things were left out, “In the coming weeks, I intend to propose several additional items of statewide importance for the House to study.”
The interim charges include everything from efforts to manage feral hogs (which is a big problem), to whether blogs should be considered “political advertising”. All of the items from the Appropriations, Energy Resources, Environmental Regulations, Higher Education, Human Services, Natural Resources, Public Education and Redistricting Committees should be read in full.
But here are a few that caught my eye (EOW comments are in italics):
House Committee on Corrections
1. Examine implementation of the diversion pilot programs, juvenile case management system, and other policy and funding initiatives to determine whether the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and the Texas Youth Commission have adhered to legislative directive in implementing these programs, and the impact of these programs on commitments at the Texas Youth Commission.
[...]
House Committee on Elections
3. Examine the prevalence of fraud in Texas elections. Study new laws in other states regarding voter identification and recommend statutory changes necessary to ensure that only eligible voters can vote in Texas elections. (This is Voter ID. Read BOR’s take on this issue. Suffice it to say that Straus is unable to tell the right wing to give up on this.)
4. Review the Texas campaign finance law in judicial races in light of the recent United States Supreme Court decision Caperton v. Massey. (This case involves preventing a judge from hearing a case involving a person who has made campaign contributions to benefit the judge.)
[...]
House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics
2. Review the definition of “political advertising” and determine whether the definition should be expanded to include content contained in blogs and other types of Internet communications. (These links give some background on what this may be about, FTC’s New Rules for Bloggers: A Quick Guide, FTC idiocy, and The FTC & Bloggers: New Rules.)
[...]
House Committee on Land and Resource Management
2. Examine unresolved issues relating to eminent domain legislation introduced during the 81st Legislative Session. Monitor any pending litigation. (Still on the agenda even after passage of the Constitutional Amendment earlier this month.)
[...]
House Committee on Transportation
1. Monitor the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) to ensure the agency is implementing recommended legislative, sunset, and Grant Thornton management audit changes.
2. Review the organization and operation of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). Consider the relationship between MPOs and TxDOT regarding transportation planning and programming.
3. Study the practices and procedures used in the development of toll roads and make recommendations as necessary. (Toll roads are still on the agenda. Nothing here on the gas tax or transportation financing. Hopefully we will hear about that in the coming weeks.)
One interesting item is that there is nothing in the charges about gambling, gaming, slot machines, horse racing, and the like. The charges should be at least scanned for items of particular interest. Because as Straus wrote, they are the basis for the next legislative session in 2011. No matter who is Speaker, or who wins the statewide races next year, the effort and research put in on these issues, and those in the Senate when Lt. Gov. Dewhurst releases the charges for the Senate, are the frame which the 82nd Legislature will begin it’s work.
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Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010, Public Schools, Taxes, The Budget, The Economy at 11:55 am by wcnews
Kuff has a post today with links to a couple of articles about the economic snowball that’s heading towards Texas in the next biennium and beyond, State sales tax revenues way down. This TexasTrib article he links to states:
The people in government who look at spreadsheets — so the rest of us don’t have to — are getting nervous about the state’s finances.
Sales tax revenues have taken double-digit dives for five months running; in each of those months, the state’s income from those taxes has been more than 10 percent lower than in the same month the year before. In a state where a steady rise in sales tax money has become almost a rule, the intake for the last 12 months is down more than 5 percent. And budgeteers assumed not only that they’d match the old numbers, but that they would exceed them.
And an ongoing “structural deficit” — the kind of term that seems designed to scare people away from a conversation about money — creates an ongoing problem. In 2006, in an effort to lower property tax burdens, the state agreed to spend more on public education. Lawmakers created a new business tax, but it raises less than they agreed to spend on the property tax fix. The gap has to be filled every time they write a budget. Last time, the feds showed up like leprechauns with pots of stimulus money and kept Texas from choosing to use its Rainy Day Fund, raise taxes or make spending cuts. Next time, the stimulus money won’t be there, but the hole will be.
It’s impossible to see how that does not mean trouble for Texas, a state without an income tax that relies heavily on a statewide sales tax. And an ongoing, or structural deficit, means that the Perry/GOP tax shift of 2006 will cost middle class and poor Texas – because that’s who pays – even more money in the long run. As Kuff goes on to point out the other problem this creates is it will, again, put Texas public education back in the forefront.
In 2007, that gap was filled by surplus general revenue funds. More surplus funds were put aside that year to pay for the shortfall in 2009. Needless to say, no such surplus will be available in 2011. The Rainy Day Fund, assuming the votes are there to use it, might be able to cover both the revenue shortage and this structural gap, but I wouldn’t be too optimistic about that. But sooner or later, which is to say this session or the following one, that great big unaffordable property tax cut is going to have to be dealt with. The only thing that sustains me when I contemplate the possibility of another term for Rick Perry is the knowledge that this reckoning would have to happen on his watch.
Of course, I’m sure he’ll defend the property tax cut to his last dying breath, and if he has to provoke a budgetary crisis or two to do that, he will. But his options may be limited this time around.
We knew it back when the tax shift was passed in 2006 that it was only “kicking the can down the road”, so this should surprise no one. And for all of the credit Perry has taken for Texas’ economy doing so well, he’ll definitely be more than willing to take the blame for this….right?
These issues will continue to become bigger as we continue to move forward toward the 2010 primary and general election, and all candidates running for office need to be able to speak about how they will tackle them.
[UPDATE]: Unemployment numbers continue to rise in the state and Austin area. TWC press release.
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11.19.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:39 pm by wcnews
Cover letter and charges both in [.pdf].
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Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Commentary, Democratic Events, Election 2010 at 12:06 pm by wcnews
Again there will be five as Houston billionaire Farouk Shami officiallly announces his candidacy today. Kuff has much more on him and other rumblings in the primary, Shami and Shapleigh. Shami made his money in hair care products and the TexasTrib has this article on him, A Candidate to Dye For. Shami has vowed to put in $10 million of his own money into his campaign. But he’s a billionaire, that’s like me putting in $100.
Three of the five candidates on the Democratic side were in Fort Worth last night for a forum at the hosted by the The TCU Democrats. The FWST had this on the forum, Democrats criticize Perry’s policies.
Three of the five Democrats running for governor talked about transportation and education and assailed Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday night at TCU.
The first candidates forum of the race featured former U.S. Ambassador Tom Schieffer of Fort Worth, East Texas rancher Hank Gilbert and Fort Worth teacher Felix Alvarado.
[...]
“Today our state education system is doing a reasonably good job for our high school students to be successful in the 1980s and the 1990s,” Alvarado said. He said the state can get more funding for schools by allowing casinos to be built around the state.
Gilbert said Texas has an uneducated work force “because this administration and this governor put it there and none of them are smart enough to pull the wagon out of the ditch.”
Schieffer faulted Perry for rejecting more than $500 million in stimulus money for unemployment benefits.
“I think the only reason he did that was he wanted to argue in a Republican primary that he was more conservative than somebody else,” Schieffer said.
[...]
Throughout the event, Gilbert’s campaign sent out e-mails to the news media and posted comments on Twitter, nearly all of which were excoriating Shieffer’s remarks and ignoring Alvarado.
“We think Schieffer is one of our principal opponents,” Gilbert campaign spokesman Vince Leibowitz said.
Anyone can read those emails at Gilbert’s rapid response web site The Scoop, in the Knockdown in Cowtown section. One thing many recent statewide Democratic campaigns have failed to do is not use new media to it’s advantage. The Gilbert campaign is clearly not going to make that mistake, and they should be commended for it.
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Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Taxes at 11:24 am by wcnews
A new study released yesterday called Who Pays?, by the Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), found that State & Local Taxes Hit Poor & Middle Class Far Harder than the Wealthy.
By an overwhelming margin, most states tax their middle- and low-income families far more heavily than the wealthy, according to a new study by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy (ITEP).
“In the coming months, lawmakers across the nation will be forced to make difficult decisions about budget-balancing tax changes—which makes it vital to understand who is hit hardest by state and local taxes right now,” said Matthew Gardner, lead author of the study, Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States. “The harsh reality is that most states require their poor and middle-income taxpayers to pay the most taxes as a share of income.”
Nationwide, the study found that middle- and low-income non-elderly families pay much higher shares of their income in state and local taxes than do the very well-off
The DMN has an article on the study and it’s findings on Texas, Poor Texans shoulder heavy tax burden. The article does the usual thing of finding the left v. right takes on the subject, but finishes with this from the study.
The institute’s study said the media and elected officials often refer to states such as Texas as “low-tax” states without considering who benefits the most within those states.
In Texas, the study found that state and local taxes eat 12.2 percent of incomes of the bottom 20 percent of earners – families with less than $18,000 of income.
For the middle 20 percent of earners, those making between $31,000 and $51,000, the state-local tax bite was 8.5 percent. And the top 1 percent, who make $463,000 or more, pay just 3.3 percent of income in state and local taxes.
“No-income-tax states like Washington, Texas and Florida do, in fact, have average to low taxes overall,” the study said. “Can they also be considered ‘low-tax’ states for poor families? Far from it.” [Emphasis added].
Essentially Texas is a low tax state for the wealthy, but not for most of the people that live and work here. Here’s the specific fact sheet for Texas [.pdf] from the report. Of course this is something that the CPPP has been pointing out for quite some time.
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11.18.09
Posted in Central Texas, Commentary, Road Issues, Transportation, Williamson County at 3:05 pm by wcnews
The representatives of Gov. Perry, the Williamson County Commissioners Court, the Travis County Commissioners Court, and the CTRMA board itself decided to raise toll on 183-A today. (Those elected officials above are who appointed the members of the CTRMA BoD). Ben Wear at the AAS has the story, Agency approves January toll hike, annual bumps starting in 2013.
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority board today approved a 20-cent toll increase on the 183-A turnpike that will take effect Jan. 1. In addition, it approved a policy that likely will mean tolls on 183-A and any other future agency tollways will have annual inflationary increases.
In January, the toll at 183-A’s Park Street plaza will go from $1.35 to $1.55, meaning that what is now a 4.5-mile-long road will have a total toll of $2. In 2012, when a several-mile extension north of RM 2243 should open, the Park Street toll will decrease to $1.25 and a new toll point north of New Hope Road will begin charging 95 cents. The 11.7-mile road’s overall toll at that point will be $2.70.
Beginning with January 2013, tolls, absent action by the agency board, will increase by a percentage equal to the annual growth in the consumer price index for urban areas. Over the past five years, the cumulative increase in that index was 15.2 percent.
The difference between this and what’s being proposed at the statewide level is that those that would vote for that will be directly accountable to the people. These folks are not. It’s much easier to raise taxes, especially when it’s not needed, if your not accountable to the voters. 20 years is a long time not to have the gas tax raised a single cent, which is why these toll road toll taxes will continue to rise and rise and rise.
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11.17.09
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010, Privatization, Road Issues, Taxes, Transportation at 3:49 pm by wcnews
Hank Gilbert and GOP state Sen. John Carona have forced a discussion, finally, about raising the statewide gas tax in Texas into the forefront. Gromer Jeffers, Jr. at TrailBlazers has Perry’s latest statement on the issue, Perry said state needs to “raise dollars” for roads.
At a stop in Dallas Monday, Rick Perry said that elected officials would have to find a way to “expand our ability to raise some dollars” for roads and other transportation infrastructure.
“One of the problems is that we do not have the dollars that we need to build all the transportation infrastructure needs that we have,” Perry said at the Conrad High School. “So hopefully when we come back in 2011, both the citizens and their elected officials will come to a stronger realization that we’re going to have to expand our ability to raise some dollars to build the roads so that you don’t have the strangulation in places along the 1-35 corridor.”
So what did Perry actually mean by “expand our ability to raise some dollars?
And that last question is the key. We all know there’s only two ways to pay for roads, taxes or tolls. Perry has long been vehemently against raising the gas tax, (and still is as his spokesman states). Therefore we can only assume that Perry would rather use extremely expensive tolls, instead of a modest increase in the statewide gas tax.
The TexasTrib’s Elise Hu has some video of Perry and an attack ad from the Hutchison campaign, The Transportation Funding Quagmire. Perry went on to talk about his and the legislatures lack of leadership and their inability to do what’s right and needed on this issue, via the HChron.
Perry — who has talked often of the need for more transportation funding and pushed what proved to be an unpopular plan that included a strong component of private investment in toll roads — sounded anything but supportive.
“Going to Lubbock, Texas, and telling ‘em ‘Hey we’re gonna raise your gas tax out here a dime so they can build some more roads in East Texas’ is generally not a real good political sell,” Perry said.
“So it’s there, and it’s talked about, and it’ll probably have about the same result as it has had in the last four or five years, and that’s not a very … warm welcome in the Legislature.”
The 20-cent-a-gallon state gasoline tax hasn’t been raised since 1991.
It will have been 20 years since the gas tax was raised by the time our next governor is inaugurated and the legislature is sworn in. It’s likely that any governor worth their salt, especially a GOP governor from West Texas, could go to Lubbock and make a modest increase in the gas tax palatable – if they wanted to, which is the key. Perry would much rather give our highways over to corporations than raise the gas tax a little.
Some on the right are trying to write off Gilbert and Carona as just “tax and spenders”, but that’s more GOP gibberish.
John Carona and Hank Gilbert hail from different political parties, but they have the same view on transportation: raise those taxes. They want more of our money.
[...]
The big problem is how the money is being misspent. First, 25% is sent to public education (a constitutional diversion implemented by the public some 40 years ago). Another 20 percent is diverted by the legislature into all sorts of nice-sounding things, like the Arts Commission, DPS and the AG.
Misspent is in the eye of the beholder and spending money on education isn’t misspent money. And as always if the lege was to take that money from education they would have to make it up elsewhere or cut funding for education. So any politician that proposes that must answer, specifically, where they will cut those billions of dollars from education. The problem with diversions is similar to the education money. The legislature has been using diversions for a while for budget shenanigans, to keep from cutting budgets of other state agencies. While they should be stopped, the current leadership in the legislature doesn’t have the…guts to make the cuts to stop the diversion.
Again the discussion has come down to , as it always does, to how do you want to pay for roads? Really expensive toll roads, or with a modest increase in the gas tax? Giilbert, Carona, and Perry thus far have made their choices, few other politicians in Texas have.
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11.16.09
Posted in 2010 Primary, Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010 at 5:48 pm by wcnews
Harvery Kronberg’s latest New 8 column, Race to primaries takes yet another turn, has some good commentary on what the Perry/Hutchison race is doing to the Texas GOP.
First a little background. It was no particular secret that back in 2006 Hutchison wanted to run for governor. Perry was not particularly popular, even among the traditional Republican primary voters, but he had delivered major triumphs to GOP financial backers ranging from severe limitations on lawsuits to creating a homebuilder friendly agency designed to send consumer complaints into a black hole. His judicial appointments were simply icing on the cake.
Perry had earned a second full term, they said. Most promised Hutchison they would support her in 2010 so she stood down.
Her promise to resign was originally meant to reassure her supporters she was serious this time and predicated on the assumption that Perry had bought into the deal.
Last year, he surprised just about every Republican I know when he started teasing the idea of running one more time. Since then, he has run a nearly flawless campaign. Last December, Hutchison was 20 points up, but recent polls suggest she is now 12 points down.
Once it became clear that Perry was going to stay in the hunt, there was no way Hutchison could resign. If she were a mere citizen-candidate, Perry would’ve been able to shut her fundraising down. Many of her contributors fear political reprisal and exile if she should lose. She at least provides some political cover for them by remaining in office.
This situation is going to put the many in the Texas GOP’s careers on hold, possibley for four years. It will make the rest of the GOP primary and down ballot candidates very vanilla, and less than exciting to voters. With essentially the same statewide ballot voters seeking change will have to look to the Democrats. Candidates like Dewhurst and Abbott likely won’t be very excited about running for a third term, for a term they both hope they’ll never have to serve out. Of course Hutchison says she’ll resign in March, but it’s obvious Dewhurst and Abbott don’t believe her, or they would not be running for third terms to the same office.
Which is why it makes sense for current Democratic state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, who will not seek reelection to the Seante in 2010, to run for Lt. Gov. of Texas. He’ll either be running against Dewhurst, and a job he’d rather not have anymore, or he can get a several month head start on a different opponent. While it’s not likely that Hutchison will resign in March if she loses, it’s probably likely that she won’t finish our her term through 2013. When that happens it’s almost assured that Dewhurst will resign to run for the US Senate. Which is an issue Shapliegh can use against Dewhurst as long as he continues to run for I-must-stay-relevant-in-politics Lt. Gov.’s race.
This TexasTrib article on Shapliegh, Shapleigh Ever After, talks about how he may be looking at joining the Democratic Primary for Governor. But with his legislative and Senate experience he’d be a better fit for the job of Lt. Gov. No matter who wins the Democratic nomination for governor, having Shapliegh on the ticket for Lt. Gov. would add significant heft and experience on the Democratic side.
As we proceed, and until things shake out on the GOP side, voters will continue to wonder if GOP candidates for certain offices are just biding their time and waiting to move up. (Jason Embry has the latest on the possible GOP musical chairs in today’s AAS.) The Democrats can use this voter angst with the GOP’s ballot uncertainty to their advantage and give voters a sense of stability and calm. The Democratic side of the ballot will be set after the March primary. Set with candidates who want to serve the people of Texas in those offices for which they are running. Voters will know that the Democratic candidates, if elected, will stay in the positions they were elected to through 2014. Texans won’t have to worry about them trading up once Hutchison does, whatever it is she will do, in the coming months and years.
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Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Election 2010, Privatization, Road Issues, Transportation at 12:26 pm by wcnews
At the end of last week the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association (TTRA) got together for their annual meeting. While they have a catchy name, it’s hard to tell from the TTRA’s BoD list if any actual taxpayers were represented, (since corporations in Texas pay little if any taxes in Texas). At any rate it was clear from Friday’s media reports that a blasphemer to the GOP “anti-tax” party line showed up. It was GOP Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas), Raise gas tax 10 cents a gallon? It’s on table.
The Senate Transportation and Homeland Security chairman Friday suggested a 10-cent-a-gallon increase in Texas’ gasoline tax for a system that’s soon to run short of money for new roads.
The proposal touted by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, got a cold reception from GOP Gov. Rick Perry at a conference by the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association.
Carona’s plan is very similar to the one Democratic candidate for Governor Hank Gilbert has proposed. EOW commends Sen. Carona for stepping up and unequivocally standing up for raising and indexing the statewide gas tax. (He’s been strong before on transportation issues, only to pull back in the past, so we should keep that in mind.) He was predictably pilloried by those in his party who are responsible for the neglect of our state’s transportation infrastructure, and want to hand it over to corporations via privatization and for profit toll roads.
Perry — who has talked often of the need for more transportation funding and pushed what proved to be an unpopular plan that included a strong component of private investment in toll roads — sounded anything but supportive.
“Going to Lubbock, Texas, and telling ‘em ‘Hey we’re gonna raise your gas tax out here a dime so they can build some more roads in East Texas’ is generally not a real good political sell,” Perry said.
“So it’s there, and it’s talked about, and it’ll probably have about the same result as it has had in the last four or five years, and that’s not a very … warm welcome in the Legislature.”
The 20-cent-a-gallon state gasoline tax hasn’t been raised since 1991.
It should come as no shock to anyone that since there has been no new money for transportation since 1991 that our transportation infrastructure is suffering the way it is. Follow me and read the rest of the entry to listen to, and read what Carona said after his panel discussion was over.
Read the rest of this entry
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Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 10:02 am by wcnews
The Texas Progressive Alliance is starting to feel an odd craving for can-shaped servings of cranberry sauce as it brings you this week’s highlights from the blogs.
TXsharon continues to follow the abuses of Aruba Petroleum in a Barnett Shale backyard and Wednesday the Wise County Messenger picked up the story. It’s all on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is really p*ssed that some South Texas Democrats voted against women’s health care.
WhosPlayin posted an interview with Neil Durrance, the Democratic candidate seeking to unseat Michael Burgess in Congressional District 26.
A guest post from the ReEnergize Texas blog is the pick of the week over at Texas Vox, where we were quite disappointed that Georgetown City Council Snubbed Students over Nuclear Power.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on some of the talk this past week about raising the statewide gas tax. All that being said there are only two options to pay for transportation in Texas, which will we choose Taxes or tolls?.
McBlogger takes a look at Sen. Hutchison’s decision not to resign from her Senate seat.
Off the Kuff looks at a threatened outbreak of homophobic behavior in the Houston Mayor’s race.
The War on Christmas starts early at The Texas Cloverleaf, complete with a beach landing at WalMart.
Sue Schechter announced for Harris County Clerk last week and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs caught the press release.
With Thanksgiving almost here, Neil at Texas Liberal ran a picture of a sultry pilgrim holding a turkey, and included in this post information about the status of women in Colonial New England.
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