03.11.10
Posted in Commissioners Court, Landfill, Precinct 4, Williamson County at 11:40 am by wcnews
It’s looking like nothing has changed as far as the Williamson County Commissioners Court (WCCC), Waste Management, Inc. (WMI) and the county landfill are concerned. Last year when the new landfill contract was signed between the county and WMI part of the agreement was that within a year the Master Site Plan and Master Recycling Plan be developed. These plans were presented at the Tuesday March 9th WCCC meeting, and as yet, have had no public input or scrutiny.
In advance of the meeting the Williamson County Public Policy Coalition (WCPPC) recommended that the commissioners not accept the plans submitted on Tuesday. They would like them to wait until “..there has been time for the WCPPC and interested citizens to study the plan AND subsequent public forums or workshops to be held which provide the public the opportunity to dialogue with members of commissioners court about both plans”.
That seems like a reasonable request. But we know that the WCCC doesn’t care much for involving the citizenry in the decisions in this county once they’re elected. Anyone who owns land or a home can understand that those who live closest to the landfill, and a stake or vested interest in that land, should be allowed to be part of the planning of the landfill. It would also seem that our elected officials would want to work with these people to make the plan as beneficial as possible to all involved.
From last year, via the WCPPC [PDF], the question of public meetings and input was posed to Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison:
The contract calls for a master site plan to be developed for the landfill within a year of signing the contract this past March. Will there be public meetings to receive input from the public regarding the structuring of that site plan? If not, why not?
Morrison’s answer: “ … a master site plan will be developed for the landfill. Public input will be sought on the master site plan.”
Morrison’s response ducks the question regarding whether there will be public meetings to discuss structuring the site plan. And he doesn’t even commit to a process of reasonable dialogue about the process—only that citizens will provide “input”. The absence of real discussion has been a longstanding problem with regard to landfill issues, including the process by which the present contract was devised. “Input” is not the same as having a seat at the table with real two-way dialogue and compromise.
On Tuesday the WCCC did not approve the either plan but instead formally received them. This action by the commissioners court, and the related comments during the discussion,caused the WCPPC to raise numerous questions [PDF] about the plans and the planning process thus far. Several are listed here:
- When will the public forums to discuss these plans be held?
- If no specific dates are designated now, what is the specific time frame within which they will be held?
- Inasmuch as the county did not “approve” the plans on March 9, why was it necessary to formally “receive” the plans?
- Why has there been no public discussion on this issue during the past year?
- What has kept that from happening?
- Why has it taken so long to get to this point?
- Why were citizens not invited to participate in those “working jointly” discussions so that substantive issues could have been processed before Waste Management rolled out its “official” plan to comply with the contract?
- What is the position of each county commissioner regarding the plans’ contents?
The WCCC appears to be repeating the same disturbling cycle of ignoring the citizenry. Thus far the WCCC has not changed how it will proceed with the landfill and WMI, in relation to the people they represent. At this point it doesn’t appear they have an interest in working with the people who live near the landfill, or the citizens of this county, to come up with a plan that everyone can live with. We will have to wait and see if only token input is sought, or if once the public gets their chance if any of their ideas will be implemented.
Plans presented at Tuesdays meeting, all are [PDF]:
Master Recycling Plan.
Master Site Development Plan.
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03.10.10
Posted in 2010 Primary, Election 2010, Williamson County at 12:56 pm by wcnews
The race to be the next Chair of the Williamson County Democratic Party will be recounted. At the end of election night with just under 5,800 ballots cast in the race only 18 votes separated the leader Greg Windham over Paul Stempko. The day after, Windham posted on his Facebook page that he had been contacted by the Williamson County Elections Office that there were still 144 ballots to be counted. Of those 144 ballots they consisted of both Democratic and Republican ballots, and those ballots are oftentimes not all counted. The additional ballots included overseas and provisional ballots. The overseas ballots, primarily the votes of deployed military personnel, were due Monday, March 8. Provisional ballots must be looked at individually by the Ballot Board. While the potential for enough Democratic votes existed to change the outcome, it was not likely.
The Elections Office posted yesterday the final outcome. With just over 5,800 ballots counted Windham’s lead over Stempko shrunk to 15 votes, from the 18 reported on election night. Stempko said in an email to supporters last night that he will officially request a recount on Monday.
I feel I owe this to my supporters, as well as to erase all doubt as to the integrity of the election night vote count.
I do not take this endeavor lightly.
Stempko said he will honor the final result and support Windham if the result does not change. “I have advised Greg of my intentions,” Stempko said, “and he graciously accepted my reasoning. Obviously (a recount) is not the result either candidate or Democrats in Williamson County wanted. But for the long-term benefit of our party and candidates moving forward it’s best that everyone is confident in the results of this extremely close race, (15 votes out of 5,805 cast).”
Hopefully whichever candidate wins will notice that neither received a “mandate.” The Democratic Party is a diverse party. We value that diversity and embrace it as a source of strength. We also value a good and vigorous debate, and working with differing ideas to bring about a consensus. If done correctly this election and recount may actually expand and strengthen our party, better positioning it to defeat the GOP in this county. This county has been missing accountability in its government for as long as anyone can recall. Reelecting Diana Maldonado, and getting Jim Stauber and Jeff Maurice on the Commissioners Court, and Teresa Duffin and Allyson Rowe to the County Court must be our most important tasks in the months ahead.
Let’s make sure this vote is counted correctly so we can move ahead united.
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03.09.10
Posted in Around The Nation, Around The State at 5:53 pm by wcnews
Having trouble putting thoughts together today so it’ll just be links today.
Bill White takes it to Perry, “[White] said he won’t rely on “Soviet-style budgeting” and “hot air politics” if he’s elected governor…“. But that’s all Perry has, what is he going to do?
Bob Herbert on The Source of Obama’s Trouble.
But while the nation is desperate for jobs, jobs, jobs, the Democrats have spent most of the Obama era chanting health care, health care, health care.
The talk inside the Beltway, that super-incestuous, egomaniacal, reality-free zone, is that President Obama and the Democrats have a messaging or public relations problem. We’re being told — and even worse, Mr. Obama and the Democrats are being told — that their narrative is not getting through. In other words, the wonderfulness of all that they’ve done is somehow not being recognized by the slow-to-catch-on masses.
That’s just silly. People are upset because they are mired in economic distress and are losing faith that their elected representatives are looking out for their best interests. They’ve watched with increasing anger as their government has been hijacked by the economic elite. They know that the big banks that were bailed out by taxpayers can borrow money at an interest rate of near zero while at the same time charging credit-card holders usurious rates of 20 to 30 percent.
They know that the financial fat cats are fighting the creation of a truly independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. They know that while ordinary Americans are kept out of the corridors of power, the elites with their lobbyists and lawyers and campaign contributions have a voice in every important decision that is made.
It’s not the message that’s a problem for Mr. Obama and the Democrats, it’s the all-too-clear reality. People know that the government that is supposed to be looking out for ordinary people — for working people and the poor — is not doing nearly enough about an employment crisis that is lowering standards of living and hollowing out the American dream.
That last part, that the Democrats were elected to help the people – working people and the poor – that Republicans have been neglecting for decades, and the Democrats inability to help them, despite what Tim Giethner says,(They Saved the Big Banks But Kind Of Lost The Economy Doing It), is the cause of all of Obama and the Democrat’s problems. Their poll numbers would be much better if Obama would have come into office and rammed single-payer health insurance and a much better stimulus through Congress by the August recess last year. But I digress.
Another reason for the Democrats to pass health care, Limbaugh Promises To “Leav[e] The Country” If His Health Care Distortions Come True.
Colbert on Presidential Puberty.
“The Testicles in Chief have descended into Sack Force One. And Obama is swingin’ them with something called reconciliation.”
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03.08.10
Posted in Around The Nation, Commentary, Health Care at 12:50 pm by wcnews
Drew Westen does a solid job of summing up the mistakes President Barack Obama and the Democrats made on health care in this article, The Way Forward on Health Care. He’s right that biggest mistake beyond the horrible messaging was the fact that they made it about cost and not care. He does an excellent at the beginning of show how the 2008 mandate was wasted on trying too hard for bipartisanship.
With all the talk of hope and change, the American people were expecting something very different from the new Democratic majority. The president insisted on bipartisan solutions for problems Republican “solutions” had created, for which the imaginary bipartisans on the other side have not, and will not, cast a single vote. Making matters worse, at a time when Americans are — and should be — deeply suspicious of big business, these “bipartisan” solutions consistently seem to gravitate toward that golden mean between the public interest and the special interests (in this case, of the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries).
The American people watched as Democrats insisted on 60 votes for every piece of legislation, despite the fact that the Republicans “jammed down our throats” (to use a current Republican talking point) one substantial piece of legislation after another for eight years when they had far less than 60 votes in the Senate. The result of what looked to Americans (fairly or unfairly) like a cross between cowardice and dysfunction was what George Will aptly called the “serial bribery” of senators. All of them could step up and demand whatever they wanted to water down the bill or load it with pork for their state whenever it was their turn to become the 60th senator.
It’s what I call governing like Clinton in a time of FDR. Westen is right about the cost issue in that logically it didn’t play well:
Read the rest of this entry
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Posted in Commissioners Court, Good Stuff, Hutto, Landfill, Precinct 4, Williamson County at 11:17 am by wcnews
Here’s the statement from the Williamson County Public Policy Coalition about the landfill Master Site Plan and Master Recycling Plan which are on Tuesday’s agenda of commissioners court:
“The Williamson County Public Policy Coalition emphatically urges the Williamson County Commissioners Court NOT TO TAKE ACTION to accept or approve the Williamson County landfill Master Site Plan or Master Recycling Plan on Tuesday, March 9 until after there has been time for the WCPPC and interested citizens to study the plan AND subsequent public forums or workshops to be held which provide the public the opportunity to dialogue with members of commissioners court about both plans.”
One of the members of the WCPPC, the Hutto Citizens Group will be holding an meeting on Tuesday March 9th.
As per the direction of the officers and directors of the Hutto Citizens Group, the next meeting of the HCG will be held on Tuesday, March 9, at the Hutto Lutheran Church parish hall in Hutto, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
It’s fine to partake of self-carry-in for meeting refreshments. However, if that’s the case, it might be wise to bring a bit more than you would consume yourself.
There are no lengthy items anticipated for discussion, but you never know. The agenda for this session is open and flexible as the HCG catches up on recent news and then moves forward.
The HCG is branding itself as “Serving the greater Hutto area”. Variations of a logo to that effect will be presented at the meeting for consideration. The scope of projects for the upcoming months also will be discussed.
DIRECTIONS TO HUTTO LUTHERAN [MAP]: From US 79 in Hutto go NORTH on FM 1660 (the intersection is located between the pawn shop on the east and the Hippoplex Auto on the west) and take the THIRD RIGHT. Hutto Lutheran is one block ahead.
Please invite your friends and neighbors, especially Hutto citizens and business owners.
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Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 10:25 am by wcnews
The Texas Progressive Alliance would like to thank the Academy by presenting it with this week’s roundup.
TXsharon went undercover this week to Map Methane plumes in the Barnett Shale: “Stealth” measurements contradict Shale Gas industry safe air claims, new technology shows. Big Gas is so BUSTED! And it’s all reported on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.
This week on Left of College Station, Teddy covers all of the results of the primary elections including the surprising defeat of Don McLeroy in the State Board of Education District 9 Republican primary. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines, and this week will begin coverage of the local municipal elections.
The Texas Cloverleaf provides a Denton County and Texas primary roundup.
Texas Vox celebrated last week as the student governments of two Texas rivals, UT and A&M, passed “green fees” to support sustainability initiatives on campus.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes a first look at the general election race for governor in Texas, White vs. Perry is a toss up.
Neil at Texas Liberal offered up a video of him reading the first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution in front of the Beer Can House in Houston. This is a house made out of beer cans.
Off the Kuff looks at primary results in the SBOE races.
Bay Area Houston thinks Harris County Democrats are going to get LaRouched in the upcoming Democratic Judicial primaries.
Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog warns those outside Texas to Stop Being Federal Snobs and begin to concern themselves with the State Board of Education.
WhosPlayin is watching all hell break loose in Flower Mound, as a group circulating a gas drilling permit moratorium petition is blown off by Town Council, and a political organization in the town tried to have the local school district call the police on them if the group used school parking lots for signature gathering.
Over at TexasKaos, libby shaw writes that Senator Cornyn has found himself a hero: Senator Bunning. Yes that Bunning, the one who scores political grandstanding points at the expense of the unemployed. Read the rest here: GOP Senator to the Jobless and Uninsured: Tough S$it. Cornyn defends him.
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03.06.10
Posted in Bad Government Republicans, Central Texas, Commentary, District 31, Employment, Had Enough Yet?, Right Wing Lies, The Economy at 1:50 pm by dembones
The hypocrisy continues unabashed. Rep. John Carter appeared at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday of a park in Harker Heights claiming credit for bringing stimulus funds credited with funding the work. There’s only one problem. Carter repeatedly voted against stimulus funding, claiming it wastes taxpayer’s money without bringing jobs.
Which is it Carter? Which side of your mouth are you speaking out of today? Why do you insist on voting against policy that you admit is effective and beneficial?
UPDATE: A spokesman for Rep. John Carter contacted us to clarify that the funds to fix and reopen Dana Peak Park were part of the regular appropriations bill that was signed into law in 2008, well before the stimulus. Our source, the Killeen Daily Herald had reported, “Carter aided the area quickly by coming to visit the park after it flooded, Mullen said, thanking Carter for his work to secure stimulus funds for reconstruction.” Apparently the source was incorrect. We regret the error.
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03.05.10
Posted in Around The State, College Tuition, Commentary, Election 2010, Transportation, Unemployment at 3:58 pm by wcnews
Three issues facing Perry – Debt, Tuition, and Unemployment
As we’ve known for a while, the best bet for Democrats to win the governor’s mansion in Texas in 2010 was to run against Gov. Rick Perry. The first post primary poll shows Bill White doing well and the race very close and Cook Political Report now rates the race a toss up. After all 49% of voters in the2010 Texas GOP Primary voted against Perry, and it’s probably much easier to vote against someone the second time.
But the another problem facing Perry is that he will now be facing an opponent that can attack him from all sides. In the GOP Primary, with three candidates fighting over a narrow and mostly extreme base of support, his main opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and her campaign felt they couldn’t take on Perry on certain issues. That won’t be the case with Bill White. This part of his acceptance speech on Tuesday is already getting much notice in the media.
They’ll talk about the massive amount of debt in Washington, which none of us agree with, in order to hide the fact that debt has almost doubled in Austin under Governor Perry. They’ll think that you will not notice this. [Emphasis added]
As Politifact points out today Bill White says Texas debt has doubled under Perry. Not only is that true, but also it’s Perry and the GOP’s neglect of transportation that has increased the debt so much under Perry.
It turns out that transportation is responsible for most of the added debt load under Perry, increasing from basically nothing in 2000 to $11.8 billion outstanding as of Aug. 31 2009. That’s because before 2001, the Texas Department of Transportation lacked the authority to borrow money to pay for road projects. Voters gave it that power in 2001 when they approved a constitutional amendment that Perry supported.
Addressing transportation in his 2001 state of the state speech, Perry said, “I would like for both chambers to pass a bonding program to jump-start construction across our state.”
And that doesn’t take into account the added burden of his failed tax scheme from 2006 is putting on our state’s budget.
But Perry is also doing little to combat the other issues that are hitting Texas families hard. The stagnant employment situation, Texas lost an extra 50,000 jobs, Dallas Fed finds, and the huge increases in college tuition since his deregulation scheme went into effect, UT System Regents Hike Tuition (again).
And in other news former DNC chair Howard Dean and Kos show that the Tide is Turning:
I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this in the coming weeks. Democrats have suffered their nadir well in advance of November’s elections. Republicans like Jim Bunning have reminded voters of the GOP agenda. Health care reform is just weeks away from passing (yes, I’m an optimist), giving Democrats an epic and hard-fought victory, and Republicans continue to face severe funding gaps at all levels.
Their one advantage, the intensity gap, is in jeopardy as the teabaggers splinter and begin supporting either fringe or third-party challengers, and Democrats are starting to wake up (thanks Blanche!).
At this point, Democrats are still poised to suffer setbacks in November, but no chamber will change hands. Yet Republicans have so convinced themselves of their epic victory against “socialism,” that even incremental gains will shatter them. Their expectations have been set so high, aided by Cook and other analysts like him jumping the gun, that meeting them is an impossibility.
And therein lies our own motivation: We help build the firewall, protect our most valuable members, lose some of our (Blue Doggy) deadweight, play offense in some key places, and deny Republicans their triumph, and we’ve won the cycle.
Playing defense isn’t as glamorous as playing offense, but if we come out of it a more cohesive party, we’ve won, and if we shatter the GOP’s will in the process, so much the better.
Hopefully the message Democrats in Texas will carry is that the GOP in Texas is running the exact same ineffective leaders they did four years ago. The top of the GOP ticket is the same. We know what they did the last four years, they’ll govern just as bad the next four years. Nothing will change as long as they stay in office.
EOW highly recommends listening to Bill White’s post primary press conference from Wednesday.
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Posted in Around The Nation, Commentary, The Economy at 12:32 pm by wcnews
There’s a disconnect in this country of those most deeply affected by the current economic problems in this country, middle and working class Americans, and what’s to blame for it. Mostly it’s a disconnect regarding the causes. It didn’t start with Bush, Clinton, or Bush, it goes back to Reagan.
Paul Krugman does a great job today of showing the divide between the Democrats and Republicans on the most important of issues, the current economic situation. Senator Bunning’s Universe.
Consider, in particular, the position that Mr. Kyl has taken on a proposed bill that would extend unemployment benefits and health insurance subsidies for the jobless for the rest of the year. Republicans will block that bill, said Mr. Kyl, unless they get a “path forward fairly soon” on the estate tax.
Now, the House has already passed a bill that, by exempting the assets of couples up to $7 million, would leave 99.75 percent of estates tax-free. But that doesn’t seem to be enough for Mr. Kyl; he’s willing to hold up desperately needed aid to the unemployed on behalf of the remaining 0.25 percent. That’s a very clear statement of priorities.
So, as I said, the parties now live in different universes, both intellectually and morally. We can ask how that happened; there, too, the parties live in different worlds. Republicans would say that it’s because Democrats have moved sharply left: a Republican National Committee fund-raising plan acquired by Politico suggests motivating donors by promising to “save the country from trending toward socialism.” I’d say that it’s because Republicans have moved hard to the right, furiously rejecting ideas they used to support. Indeed, the Obama health care plan strongly resembles past G.O.P. plans. But again, I don’t live in their universe.
More important, however, what are the implications of this total divergence in views?
The answer, of course, is that bipartisanship is now a foolish dream. How can the parties agree on policy when they have utterly different visions of how the economy works, when one party feels for the unemployed, while the other weeps over affluent victims of the “death tax”?
Last night on Charlie Rose the differences couldn’t have been more stark as well. First up was Elizabeth Warren who is the Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP). Which was created to to “review the current state of financial markets and the regulatory system.” Warren is a champion of the Middle class. At the end of her discussion she made this statement:
It will not save us if a handful of Wall Street banks porsper and the rest of American fails. Our focus, our energy, our hear has to be on the reset of America.
She was followed by someone who thinks too much regulation is what caused our current economic problems, Dick Armey. Believer in the “free market”, who thinks anti-trust regulation is “unnecessary, superfluous, and conterproductive”, and he even brought up the failed “Joe the Plumber” wealth redistribution line. But the truth is “wealth redistribution” has been occurring in this country since Armey and his hero Ronald Reagan took office. Money has been being taken from wage earners and the middle class, in the form of tax increases, and been given to the wealthy, in the form of tax cuts. That’s what supply side/trickle-on-down economics was all about.
As Warren explained well last December, America Without a Middle Class.
Families have survived the ups and downs of economic booms and busts for a long time, but the fall-behind during the busts has gotten worse while the surge-ahead during the booms has stalled out. In the boom of the 1960s, for example, median family income jumped by 33% (adjusted for inflation). But the boom of the 2000s resulted in an almost-imperceptible 1.6% increase for the typical family. While Wall Street executives and others who owned lots of stock celebrated how good the recovery was for them, middle class families were left empty-handed.
The crisis facing the middle class started more than a generation ago. Even as productivity rose, the wages of the average fully-employed male have been flat since the 1970s.
2009-12-03-warren12.jpg
But core expenses kept going up. By the early 2000s, families were spending twice as much (adjusted for inflation) on mortgages than they did a generation ago — for a house that was, on average, only ten percent bigger and 25 years older. They also had to pay twice as much to hang on to their health insurance.
To cope, millions of families put a second parent into the workforce. But higher housing and medical costs combined with new expenses for child care, the costs of a second car to get to work and higher taxes combined to squeeze families even harder. Even with two incomes, they tightened their belts. Families today spend less than they did a generation ago on food, clothing, furniture, appliances, and other flexible purchases — but it hasn’t been enough to save them. Today’s families have spent all their income, have spent all their savings, and have gone into debt to pay for college, to cover serious medical problems, and just to stay afloat a little while longer.
Through it all, families never asked for a handout from anyone, especially Washington. They were left to go on their own, working harder, squeezing nickels, and taking care of themselves. But their economic boats have been taking on water for years, and now the crisis has swamped millions of middle class families.
You can see the disparity in graphic form here. As has been chronicled here the investment of tax dollars in infrastructure, R&D, education is what fueled our economy and kept us out of deep recessions for decades. All of that investment is gone, and the infrastructure is either crumbling or too antiquated and needs to be replaced. We need that kind of investment again to fuel our economy in the future.
But there is a disconnect for many people as to the cause of our economic problems. Many do not understand, because politicians and the media won’t tell them this, and it’s likely they’re not learning about this in their History, Government and Economics classes. The middle class and working class have been decimated because the wealthy and corporations won’t pay their fare share. And many think the government is to blame. That’s the disconnect. The only question left is how bad does it have to get before they make the connection?
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03.04.10
Posted in 2010 Primary, SD 5, Williamson County at 6:20 pm by wcnews
Incumbent state Sen. Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) whose district includes Williamson County beat Ben Bius in the GOP Primary on Tuesday. Ogden won handily with 68% of the vote.
He will face Democrat Steve Wyman in November.
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