07.03.08
Posted in Commissioners Court, Election 2008, Precinct 3, Williamson County at 11:54 am by wcnews
Here’s the link, Williamson County Commissioner Precinct Three candidates. A couple of things, I wasn’t aware there was a Libertarian in the race, his name is James Andrews.
Current GOP commissioner Valerie Covey’s response to the question, “What do you feel is the role of a county commissioner?”, seemed like a cut-and-paste from a job description. Very little feeling.
Democrat Gregory Windham’s response to that and the other questions had a much better feel to them. Blasting the current court for the immoral contract at T. Don Hutto and toll road development plans.
Libertarian James Andrews is for streamlining government, no surprise, and takes issue with the $4 million study to widen SH 29.
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07.02.08
Posted in Democratic Events, Good Stuff, Williamson County at 10:27 am by wcnews
Diana Maldonado, in her latest campaign email, has information on several Fourth of July Events around the county and HD-52. If you’re looking for something to do on the 4th check them out. There’s also still opportunities to help out at each event.
Annual 4th of July in San Gabriel Park - Georgetown
The festivities will begin at 11:00 a.m., over 80 arts and crafts booths, food vendors, and the Kid’s area will open. After the annual “Hometown Parade”, be sure to check out the Williamson County Democrats Booth. At the booth If you would like to volunteer at the booth or are likely to attend be sure to RSVP to the Diana Maldonado Campaign.
Independence Festival - Taylor
Taylor is hosting the Annual Taylor Fourth of July Fireworks Display, Red, White and Blue Parade, and Fajita Cook off in Murphy Park, 1600 Sycamore St.
Pet Lovers and Parents, you and your loved ones can participate in Taylor’s Red, White, and Blue Parade. Parade starts on Main Street and ends at Heritage Square Park. In the park there will be lots Children’s activities, lemonade, ice cream, and Diana Maldonado Volunteers. If you would like to be a volunteer or are likely to attend be sure to RSVP to the Diana Maldonado Campaign.
July 4th Frontier Days Celebration - Round Rock
Children’s games, Sam Bass Shootout, fireworks, and a parade are all part of the City of Round Rock’s July 4 Frontier Days Celebration.
Diana Maldonado will be a part of the parade this year. Wear your best blue t-shirt, bring a bag of candy, and join Diana on the parade route. Diana NEEDS you to volunteer! Be sure to RSVP to the Diana Maldonado Campaign.
Also on the 4th will be the 3rd Annual American Family Reunion in Liberty Hill.
From 10 am until 9 pm at Foundation Park in Liberty Hill. The Williamson County Democratic Party will have a booth at the event. There will be a parade & fireworks, arts & crafts and food booths as well. If you like to volunteer for this one contact Jim Stauber.
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Posted in Commentary, Commissioners Court, Election 2008, Precinct 3, Williamson County at 9:20 am by wcnews
Greg Windham Democratic candidate for County Commissioner Precinct 3 raised $2,500 at his fundraiser last week. Windham has been running a very enthusiastic campaign and he’s also using online tools very well. He’s got a web site, blog, (see links above) and has been using YouTube as well. He’s posted his most recent comments from the June 17th commissioners court meeting.
Windham’s fundraising numbers are impressive and show a couple of things. He’s getting contributions, and votes, from Republicans, or maybe now they’re former Republicans. As EOW has said it’s not that they’ve become Democrats necessarily, maybe they’re Independents. Either way, given an opportunity to vote for someone other than they same ‘ol incumbent they are taking it. It could also be those that were Independent voters already or Democrats that were voting Republican that now, given a choice, will vote for a Democrat. Greg himself has said he voted for George Bush but realized he’d been lied to and now know all of this must end. Windham will have the support of Democrats in Precinct 3, but getting Independents and getting Republicans who feel their party has left them, will be key.
The GOP in Williamson County is an elitist bunch that feels they are entitled to every office in this county. They shed and shun anyone who questions their authority. They look down their noses at Democrats and anyone, even those inside their party, that don’t acquiesce and toe their line. So it’s no surprise that they’ve driven voters away. It’s become common knowledge that Democratic candidates get treated with disdain, at community forums and meetings by their GOP counterparts. The GOP candidates have an heir about them as if to say of the Democratic candidate, why are you even here, or why are you even running? Only to have many in the audience come up to the Democratic candidate afterward thanking them for being their and presenting another side. And there’s always the tale of those telling the candidate that they’re really a Democrat, but don’t tell anyone.
It’s just a reminder because certainly the disdain will continue for our 2008 candidates. We must also remember who got us into the mess we’re in. And if this current crop of GOP candidates keeps getting elected in Williamson County nothing will change, for the better, anytime soon.
P.S. The WCGOP’s former golden boy goes to court next Wednesday.
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07.01.08
Posted in Commentary, Criminal Justice, Williamson County at 4:25 pm by wcnews
WillcoWired has the story, Blood samples from DWI suspects will be taken this weekend.
For a more sane discussion of DWI law head over th Grits where they’ve been doing a series of posts on the subject of DWI:
DWI: A social problem masquerading as a crime wave?
This discussion raises a number of fascinating questions to which I don’t know the answers (and probably no one does). For starters, what options besides criminal sanctions might reduce DWI, potentially at a lesser cost? How about expanding public transportation? Or maybe taxing alcohol to fund a program of rides home from bars? As with cigarette smoking (which has declined more than drunk driving over a comparable period), TV ads might be more effective at reducing drunk driving than anything a cop can do.
Another question: How much do criminal sanctions deter drunk driving? Punishment only prevents wrongdoing if its certainly applied. In the case of drunk driving, where Bennett estimates officers arrest one drunk driver out of every 114 trips, most drunk driving brings no penalty and thus likely little deterrent. (As Matlock emphasizes, most offenders are more worried about their license suspension than any criminal culpability.)
How much do current DWI laws cost to enforce? It’s hard to tell because costs are divvied up among all sorts of state, county and municipal jurisdictions, with some occasional federal money thrown in to boot. (A back of the napkin estimate indicates Texas spends between $80-100 million per year on prison for felony DWIs alone; most DWIs, however, are misdemeanors handled at the county level.) Given the limited deterrence factor of one arrest per 114 drunken trips, would we see a greater reduction in drunk driving if the same resources went to non-punitive means of reducing drunk driving? Maybe.
If DWI is worth deterring as a public policy then it’s worth paying to deter. Indeed, we’re already paying some unknown amount on a pure enforcement approach that yields limited results. Is criminalizing DWI the best way to go, or does the tactic soak up money that could be used for more effective approaches?
And a couple of follow-ups:
Should states’ anti-drunk driving campaign shift to civil side of the courthouse?
Debating DWI breath test accuracy from ‘The Defense Perspective’
Whether one agrees or disagrees with taking the types of new approaches to DWI mentioned above, it’s pretty obvious what were doing now isn’t doing much to fix the problem.
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Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Central Texas, Commentary, Road Issues, Williamson County at 10:51 am by wcnews
Last week the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) announced it’s victory over cash. Here’s the press release, 183A Toll Road to Go Cashless [.pdf].
Today the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority Board of Directors voted to
approve the elimination of cash toll collection on its 183A toll road by the end of 2008. The decision is expected to save the agency more than $1 million annually in operating costs.
[...]
Toll agencies across the nation are anxious to adopt all-electronic cashless toll collection because it has a wide range of benefits beyond cost savings.
Woo hoo, this decision is going to save the taxpayers/toll payers $1 million. No so fast. As KEYE’s report points out.
The Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) says it expects to save at least one million dollars a year after the change.
[...]
The cashless road conversion will also allow the CTRMA greater flexibility in raising fees at lower increments instead of the usual twenty-five cents jump in tolls.
According to Pustelnyk, there are no immediate toll increases planned to coincide with the 2009 switchover.
What? They’re saving a $1 million, why would there be a toll increase? I’m not buying their insane logic and supposed good news. The key part in the above excerpt is that the “cashless” tolls will make it much easier to nickel-and-dime us instead of the board having to justify a quarter raise in the tolls each time.
But as an MIT report points out there’s much more sinister reason for cashless tolling, Toll Transponders Hide Cost of Tolling. The supposed “cost savings” never seem to make the tolls go down.
Electronic transponders offer toll road operators an effective means of disguising toll hikes, according to Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist Amy Finkelstein. Her study, published last December, showed how the E-ZPass system creates what she described as an “EZ-Tax.”
“I find robust evidence that toll rates increase following the adoption of electronic toll collection,” Professor Finkelstein wrote.
Economic theorists from John Stuart Mill to James Buchanan have argued that disguising the true price of government activity fuels government growth far beyond a level that would be acceptable to an informed citizenry. Finkelstein used electronic toll collection to test this public choice theory against real economic data.
[...]
“The primary finding is that electronic toll collection drivers are much less aware of tolls than cash drivers,” Finkelstein wrote. “This suggests that they are likely to be less (rather than more) responsive in their driving behavior to toll changes.”
The finding is at odds with one of the main arguments in favor of congestion pricing. Namely, that drivers will adapt their driving behavior as the toll price changes to match levels of congestion.
The study looked next at toll collection records from 123 roads located throughout the US, with each road provided an average of fifty years’ worth of data. Finkelstein noticed that adoption of electronic tolling methods increased, so did rates. Specifically, when transponder usage hit the 60 percent mark, toll rates skyrocketed between 20 and 40 percent over what they would have been in a fully manual toll collection system, despite the lower operational costs involved.
Finkelstein’s data also show that cash toll hikes were 75 percent lower during state election years. She suggested that this is the case because drivers paying in cash know when they are being hit and operators are reluctant to impose an extra financial burden during a period when lawmakers are most responsive to the public. Operators have no such worry with transponders, as the data show no slowdown in electronic toll hikes during election season.
Finkelstein concluded by suggesting topics for further inquiry.
“Evidence on what is done with the extra revenue from the higher tolls — in particular, whether it is used for purposes that may be valued by users of the facility such infrastructure investment or reductions in other highways fees, or whether it primarily serves to increase rents for the governing authority through increased employment or salaries of bureaucrats — could shed some light on the normative implications of the higher tolls under electronic toll collection,” Finkelstein wrote. “Unfortunately, the available data are not sufficient for analysis of this issue.”
That’s right folks. The “free-market” conservatives have setup a system of hidden tax increases that is “disguising the true price of government activity [and] fuels government growth far beyond a level that would be acceptable to an informed citizenry”. A citizenry who beyond a few blogs is not informed about how much more expensive tolls are than raising the gas tax. Click here to get the full report.
What the unaccountable CTRMA will be doing from now on is raising tolls on their roads in board meetings. They’ll do it in small increments, nickels and dimes, and hope that no one will notice until it is much too late. Happy motoring!
I’ll leave you with a quote from John Stuart Mill:
I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. I believe that is so obviously and universally admitted a principle that I hardly think any gentleman will deny it.
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06.30.08
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Road Issues at 3:31 pm by wcnews
That’s right, shocking isn’t it?! Here’s the HChron story, Perry bypassed business people for transit post, (via Sal). Here’s a few excerpts:
State documents back accusations of political cronyism
When Gov. Rick Perry chose his former political aide to head the Texas Transportation Commission, he bypassed prominent business people who some legislators say were better equipped for the job, state documents show.
Perry’s selection of Deirdre Delisi led to claims of political cronyism. But Perry’s office and Delisi herself say she has the policy expertise and legislative experience needed for the transportation hot seat.
Before appointing her in April, along with non-controversial pick William “Bill” Meadows, Perry received resumes and recommendation letters for at least eight potential transportation nominees, according to records obtained by The Associated Press under the Texas Public Information Act.
[...]
One businessman who came heavily recommended but wasn’t selected for the commission was Erle Nye, chairman emeritus of Dallas-based TXU Corp. Political and business leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area united in recommending Nye and Meadows, a former Fort Worth city councilman.
Others expressing interest in the commission were Dallas attorney Alan Wade Tompkins; Houston attorney Felix Chevalier; Southlake Mayor Andrew Lee Wambsganss; Livingston businessman Benny Leon Fogleman; and Snyder civic official Jay D. Burns, records show. Some of the applicants listed multiple state boards they were interested in.
It isn’t clear whether Perry considered any additional candidates, either informally or those who submitted applications before this year.
There’s the usual banal blathering from two GOP legislators, (Good ‘ol Sen. John Carona, and newcomer Linda Harper Brown), about how this is cronyism, but it won’t matter in the end and they’ll wind up accepting her. But Texas TURF founder Terri Hall says it all:
“The governor realizes he has a political problem on his hands,” said Terri Hall, founder and director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, a group critical of Perry’s transportation policy. She said her organization didn’t recommend any potential appointees.
“We could have put forward twenty names, and it would have made no difference with this governor,” she said.
And that’s it. Transportation is, and has been for some time, a political issue for the Gov. Perry. He didn’t need a person that knows the ins-and-outs of transportation to head this agency. He needed someone who knows how make his bad idea, (the TTC and toll roads), palatable to malleable politicians like Carona and Harper-Brown. It’s doubtful a business person would have been any less against toll roads and for raising the gas tax than Delisi. But they probably wouldn’t have been as politically savvy, and wouldn’t have been in Perry’s pocket. Again, as Ben Wear’s article today on last week’s Lyceum poll on transportation shows, Build roads and rail without taxes, tolls, until we get some new leadership in Texas nothing is going to change. Electing more Republicans, that will appoint their cronys who favor nothing but toll roads, won’t change anything.
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Posted in Commissioners Court, Hutto, Landfill, Williamson County at 2:05 pm by wcnews
The Hutto Citizens Group (HCG) is hosting a COMMUNITY MEETING regarding the proposal to SELL the Williamson County landfill will be held on Monday, June 30, at 7 p.m. at Hutto Lutheran Church [MAP].
The HCG has also posted their latest newsletter, Still stalling [.pdf], regarding the Williamson County Commissioners Court’s (WCCC) lack of action on the landfill. Especially since the deal to bring 100,000 tons of trash annually from Killeen to the Williamson County’s landfill was announced. The county commissioners won’t be doing anything this week either since they have canceled this week’s meeting so they can take a long holiday weekend, via RRL, Commissioners court meeting cancelled.
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Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 9:24 am by wcnews
It’s Monday, and that means it is time for yet another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s weekly blog round-up. Posts included in the round up are submitted each week by Alliance member blogs. This week’s round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.
Maybe PDiddie at Brains and Eggs was wrong about Obama and Texas. Decide for yourself.
Off the Kuff has one last belated interview from the state Dem convention, with CD32 candidate Eric Roberson.
There is a new email scandal in Harris County. XicanoPwr writes about the offensive emails discovered at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office by a local media undercover investigation. One email has Osama bin Laden urging folks to vote Democratic. In another email, a top commander suggested that alligators should be put in the Rio Grande to cut down on illegal immigration.
Big Drunk at McBlogger points out, again, the flaws in the R’s “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” strategy. Which really isn’t hard to do since the R’s don’t exactly excel at critical thinking, are in love with fantasy and are (to a large extent) willfully ignorant.
refinish69 of Doing My Part For The Left is delighted to announce that the Texas Medical Association Rescinds their endorsement of Box Turtle and shares Rick Noriega’s response to Big Bad John.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the cracks forming in the Texas GOP in A Cooling Off Period For The Texas GOP.
Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex takes a look at the Texas Supreme Court’s recent opinion declaring, essentially, that if you are injured by a church, you are screwed, which stems from the case of–get this–an exorcism gone horribly wrong.
North Texas Liberal reports on the charge that John McCain and his wife Cindy have defaulted on four years of back taxes for their La Jolla, Calif. residence.
The Texas Cloverleaf helps expose the fact that oil companies are not drilling on 3/4 of the land they already lease, because it will cost them too much. Corporate greed, anyone?
Over at Texas Kaos, it is Kenneth Foster all over again, as it looks like Texas’ law of parties is fixing to execute another man, Jeff Wood, who didn’t kill anyone.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes John McCain shows his true colors by choosing Phil ‘Enron’ Gramm as a close associate.
NyTexan at BlueBloggin tell us how the Bush administration has hit the pinnacle of security chaos. We can rest easy now, knowing that we have outsourced the outsource; Department of Homeland Security Outsources National Security
Bay Area Houston writes about State Senator Kim Brimer keeping campaign cash for himself.
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06.28.08
Posted in Commissioners Court, Landfill, Williamson County at 12:40 pm by wcnews
On Thursday Willco Wired posted about a meeting between the Williamson County Commissioners and Waste Management (WMI), Commissioners take no action on landfill contract. It was an executive session, meaning it was behind closed and secret. Little if anything was divulged about the meeting afterward, and it appears even less was accomplished.
Williamson County Commissioners disussed the county’s contract with the operator of the landfill north of Hutto today but took no action, Judge Dan Gattis said.
The contract, which took effect in 2003, has been criticized by some Hutto residents and some county officials who say it is a bad deal and that the county has little control over the landfill.
Gattis would not provide details about what the commissioners discussed, other than to say they discussed the contract with Waste Management of Texas.
The HCG has released it’s latest newsletter busting the myth [.pdf] that the county has no control over the landfill contract. A myth they say that has been put forth by the commissioners and been bought - hook, line, and sinker - by the media.
It’s a well-established fact of the communications process: if a myth is repeated or published often enough, before long it is regarded as being accepted as truth. Unfortunately, this principle has taken root and created the false perception that Williamson County has no control over its landfill north of Hutto.
The issue of landfill control surfaced again recently with the revelation on May 29 that Waste Management of Texas (WMI), the landfill contractor, is in the process of negotiating a contract with the City of Killeen to bring 100,000 tons of waste from Killeen to the Williamson County landfill each year, beginning in October. Despite strong talk from some members of commissioners court on June 3 opposing WMI’s proposed plans for the Killeen waste, after three more meetings (June 10, 17, and 24) and a special meeting with a five hour executive session attended by five of the county’s lawyers (June 26), commissioners court hasn’t taken any action regarding the Killeen matter, and Precinct 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison said on June 26 that the county has no plans to take action in the near future.
The apparent driver for this lack of action is the perception created by the myth—that the county is powerless to do anything about the Killeen problem because of the 2003 contract with WMI now in effect. In recent media reports, the myth has been perpetuated as reporters state, sometimes without attribution, that the county simply has no control on what WMI might do.
However, the 2003 contract is actually very clear regarding the county’s control over its own landfill. The first paragraph under Section 17 (on Page 8) says, “The Premises shall remain under the ownership and ultimate control of the county, including such additional parcels as may be acquired for expansion pursuant to this Agreement and deeded to the County except that Contractor shall have exclusive recycling rights at the County landfill.” (Emphasis added.)
The rest of the 2003 contract is completely silent regarding the volume of waste that can be brought to the landfill from outside the county. (Emphasis added.) At the commissioners court meeting on June 3,
[...]
Both media and members of commissioners court should wake up and smell the coffee. Media
shouldn’t report a myth as fact, and members of commissioners court shouldn’t hide behind the myth. The conclusion is clear, so why does the county fail to act?
Reading the AAS post on Thursday there didn’t seem to be anything newsworthy in it. The two arties met and decided nothing, big deal. But looking at Precint 4 Commissioner Ron Morrison’s comment in the HCG newsletter it appears something was decided. The commissioners have agreed to allow WMI to continue operating the landfill as they have been, or as they see fit. And for how long? It’s not sure how long “in the near future” means, but we can assume it’s until one side or the other gets tired of the arrangement. In other words, it’s business as usual.
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06.27.08
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Election 2008 at 1:05 pm by wcnews
The Texas GOP is floundering. With the same tired message and nothing to show for it they’re in a bind. But as Harvey Kronberg says in his latest News 8 commentary, it’s nothing the average person would notice from the outside.
Texas Republicans held their state convention in Houston a couple of weeks ago and to all outward appearances, everything was fine.
He goes on to point out what he looks for at a convention is “the temperature of the activists” and states that “this convention did feel different”. The problem is with the workers of the party, the grassroots/activists, the lack of enthusiasm in their candidates, and for their future.
Since 1994, our state Republican conventions have been buoyed by conviction that they were part of a broader conservative movement that had history and popular support on their side.
Republicans might fault their leaders on the margins but they never doubted the forward motion of their cause. At this convention, speaker after speaker took shots at their national leaders. If this convention was any indication of how Texas Republicans feel, the party’s presidential candidate has a lot of work to do.
Speaker after speaker noted that while McCain was not their first choice, they had stuck to uniting behind him.
Not the most ringing endorsement.
[...]
The relatively subdued State Republican convention is probably not symptomatic of much in either the Presidential or United States Senate race.
But this year, the battleground is four Texas Senate seats and more than a dozen House seats.
If Republican malaise persists and Democrats remain excited, we could have a very different statehouse when the Legislature reconvenes next January.
Which plays right into the strategy that Barack Obama will be employing in Texas, Obama plots to reverse DeLay’s plot. State and local races is where there is the best chances for change and where Democrats will win in November. Especially if the Democrats outwork the GOP.
But it’s key to remember what has brought this malaise over activist Republicans and “conservatives” in Texas. Their party controls every branch of government in Texas and our government is functioning worse than when they took over. Public schools are worse off, energy prices for our homes and cars are much higher, home insurance rates have skyrocketed, college tuition is way up, more Texans are uninsured, and the Governor’s mansion burned. And I didn’t even mention transportation. It’s the reality of the Texas GOP’s inability to govern, much less govern well, that’s caused the temperature change.
The other problem is that the one “win” they had recently was tenuous at best, and has irked the far right/activist wing of their party. Yes, the new GOP business tax. Most are running away from it, or want to tweak it, or kill it. Tweaking it will, more than likely, only make a bad idea different. This back-and-forth between Paul Burka and Texas Rush is worth a read, (the comments too). And Burka’s final comment sounds familiar.
But I think we have to recognize that the reasons the tax became law are (1) the Supreme Court was holding a gun to the Legislature’s head, and (2) this tax was, to paraphrase Churchill’s observation about democracy, the worst possible system, except for all the others.
In essence, without a state income tax, there will have to be some form of corporate/business tax in Texas or a highest in the nation sales tax, if property taxes are to be lowered. But that’s not the snake oil they’ve been selling all these years. That was we can pay no taxes and have everything, the free market will take care of us.
What the Texas GOP’s failure has done is really put off the grassroots/activists of the party. Many of them have been working there “roots” off since Goldwater. They finally attain what they’ve been aiming for all these years, controlling every branch of government in Texas, and this is the thanks they get? It’s no wonder they’re mad. You can read more on their reaction to the GOP convention here and also The Real Story
of Kyle Janek’s Resignation.
The Texas GOP may have “topped-out” in 2002. Since then their political gains have stopped, and began to wane. Whether it was the blatant power grab of the 2003 redistricting, the budget cuts of 2003, their terrible policies, the inability to govern, the arrogance of power, or all of those combined, that has slowed the momentum we can only guess. But it’s understandable that the grassroots/activists will stop spending their free time working for a party that has givens little, if anything, to show for it.
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