09.01.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Had Enough Yet?, The Budget, The Economy, Transportation, Unemployment at 7:00 am by wcnews
You know the old saying? Things may be bad, but they could always be worse. Well, that appears to be the Texas GOP’s campaign slogan this year. Here’s the line the GOP in Texas has been hiding behind [PDF] for a while now, “The Texas seasonally adjusted unemployment rate remained at 8.2 percent in July, unchanged from June, and continued to trend well below the U.S. seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 9.5 percent.” (Emphasis added).
What Gov. Rick Perry appointee, and former Texas GOP chair Tom Pauken is trying to say, is that we should all feel grateful because things aren’t as bad as they are for others. The unemployment rate in Texas has moved little in the last 14 months, hovering between 7.9% and 8.3% since July of 2009. In a rational state, where incumbents are held accountable, that would mean bad news for the Republicans running for reelection in Texas, but I digress. Has anyone heard any ideas for lowering that number from the Governor, Lt. Gov., Speaker or Workforce Commissioner? Me either.
Another line Texas GOP has been been trumpeting is that our budget problems have not been as bad as other states. That is, if you exclude the $16 billion in federal money that was used to balance the budget in 2009. But Texas’ “lesser” budget problems are more about a system that was already punishing the weak, at the behest of the powerful, Texan Tall Tales.
What is true is that the Texas budget is in relatively good shape. That’s because recessions don’t do as much fiscal damage if you have a weak safety net, so expenses don’t rise much as people are plunged into poverty (because they don’t get any help), and a regressive tax system, so that revenues don’t fall much when incomes collapse.
What is clear is that in the upcoming legislative session we’re facing a budget freight train that’s about to go off the rails. The HChron had a piece last week that took the usual, left/right, D/R, perspective on the budget “debate” that has prevailed so far this election cycle, White, Perry not specific about budget - One talks tough on spending, the other of bipartisan compromise. Kuff details what’s likely to be cut, Them that has, gets, and it’s not the Texas Enterprise Fund. Here’s the short list:
Some of Texas’ most vulnerable residents – the very poor, the mentally ill, those suffering from birth defects, and children from troubled families – would lose state support and services under several new budget-cutting proposals.
That’s despicable, but it’s exactly what the Republicans do, and did the last time. We’ve known since the primary what Rick Perry’s plan is for the budget in 2011, it’s the 2003 plan on steroids. Which means more pain for the voiceless, the poor and middle class, in the way of less social services and much higher fees – shhh, don’t call them taxes. Also on the agenda will be their usual accounting tricks and privatization schemes.
Bill White, for his part, has only said that he would accept a local option tax bill. (A local option tax bill would allow local elections to raise taxes in that locality to pay for transportation projects). It’s also likely, in the event the likely GOP controlled legislature was to send a state budget with a tax increase to him, he would allow it to become law. With Perry that probably would not be likely. That doesn’t mean that taxpayers will get a break if Perry’s reelected, they’ll just be called fee increases, instead of tax increases. Both candidates will talk of scrubbing the budget, cutting waste, etc.. But the reality is, and everyone knows it, that if Texas wants to keep it’s current level of spending, including assistance to the weak and needy, then those with higher incomes in Texas will have to pay more taxes [PDF].
Since taking office in 2001 Gov. Perry has saddled Texans with $11.8 billion in transportation debt, where there was none when he took office. In Texas the Republicans are in charge and have been for the last 7 years. The education system, public and higher, is facing all sorts of trouble – quality down, cost up. Unemployment is roughly twice what it was when they took over. While our situation may not be as bad as other states, we must ask ourselves why are things so much worse since the GOP started running this state? It’s also likely going to get much worse, for those of us who aren’t on the high end of the wage scale, as long as they’re in charge.
These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. It’s no wonder Perry and his GOP cohorts are running scared from Democrats and the media.
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Posted in Around The State, Taxes, Transportation at 6:00 am by wcnews
Let me see if I’ve got this straight. Instead of raising the gas tax, and paying for roads the way we used to, Sen. Ogden wants to pass a constitutional amendment that will allow voters to vote on whether or on they want to raise the gas tax to pay off the debt for roads we’ve already built. Via Peggy Fikac at the San Antonio Express-News, Proposal gives voters a say on gas-tax increase.
The Bryan Republican (Sen. Ogden) isn’t proposing a straight-ahead state gas-tax increase. Instead, he plans to offer an amendment to the Texas Constitution to say lawmakers can raise the gas tax a few cents a gallon to pay off debt service for road bonds financed through the highway fund.
The proposed amendment, which Ogden plans to push in the coming regular legislative session, would require a two-thirds vote from lawmakers plus voter approval statewide.
“Going with a constitutional amendment does a couple of things. It provides some political cover for people who don’t want to be responsible for raising taxes, and it gives the voters a legitimate option: If you want us to continue to borrow money to improve the highways, this is how we propose to pay for it,” Ogden said. “And whatever their answer is, I’d accept.”
Ogden’s idea is another sign of the seriousness of the money problems facing transportation, with the gas-tax-fueled highway fund projected to run out of money for new projects in 2012.
The increase would apply only to Proposition 14 bonds, which are paid off by the highway fund. The Texas Department of Transportation has authority to issue $6 billion in such bonds; it has issued $4.6 billion.
According to TxDOT, the state is expected to pay $272.5 million from the $6.45 billion highway fund for debt service in the 2011 fiscal year and nearly $290 million in 2012. Between 2013 and 2032, debt service for the bonds will cost more than $400 million a year.
The 20-cent-a-gallon state motor-fuels tax hasn’t been raised since 1991; efforts to increase it have been seen as politically risky. Each penny yields about $155 million, with one-fourth going to education. Ogden would propose having the extra pennies fund only debt.
Ogden’s idea is not a sign of seriousness, Ogden’s idea is a sign of cowardice. Not only that but he wants to lay the blame off on voters instead of taking it on himself. Oh how we long for the day when we had real leaders in Texas. Leadership means sometimes you have to stand up and do what’s right and unpopular, consequences be damned. Trying to hide the GOP’s neglect of Texas highways since taking control of our state’s government, and attempting to lay the responsibility of paying for their neglect on the taxpayers, is anything but. Hopefully voters would reject such shenanigans. Sen. Ogden if raising taxes is what you want to do then offer a “straight up” tax increase.
If Ogden’s fairy tale amendment was to pass in the next legislative session, there wouldn’t even be a vote on this until November 2011. So the money wouldn’t be available until 2012 at the earliest. No word in the article about what would happen if it didn’t pass.
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08.30.10
Posted in Around The State at 8:59 am by dembones
The Texas Progressive Alliance sure hopes that Harris County has a disaster recovery plan for the loss of its voting machines as it brings you this week’s blog roundup.
Off the Kuff had three more interviews this week, with State Reps. Armando Walle, Ellen Cohen, and Kristi Thibaut.
Meet Jeff “The Trucker” Evans, an unemployed 49-year-old whose unemployment benefits were restored by Congressional Democrats after a Republican filibuster caused the payments to temporarily cease. Eye On Williamson explains how misdirected Tea Party anger causes Jeff the Trucker to vote against his economic best interest.
John Cornyn, known as a rapist enabler, decides to waffle on 14th amendment to the constitution. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is certain that Cornyn doesn’t care about civil rights – just his fat a**.
Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker summaries the latest scandals at TYC. The more things change over there, the more they remain the same, sadly…. Check it out : Texas Youth Commission Abuses Make the News Again.
Neil at Texas Liberal attended press conferences held by both Houston Votes and by a local so-called Tea Party group, as a possible pattern of harassment and intimidation against likely Democratic voters in Harris County may be at work. Also, Neil announced that he will now also be blogging at The Daily Hurricane as well as at Texas Liberal. Neil is also a featured politics reader-blogger at the Houston Chronicle.
WhosPlayin reports that the local school district sent a letter to the Attorney General’s office requesting exemption from release on the grounds that some personal expenses on district credit cards were too embarrassing to release.
The warehouse where election machines are stored erupted in flames last Friday morning, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had the early line on what it means for Houston and the surrounding area, which represent 15% of the statewide vote tally. Coupled with the histrionics of Leo Vasquez vis-a-vis Houston Votes, it’s going to be a real lively election season (and that’s before a single race gets mentioned).
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06.28.10
Posted in Around The State at 10:41 am by dembones
At roughly 1:45 p.m. Saturday, after voting 25-8 to keep the two-step process for allocating national delegates’ presidential preferences, the convention permanent rules committee voted to sever that portion of their report and send it immediately to the convention floor. With delegates leaving Corpus Christi to return to their homes around the state, attendance steadily declines throughout the convention’s second session. Severing the report allowed the convention to take up this important issue with the largest number of delegates in attendance.
When the issue came to the floor, members of the committee wanted to come to the hall to have an opportunity to speak and vote their positions. According to sources on the permanent rules committee, the committee recessed in order to give its members that chance. However, many of the members of the committee never returned, and the committee was unable to reach a quorum to continue its business.
More than 40 proposed rules changes on their agenda did not deal with the “Texas Two-Step”. A number of those were recommended by the temporary rule committee to be referred to the resolutions or legislative committees. The permanent rules committee acted on these with a single vote to agree with the recommendations. That left about a dozen proposed rules changes waiting for action.
Because those rules changes were not acted upon, they fall to the SDEC’s rules committee. The main question is whether the members of the permanent rules committee who did not return to the meeting in room 225D were confused into thinking the meeting had been adjourned instead of recessed. According to sources, SDEC member John Behrman made a motion to adjourn, which (if true) would have been out of order because Behrman was not a member of the permanent rules committee.
Alternatively, enough members of the permanent rules committee could have decided that because the main issue before the committee had been decided, they were not inclined to invest any more time on the committee’s agenda.
For whatever reason, there was no further report from the permanent rules committee to the convention. The delegates to the state convention were not allowed an opportunity to hear the proposals nor their recommendations. About a dozen such proposals passed multiple county and senatorial district conventions and deserved a hearing by the permanent rules committee.
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06.24.10
Posted in Around The State, Election 2010, Right Wing Lies at 11:18 pm by dembones
The Houston Chronicle reports: “State District Judge John Dietz ruled that restricted corporate money was used to support the signature drive and did not comply with state election law.” Also reporting this breaking story are the Texas Tribune, Charles Kuffner, Bay Area Houston and pretty much everyone else.
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06.01.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary, Road Issues, Transportation, Uncategorized at 5:12 pm by wcnews
In today’s AAS with Ben Wear’s misleading headline, Truck relief on I-35? Maybe a little. The big story is not that truck’s aren’t leaving I-35 to drive SH 130, the big news is, which is almost always the case, the consultants T&R (Traffic and Revenue) numbers are not “paying off”.
The study indicates that the 25 percent lower toll would pull an additional 350 trucks a day to Texas 130. But I-35 at U.S. 183 in North Austin had 24,000 trucks a day in 2007. So the lower toll might remove less than 2 percent of I-35 truck traffic.
What isn’t changing on Texas 130, at least not yet: car tolls, for perhaps five years. And the overall financial picture, painted mostly in shades of red.
The 2002 financial prospectus for investors who put $2.2 billion into Texas 130, Loop 1 and Texas 45 North showed initial toll rates unchanged until 2015, when a 50 percent increase was scheduled. Transportation commissioners have the power to raise rates before then, but they aren’t talking publicly about doing so.
But they might be considering it privately. According to figures from TxDOT Chief Financial Officer James Bass, the three-road system has required $68 million in tax money to balance the books over the first three years.
We’re paying tolls and our tax money is going for these roads too. Who doesn’t feel burned yet by the toll road scheme? Tip to ACREblog, SH 130 in the red–taxpayers making up the difference, with this commentary.
So why is it a good idea to continue to build toll roads where taxpayers will be paying the investors? By the way, ground has been broken on the tolled interchange at 290 East and 183—a tolled interchange being paid for by taxpayer stimulus money.
Anyone who still believes toll roads are the answer to our state’s transportation problem can no longer be taken seriously. Seriously.
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05.31.10
Posted in Around The State, Commentary at 1:34 pm by wcnews
The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes you all had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as it brings you this week’s blog roundup.
This week on Left of College Station Teddy asks if Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell could be coming to an end, and Left of College Station covers the week in headlines. Teddy at will be looking back this week at highlights from Left of College Station’s first two years of blogging, and will be taking the month of June off from blogging. Look for more in depth coverage of politics and social commentary in July, including extensive research and investigations. Thanks to the Texas Progressive Alliance for supporting political and social thought to the Left of College Station.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that even though there’s been another audit of TxDOT, nothing will change until Texas gets a new governor, TxDOT’s management audit, we’ve heard it all before.
Harris County is considering creating an elections administration department, with a non-partisan unelected appointee at the helm. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs is in favor of it, but irregular contributor OpenSourceDem is not.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is tired of racist, republican fear mongers driving poor policy decisions on the border.
Off the Kuff took a close look at the UT/Texas Trib poll of the Governor’s race.
WhosPlayin hopes everyone has a nice Memorial Day, and has a message of gratitude and remembrance of those who have fallen in the service of our country.
A Houston right wing talk show host and former City Council Member calls for bombing of a Mosque. Bay Area Houston has an opinion. Imagine that.
Asian American Action Fund Blog‘s Justin invites everyone to Houston to attend the OCA National Convention June 17-20. Festivities include panel discussions, awards gala, and free Starry Night Market and Film Festival. Eric Byler and Coffee Party founder Annabel Park’s immigration documentary 9500 Liberty will be shown.
At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw helps us understand Rick Perry’s complaints about the EPA taking over the permitting process from the toothless, Minerals Management Service, I mean the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Surprisingly enough, Mr. “Act of God” is upset he can’t continue his business first, second and always approach to environmental regulations. Take at look at Governor Perry to the EPA: Back Off.
Neil at Texas Liberal offered up a 58 second video where he listed eight points about democracy while standing in front of a car demolition lot near the Houston Ship Channel. Everyplace is the right place to talk about freedom.
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05.28.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, Privatization, Road Issues, Transportation at 9:49 am by wcnews
On Wednesday TxDOT released the Management Organizational Review (MOR) that was performed by Grant Thornton. Here’s the link to the report. If you don’t want to read the whole 628 page report these two paragraphs, from the introduction, sum up TxDOT’s problems pretty well.
Funding Needs
In May 2008, Texas Transportation Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi, “at the request of Texas Governor Rick Perry, appointed a volunteer committee of 12 experienced and respected business leaders designated as the 2030 Committee. The Committee’s charge was to provide an independent, authoritative assessment of the state’s transportation infrastructure and mobility needs from 2009 to 2030.” The 2030 Committee determined that the State requires $315 billion from 2009 through 2030 (or $14.3 billion per year, in 2008 dollars) to meet pavement, bridges, urban mobility, and rural mobility and safety needs. Despite the 2030 Committee’s findings, some members of the transportation community hold differing views on the actual amount of funding required to sustain the State’s transportation system for this period. [Emphasis added].
The lack of agreement on the amount of funding needed to meet Texas transportation requirements leads to a certain amount of discomfort with TxDOT requests for increased funding. In addition, mistrust of TxDOT and issues around the consistency and completeness of communications on this issue inhibits commitment to additional funding. Some stakeholders said that “TxDOT isn’t broken, it’s just broke.” Others said that TxDOT isn’t sufficiently high-functioning to know if it has the resources required to do the job needed. Still others expressed that whether or not TxDOT has enough funding, until the Department is more transparent and has improved its operations, it would be difficult to justify an increase in funding.
That means that state agency tasked with building and maintaining our roads cannot be trusted with the money needed to build and maintain our roads. Essentially everyone knows, although there is no agreement on the exact figure, that TxDOT needs a whole bunch of money in the future to build and maintain Texas’ roads. But few, if any in the legislature trust those in charge at TxDOT to do what’s right in given the money. By in charge I mean Perry and his appointees – a fish rots from the head down – not the employees at TxDOT.
I know I’ve said this many times but it bears repeating. How can anyone trust people who think government is the problem to be able to use government to solve problems? It just boggles the mind how anyone could still believe that that TxDOT can be turned around without a new governor.
Michael Lindenbarger at the DMN has a much more thorough analysis of the report, Major audit: TxDOT must change its ‘singular, deeply entrenched culture’, including:
Other big recommendations urge TxDOT to:
Fundamentally change its culture.
TxDOT has a singular, deeply entrenched culture that reflects 93 years of service dedicated to providing top notch transportation infrastructure to the State of Texas. This culture, and the ways in which the organization is led and managed, are fundamental considerations in the MOR as they affect every aspect of TxDOT performance. The unifying thread through all the MOR observations and recommendations is the way in which leadership and management practices and cultural norms affect TxDOT behavior and efficacy. Changes in this area are the essential underpinning to achieving meaningful improvements in the areas of effectiveness, efficiency, communications and transparency.
Significantly change its leadership structure. It recommends that TxDOT create three executive positions that would answer to the executive director — chief administration officer, chief operations officer, and chief financial officer. These jobs would be new — even if, in the case of the CFO, they exist in some form today, and should not be automatically reserved for members of the executive now employed, the audit says.
Lessen its focus on engineering among its top leadership, and indeed throughout the agency. Currently, engineering expertise — even a license — seems to be the only coin of the realm that carries any value. That has meant putting engineers in non-engineering roles, just to keep them aboard, and making it harder for non-engineers “to be heard” no matter how strong their relevant, non-engineering expertise might be.
Make the aides to the five TxDOT commissioners who oversee the agency answer to the commissioners, not to the executive director. The report says that has created a conflict of interest. If the commissioners are to oversee the agency, they deserve unbiased and unfettered advice from their administrative assistants.
Divide the government relations staff and the communications staff. A few years ago, communications folks — spokesman and others — were merged under a new department led by Colby Chase, who had represented the department’s interests in Washington previously. The report says that has helped lead to TxDOT’s image as an overly political entity, and the staff of about 50 full-time workers should be divided once again.
Too little metrics, means it’s hard to assess TxDOT’s work. Is TxDOT doing good work? Efficiently? Who knows, says the audit.
Clearly TxDOT employees are accomplishing a great deal of work. However, in the absence of relevant metrics, performance reporting, management disciplines and controls – deployed across the organization – it isn’t possible to determine whether work is being done effectively or efficiently.
Burka has more as does Kuff who notes that “..State Sen. Kirk Watson and Bill White also weigh in from a more pointedly political perspective”.
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05.27.10
Posted in Around The State, Bad Government Republicans, Commentary, The Environment at 11:15 am by wcnews
Yesterday it was reported that The Environmental Protection Agency is stepping in to because the Texas Commission on Environment Equality will not follow federal regulations, State, federal officials blame one another for air quality impasse . This is not something out of the blue. This story goes a long way back and has implications all through our governments, federal and state, and how federal regulations really don’t mean anything unless they’re enforced. It’s become easy to see that there is no such thing as industry self-policing and that deregulation hasn’t worked.
The dressing-down from EPA was not unexpected. In its own self-evaluation report submitted in the fall to the Sunset Advisory Commission, the agency had to respond to the question “What are your agency’s biggest opportunities for improvement in the future?” Its answer: “Building Relationships and Partnerships ,” especially with the EPA.
And in August, Larry Soward, in his last days as a commissioner at the state agency, told a conference of environmental attorneys that “EPA has acknowledged the threat, however veiled you may view it, of Texas being stripped of its authority to issue major air permits unless the state agrees to some changes. I have heard it said, ‘Texas can step up, or EPA will step in 2009′”.
Of course Gov. Perry is throwing a fit. And his appointees, and the corporations are are not happy about this.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which issues permits, released a letter from Executive Director Mark R. Vickery to the EPA that lays out the state agency’s efforts and communication with the EPA and said it “remains committed to reaching resolution of Title V (operating permit) objections.”
“We still have significant differences in opinion on a number (of) issues, but processes for moving forward have been developed,” Vickery wrote. “A collaborative effort will continue to be beneficial for both agencies’ limited resources and the continued protection of the environment and public health.”
[...]
“EPA has either been told or been convinced by environmental groups that the permitting program that Texas operates is somehow deficient or not completely consistent with federal law. Our position, and the position of both the chemical manufacturers and refineries that are covered by these state permits, is that those allegations are completely false and without any foundation,” said Stephen Minick, of the Texas Association of Business.
Minick called it “a complete waste” and “very expensive” for companies to have to submit applications to the EPA, predicting that at the end of the process, the federal agency would find they met all applicable requirements.
Hector L. Rivero, Texas Chemical Council president and chief executive officer, said, “This is the first time we are aware of EPA demanding a Texas facility apply directly to the federal government for a Title V (operating) permit. . . . We are incredulous that EPA would encroach on a state regulatory program that has a proven track record of success.”
[EPA Regional Administrator Al] Armendariz said if TCEQ wants to retain authority over the rest of the permits at issue, state officials must “demonstrate to me in very short order … that these permits they are going to issue are going to be consistent with the Clean Air Act.”
“Some agency has to be issuing permits that are complying with the Clean Air Act,” he said. “If the state of Texas won’t do it, then I have the legal obligation to assume that role.”
Which is the crux of the issue as Bill White points out in his statement:
“Because of Rick Perry’s mismanagement of the state’s environmental agency, our state is now losing our ability to make our own decisions about air quality and the economy.
While Perry will likely try to make this into a partisan issue, the truth is that the state was repeatedly warned, beginning in 2007 under President Bush, that its permitting program violated the law that granted Texas the authority to issue air pollution permits.
Historically, under federal and gubernatorial administrations with leaders in both parties, Texas had earned the ability to administer the Clean Air Act. This delegation of authority has been important to Texas, letting our state implement the Clean Air Act in a way designed to fit our own air quality and economic needs.
Over the course of two federal administrations, Perry’s agency lost the confidence of regulatory authorities to the detriment of all Texans.”
This is Rick Perry’s fault, plain and simple. Because Perry’s appointees have not been following the federal regulations and the Bush Administrations failures to enforce them, this has now come to a head. More than likely because the Perry appointees at the TCEQ didn’t think the EPA would actually go to this extent to enforce the regulations.
We have to remember that these regulations are for our protection. These are to protect the air we breath, the water we drink, and the land that grows the food we eat. They’re the only ones we have and they cannot be replaced.
Kuff has much more. As if on cue the Austin Chronicle and the Texas Observer have articles on the TCEQ and it’s corporate friendly attitude. Links to those below the fold.
Read the rest of this entry �
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05.26.10
Posted in Around The State, Taxes, The Budget at 9:54 pm by wcnews
As you may, or many not know, GOP Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst made this claim about the Texas budget in an Op-Ed last year, “So it’s simply political fiction that stimulus dollars were necessary to balance our budget.” And Democratic state Rep. Jim Dunnam took exception to that claim soon after in a rebuttal Op-Ed. Although Dewhust is technically correct, anyone living in the real world knows it’s just that, a technicality.
The statement came up again recently when Dewhurst was interviewed by the Texas Tribunes’ Evan Smith.
Smith: But the difference would have been that you would have had to go find the money that you got from the federal government that you got presumably in the form of cuts.
Dewhurst: No, we wouldn’t have had the spending level that we did. We would have had to trim the budget. We still would have been able to put some money into public education, some money into higher education, but we wouldn’t have been able to put as much money into public education and higher education and into Medicaid as we were able to do with the stimulus dollars. That’s a true statement. At the same time, we were able to create a better budget by having some access to the federal funds
In essence what Both Dewhurst and Dunnam are saying is that Texas’ budget would have been balanced, with or without the stimulus, it’s the law. But life in Texas would be much different then it is now. And that’s the reality that the elected Texas Republicans will not admit to. Without the help of the federal Texas, and their political futures would be in much worse shape.
As the recent CBO report shows the stimulus has worked, and worked well, CBO says stimulus a bigger success than expected. This is important because as Perry, Dewhurst and the rest of the GOP in Texas crow about their budget slashing prowess, they didn’t do any in 2009, because of the federal stimulus.
Without the $16 billion dollars Texas used in 2009 to balance the state’s budget, without slashing it to the bone and without raising taxes, Texas would be in extreme circumstances and unemployment would be considerably higher then it is right now. Heading into another budget cycle that would be even more dire.
The point of all of this is, for the GOP members in Texas to be running around saying how much they hate the federal government and all it’s spending, is extremely dishonest. Without the stimulus money in Texas these politicians would be in a much more dire political situation, and they have the federal government to thank for the fact that they are not.
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