10.10.07
Posted in Commissioners Court, Criminal Justice, T. Don Hutto, Commentary, Williamson County at 10:00 am by wcnews
Of course this never was about the commissioners having a problem with what they’ve allowed to occur at the T. Don Hutto prison, it’s always been about the money. From today’s AAS, Vote delayed on ending county contract with immigrant center.
Williamson County leaders put off plans Tuesday to potentially sever ties with the owner of a much-criticized immigrant detention center in Taylor.
The delay came after officials with Corrections Corp. of America, in an effort to sway county commissioners’ plans, offered free legal protection and $250,000 for the county should it ever face litigation for its involvement with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center.
[…]
The company is also offering the county $250,000 worth of credit in case it loses or has to settle a suit, said Steven Owen, a spokesman. Owen said negotiations are ongoing, so the amount could change.
[…]
No lawsuits have been filed against the county since it entered the contract a year ago, County Judge Dan A. Gattis said. Commissioners said it was too soon to comment on whether Corrections Corp.’s offers changed their opinion about leaving the contract early.
“I want to hear all the facts. I want to know what our true liability is,” Commissioner Valerie Covey said.
Assistant Williamson County Attorney Hal Hawes said he will probably report back to commissioners in two to three weeks.
If commissioners vote to end the contract early, federal rules require Corrections Corp. to find another government entity to partner with; otherwise the contract for housing detainees would be subject to competitive bidding.
Owen said the company would comply with those rules if the county ended the contract early or if it didn’t renew the contract after 2009. He said it was too soon to comment on what would happen to the center if Corrections Corp. didn’t win the bid or find a partner.
“I don’t want to speculate, but obviously we’ve invested a good deal of time and money,” he said. “Our hopes and our efforts will always be to keep that institution operational.”
We’ll just have to wait and see if that’s enough money to ease the burden the commissioners have been feeling regarding T. Don Hutto. Liability burden, not moral burden, of course.
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Posted in Privatization, Had Enough Yet?, Road Issues, Central Texas, Commentary at 9:49 am by wcnews
It’s mostly an editorial, (don’t forget to read the comments), trying once again to convince us that CAMPO had no other choice and trying to tell us what great leaders all that voted for this are because it takes guts to vote yes on a plan they know is bad, but we’ll thank them for it later.
Most members of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or CAMPO, understood that, at bottom, they really didn’t have much choice but to accept tolls if the Austin area is to get significant stretches of its highway system rebuilt and expanded. Despite the protesters’ warnings of “political suicide” to CAMPO members, we think most voters will recognize that reality as well.
You’ll thank them in the long run. Once they’ve been voted out of office and the tolls keep going up, and up, and up, you’ll thank them.
Then we get this.
Those most upset about tolls need to take their complaints to Gov. Rick Perry and a Republican-dominated Legislature bent on not raising the gasoline tax or any other tax. Yet the number of drivers continues to grow, older highways wear out and need to be expanded, and the real cost of construction continues to rise because of demand for building materials.
There are serious arguments to be made regarding the fairness of tolls, especially those charged on rebuilt expressways originally paid for with tax dollars.
But the majority of CAMPO board members Monday faced the fact that Austin could either keep arguing about tolls or pay them and get the highways built. The majority did right to vote to build.
Well of course it’s the current and previous governor and current and previous legislatures fault for the mess we’re in. But it would have been better to do nothing than to accept this long term lemon.
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10.09.07
Posted in Take Action, Right Wing Lies, Health Care, Had Enough Yet?, Around The State, Around The Nation, Williamson County at 1:58 pm by wcnews
Imagine for a second that a newspaper in Williamson County would have printed a letter to the editor with this as the title:
Cruel Republicans and their Fascist nonsense
Imagine the outrage.
Well the Round Rock Leader (RRL) didn’t. Instead they printed the partisan ravings, and error infested talking points, of an officer of the Williamson County GOP. Go check it out. Whether the RRL knew the author was an officer of the party is not known.
The author spews the same ‘ol error-filled mantra we’ve been hearing since Bush and a few of his compassion-less minions decided insuring more children was a bad thing.
Here those claims will be debunked with excerpts form this post, GOP to Battle SCHIP Veto Override With Distortions. (There’s more debunking of GOP myths regarding SCHIP in the post and I recommend everyone read the whole thing).
- It’s socialized medicine
SCHIP does nothing to advance socialized medicine. This is a block grant program, under which states opting to receive federal funds run their own programs in compliance with federal rules. There is no “single payer,” and the program is not run by the federal government. The caregivers who actually provide the health care are generally private rather than government employees.
- “..redefines ‘children’ as individuals 25 years of age..”
This is a complete misnomer.
the SCHIP program is aimed at children. Adults are generally not eligible. Some states have in the past obtained waivers from the federal government (yes, the Bush administration) to extend benefits to certain adults, usually adults who are disabled, pregnant, or parents of eligible children. New waivers to provide coverage of adults without children has been prohibited since passage of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2006. The Bush administration likes to portray this as a major dimension of the program by emphasizing that about 600,000 adults are receiving benefits under SCHIP, but that is only a tenth of the six million recipients overall. This is fundamentally a program for uninsured children.
- Covers families that earn up to $83,000/year.
opponents of SHIP expansion insist that the program would extend to upper-middle class families. Yesterday, for example, President Bush said in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that the SCHIP bill “expands coverage, federal coverage, up to families earning $83,000 a year. That doesn’t sound poor to me.” However, that claim is patently misleading. The bill actually restricts SCHIP money to families earning no more than 300% of the federal poverty level, which means about $60,000 for a family of four. President Bush’s assertion is based on a waiver request by the State of New York that was in fact rejected by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Also needed mentioning is that we are all paying for these people’s health care already. In the form of higher insurance premiums. When they wind up going to the emergency room and using their current health care plan, as Bush calls it, that winds up costing us all more than if they would have had health insurance and gone to the doctor when it was just the sniffles.
While John Carter, (Don’t forget to contact him), and his minions in the WCGOP would like you to believe that anyone who is for expanding SCHIP is a communist that wants to give a bunch of 25 years old making $83,000 a year free health care, it just ain’t so.
[UPDATE]: Another big part of this that I forgot to mention is that this is a bipartisan bill/compromise.
First, there is no “Democratic” bill. The SCHIP bill that will be considered this week in the House and the Senate is a bipartisan conference report very similar to the Senate bill that received 68 votes.
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Posted in Commissioners Court, Bad Government Republicans, T. Don Hutto, Had Enough Yet?, Williamson County at 1:52 pm by wcnews
Via TDP:
Williamson County commissioners did not issue a notice to terminate the lease agreement with Corrections Corporations of America for the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor Tuesday.
Instead, commissioners agreed to table the motion and will have their attorneys look further into the issues of liability before addressing the agreement again, County Judge Dan Gattis said.
Last week, commissioners instructed the County Attorney’s Office to begin the process of ending the county’s relationship with T. Don Hutto within a year, citing a liability for the center’s operations they had not expected.
[…]
An attorney for CCA, and a courtroom full of employees, addressed the court Tuesday and told commissioners the county did not have any liability for the daily actions at T. Don Hutto, including the incident of sexual misconduct.
The commissioners agreed to further investigate the issue with the County Attorney’s Office and reconsider ending the contract within a year or allowing it to expire in January 2009.
Who would have thunk it?
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Posted in Had Enough Yet?, Privatization, Road Issues, Central Texas, Commentary, Williamson County at 9:53 am by wcnews
The Chamber of Commerce (It’s former chair now heading CAMPO), the contractors, and the developers got the government hand out they’ve been wanting for 3 years last night. The long-laid plans of defunding our transportation infrastructure and making our roads much costlier for the user, and into profit-making operations for corporations, moved ahead last night. Call it what you will, but the price of driving in Central Texas just went way up last night.
The CAMPO board took a separate vote on each of the five roads, approving tolls on U.S. 183, Texas 71 East, and U.S. 290 West and Texas 71 West at the Oak Hill “Y” by 15-4; approving Texas 45 Southwest by 14-5; and approving U.S. 290 East by 14-4.
Voting yes on all five roads: Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe, Texas Department of Transportation Austin district engineer Bob Daigh, Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty, Austin City Council Member Betty Dunkerley, Kyle Mayor Miguel Gonzalez, state Rep. Mike Krusee, Cedar Park Mayor Bob Lemon, Williamson County Commissioner Cynthia Long, Round Rock Mayor Nyle Maxwell, Austin City Council Member Brewster McCracken, Georgetown Mayor Gary Nelon, former Austin Mayor Pro Tem John Trevino and Austin Mayor Will Wynn.
Watson voted yes on four of them and recused himself on U.S. 290 East because he is a director of a bank with land along U.S. 290 East in Elgin. And Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt voted yes on all but Texas 45 Southwest.
“I do believe there is enough money to do some or all of these roads as free roads,” said CAMPO board member Jeff Mills of Sunset Valley. “TxDOT just isn’t going to do it.”
Mills voted against all five, as did Austin City Council Member Jennifer Kim, state Rep. Eddie Rodriguez and Hays County Judge Elizabeth Sumter.
As the Texas Observer noted the board was stacked with pro-toll members, many from Williamson County.
The board is stacked in favor of toll roads, with mayors and representatives from outlying cities like Georgetown, Round Rock, Buda, and Kyle. These communities all stand to benefit from toll roads like SH 130. The common assumption is that the plan will pass easily. We shall see.
Many of these roads will affect the daily lives of those living outside of Austin, in Hays and Williamson, more. Of course tolling 183 South will soak everyone heading to the airport.
Now it’s up to us. We must hold these politicians accountable, (Sal has mugshots), for this policy they championed despite overwhelming public disapproval. They’ve made their decision and have to live with the consequences and so do we. If we allow them to continue in public office after this, it will be our fault, when toll roads continue to be built.
The toll opponents took pains Monday to make sure that the yes voters knew of at least one possible consequence: election challenges.
“Political suicide!” one man yelled repeatedly as the votes for the toll roads piled up.
Whether it was “political suicide” or not we’ll just have to wait and see. But if these politicians are reelected they will see that as approving of their policy. Any candidate for future office should not feel any fear in standing up and proudly stating they are for a higher gas tax as opposed to tolling ALL new roads. Toll roads should be the exception and not the rule. They’re fine when a specific local community approves of them via the ballot, not a commission or board.
CAMPO members believed the TxDOT’s broke story and believed they were left with no other choice. That’s what the tollers wanted them to think and it worked. There’s always choices, some are easier than others. EOW thinks those who voted for this just took the easy way out. It was easier for the board to take a plan that was already on paper, concocted by those who donated to their campaigns, then to do the work the people needed them to do. If this makes you mad, then channel that anger into making sure these elected officials political careers don’t continue.
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10.08.07
Posted in Privatization, Road Issues, Central Texas, Commentary at 1:06 pm by wcnews
One of the five probable “no votes” mentioned in last week’s AusChron article has decided to vote for the toll roads. It’s Travis County Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt, Why I’m voting for toll roads. After saying she’ll vote for the plan and detailing all the bad there is in this toll road paln, Eckardt tries to soften the blow by saying there will be some amendments to plan to make it less abhorrent.
I am offering an amendment to lock down the revenue generated from a toll project to the corridor in which the tolls are collected. The amendment would limit the use of any revenue beyond construction, maintenance and operation costs to improving the non-tolled options in and around the toll project and to public transit serving the same commuter population.
Under these amendments, the toll tax will go away when the construction debt is retired.
In addition, other CAMPO board members and I are offering amendments to require non-tolled access for rapid bus, van pools and car pools on all toll roads. We would require the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA) — not the Texas Department of Transportation — to operate these toll roads. And we would require the toll roads to remain in public hands and be operated in accord with the will of the people of Central Texas.
Through these amendments, we, as a region, can make the investment so desperately needed for multiple forms of transportation in highly congested corridors. These efforts will increase equity and transportation options for the businesses and residents most burdened by intolerable congestion and the additional tolls necessary to address it.
My only question for Eckhardt is when these amendments fail, will she still vote for the final plan without them included? To try and work a deal, this late in the game almost insures it’s failure. Her attempt to make the tolls more palatable by voting for them and working form the inside, won’t work. The tollers already have their deal, there’s no need for them to compromise now. Let’s hope Eckhardt doesn’t expect the people to believe this attempt to rationalize her vote for this plan. Another blow to the anti-corporate toll groups, Eckhardt was elected specifically to vote against this type of thing.
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Posted in Privatization, Had Enough Yet?, Road Issues, Central Texas, Commentary at 11:31 am by wcnews
Without trying to formulate any other plan tonight CAMPO Board will, more than likely, vote overwhelmingly to toll ALL new highways in the Austin/Central Texas area. Despite a huge majority of the public being opposed to tolling, many area politicians will bet their political futures on toll roads tonight. In essence believing that the purported “congestion relief” that toll roads will bring, will make voters forget the economic drag toll roads will put on their pocket books.
While much of the framing of this issue has been centered on tolls being the only way new highways can be built, there’s almost never any mention of the fact that other options are available and are not given serious examination, or just accepted as non-starters. Whenever the gas tax is mentioned it’s just written off having no chance of passing the Legislature. Instead of helping to inform the people of the fact that paying for our roads with a gas tax is the fairest and least expensive way to build our roads.
Ben Wear’s article is more of the same, Decision time - again - on toll roads. His main point seems to be that this current plan is more palatable than the previous plan.
But what is not debatable is that this plan is substantially, and substantively, distinct from its strife-torn and ultimately extinguished 2004 ancestor.
That plan had seven roads; this has five.
Your still going to pay a lot more for your roads than you should, but it’s three years later.
Anyway folks, what tonight’s vote boils down to is this. Our elected representatives think it’s a better plan to toll roads, than raise the gas tax. Despite the fact that they know the gas tax is a much fairer and cheaper way to pay for our roads. The neglect of our infrastructure caused by “conservative” rule over the past 30 years in our country, and 15 years in our state, have drained our much needed resources to pay for our infrastructure needs in the economical way we previously did. Instead our elected officials want us to pay much more for our highways then we ever have or force us to drive on access roads.
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Posted in Commissioners Court, Bad Government Republicans, Animal Shelter, Williamson County at 9:49 am by wcnews
Today’s AAS has a long article on the history of the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter (WCRAS), Despite warnings, budget and staffing were not allotted to meet new facility’s needs. Despite warnings from those they sought input from, county planners - primarily former Commissioner Greg Boatright and his assistant Kathy Grimes - went ahead with their own “conservative” approach to building an animal shelter.
Almost from the beginning, animal shelter experts and residents raised questions about the facility’s capacity, budget and staffing.
Janet Ott, board president of the Humane Society of Williamson County in Leander, was among the first to tell the county that the figures were too low.
“When the original $400,000 budget with five people came out, we were very clear that it was inadequate,” she said. “That just didn’t make any sense.”
The Humane Society took in 3,400 animals last year — less than half of the county shelter’s expected total — with a staff of 12.
Bert Stratemann, San Marcos’ animal services manager, said shelter staff also warned Williamson County leaders after hearing about their plans.
“We were really surprised at the number of staff out there,” he said, referring to the much larger shelter. “At that time, we had nine paid staff, and we were running ragged.”
[Kathy Grimes, former Commissioner Greg Boatright’s assistant] said she didn’t recall any objections from the shelters she contacted, which included San Marcos. But she said she remembers hearing from the Humane Society, whose contract with the county was about to end.
“They were in a situation where anything we were saying, they were opposed to, it seemed like. We realized we just had different missions,” Grimes said, explaining that they had to take any animals that came to the shelter, whereas the no-kill Humane Society can limit admissions.
Some city officials now acknowledge that they should have looked closer at the proposal.
Although Boatright and Grimes said the capacity figures seemed feasible at the time, they blamed the staffing levels on the architect.
The architect, Larry Connolly, explained that spending more money on the design would allow the county to spend less on staffing because the facility was designed to be economical and easy to manage, Grimes said.
Connolly, however, said he didn’t recommend specific staffing figures.
“I may have facilitated their decision-making,” he said. “This is my specialty, but I don’t recall any specific direction in terms of (staffing), and I deferred to the people that operate these things.”
Connolly’s 2005 master plan determined that the shelter would need 88 dog kennels and 44 cat cages to accommodate up to 14,000 animals a year for the next 10 years. The shelter was built with 85 dog kennels and 60 cat cages.
That’s less than the Humane Society’s capacity: 98 dog kennels and 64 cat kennels.
That’s right, it was the architect’s fault. One may notice the word “conservative” is used when the planners speak of their budgeting philosophy for the shelter, not adequate. The word used instead, EOW thinks, should be “cheap”. Their focus was not building and staffing a shelter adequately but building one that would cost the least. The county leaders thought they knew better than those that had experience running an animal shelter. Despite being told over and over again that they were wrong, they decided to plow ahead knowing they were right, it would seem, and do this on-the-cheap. Three shelter directors later, a higher budget, and finally things are looking up at the WCRAS. Imagine that? If they would have only listened to reason in the first place all of this could have been avoided, and it probably would have saved us money in the long run.
At the bottom of the AAS article there’s a comparison of what Williamson’s shelter as compared to similar shelter’s in other counties. It’s very telling.
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Posted in Commentary, Around The State at 8:47 am by wcnews
It’s Monday, and that means it is time again for the Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Round Up. This week’s round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.
TXsharon says, “YOU SUCK AT&T” and she can only say that because she doesn’t use AT&T. Over at Bluedaze she tells why, if you use AT&T for your Internets, you can’t say they suck.
Stace at Dos Centavos reports on racism and bigotry committed by a corporation and a UT fraternity.
What’s really going on in Irving? Xanthippas at Three Wise Men notes there’s more going on in the immigration crackdown than possible profiling and arrests.
CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that NOW wants to know why U.S. District Judge Judge Samuel Kent was ‘punished’ with a 4 month vacation after the investigation into sexual harassment charges concluded.
Criticism of Hillary Clinton’s laugh is no laughing matter, so says PDiddie at Brains and Eggs in HRC:LOL.
Might be time for a bit of horsetrading on the floor of the Senate, and one of Texas Kaos‘ regular diarists, Fake Consultant, has a bit of advice on the subject for Majority Leader Harry Reid in On Larry Craig, And Filibusters or Wanna Make a Trade?
Truth, it has been said, is the first casualty of war. The Republican-Media coalition must have declared war on Social Security, and Blue 19th exposes their lies.
Human rights advocates cheered the Williamson County Commission’s vote to sever ties with the operator of the T. Don Hutto holding facility for undocumented immigrants, but Eye On Williamson’s wcnews wonders if a battle within the Republican party over the county’s share of the profits may have driven their decision.
McBlogger at McBlogger speculates as to the reasons Sharon Keller (Chief Justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) needed to get out of work at 5 on Sept. 25th.
Vince at Capitol Annex tells us about the Texas Conservative Coalition’s new Election Integrity Task Force, its new Chairwoman and its likely recommendations.
Peter at B and B writes about the quixotic attempts by a group of environmentally-conscious Republicans to get their chosen political party to care about conservation and stewardship: Republicans for Environmental Protection, all 70 of them, meet in San Antonio.
Off the Kuff looks at the ongoing dispute between the Harris County Appraisal District and the State Comptroller over how commercial properties are taxed.
In Texas Kaos dairy, Dallas and Denton drinking water at risk by TxDOT’s route selection choice for FM299, Faith Chatham’s shares a letter from Highland Village Parents Group activist/homeowner Susie Venable to Mayor Tom Leppert of Dallas regarding the City Water Department’s failure to monitor possible MTBE contamination issues. Despite cries of running out of money, TxDOT selected the only route (of 8) which would double project costs by requiring bridges to be built across three tributaries to Lake Lewisville (drinking water source for Denton and Dallas Counties) in the area of the lake already contaminated by MTBE.
Gary at Easter Lemming updates the Pasadena Mayor Manlove resignation and his running for Lampson’s seat. There are a lot of happy faces at city hall. Easter Lemming broke the story back on the 22nd.
Trinity Trickey strikes again at The Texas Cloverleaf. This time pro toll road literature features the war on trees and the fight against Angela Hunt by the powers that be. Only in Dallas.
This week’s installment of GLBTube at the Houston GLBT Political Caucus Blog is a double feature: first, a sampling of clips related to ENDA; then gay republicans are running ads in order to sabotage hypocritical presidential candidates!
WhosPlayin hammers away on GOP Congressman Michael Burgess for dissing Muslims and being one of 30 boneheads to vote for giving mercenary firms like Blackwater a license to kill.
The Texas Blue looks at how the evangelical social movement isn’t playing nice-nice with the Republican Party any longer, and why that is good for America.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author, syndicated columnist, political analyst and commentator, who is on a virtual book tour will stop by Para Justicia y Libertad on Oct 11 to discuss his new book The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation Between African-Americans and Hispanics.
Hal at Half Empty counted a Lucky Seven congressional candidates that want to run against Nick Lampson in Texas CD 22. He ROFLs and LMAOs.
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10.06.07
Posted in Health Care, Take Action, Bad Government Republicans, District 31, Congress, Commentary, Central Texas, Williamson County at 1:09 pm by dembones
Before the August recess, Rep. John Carter called S-CHIP “a slow stroll down the road to socialism”. Since that time he found himself on the wrong side of a 265-159 vote on passage of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007. Joining Carter in rejecting the needs of our sick children were Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth), 16 other Texas Republican representatives and Sen. John Cornyn. This week, Pres. George W. Bush sided with the 37% of the House, 31% of the Senate, and 25% of Americans polled by ABC News and the Washington Post, in vetoing the S-CHIP reauthorization.
The rebuke of this popular program has been called “spectacularly dumb,” “infuriatingly bad policy,” and “inexplicable.” The President defended his veto on Wedensday:
“You say, that’s fine, sounds good, all these programs sound wonderful. Except how are you going to pay for it?” Bush asked a crowd of some 400 people at the invitation-only event.
“The answer is, raising taxes. And I think they’re wrong to raise taxes on the American people. I know we don’t need to raise taxes on the American people,” Bush said to applause.
The Republican candidates for President fell in line with Bush’s ideological stance. Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani subtly re-invoked the pedestrian anti-socialized-medicine metaphor: “It is not just a beginning, it’s a big step in the direction of government-controlled medicine.”
The Republican argument, in a nutshell is “socialism bad.” Yet, the federal government spends $657.3 billion (FY 2008) on the Social Security Administration, a program whose widespread popularity is rooted in its success at ending the blight of senior citizen squalor that tore at the fabric of this nation 60 years ago. Today, nearly 50 million people receive financial support from the SSA, about one-sixth of all Americans.
On the other hand, there is consistency in the ideological arguments against socialism when one considers the President’s past misguided attempts to privatize the SSA. Rep. Carter was a foot soldier in that battle as well, although his famous 2005 quote blaming SSA budget shortfalls on “people having these abortions and using birth control” did not exactly bolster the President’s case.
It seems the only human activity that Republicans believe ought to be socialized is war. The National Priorities Project estimates the total cost of the Iraq War now exceeds $457 billion. Yet John Carter continues to support the war and oppose S-CHIP. Carter’s priorities seem to have more to do with his estimated $2.5 to $3.4 million personal stake in ExxonMobil than with the working poor families in Williamson county who fear their children’s fever more than terrorists.
Please contact John Carter and ask why continuing to keep our soldiers in the line of fire for unfettered access by American corporations to Middle East oil is an acceptable socialized program, and S-CHIP is not. Can’t we afford to spend one-thirteenth as much on a program that directly helps children in working poor families?
Eye On Williamson certainly hopes our Congressman will come before the citizens in district 31 to answer for his positions. In the meantime, please call his Washington office at (202) 225-3864, his Round Rock office at (512) 246-1600 or his Temple office at (254) 933-1392 and urge him to reverse his position and vote to override President Bush’s veto of HR 976.
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