Time to Ask Texas Voters What They Really Want
The line to get a driver’s license at one Houston location is so long, according to Tommy Williams, that a guy called in a pizza order, got it delivered to him, and finished eating before he got to the front of the line.
Williams, R-The Woodlands, uses the line in a speech, so it might or might not be precisely accurate. But it sets up his point: "How many of you in this audience would pay an additional $8 every six years (the current price is $24) to hire enough people to get rid of those two-hour lines?"
That ...
Comments (22)
dormand long
Residents of Dallas are tiring of the City Hall mindset that funding for quality of life enhancements are only possible by taxing residents.
Those at Dallas City Hall have repeatedly ignored non-tax options for substantially improving the flow of revenues to Dallas including those which are the lowest lying fruits, easily available:
a ) Emulating NYC in drawing the culture shopping tourism of foreigners bonanza which has enriched all in NYC. We have in the DFW Region billions of dollars of in-place world-class museums and art exhibits. Those in areas in which effective education has created substantial wealth travel to enjoy art, and they spend generously on apparel, restaurants, hotels and entertainment whereever they travel. The London Financial Times reports that there are may who will drop $30,000 in one day updating their apparel. The New York Times reports that NYC took in $2 billion from foreign buyers alone during the Cristoff flag exhibition in Central Park. Dallas has the cultural attractions; City Hall just does not promote it. They are proficient at spreading the word that the State Fair has every imaginable fried food, however, which is the image that the world seems to have of Dallas.
b ) Emulating Indianapolis' incredibly effective youth lifetime sports tournament infrastructure. Dallas has an acute shortage of playing field capacity to support the existing lifetime youth sports team organization infrastructure developed. Were Dallas to increase the quality and quantity of lifetime sports venue infrastructure, it could reap a year-round tourism bonanza, as does Indianapolis with its hugely successful program of facilitating amateur sports tournaments of national, regional and state wide competitions. Indiapolis reports that its programs has brought in $2 billion in spending from outsiders visiting for youth sports tournaments. As an additional benefit, Indianapolis teams enjoy having top quality sports venues readily available for their teams use in practice when tournaments are not in session.
c ) Emulating Seattle's win-win-win conversion to parking kiosks resulted in a 50% gain the first year in revenue per parking space with no increase in rates per hour. This increase is from the elimination of the free parking Dallas currently allows when a driver leaves a space with time left on the meter. As business users prefer the simplicity of the parking kiosks, they tend to put on their credit card the maximum time available due to the uncertainty of their business visit. As funds flow immediately to the city from credit card swipes, we no longer have to send out City employees in 107 degree heat to collect the coins setting in the archaic coin parking meters.
With the enhanced revenue from these three sources, Dallas could restore its previous best in the nation library programs which previously provided upward mobility to those from lower income homes during the well managed days of the Erik Jonnson era of running the city.
gypsy314 ne
I say Speaker Joe and Williams is full of it. No more money for them to mismanage. They can cut money from the illegal aliens and have extra money for schools and roads but I think we should vote all these rhinos out of office and get some people that are not rhinos to do the job. Most people can renew the ID's online. Sending all illegal aliens home would save billions for Texan tax payers. I say they should start with sending all illegal aliens and there children back to there country.
gypsy314 ne
Memory check was Williams the one holding up SB9 ?
dormand long
Those intent on ridding the US of immigrants lacking citizenship papers might pause to consider who is going to perform those jobs American born citizens with their robust sense of entitlement refuse to take.
The root cause of the prosperity of the DFW Region is the leverage provided by the Hispanic community to perform those jobs requiring a high level of quality hand crafting, strong backs, immunity to our brutal summer heat and a willingness to work for wages which are inadequate to build financial independence in this country by any standards.
If you would like to see a vivid example of what a city lacking in the valuable labor contributions of the Hispanic community is like, visit Shreveport. For whatever reasons, there have not been a critical mass of Hispanics who have moved to that city. Businesses with challenging working conditions are unable to sustain sufficient numbers of employees and thus they suffer.
Shreveport is thus like going back to 1950.
The Hispanic community has probably been a root cause of the quality of life that you enjoy. Those who advocate building massive fences on our border ( electrified or not ) have not a clue as to the essentials of building a healthy, vibrant economy.
V Marshall
@Dormand
I believe you are confusing entitlement mentality with income mentality. If you allowed citizens to work those jobs and still allowed the businesses employing them to not offer health benefits, to not contribute FICA, to not pay into Texas Workforce, allowed the family to receive Lone Star cards, section 8 housing, Medicaid with no means testing citizens would be happier to do those jobs. Taxpayers contribute $24,000 a year to each illegal family on average. That doesn't include EITC and child credits that the IRS admits they grant in spite of it being expressly prohibited. That may be a great way to "stimulate" the economy (those taxpayers may have saved that money rather than spend it and the immigrant family will spend all of it), but it should be up for debate as to whether or not it is ethical for business owners to enjoy higher profits through taxpayer subsidies of their employees.
dormand long
Mr/Ms. Marshall-
Your comment did not list a source of its claim of a $24,000 subsidy per illegal family, which might add some credibility to your argument.
While our status quo is far from optimum, few recognize that illegals forfeit the FICA and tax withholding held back from their net paychecks and submitted to the government.
Mr./Ms. Marshall, as you appear eager to eliminate this dire threat to our way of life by sending all illegals back to Mexico or the country of their origin, might I suggest that there are literaly thousands of farmers with produce on the cusp of rotting in their fields due to the lack of labor to pick that produce so that it can be sold. You can report at the field at 6 AM, pick up that sack and start picking.
After a twelve hour day under the hot sun, you may not need to go the gym to get your aerobic points for that day as you will be exhaused. Don't forget your sunscreen.
Again, if you would care to broaden your horizons, visit the one city which has not had the enormous benefit for growth that many others have had, Shreveport, Louisiana. If you enjoyed the 1950s, you would love Shreveport, which lacks a critical mass of Hispanics.
Due diligence does wonders to making a credible argument.
voteforamerica
LATINOS FOR HONEST GOVERNMENT
http://grassrootstexans.net/pages/home/
Juan Reynoso's Blog - TeaParty.org
Ron Paul and NAFTA
November 14, 2011
Will America fail because we are to busy to seek the truth?
Fellow American Tea Party Patriots, Will America fail because you are too busy to seek the truth about this elections?. The truth is, that we have in our country political insiders that work for the elite that control this United States; Democrats and Republicans are in the pockets of this elite organization, they expended millions on every election to have their man in power. The goal of this organization is the making of the one world order through the formation of economic blocks, for the purpose of distribution of wealth and promote social justice in the world at the expenses of the hard working people of this United States. Politicians and the elite of Globalization count on Americans apathy and ignorance to keep destroying our country. How much longer do you think, we can be in complete denial of what is going on, before they destroy our country.
Fellow American, our destruction is the work of the Washington politicians, they are the ones that passed the legislation that are destroying our country's economy and values; please check the result of these legislations they passed, and do your best to connect the dots:
1- The 1986, Reagan amnesty to 3 million illegal aliens. set the precedent for the invasion of the 12 millions of illegal aliens that are in our country today, taken Americans jobs and place many cities in financial crisis.
2- It was the Reagan administration that launched the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations in 1986 that lowered global tariffs and created the World Trade Organization. It was his administration that won approval of the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement in 1988. That agreement soon expanded to include Mexico in what became the North American Free Trade Agreement, realizing a vision that Reagan first articulated in the 1980 campaign. It was Reagan who vetoed protectionist textile quota bills in 1985 and 1988. This policy made the bigging of the end of our country's leadership on international commerce and the demise of millions of factories and millions of Americans jobs.
3- Bill Clinton's American Dream, Making the home ownership possible to millions of Americans that can not afforded the payment of the mortgage resulting in the development of the housing bubble. Bill Clinton continue the policies of free trade and the demise of millions of Americans jobs.
4- George W. Bush fail to stop the free Trade and the Globalist take over of the US internal market, making Americans more Dependants of foreign goods and service, resulting on more unemployment and the burst of the huge housing bubble. The 9/11 attack, prompt Bush to start the wars with Afghanistan and Iraq and cost the American taxpayers over 6 trillions Dollars, the cost of the wars and the burst of the housing bubble created the conditions for the economic crisis of 2008; the ill option to bail out the financial corporations, The Banks and companies in economic distress made the economic situation worse.
5- President Obama made many promises to deal with this crisis, but continued with the destruction of our country, the wars continue, he passed more Free Trade legislations, expended billions of Dollars in bail outs that worses this economic catastrophe, refused to secure our borders and enforce our immigration laws, set precedent for more sanctuary to illegal aliens by suing the states for enforcing the immigrations laws and encourage foreign countries to sue the states for protecting their people from this foreign invasion. President Obama send a clear message to the whole world that this United States will not enforce the immigration laws, as consequence we have an invasion of millions of people from different countries and with them come drug traffickers and the enemy that want to destroy our country.
Today president Obama is on a campaign tour, disguise as a promotion to create jobs for Americans, he said to the American people that we are to lazy to compete with china and the he is working to enable American companies to compete with china. This president think that we the people of this United States are stupid, this United States is setup to be destroy by the globalist and the traitors that sold our country by the implementation of these free trade, immigration and war policies. Mr Obama is plain ignorant and incompetent or a F- traitor, we can never be able to compete with china; an average Chinese wage is $0.57 cents per hour -- or $104 Dollars per month, the cost of producing any thing in China is twenty times cheaper in china than in the USA. When Hong Kong was returned to china in 2000, the USA made commerce treaties with china to help china economic development and since 2002 Americans transfered their manufacturing facilities and technology to China for the development and the creation of millions of jobs for the Chinese people at the expenses of our country's future and the slavery of the American people. The MF in Washington sold our future to give the greedy multinational corporations the freedom to exploit the cheap China labor and get themselves richer. Washington do not care about you, me or our country, these MF lost their love for our country, not patriotism not sovereignty or values; nothing matters but money, money is what drive these MF to the destruction of our country.
Fellow Americans, freedom comes with responsibility; our responsibility is: stand for our Constitution, our Sovereignty, the rule of law and our American values. We must fight for the preservation of our country. Our love for our country, always must be to give our life if need be, for our country and our future, we must seek the truth and educate the people on solutions that are both effective and in agreement with our Constitution and the rule of law.
Let's restore, Honesty - integrity - Honor and our American values in our Government. The 2012 elections is the fight for our future, we must vote the traitor out and elect the people that will not sell our country any more.
God Bless America. We trust in God, the lord will give us the wisdom and courage to fight for our country.
Juan Reynoso's Blog - TeaParty.org
Learn what the Chinese income is - http://www.worldsalaries.org/china.shtml
Learn why Obama is lying - http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/06/0502/art1.html
We can not compete with cheap labor - http://www.gold-eagle.com/gold_digest_05/stott072006.html
Wages by countries - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
Take action - http://www.thepeopledecide.us/
Vote for America in 2012
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
The comments to this article are emblematic of the reason why we cannot have an honest discussion of state finances. Illegal immigration has nothing to do with the topic. The issue is whether we are going to have the money to build the transportation infrastructure required for a growing population or whether we don't. The issue is whether we are going to continue to underfund our public schools to educate our future work force or whether we are going to continue to jam students into overcrowded classrooms and have one of the highest dropout rates in the nation. I told my legislators in the last session, "Please raise my taxes." Unfortunately, they were too busy making pledges and proclaiming their support for the whack-job tea party types to listen to me. If you want the business analogy, if business is good, you invest in production and train your workers, or you lose out on business. The business of the state is providing infrastructure to facilitate commerce and training future workers via the state's constitutional mandate to provide for universal public education. Earth to immigration whack-jobs. Try to focus on the relevant topic.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I don't have a problem with raising taxes.
Julia Hart via Texas Tribune on Facebook
if you wanna live in a nice place you're gonna have to pay a fair price. we pay taxes to keep the country from going down the drain. i don't know why that makes so many people mad.
Brad Absalom via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Never a talk of a state income tax. I would think at 3-5% state income tax would replace the state sales tax and the business margins tax and be more fair, but a state income tax seems to be heresy in Texas.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I also don't have a problem raising the social security caps on income which is only now taxed at $106,800. This should have been raised a long time ago.
Bambi Clark via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Nor a problem getting rid of big oil susidies and loopholes.
Karen Spivey-Cummings via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Bambi, I agree. Tax expenditures that are spending is disguise.
WUSRPH
Of course you can have it all and not pay for it? After all, the GOP has been telling us for years and years that all you have to do is cut out all the waste, fraud, duplication, unnecessary programs and corruption and spend every conceivable dollar you can think of on "defense" and "tax cuts" and you will have all the $$$$ you could ever hope for.....Just because they have yet to show how that can be done is no reason to doubt them, is it?
Max Sped
A lot of TEXANS were saying TAXES had to be increased during the Budget Debacle but those good Ultra-Rich Rightwing Evangelicals hung together and gutted the state.
Now that all the budgeting gimmicks have been used resulting in lying to voters-taxpayers only when absolutely necessary, the lawmakers will now let that dirty tax word slip between their lips. It is a shame none of them had the guts to stand up and tell it like it is.
Lawmakers, please do not use the Sales Tax or Added Value Tax to overcome the budget problems – the middle and lower income voters-taxpayers have been screwed sufficiently by the State of Texas already.
Erin Anderson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
The relevant question isn't "What's the right balance of price and quality?" It's "What is the proper role of government?" In this case, state government, which does too many things and wastes too much taxpayer money doing them. On highways, gas tax revenues are diverted to other uses, so let's use the tax for it's intended purpose instead of increasing it. As for schools, they should be funded & managed locally; otherwise efficient districts end up subsidizing their profligate neighbors. Some districts spend their $$ on high-dollar administrators, iPads, multi-million dollar stadiums - then complain they have to lay off teachers. Government needs to use the tax dollars it already gets much more wisely before asking for more.
V Marshall
@Dormand
I started at age 10 picking that fruit. However our day started before 6 am. The fruit would split if handled during the heat of the day. (My Father-in-law started at age 7) It is actually why I got a job for an hourly wage at age 14, so I could avoid going out into the orchards and fields. On the up side, that help pay for college. Too bad kids today don't have the same opportunity.
Also, I never said that everyone should be returned to their country of origin. That is your assumption of my beliefs.
Education alone for the typical family of 6 (Pew Hispanic statistics) is $468,000 ($9000 x 4 children x13 years)
Dave S
Wow, this comments section is proof of why severe moderation is needed in online comments. Illegal immigrant has no connection to the article subject.
There is a clear connection between decreasing state revenues and decreasing state spending. Too many voters are too stupid to understand that though, and most politicians are too gutless to point it out.
hans5162@ix.netcom.com hans
Ms. Anderson again demonstrates her ignorance of State finances. Even if all of the diversions from the highway trust fund were eliminated, it would not provide sufficient money to maintain existing roads and build new roads. The biggest diversion from state highway funds is to the Department of Public Safety. Would she propose eliminating that department? If not, then you have to come up with an additional funding source for DPS. As for schools, I do agree that schools should be left to local control, however, the reality is that what she proposes results in an enormous disparity in funding for school districts, depending on the property tax base. If you want to talk about waste and inefficiency, look at the outsourcing contracts. State employees can do the work more efficiently and at a far lower cost. Outsourcing human services was a disaster. Outsourcing IT to IBM resulted in cancelling the $2 billion dollar contract. Outsourcing disaster relief has resulted in paying 3 times the administrative cost, with no oversight and the majority of the disaster funds being held up from the people who needed the help years ago. It is really easy to mindlessly chant the mantra of "get rid of the fat first." The problem stems from ignorance and confusion between what occurs at the state level versus the federal level. We really don't have a bloated state government. We are 49th in per capita expenditures. We have the highest number of uninsured people, the highest number of people who failed to graduate high school and the increasingly inadequate public education. I'm curious to know what aspect of Mississippi the whack-job tea party types find so irresistibly appealing? Is it the romanticism of the share-cropper economy, or the allure of religious fanaticism and rejection of modern science? Fortunately, the presidential race has revealed our cheerleader Governor for what he is...a stupid lackey who only does what he is told and cannot when his life depends upon it come up with an original idea. He is the poster boy for the anti-tax crowd that is killing this state and this country.
gypsy314 ne
So you are gutless and you can not say for certain that Illegal aliens are sucking our system dry in our schools and out. You are either a illegal alien and crying about the truth or you have them working for you and you are using them as slave labor and making a killing off the labor. Either way you should cry to someone who cares.
gypsy314 ne
I say make public schools compete with private schools give vouchers out to American citizens only and we will have plenty of money and the bad teachers will be weeded out quickly.