12 April 2007
Guillotine type HOV devices are world class -- when they work
KHOU-11's Jason Whitely reports on METRO's latest waste of money:
You likely never notice them driving by. Metal cabinets line the on-ramps to five Houston HOV lanes.
They’re part of a broken safety system in which METRO paid $6,000,000 for in 2005.The metal cabinets used to have red and white arms that swung out to prevent cars from going the wrong way.
A little closer to the actual entrance to the HOV lane are guillotine type devices that cars drive through.
Nets, designed to catch cars, used to lower from them as another back-up measure to prevent wrong-way accidents. Not anymore.
The system just has not worked out.
Shocking!
Just yesterday, of course, our mayor told Chronicle reporter Matt Stiles that METRO is a wise steward of taxpayers' money.
Because, you know, it's wise stewardship to drop $6 million of taxpayers' money on dysfunctional guillotine type devices for the HOV lanes.
In some alternate, not-world-class, universe.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/12/07 09:24 PM |
11 April 2007
Baker Botts takes on White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream
The Chronicle's Melanie Markley reports that Mayor White's efforts to extricate the city from the legal commitment made by previous administrations to a local nonprofit organization that houses mentally retarded people so that he can sell the land to developers has drawn the fire of some big legal guns:
A major Houston law firm has agreed to represent the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation pro bono in its fight to remain on prime city property near River Oaks.
Baker Botts lawyer Irv Terrell confirmed Tuesday that his firm volunteered to represent the center after reading that city officials had declared the facility's 99-year lease invalid and were considering selling the land.
"We think the center should stay exactly where it is and continue to provide the services it is providing, and we hope the city agrees with that," Terrell said.
Also, a former city attorney who negotiated long-term agreements with other nonprofits in the early 1960s said the city contracts at the time were viewed more as service agreements rather than landlord-tenant leases, which the city charter limits to no more than 30 years.
John Wildenthal, who was city attorney for former Mayor Louie Welch from 1964-66, said he wasn't involved in the 1963 agreement with the center but negotiated others that allowed nonprofits to lease land for $1 a year in exchange for providing much-needed social services.
Wildenthal said the city agreed to long-term contracts to allow the charitable organizations time to invest in facilities.
"My opinion is that these services were much more valuable to the citizens than the rent would produce on a landlord-tenant basis or a one-shot sale where you spend the money and it's gone," Wildenthal said.
The reasoning behind these sorts of agreements was/is sound -- the city gives a break to nonprofit organizations that provide a social good to the community. The nonprofit delivers some services more efficiently than the city ever could, and the city doesn't have to take on directly either the expense or the liability. It's a win-win situation.
It may well be that some technical language in this agreement (and others) is not as legally precise as some bureaucrats would like, but the fact is that this has never been a problem until now -- and the proposed solution (evicting mentally retarded people to boost developers and the city's coffers) seems way out of line with the "problem" that city officials have allegedly identified (legal technicalities).
If legal technicalities were the only concern, we suspect the city's legal staff and the legal eagles at Baker Botts could hammer out a substitute agreement in no time at all. Instead, we think KPRC-2 described the Mayor's gambit fairly accurately:
City attorneys argue the center's lease is invalid under the city charter, which limits leases to no more than 30 years. City officials want the lucrative property developed to generate more revenue.
And, of course, to boost developers who have recently come to covet this land.
It's Houston, after all, and public officials tend to treat developers very well.
But evicting mentally retarded people to benefit local developers really is going too far.
It's not fair, it's not right, and it's not necessary.
Mayor White needs to back off.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/07 11:23 PM |
Council approves $2.5 million deal with Earthlink
Various media outlets note that City Council today approved the wifi contract with Earthlink to construct a municipal wifi bubble that will, according to proponents, bridge the digital divide, improve public safety, make Houston world class, boost economic development, save the city money on communications, AND solve the Darfur crisis (okay, the wifi bubble utopians haven't promised the last one just yet, but sometimes the rhetoric gets nearly that fantastic). Here's a summary from the Chronicle's Matt Stiles:
Downtown likely will have the first access to the planned wireless Internet network system approved today by the City Council, and the rest of Houston will be added in 100-square-mile sections over two years, officials said.
The council unanimously approved the contract with Atlanta-based EarthLink to build and maintain the system at its own expense, charging Houstonians for access to a network that would be the largest of its kind in North America.
The network's first large customer will be the city itself. The council approved spending $2.5 million over five years for access.
In a much-ballyhooed chat with bloggers nearly a year ago, the city's information technology director Richard Lewis responded to a question posed by Larry Hendrick about the cost of the service to the city, basically downplaying the notion that the city would have to pay.
What a difference (nearly) a year makes! About a $2.5 million difference. It's one of those data points that helps to explain why we are frequently wary of fantastic pronouncements from politicos.
That said, it was almost certainly a smart business move by Earthlink to secure the city as a $2.5 million anchor client for this network (never mind that it isn't quite in line with the White Administration's early PR efforts at selling the network as cost free). As Katie Fehrenbacher writes for tech-oriented GigaOM, existing municipal wifi networks are having trouble attracting actual paying subscribers. So, securing a big anchor subscriber/subsidizer makes sense for Earthlink. Perhaps it will make sense for the city eventually (if there are real savings and/or efficiencies for the city that can be measured). And it certainly will make sense as a campaign theme when Bill White starts looking at statewide office!
RELATED COVERAGE: KPRC-2, KHOU-11, KTRK-13, KTRH-740.
BLOGVERSATION: TechBlog, NewsWatch: City Hall, Off the Kuff, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/07 10:38 PM |
10 April 2007
KHOU announces new co-anchor
Mike McGuff notes this bit of news from the Chronicle's Mike McDaniel:
Lucy Noland, a Saigon native and single mother of three, will become co-anchor of Channel 11's 5 and 10 p.m. news beginning Monday. She replaces Lisa Foronda, who announced in December that she was leaving the station.Nolan [sic] said the beauty of the city, the warmness of the people and the sizable Vietnamese population figured in her leaving her job as co-anchor of the morning show at the Fox affiliate in New York City.
The beauty of the city? Hmm, does this mean they brought her in for an evening interview, got a nice shot of the downtown skyline, drove by the bayou on the way to KHOU, and whisked her away the same night?
Just kidding, folks. Just kidding.
We look forward to Noland's first newscast.
UPDATE (04-11-2007): KHOU introduces Noland here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/10/07 01:24 PM |
09 April 2007
City tightens parking perks; HISD pushes for end to TAKS
The Chronicle today runs yet another story (35 paragraphs this time!) on the airport parking "scandal" (we add the quotes because we had trouble getting too excited about it when KTRK-13 first reported on it during a slow news cycle).
Rather than the usual excerpt, we'll just let you know that some people abused the perk, and the city now plans on cracking down! Because while we'll tolerate a downtown overrun with pushy vagrants and a city overrun with murders, we will NOT stand for abuse of airport parking by the city's elites. Darnit!
Meanwhile, the same newspaper has not devoted similar space (certainly not 35 paragraphs!) to what is, in our view, an important developing story: HISD's stance on replacing the TAKS test with end-of-course exams. HISD's board is set to take up the issue formally on Thursday, but Superintendent Abe Saavedra's comments in favor of the end-of-course exams suggest that HISD's position on the matter is already developed. Since HISD is the state's largest school district and the TAKS debate has grown contentious in recent years, you'd think the Chronicle would want to own that important story. But so far, an AP story is all we've seen on Chron.com.
Ah well. We're sure the local daily would have reported it if something truly important were happening at HISD -- say, if Saavedra were abusing airport parking privileges!
RELATED COVERAGE: KHOU-11.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/07 10:48 PM |
Another Voice: The Trash-Mongers paradise
So, how many writers do YOU know who can write this well about... garbage collection?!
That Slampo has the gift.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/09/07 09:54 PM |
City ready to evaluate municipal courts' computer system
On the Chron's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles writes that the city is fed up with the municipal courts' underperforming computer system, and Council will consider a contract with MITRE Corp. to figure out if and how the computer system can be salvaged.
MITRE Corp. is the same company that came up with suggestions on improving operations at the Houston Emergency Center.
Stiles also highlights a few items of interest on this week's Council agenda, including the Parking Authority's desire to revamp the city's parking rules (uh oh!).
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/09/07 09:07 PM |
Splashtown has a new owner
Here's an AP story (via KTRK-13) that notes Splashtown has been bought by a real estate investment group:
A Florida-based real estate investment trust said Monday it bought seven former Six Flags Inc. properties for $312 million.
[snip]
PARC managers said they want the parks to focus more on regional markets as well as guest safety and satisfaction.
"As we complete the transaction, we are looking forward to the opportunity to refocus these parks on regional economies," said Randal H. Drew, president and CEO of PARC Management.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/09/07 08:16 PM |
08 April 2007
NewsWatch: Homicide
Chron.com has made public its NewsWatch: Homicide blog, which will apparently track murders in the city.
Unfortunately, that's likely to be a pretty busy blog, given HPD's manpower problems and the state of crime in Houston.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 10:21 PM |
Clearing out the March tidbits
We're engaged in a bit of spring cleaning, which means tossing out old links and stories that never managed to get full-blown posts.
I couldn't just trash a couple of transit-related March items, though, so here they are:
First, there's Rad Sallee's interview with Mayor White on mobility issues. This exchange was a little surprising:
Q: What was your first mobility initiative?
A: We started retiming the north-south streets in Midtown in January right after I took office. By the end of 2005 we had retimed over 2,000 of 2,400 intersections. Now we're going back and doing it again.
Q: I still get a good many complaints about stoplight timing.
A: We want to know about complaints. I have one myself. I support the Main Street rail line but it's wreaked havoc on some of our signal timing. Also, when there's construction or a change in traffic flow, we need to make sure we go back and retime the signals.
The Main Street rail line has indeed wreaked havoc on signal timing, and (as a result) vehicular traffic flow in that corridor. Sensible people understand the folly of laying light rail lines down busy vehicular traffic corridors, but Houston's light-rail-at-any-cost crowd is not always sensible. Unfortunately, the Mayor's "complaint" doesn't have much teeth, as he seems disinclined to discourage METRO from laying even more light rail down busy streets, some of which have much more heavily trafficked intersections than the Main Street corridor (like Richmond/Kirby).
Second, there's some interesting Congressional testimony from Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson, as reported by Mass Transit:
Houston is now negotiating with a "facility provider" who will, at a minimum, design and build four corridors of guided, bus rapid transit and an intermodal terminal. The agency has selected Houston Transit Partners, a consortium lead by Washington Group International, from three proposals to handle the project. The agency wants the 20 miles of guideways, including stations, to be completed by late 2010 with operational vehicles in place by 2011. Houston Metro hopes to begin construction later this year.
"Our skills lie in providing comprehensive transportation services," Wilson told Congress, "but we are ill-equipped to tackle the large and exceptionally complex system expansion programs needed to meet our future goals. We have neither the skills nor the resources required to execute complicated designs and construction projects that routinely range in the hundreds of millions."
We do not always agree with Mr. Wilson, but we aren't going to argue with that admission!
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 09:50 PM |
Mrs. White: Swell garbage tax proposal hurt by poor presentation
Back on April 1, the Chronicle's neighborhood section reporter Seshdri Kumar offered an early report on the city's plans to impose a new garbage tax while simultaneously cutting garbage service. Various blogs began to comment on the matter, and eventually all the news "big boys" reported the story, filling in additional details.
A week later, the Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists (or, as Cory Crow would have it, Mrs. White) weighed in predictably in favor of Mayor White's new garbage tax. Just as predictably, they don't much like Councilmember Michael Berry's accurate characterization of the proposal:
HOUSTON is a trash-monger's paradise. Unlike other major cities, it doesn't charge for ordinary trash removal. Heavy trash, a $28 million expense, gets whisked away free each month. And though large-scale recycling would create revenue, most residents see little reason to separate garbage. After all, there's no cost if they don't.
There are a few big bugs in this paradise: funding shortfalls for other services such as police, costly trash pickup from ineligible homes, and overflowing landfills. For the past year, a mayoral task force has sifted through these problems. Their well-researched proposals, offered last week to City Council, would keep trash management cheaper and easier for Houstonians than for their Texas neighbors.
However, though the task force was guided by seasoned leaders such as Comptroller Annise Parker, its moderate — even overly cautious — proposals faded next to one clumsily presented idea: a $42 yearly "waste reduction" fee.
Derided by Councilman Michael Berry as "less service, higher cost," the proposal actually would be a bargain. It would create a dedicated fund of as much as $19 million annually to upgrade solid waste services. This otherwise untouchable account would pay for more recycling facilities, cover a portion of heavy trash pickup and launch a composting program for yard waste.
Right now, all trash services are paid out of the city's general fund, which comes from taxes.
If the services are funded by taxes (which the Editorial LiveJournalists concede in the second bolded excerpt), then they are not "free" (as the Editorial LiveJournalists assert in the first bolded excerpt). As Slampo has pointed out, sanitation services in Houston are no more "free" than police or fire protection. Rather, they are basic services funded by taxes in our city.
The garbage tax proponents who briefed the Editorial LiveJournalists may not like Councilmember Berry's characterization, but the fact is that what is being proposed is indeed a garbage tax accompanied by a reduction in city services. That much is really not debatable, although we can certainly debate the merits and demerits of the proposal.
Ubu Roi has been writing quite a bit about the demerits on his personal blog, and Part II of his "Trash the Fee" series is here. He also discusses the (related?) retirement of Houston's solid waste director.
Feel free to offer your thoughts in the forum.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 09:11 PM |
Happy Easter!
I hope you all are enjoying a blessed Easter Sunday. The weather's a bit chilly, but the sun is peeking out -- how appropriate!
Thankfully, the Chron's ed board decided not to insult Christians today, for a change -- they're talking Houston's new trash tax instead. You may recall that in 2005 the editors decided Easter was a comfort to those who were upset about the forced starvation of Terri Schiavo. This year I half expected some "inspirational words" about Christ's Resurrection relating to the British hostages.
I do hold out hope that one day the media won't be so hostile to Christianity.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/08/07 11:35 AM |
We're #2!
A Houston museum that we discussed recently just got a mention on Gadling, an excellent travel weblog.
The National Museum of Funeral History is #2 on the Gadling list of 10 Strange and Obscure American museums.
The Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa is #3. Thankfully, term limits leave Councilmember Ada Edwards little time to push for such a museum here in town.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/08/07 11:32 AM |
07 April 2007
If only Tilman Fertitta were on the board of directors...
On Chron.com's City Hall blog, Matt Stiles posts an update on Mayor White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded" revenue stream: the mayor has sent city councilmembers a five page memo explaining his position.
Stiles points out that a KHOU-11 Defenders story from last year led to this current bit of bad press for the city. In that story, KHOU's Mark Greenblatt reported that city-owned land was being rented by private businesses at rock-bottom prices. After that story, it seems the city did some reviewing. It would be interesting for Greenblatt to go back now and update what changes occurred in the agreements between the city and the businesses in the story.
And note Mayor White's reaction in KHOU's story last year:
“I mean it’s unacceptable,” Mayor White said. “People ought to be paying fair market value for those leases.”
He said a new department will handle the rents from now on. Just a few months ago, the mayor hired Bob Christie, a real estate expert with 30 years of experience in the private sector.
“This is evidence why this management change I implemented already is long overdue,” Mayor White said.
White told us he will ask Christie to give him recommendations on the best way to get top dollar out of the land in question.
Regarding the bargain prices we found, like the property that had not been revalued in 40 years, White said: “Total incompetence on the city’s part. And inexcusable.”
He also told us he’d like to sell off most of those properties that have those bargain leases.
The mayor says he now plans to try and sell off, rather than rent, most of that land we just told you about, assigning that task to an expert in real estate he hired recently.
Certainly with regard to most of these leases, Mayor White's position is right on, but not in the case of The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation.
In his memo, Mayor White says:
I would ask the public to understand that no dedication of taxpayers' property is "free," and that any choice that the City dedicate limited public funds or real estate for one purpose ultimately comes at the expense of some alternative public use.
Ahhhhh, if only the folks at The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation had Tilman Fertitta on their side. He has a knack for getting his hands on prime city-owned land, at less than fair market value!
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/07/07 05:10 PM |
06 April 2007
Chron: Northgate Forest residents are racist
What else are we to conclude after reading yesterday's opening, loaded paragraph written by Ericka Mellon?
Some residents of an upscale subdivision are trying to take advantage of a little-known provision in state law to get out of the increasingly diverse Spring school district and join the more-affluent and higher-performing Klein system.
That's not objective journalism; that's Ericka Mellon's personal interpretation of what Northgate Forest petitioners are attempting to do. None of the stories I have read on this issue have included residents saying they want out of Spring ISD because of the district's "increasing diversity." The issue is better education for two main reasons: for their children, and for their property values.
However, you won't find the above paragraph in the Chron's story anymore. The link to yesterday's story which included that doozy of a paragraph has been modified to reflect Spring ISD's rejection of the residents' request:
Homeowners in a posh Spring subdivision have lost round one of their battle to join the wealthier, better-performing Klein Independent School District.
The Spring school board today unanimously rejected a petition signed by 190 Northgate Forest residents to separate the area from the predominantly minority district and be annexed to Klein ISD.
"Better-performing" is more in line with what Northgate Forest residents are seeking, and Spring ISD knows it can't afford to give up those homes:
The assessed value of the relatively small subdivision — $92.5 million, about 1 percent of the district's tax base — was too much for the district to lose, especially considering that only seven students from Northgate are currently enrolled in Spring schools, according to the district.
So Northgate Forest residents will most likely continue to be forced to hand over their tax dollars to an underperforming district, while most send their children to private schools, a fact that was noted in a previous Chronicle story. I'd look for the link but the Chron's archives suck and I don't have the energy to waste on that effort. However, today's modified story hints at it:
But for Northgate resident Miriam Witt and her husband, Marcos, a Latin Grammy winner, the petition offered a chance at better schools for their children. They have opted for the private Northland Christian school and a homeschooling program.
''I'm not against supporting a particular school district,'' she said, ''but I would personally like to be able to choose where our children go to school.''
Progressive journalists and other public education utopians can wring their hands all they like over what they think is racist behavior by folks who don't want their tax dollars funding poorly-performing schools, but the fact is many public policies have led to this problem. Unfettered illegal immigration combined with a lack of parental responsibility in some communities has led to dumbed-down standards and curriculum in many public school districts.
And folks are getting tired of being forced to pay for schools that continue to underperform.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 04/06/07 08:07 AM |
05 April 2007
METRO (nontransparently) makes $7.2 million real-estate deal
The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports that METRO is continuing its transformation from regional transit organization to real-estate development organization:
Metro is buying two blocks along its light-rail line in Midtown from a developer the agency expects will buy the property back and build transit-friendly residential and business space.
In a transaction unprecedented in the agency's history, the Metropolitan Transit Authority board voted March 22 to spend $7.2 million for the blocks bounded by Main, Holman, Travis and Winbern, next to the Ensemble station of Metro's light rail Red line.
The idea is to sell the tract back to developer Robert H. Schultz of RHS Interests for at least the same price after Schultz's partnership is ready to build. Schultz approached Metro with the proposal, he and Metro said.
Agency spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said Metro knows of no other instances in which a transit agency has bought land to hold and sell to a private company for what is known as transit-oriented development.
The board did not discuss the purchase publicly when it voted for the transaction, but Schultz and Todd Mason, Metro's vice president of real estate services, since have outlined the plan for the Houston Chronicle.
Recall that METRO CEO Frank "Procurement Disaster" Wilson recently asserted that his organization operates "in a completely transparent manner." The bolded excerpt must be another example of that transparency at work!
The Chronicle story devotes two whole paragraphs (!) out of 28 to skepticism over the deal:
But City Councilman Michael Berry, who chairs a council committee on transportation and is in the real estate business, disagrees with the whole approach.
"Metro has completely lost focus," Berry said. "They're supposed to be in the business of moving people, and instead they want to be real estate developers."
That's balance, Chron style.
A while back, Tom Kirkendall wrote:
We already know that Metro does not perform particularly well at that which it is chartered to do. In view of that, it's not a good idea for Metro to be getting into the notoriously speculative real estate development business, where it can lose even more money. Indeed, our local government already has a dubious record of boondoggles in that area.
Charter, schmarter! There's world-class light-rail utopia to be constructed here, with just a little (okay, a lot of) real-estate-development help from the regional transit organization. Never mind how many bus routes might not have suffered "service adjustments" (translation: cuts) had this money been invested in bus service (in line with the 50% increase in bus service promised in the 2003 referendum). We want Houston to be world-class, don't we? World-class doesn't come without some costs!
UPDATE (04-06-2007): The Chronicle's Rad Sallee reports today that Harris County officials say METRO will not be allowed to hold the property free of taxes:
The Metropolitan Transit Authority will have to pay taxes on property it plans to buy and hold for private development next to its rail line, or provide a good reason why it shouldn't, tax officials said Thursday.
Todd Mason, Metro vice president of real estate services, responded that the project's benefits in increased transit ridership and eventual tax revenue would outweigh costs in taxes or lost interest stemming from the purchase. And if the project falls through, he said, Metro will probably be able to sell the land at a profit.
He declined to speculate on whether Metro will challenge the assertion that it must pay property taxes.
BLOGVERSATION: Lou Minatti, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Houston's Clear Thinkers.
RELATED MATERIAL FROM THE ARCHIVES: Eminent domain power concern local property rights groups, METRO looks to real estate development for revenue, From METRO Solutions to Galleria redevelopment? , METRO to build the Danger Train Hotel, METRO's trying to emulate Dallas with new development, It's full steam ahead at METRO's Real Estate Development Dept., Frank Wilson: This is not your father's METRO, Maybe Tilman Fertitta could build a Park & Ride ferris wheel?, METRO acquires downtown property for future needs, Wolff Cos. frets over government agency's venture into real estate, AstroWorld site developers seek management district designation.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/07 09:55 AM |
Harris County ends membership in TAC
On Tuesday, both Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report and the Lone Star Times reported that Harris County Commissioners' Court voted to end Harris County's membership in the Texas Association of Counties.
Here's an excerpt from the update that Phil Magness supplied to Lone Star Times:
The word on the street is that one of the reasons they did it was the Williamson County lawsuit by our good friend David Rogers, ruling against counties using tax dollars for TAC’s political purposes…such as lobbying against the property tax caps.
Harris County was the largest member of TAC....
The Houston Chronicle, which devotes scant resources and attention to the Harris County beat, seems not to have reported on this move (but hey, the newspaper has a D.C. bureau!).
BLOGVERSATION: BoldTexas (Aside: Peggy Venable quoting herself in this blog post is amusing, in a Bob Dole, third-person referential sort of way).
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/05/07 08:43 AM |
04 April 2007
"Please help save my home"
A few days ago, we noted Mayor White's "Boot the Mentally Retarded Revenue Stream" proposal.
Since then, the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation has launched a website to raise awareness of the White Administration's craven plans: SaveTheCenter.org.
The site details ways in which interested individuals can help the Center on this issue.
Here's a quote from a board member displayed prominently on the site:
We have a 99 year lease on five acres of property, which was signed in 1963, and which is still fully in effect. And, we have a preferential right to a 30 year renewal on the remaining one acre,” states Jack Manning. “These leases have been honored by seven Mayors: Lewis Cutrer, Louie Welch, Fred Hofheinz, Jim McConn, Kathy Whitmire, Bob Lanier and Lee Brown — all of whom were able to guide the City’s financial affairs without seizing properties utilized to serve the City’s retarded population. Only Mayor Bill White has suggested the eviction of the mentally retarded in order to enhance the City’s revenue stream.
Mayor White needs to rethink this one.
BLOGVERSATION: Lone Star Times, Red Ink: Texas, On Message.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/04/07 09:19 AM |
More taxes + fewer services = Running the city like a business?
Slampo comes out swinging (again) on the city's exciting new garbage-tax proposal.
His earlier post on Mayor White's proposed new garbage tax is here.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/04/07 08:00 AM |
03 April 2007
Mayor White's new tax to be called "waste reduction fee"
The Chronicle's Matt Stiles reports that the Mayor's new trash-tax-revenue-stream officially has the cute name required of all such stealth tax initiatives:
Nearly 500,000 Houston households getting city trash service would have to pay a $42 annual fee for the service, which is now free, under recommendations presented today to the City Council.
A task force appointed by Mayor Bill White to research solid waste policy and funding told the council that the city should, for the first time, charge a “waste reduction fee.”
Just one quick correction to the story: Trash service is not now "free" any more than police or fire service is now "free." Just because there is no direct fee attached to trash collection (or police or fire protection) does not mean they are "free."
To quote Slampo, who put this in terms that even tax-happy politicians should be able to understand:
[W]e’ve never been under the impression that garbage collection (light, heavy, recyclable or otherwise) is a city service that is supposed to pay for itself, anymore than police protection is supposed to be a self-sustaining service. Fact of the matter is, we always thought that municipalities were incorporated mainly to provide for sanitation and public safety....
Exactly.
Houstonians pay plenty in taxes for basic municipal services like sanitation and public safety.
If Mayor White thinks he needs to raise taxes to pay for those basic services (even though he has money to spend on other, not-so-basic priorities), then he needs to make that case to Houstonians.
But the notion that Houstonians are not currently paying for sanitation and public safety isn't true, no matter how many times the Mayor's staffers say it (or it gets repeated in the big newspaper).
UPDATE: Here's an excerpt from a longer story by Matt Stiles in today's Chronicle:
Houston households would pay a monthly $3.50 "waste reduction fee" and eventually would have their heavy trash picked up only twice a year, under a mayoral task force proposal presented Monday to the City Council.
Insisting the new charge — of $42 annually — was not a "garbage fee," task force members told the council that the levy on 450,000 households would increase conservation and boost efficiency in the city's solid-waste practices.
The fee, which would be new for Houston, would generate as much as $19 million that could be used to enhance recycling, launch new conservation efforts and pay for more enforcement of illegal dumping, according to the task force.
A new garbage tax is EXACTLY what is being proposed -- and we don't buy for a minute that it's going to finance any of the promised initiatives (which will likely be as illusory as the 50% increase in bus service METRO promised in the 2003 referendum).
BLOGVERSATION: KTRK-13 Political Blog, Lose an Eye, It's a Sport, Houblog.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/03/07 07:45 AM |
[Previous 20 Entries] [Next 20 Entries]