Kids vs. Industry

We've said it before, if your kids can't get an education...they won't learn to stop buying the BS. 

WHO should get YOUR taxes?  Schools or refineries?

"With Texas schools already facing cuts of more than $5 billion over the next two years, we cannot afford to allow political maneuvering to bleed even more resources from our children's classrooms," state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said last week. "Favors to political cronies should never be allowed, particularly where they trump the interests of Texas' schoolchildren."

Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  YOUR children will thank you. 

"We understand what is at stake for the school districts and our children's education," Valero Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse said in September. "Our children's education is extremely important, but it is also important to have a fair property appraisal. Even after our exemption is granted, Valero will remain one of the largest taxpayers -- if not the largest taxpayer -- in all the areas where we have refineries."

Valero's exemption request was initially rejected by the commission's staff, which reported that hydrotreaters don't reduce pollution at the refinery, but rather when consumers use fuel from refineries.

"The environmental benefit of these projects occurs when the consumer uses the low sulfur content fuels," commission staffer Ronald Hatlett wrote in 2007. "These projects do not provide an environmental benefit at the site."

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Affordable Education?

Not.

One of our favorite letter writers is back, read the letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.  THE PEOPLE get it.  You know, the ones paying for it.

TCC priorities

The Star-Telegram reported that Tarrant County College trustees are contemplating raising tuition and their portion of the property tax rate in order to help build three additional buildings.

Watch your wallets! The last building TCC constructed cost about $700 per square foot, roughly four times the average cost of similar community college buildings.

In other words, they could have put up the existing building plus these three additional ones for what we paid for that Berlin bunker, an East Belknap Street underpass and a hole in the ground that we are assured will be nice to visit "when the weather is nice."

Where are the letters to the editor?

Millions for scholarships and teacher salaries and not one dime more for monuments to greed and bad taste.

-- Guelma B. Hopkins, Fort Worth

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Being Railroaded?

Read the letter concerning the Railroad Commission from former DISH, TX Mayor Tillman.

Worth your tax dollars?

I recently spoke at an event with a representative from the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), which regulates and promotes the Oil and Gas Industry in Texas. After dealing with the organization for several years, I have little respect for them as a tax payer funded organization, as do most of the people that have been forced to deal with them. When I was mayor of DISH, I tried for years to get the RRC involved in our situation, and they did nothing. They would not respond to our complaints, and if they did return calls, they certainly would not show up on site. When you call after hours or on weekends, the person who responds will likely not be from your area, because they only have one person on call for the entire state. I bring this up, because the RRC representative stated that they respond to every complaint, and that is simply inaccurate. I am not saying the RRC representative was lying, but he was inaccurate. It is possible that the suits in Austin are quoting some general written procedure that no one follows, or perhaps they really could be lying about the situation.

It is further disappointing that the Texas State Legislator failed to take action to help improve this situation during the 2011 legislative session. Texas has a wonderful idea, and that is the Sunset Advisory Commission, which was created to eliminate waste and inefficiency in government agencies. The Sunset Advisory Commission agreed with me and most of the people who know anything about the RRC. You can read the entire report at: http://www.sunset.state.tx.us/82ndreports/rct/rct_dec.pdf. The RRC is led by three elected commissioners, which are kindly referred to by some as the Moe, Larry, and Curly. The only type of oil and gas experience required for the commissioners is to pay close attention to what the industry lobbyist tell them, and properly accept the envelope of cash slid across the table to them. The Texas Legislature failed to do their job and get rid of this sacred cow.

I suspect the organization has been given a reprieve to the next legislative session to clean up their act. However, it is clear that they are not going to clean up their act, but rather send their PR folks out to tell lies and mislead the public. One thing that shocked is that the RRC employees are paid very well to do very little, and in the case of the employee who was on the speaking panel, he is paid almost $100,000.00 per year. Now remember that the Texas education budget was cut by four billion dollars but the RRC was fully funded.

I am ashamed that our conservative legislature who is sent to Austin to get rid of wasteful spending, are still wasting tax dollars on this organization, but can not invest in our children's future. If the RRC simply went away, the average Texan would not know the difference, and certainly would not miss the organization. For the most part the average Texan does not even realize that the "Railroad Commission" has anything to do with the oil and gas industry, not completely convinced that the "Railroad Commission" is aware that they have anything to do with the oil and gas industry.

Another disturbing fact about this organization is that they have voted on thousands of occasions to take private property that belongs to a taxpayers in Texas and transfer this to a corporation without compensation. In Texas there are spacing rules that prevents an operator from drilling up against an unleased property line; however, the operator can request an exception to that rule and therefore put the drill bore against the property line. When the hydraulic fracturing takes place, the minerals from the unleased property are collected without compensating the mineral owner. This has been accomplished thousands of times in the Barnett Shale. The commissioners will attempt to state that this rule is need to prevent one person from stopping others from benefiting from their minerals. However, that is not how it is being used, but rather the operators no longer negotiate in good faith. They will simply make a low offer and if it is not accepted in a timely manner, they will simply move toward the exception. This was outlined in a recent local article which can be found at: http://www.fwweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4950:free-gas-for-drillers&catid=76:metropolis&Itemid=377

Once this trick had been sniffed out, the people in the Barnett Shale began protesting the exceptions, and therefore holding up the drilling process. Therefore, they have proposed to alter the current rule to notify the property owner only after the exception had been approved, which would prevent those annoying people complaining about their minerals being stolen. We have several instances in Texas where the surface owner have been pushed around by these companies, now they are doing it to the mineral owners also. This action completely destroys the theory of a free market system, and also destroys private property rights. The free market system in Texas, is directly related to the amount of money that is donated to a particular campaign, and you can own and peacefully enjoy your property as long as someone with more money does not want it. Not sure that is exactly how the founding fathers of this great nation planned it.

In today's economic climate it is imperative that we cut ineffective organizations. Every tax dollar counts, and we the taxpayers should influence what that money is spent on. So many of these organizations that are paid to protect our health safety and welfare, simply go through the motions and collect a pay check. That is exactly what the state officials want...the masses to think they are being protected, and that is simply not the case. In many of these organizations, the low level boots on the ground want to do the right thing, but are prevented from doing that by a political appointee. However, that is not the case with the RRC; their way of doing business has been going on for so long, that it is ingrained in their culture. Therefore, some ineffective organizations could change with new leadership, but with the RRC, we need to abolish the entire organization.

Those of you in other states, may not have this exact problem, but I would bet that your "regulatory agency", has the same problems that exist here. The organization is there only to give the perception that the state is trying to protect health, safety and private property rights, but are really in existence only to protect the industry. It is time that these organizations fulfill what the taxpayers are paying them to do, or get funded by a source other than taxpayers.

In Texas, the RRC is the entry level political office, for the above stated qualification requirements, however, many of these officials go on to further political careers. One current commissioner has announced a run for US Senate, while a recent former commissioner is running for a US Representative seat. I am betting that they will be rewarded for the thousands of occassions that they allowed the legal theivery of private property by corporations. We simply can not let this cycle continue. It makes no sense for us to spend millions or billions on organizations that simply make no effort to perform their intended functions.

"Those who say it can not be done, should get out of the way of those that are doing it"

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TCC and TRV

Read the latest about the Tarrant County College in the Fort Worth Business Press.  YOU and YOUR kids can't afford not to.

The campus on the bluffs was built more to meet the desires of the Trinity River Vision project than for educational purposes, say critics, including TCC trustees Robyn Winnett and O.K. Carter, as well as Picht.

It is the cost of the project – an estimated $1,200-$1,500 a square foot – that raises the most eyebrows. College officials said the actual cost per square foot is not yet available.

But $1,500 per square foot would far exceed the prices of many other community college and university buildings in the state. According to the 2011 College Construction Report, the median cost for academic buildings is about $339 per square foot.

Taxpayers are the losers, Picht said, as TCC’s board considers raising tuition over the next five years to pay for three new facilities.

“They would also raise the tax rate. They are blaming that on the Legislature,” he said. “If they had tried to stay within the concept of low-cost education, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.”

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Texas is broke...

In more ways than one.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram has an interesting column on our debt growing faster than Washington's.  Still think sending Perry to DC is a good idea?

Yet, we can't fund education...does anyone see the connection here?

Notice the creation in new government bodies (how much did that cost?) to oversee the transportation projects, rather the Tollways that foreign companies want.

While Texas lawmakers have refused to raise taxes -- and often criticize Washington for borrowing and spending -- the state has been paying for much of its expansion with borrowed money.

That increase was largely due to the North Texas Tollway Authority's issuance of $6.5 billion in debt.

Two government bodies, created to oversee transportation projects, sold $2.5 billion in bonds last year, including funds for the North Tarrant Express project.

"Maybe you're not paying for it now, but your children or grandchildren will."

Some would argue that long-term investments, such as highways and university buildings, will be serving future generations, too.

Let's hope so, because everyone is on the hook for them.

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