Trinity River Irony

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has two articles - one titled, "TCC raises property taxes, tutition".  The other, "Classes begin at TCC Trinity River East Campus".  YOU do the math...

Tarrant County College trustees on Monday adopted an estimated $348.9 million budget for fiscal 2011-12 that raises next year's property taxes for the college district by 8 percent and tuition by 4 percent.

The 4-2 vote came after a public hearing at which five people urged the board to vote against the tax and tuition increases.

"Stop increasing your charges," said Randy Kressler, a Westworth Village councilman.

Several speakers criticized plans for a performing arts center at TCC's Northeast Campus.

"You should abandon it," taxpayer Bill Wright said. "You should lower the tax rate, not increase it."

Students started classes Monday at the Trinity River East Campus, Tarrant County College's new $185 million downtown facility for health professionals.

Bryan Stewart, vice president of teaching and learning services for the entire complex, said about 7,115 students are enrolled at both facilities, with 700 at Trinity River East.

Stewart said there were no traffic issues. College officials began greeting students as they arrived at about 6:30 a.m. to the parking lot off Belknap Street, which has 148 student spaces.

Stewart said that lot filled up at about 9 a.m. so students parked at a garage at the Trinity River Campus and a lot on Henderson Street. He said the nearby parking cycles out about noon, when a different group of students arrives.

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Dear Congresswoman Granger -

Your letter to some of your "Friends" states -

America has had enough. Enough reckless, wasteful spending. Enough piling up more and more debt. You deserve to know the truth about America’s budget, and it’s my responsibility to make sure you have the real information. No budget tricks, no more gimmicks, and no more empty promises.

American families have had to tighten their belts and learn to do more with less. So should Washington.
 
Some people claim it's just more campaign rhetoric to cover yourself, some claim it's because you can't decide which side of the aisle you're on, some say they don't believe anything you say.

We say - Prove it.

Put OUR money, where YOUR mouth is.

You want us to believe YOU?

Then stop letting OUR water district spend OUR money and pay YOUR son to tell us (sell us) to get in the polluted river.  Stop letting them take taxpayers land to give to large campaign donors and developers.  Stop committing us and our children to more debt. Stop letting corporations suck water out of our drought stricken river.  Stop letting the Army Corp of Engineers try and move the course of the river.  Stop letting the NCTCOG (North Central Texas Council of Governments) spend OUR money.  Help your constituents in Tarrant County fix our roads, our infrastructure, our air.  Help us get our kids back to school and open the libraries and pools.

That grotesque amount of money being made from the gas drillers, if not going to benefit the taxpayers it belongs to, should instead be poured back in to finding solutions for when we run out of clean, usable water and to fix the flooding problems in Tarrant County and clean up the waterways that are full of trash, bacterias and PCB's.... Not so the New Kids on the Block can run up and down 7th street and jet off to Vancouver. 

So when you give up your billion dollar pet project (which is OUR money) for the good of ALL the citizens in your district, we might buy it.  Until then, business as usual.

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Abominable Politicians

Letter in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram speaks volumes. Let's get some people like this in office and get rid of the career politicians. 

Remember, if nothing is ever done, it just gets worse.  Yes, worse...

It is both sad and abominable that the people we send to Washington to run our government can't seem to focus on anything but the next election. If they can't put politics and personal gain aside and work together to get our country out of the mess it's in, they don't need to be there.

In addition, if they proved their worth by concentrating on and actually working to solve the problems facing this great country of ours, they wouldn't have to worry about being re-elected. That would be an entirely new concept.

We are sorely tired of constant electioneering.

-- Viola Smith, North Richland Hills

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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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