Tag Archives: budget

Thoughts on Viernes – 03222024

Posted on March 22, 2024 | 1 comment

What To Do About SB4

Well, our friends at FIEL are holding a protest of the on-hold law on March 30, 11AM at Antioch Park, 554 Clay, Houston, TX. It’s time to rise up and send a message; and that goes for Democratic activists and politicians, too.

Given arguments before the 5th Circuit, there is only more confusion and uncertainty about actually enforcing the law and the people it affects. That means Abbott’s intent is working: Keep Brown and Black people living in fear and allow law enforcement to run amuck doing whatever terror they wish to do on these communities, while appeasing a bigoted base of voters. Seriously, if a fear-monger like Greg Abbott didn’t even want to listen the courts during the battle over his floating balls, do you expect him to follow the rules or enforce them on law enforcement agencies, especially constables?

And, no, we cannot wait until the November election to send a message. And the message isn’t only for Republinuts.

How Are We Paying For It?

Much like Kuff, I keep asking just how are we supposed to pay for the local mayor’s deal with the firefighters? First of all, kudos to my own CM Tiffany Thomas and District J’s guy for asking the questions of the deal that must be asked. When the guy in charge doesn’t rep one’s values, then one must rely on those that represent. In this case, I was certainly represented when they asked where the Fire Chief was involved in all of this, given his exclusion at certain events. The other questions were important, too.

Though something called judgment bonds will pay for everything up front, according to one article, it will cost $72 million per year for debt service payments. For how long? Probably longer than the 5-year union contract they whipped up. Certainly, the bond lawyers are making a load of cash faster than we can pay for it.

What are the options? Well, since the City is facing a $60 million deficit for the next budget, it’ll probably be cuts to needed programs and increases in other fees. Certainly property taxes and increasing the revenue cap should be considered. Partnering with the county on some things is another idea, but that would entail County Judge Lina Hidalgo being acknowledged by the Houston guy.

Also, a reminder to the guy in charge: Just because you say “transparency” doesn’t mean you’re being transparent.

Fascist, Election Denying Loser on the METRO Board

I think that’s all that needs to be said about this. And no, she didn’t “win” anything…again!

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Posted in Accion, City of Houston, Local Politica, Media, Sensible Immigration Reform, Texas Lege, Thoughts on Viernes

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Houston City Council Approves FY14 Budget

Posted on June 20, 2013 | 2 comments

Editor’s note – I’m not sure what the heck happened, but I had put some information from the Mayor’s budget proposal, instead of the final outcome. If Rick Perry gets multiples “oops!” then I’m entitled to one, too. Apologies. 

And did I hear that it was a unanimous vote? I think the campaign season has officially begun, now.

Houston City Council approved a $4.9 Billion budget last night. And the good news:  No tax increases.

Mayor Annise Parker says the $4.9 billion dollar budget doesn’t contain the painful spending cuts the city was forced to make in previous budgets. There’s new revenue this time around, about $42 million dollars.

About $22 million of that money is dedicated to raises for city workers. Ten million goes into the rainy day fund.

“We budget both revenues and expenses conservatively and we fully expect revenues to come in above what we have projected.  First out of the box, council members voted to not spend that new revenue but to roll it over into next year.”

Among numerous amendments to the 2014 budget — council members voted to raise the property tax exemption for seniors. The new exemption is $80,000. That’s about a $9000 increase from the previous exemption.

Parker says the move will cost the city about $3.8 million.

“We do not anticipate it will be a problem in this budget.  It’s not going to have a direct impact in this budget. It will, however, mean that we will have less money going into next fiscal year.” 

Parker originally presented the budget without raising that exemption but she says she was willing to make compromises in order to get her budget proposal approved.

 

Not bad!

 

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Posted in 2013 Categories, City of Houston, Local Politica

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As The Lege Makes Your Stomach Turn

Posted on May 27, 2013 | 2 comments

Another long episode comes to an end today and there are a couple of things to which I was giving my attention.

  • The Budget – The House and Senate came to an agreement. Some of the K-12 money cut a couple of years ago was replaced. We’re not sure what Rick Perry will do since he wants $2 Billion in cuts and the Lege could only come up with $700 million or so. Perry and other right wingers don’t want to cut into the Rainy Day Fund, which is estimated to arrive at $11 billion in a couple of years if it isn’t used. But when it comes to K-12 and higher education, it seems to be pouring! Let’s hope it gets signed.
  • Campus-Carry – I have all sorts of friends and colleagues in the higher education sector and all seem to be against allowing CHL holders to carry on college campuses. One would figure that if those who provide the services and teach the courses are against it, then the Lege would leave well enough alone. It almost got to that point, so, the Lege came up with an alternative–bring your guns, keep them in the trunk of your car. Houston’s Senator John Whitmire gave out a pretty stern warning that if the alternative wasn’t passed, the chances were pretty good that Perry would bring it back up in the Special Session and that the result would be bad. One thing is for sure; according to the comments, the gun nuts don’t want to keep their guns in the trunk. But this isn’t the freakin’ wild west, no matter how much these people want to pretend it is.
  • Special Session – Even the Chron is telling us that it’s imminent, and it will be for redistricting.

Democrats said Republicans are worried about how the courts have interpreted the 2011 maps so far and efforts to make temporary maps permanent reflect those fears.

“Everything we’re seeing now is the product of the legal strategy of the attorney general,” said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, a San Antonio Democrat who is the chairman of the Mexican-American Legislative Caucus, one of a number of minority groups that sued the state. “Now that it’s not going to his satisfaction you don’t just get a do over in the Legislature because you don’t like the pace this case is playing out in the court.”

More on the Lege later. These few things caught my eye as I enjoyed a Memorial Day cafecito. Enjoy your holiday, but always remember those who fought for our rights.

Kuff adds a funny take to Sine Die.

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Posted in 2013 Categories, Education - K12, Texas Lege

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SB1: Who’s Fighting For Latin@ Interests?

Posted on April 24, 2013 | Comments Off on SB1: Who’s Fighting For Latin@ Interests?

If one hasn’t noticed themake-up of the Senate Bill 1 (the budget) conference committee, one should take a look-see. One will find that on the Texas House side, there are no Latinos. State Rep. Sylvester Turner, I’m sure, serves folks well, but Latinos are not even represented on the committee. On the Senate side, at the very least there is one Latino (Hinojosa) and one whose district has a good chunk of Latino population (Whitmire). Why is the Texas House different?

Before anyone responds with, “what about this group?” or “that group?” let’s get real. Mexican Americans and Latinos are the fasting growing demographic; if anything, it was more than evident in the last Census. Republicans proved it by redrawing Congressional and other district boundaries with the intent of decreasing the power of the Latino vote in one way or another.

Obviously, as far as Republicans are concerned, Latinos are on their radar, but the results of their actions have tended to be negative, rather than supportive.

Here are some facts:

  • Hispanics accounted for 65% of Texas’ population growth.
  • Non-Hispanic Whites account for 45% of the population.
  • As Education is a major portion of the budget, half of Texas’ K-12 students are Hispanic.

I can go on with the demographics, obviously. And I can also give an entire listing of how billions cut from K-12 and higher education, or cuts to health care, in 2011 have affected Latinos. And if it affected Latinos, one knows it affected everyone else, too.

I guess all I’m asking for is a little fairness and representation on a conference committee that is supposed to decide on a budget that affects a huge chunk of Texans. A huge chunk that has obviously impacted politics and policy in Texas.

If you want me to suggest names, I can give you some, too, but chances are they will be members of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus.

Comments Off on SB1: Who’s Fighting For Latin@ Interests?

Posted in 2013 Categories, Education - K12, Texas Lege

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Texas House Will Vote on Budget on April 4

Posted on March 21, 2013 | 1 comment

The House Appropriations Committee approved a budget that gives an extra $2.5 billion to K-12 education, but is $1.7 billion smaller than the Senate’s budget. So, where does that leave everything else?

Like the Senate budget, the House budget includes increases in mental health funding and graduate medical education.

BUT, according to the Trib:

Full details of the budget the Appropriations Committee voted on were not available on Thursday afternoon. Pitts and House Appropriations staff could not say when they would be publicly released.

So, forgive me for not dancing for joy at the extra K-12 money. I worry more about higher education since colleges and universities are going to try to salvage those students who came out of K-12 underprepared for college with a billion dollars less in the last session.

Can’t wait for the details! For now…

Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, said he hopes to bring the bill to the House floor on April 4 and expressed optimism that the bill will get strong support.

 

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Posted in 2013 Categories, Education - K12, Higher Education, Texas Lege

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Texas Senate Passes Their Budget

Posted on March 20, 2013 | 2 comments

With only two Democrats voting against the Texas Senate’s budget, the budget conversation continues, with the Texas House deciding on their budget in the near future. A conference committee will even out things between both budgets after all is said is done.

There’s been mixed reaction on the Dem side of things. Earlier in the day, I read a teacher’s union letter asking folks to call their respective senators to tell them to vote no. Although there is a slight increase in the budget for K-12 and higher education, it doesn’t come close to replacing what was cut two years ago. And, apparently, Annie’s List supports the Senators who voted no, Fort Worth’s Wendy Davis and Houston’s Sylvia R. Garcia.

Among other things, the proposed budget:

  • Under-funds public education by $3.9 billion

  • Funds public education at the lowest levels per student in two legislative sessions

  • Fails to include $310 million that would guarantee $7.7 billion in federal funds for Medicaid

  • Leaves money sitting untouched in Rick Perry’s pet project, the Rainy Day Fund

Other Democrats have released statements to back up their support of the SB 1, including one of my favorites, El Paso’s Jose Rodriguez:

Senate Bill 1 is an improvement from the last budget cycle. It contains items that are important for Senate District 29, such as tuition revenue bonds for UTEP and Texas Tech, as well as items that positively impact the state as a whole. This budget increases Medicaid reimbursement rates to pre-2011 levels, and overall spending on mental health services and graduate medical education. These funding increases will help increase access to care in a state with highest uninsured rate in the nation.

Nonetheless, this budget neither fully restores the cuts from 2011 nor adequately funds for population growth and inflation. For example, El Paso schools will only gain about a quarter back from what they lost in 2011. It also doesn’t expand Medicaid, which is fiscally irresponsible.

The good news is that we are still in the beginning stages of the budget process, and there will be several opportunities to fund these priorities as the session continues. I will continue to work to advance the ball on education and to find a solution to the Medicaid expansion stalemate.

Rodriguez pointed to alternative ways to fill those other voids, as did State Senator Leticia Van de Putte.

Senate Bill 1 is not a perfect budget, but I voted in favor of it because it at least moves our state in the right direction. As the legislative session progresses, I will be looking for other opportunities to restore funding that was cut in the previous session.

So, there you have it. As far as I’m concerned, I’m caught in between both sides of the “moving forward” and “just plain no” sides of this as I like that higher education has gotten a lot more than I would have expected after losing a billion dollars two years ago.

Let’s see where the less cooperative Texas House lands on this.

UPDATE:  ProgressTexas joins in on supporting 2 Senators who voted NO on budget.

Thankfully, two of our strongest Senators listened to your calls, stood up for what is right, and demanded we fight for the best possible future for Texas.

Help us thank Senators Wendy Davis and Sylvia Garcia for voting against this draft of the budget and showing they believe we should invest in the future of our state. We hope you will show your support for Senators Davis and Garcia today by calling them in their office or going to social media to show your support:

Wendy Davis – call her office to say thanks at (512) 463-0110

Sylvia Garcia – call her office to say thanks at (512) 463-0106

Kuff has a whole bunch more, including Senator Wendy Davis’ statement.

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Posted in 2013 Categories, Education - K12, Texas Lege

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