One Final Prop Pop Quiz
October 29th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Question: What all do we know about these 16 propositions on the ballot Nov. 6?
Answer: the big bond props (4,12, 15) are unusually expensive; Prop 4 is a little too prison-friendly; and Prop 11 would make certain votes in the Texas legislature a matter of public record.
We have also established that most of the time whole slates of these amendments to the Texas Constitution pass. Every once in a while, a proposition pisses off enough people that it manages to fail, but it doesn’t happen often.
Question: Since damn near all of these will pass, what do their proponents say they will do?
Answer: There are a few slam-dunks left on the table. There’s Prop 2, which provides bonds for ‘college access’ loans — loans that are usually repaid, and which otherwise wouldn’t be available, particularly since they are not reserved for need-based aid.
Propositions 5, 6, and 8 fit into this ’slam-dunk’ category. Five will allow small towns to use tax breaks to grow their own downtown districts. Six exempts cars from the property tax if they are also used personally. And Eight would make sure homeowners get a paper copy of a home equity loan agreement before borrowing. Like I said, these are pretty simple.
Prop 9, I think, is also a likely yes. Nine will give 100 percent disabled veterans a 100 percent exemption on their property tax. This one is going to pass like crazy.
Proposition 16 has just as much merit, but it may fall victim to its price tag. On the ballot, it will read:
The constitutional amendment providing for the issuance of additional general obligation bonds by the Texas Water Development Board in an amount not to exceed $250 million to provide assistance to economically distressed areas.
The prop allegedly helps Texans in rural and poor areas get modern water and sewer infrastructure. It’s hard to argue against that. But the big figure could pose problems.
Question: What about the props you haven’t mentioned?
Answer: ah, yes, you mean Props 7, 13, & 14. Well, hell. You never know when to expect the next prop pop quiz.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Against Prop 15
No, I am not actually FOR cancer, and I am very happy Molly lived as long as she did. But, …
There is not much point in having a constitutional prohibition against private use of public credit, when deceptive measures like this get flim-flammed past the … The Texas Observer. No, it is not just the big numbers.
This DEWHURST scheme helps set-aside what otherwise would be funds availabe for the state share of S-CHIP and for other reasonable purposes. That is probably the reason for the large number. I doubt this much will ever be issued, but the immediate effect of this measure in the 80th Lege was to sterilize a looming state budget surplus.
Bonds are issued by the state but may or may not be sold. In this case, private real-estate developments, called “public/private partnerships”, and venture-capital deals, probably “stage II or III” are going to be assumed or leveraged by state-issued “revenue bonds”. They will likely not be sold to the public.
They will be, however, be “double-barreled”. There will be a bond-sale only in the sense that there will be huge commissions paid up front. That is political and professional cronyism, not capital-markets in action.
There will not really be any new “capital formation” to speak of or “job creation” or anything of the sort. There will will be Enron-type “roll-over” or, literally, a “Ponzi” scheme. Did I mention “Enron”? Yes, fool, this is “bi-partisan”!
That means, dearest beloveds, (a) that if the deals are profitable, which the real-estate “partnerships” will be, as soon as they interim finance is “taken out” by government debt, private investors — “crony capitalists”, actually — will reap huge, 2-8x, returns, but (b)that if the deals go bust, the tax-payers hold the bag.
Ah, “no-fault” capitalism! It is a “win-win” for friends of David.
In no case, directly or indirectly, will cancer treatment, research, prevention, or education be advanced by these bonds.
R. Lee CLARK’s “Manhattan Project” approach to cancer treatment, research, prevention, and education pretty much worked in the sense of measurably improving the cancer survival rates through diagnosis and treatment derived from large-scale clinical research. But, that was about twenty years ago.
Since then, a variety of preventive measures, smoking cessation, clearly work, but others, pollution abatement on the upper Texas Gulf Coast, have not been tried. Such understanding of the causes of cancer as there is has led to few definitive cures and may not ever do so.
However, cancer is now an “industry” and qualifies for every sort of corruption known to our political system of bi-partisan concession-tending, hence, these bonds from the same people that brought you all those other bonds, deals, … whatever.
Naomi KLEIN writes about about “catastrophe capitalism”. This is corrupt, even sordid, public finance wrapped around sleazy “exploitation capitalism” — plain, old “cute puppies”, “snake oil”, or, um, “Hadacol” with Laudanum.
I am glad you have a blog, and it is for superficial, supercilious, even “snarky” opinion.
But, you might want to take Prop 15 seriously, … for Molly.
October 30th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Prop 12: Beware of the Hungry Tax Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing.Vote NO on Prop 12!
The revenue hungry “Tax Wolf” is rearing its ugly head again with Proposition 12, which is carefully crafted to trick Texans to vote for debt, future tax increases and toll roads paid for with our tax dollars (an unaccountable double tax).
In recent years, TxDOT has claimed they’ve run out of money, while they spend billions of our tax dollars to shift our public highways to toll roads and push the equally unpopular Trans Texas Corridor (TTC). Also to blame are Texas legislators, who have diverted billions of our tax dollars intended for transportation, into their pet projects, while they allow TxDOT, a rogue agency, to run amuck.
The State Auditor caught TxDOT inflating it’s needs by $45 billion dollars this year and TxDOT continues to ignore the public by spending millions of our tax dollars on an ad campaign to sell us toll roads and TaxTags.
Proposition 12 is the largest proposed new debt on the ballot this year. It would authorize up to $5 billion dollars of state road debt to be repaid with general revenue, instead of dedicated transportation funds. Yet another accountability breech as TxDOT is eager to become an unaccountable taxing authority.
In 2001, Prop 15 (the first Tax Wolf in sheep’s clothing) was put on the ballot and politicos promised it would help solve our transportation crisis by establishing the Texas Mobility Fund. Texans trusted TxDOT and legislators and voted for “mobility” and Prop 15 became a constitutional amendment. Much like this years Prop 12, the ballot language of Prop 15 did not openly inform voters that TxDOT would use Texas Mobility Fund exclusively to shift our freeways to toll ways. Prop 15 took accountability and the will of the people out of the equation - so special interests could seize OUR LAND and OUR ROADS for profit.
Sal “The Muckraker” Costello
http://salcostello.blogspot.com/
November 6th, 2007 at 9:22 am
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