Some on the commissioners court will stop at nothing to share the prize with their special interest pals
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By Peter Stern
Do Hays County Commissioners even see our failing economy? Do they not see that our country, and the world's economies, are in the midst of a long term financial crisis?Do they realize that taxpayers are overburdened already without throwing out more money for issues like the latest interest in an Elected Officials Compensation Plan and the extravagant proposal for road bonds?
Yes, elected officials should be "compensated" adequately. But NOT NOW!
We just raised the pay of our law officers, which was needed. Our teachers also should be compensated. And county taxpayers need overdue tax relief.
In May of last year commissioners tried to get a bond package approved by voters that was $170 MILLION and it failed at the polls, by a significant number.
But that didn't stop our commissioners.
This year a similar package valued at more than $207 MILLION has been proposed by commissioners (that is overtly being pushed by at least two commissioners) under the premise that the plan was developed by a "Citizens Advisory Committee," whose members, by the way, were appointed by the commissioners court.
In an economy that is failing Americans at the national level, which has trickled down to the local level, do we really want to keep on spending MORE tax dollars?While some of these issues may well be important to review, do we have to throw out more tax dollars at this time? Couldn't we wait a while for the economy to improve? Or aren't there other, less expensive alternatives that would resolve a few of the issues instead of all of them at additional astronomical costs to overburdened taxpayers?
We should avoid approving extravagant road bond packages and cut spending on issues and programs that are not urgent at this crucial period of economic uncertainty.
Spending huge amounts of our tax dollars at this time is just plain foolhardy.
In a nutshell:
– The road bond package was voted down last year because the majority of voters did NOT want it.
– TxDOT makes many promises it CANNOT keep, including paying back money it does NOT have. (TxDOT is under investigation for fraudulent activities and corrupt mismanagement by our Texas Legislature and Sunset Advisory Commission. Can we trust TxDOT to reimburse the county? With the help of the Senate Transportation Committee, we were able to get TxDOT to resurface FM 1826 correctly, BUT TxDOT forced the county to pay TWICE to do the job CORRECTLY once.)
– $207 MILLION for building, widening and improving roadways IS TOO MUCH to spend on our roads, especially during this terrible economic time.
– There are other less costly options to make our roads safer that should be explored instead of spending that extreme amount of our tax dollars, which are needed elsewhere throughout the county. [How about a $100 million tax reduction package to help stimulate the local economy?]
– Where do the tax increases stop for Hays County residents? First this bond issue, then a few more school bond issues, then yearly appraisal value increases and top it off with a once-in-a-while tax rate increase?
Currently every month 90 to 100 homeowners lose their homes to foreclosures. Do you want to add to that record high number of foreclosures by continuing to overtax your neighbors?
Road Bond Proposition, the sequel, is not a great idea at the present time. I get the feeling most Hays County taxpayers and residents would agree. The message was pretty evident in the last election for Road Bond Proposition 1 when voters shot it down.
But, hey...
Some members of the commissioners court and road developer special interests can try it again next year, and the year after that...and the year after that.
Mr. Stern is a Driftwood area resident and frequent commenter on local political issues. His articles appear in a variety of local and regional venues.
1 comment:
Did you know that:
A) Since the County Road Department went on 4 10-hour days, that overtime pay has spiralled out of control? In one month alone, the overtime for County road employees has been anywhere from 24 to 100 hours paid at time and a half!
Amazingly, the Road Supervisors are not salaried! They are hourly too, and they get the same time and a half ovetime pay, at their higher salaries!
B) Hays County is having to buy new equipment because the recently purchased equipment (about a year ago) is already abused and no longer in good enough condition to run properly.
C) The Hays County supervisors are about to get new pickup trucks to ride around in. The ones they have now are about 2 years old.
D) Hays County recently purchased a new road oil base that doesn't stick to the road surface, so all the roads done, with that poor quality road oil base, will have to be redone.
E) An unbelievable fact is, that Hays County has class A and class B CDL drivers ON THEIE PAYROLL, that are actually flagging traffic for other trucking companies that are hired out by Hays County! Hays COunty does not use the truck drivers they already have on their payrolls to drive the trucks for the road jobs. Instead, they hire out to other trucking companies. This is a gross under utilization of the qualified manpower they already have!
Yet, they have the nerve to ask the taxpayers for $207 MILLION. Why throw money at a problem where the solution is simply to have proper management and less waste.
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