It's time that the priority of the House and Senate are focused on the best interests of the Texas community at-large
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By Peter Stern
Apparently Gov. Rick Perry's important contribution to the 2009 Legislative session is to push through his "Choose Life" vanity license plate. It is unfortunate that most Texans recognize that the governor does NOT care about the issues facing the majority of Texans.
While finally Speaker Tom Craddick has been dethroned from that position are Texans really rid of this tyrannical ruler, or will Craddick be offered a top-level position with one of his wealthy special interest corporate campaign contributors? Or, will he be appointed by his "buddy" the governor to a high-lever state position, e.g., Transportation Commissioner?
What happened to all the decade-long urgent issues:
* Sky-high property taxes * Deregulated greedy industries, e.g., electric, insurance, higher education, etc. * Alternate sources to finance public education * Doubled home insurance premiums (highest in the nation) * Highest number of home foreclosures ever in Texas history * Unprofessional, corrupt Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) * Need for eliminating wealthy special interest campaign contributions * Prohibiting special interest lobbying in the Capitol during sessions * Stop the diversion of taxes to other interests * Release the freeze on gasoline taxes * Introduce a bill that permits Texans to recall their governor as a balance mechanism * Cut-down on the number of gubernatorial appointments * Make the positions of Transportation and Insurance Commissioners elected positions.
The above are just a few of the many urgent issues keeping Texas politics in the "Dark Ages" and resolutions must be introduced in this year's legislative session.
It's time that the priority of the House and Senate are focused on the best interests of the Texas community at-large.
Peter Stern of Driftwood, Texas, a former Director of Information Services, university professor and public school administrator, is a political writer published frequently throughout the Texas community and nationwide. Mr. Stern is a Disabled Vietnam Veteran. He holds three post-graduate degrees.
1 comment:
It is not popular but funding of our public systems through property taxes must be reevaluated. We cannot lower property taxes without replacing the funding through some other type of revenue stream. Most other states fund public systems through a three legged system: property taxes, sales tax, and income tax. Texas only uses the two thus the high property taxes. And everyone always says no to income tax, go to www.cppp.org to see why we need to say yes to the three legged system.
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