Politics

IdolHands takes a look at BarackObama.com and JohnMcCain.com to see how they stack up against each other in standards-compliance and design. The verdict? Republicans still have work to do.

A pedestrian was struck by a Houston Metro Rail train earlier this week. One of nearly 40 rail accidents that go unreported or underreported. Another glimpse of things to come for Austin.

Two stories today on illegal immigration. First, the Statesman has a report about state Sen. Dan Patrick and Rep. Frank Corte, Jr.'s request to the Attorney General to issue an opinion on the policies of "sanctuary cities" (like Austin) that restrict the ability of local police to enforce immigration laws. Cities like Austin argue that police should be focused on crime, not immigration. Entering the country illegally is a crime.

Also, the Travis Monitor reports on the upcoming state house district 50 race between Democrat incumbent Mark Strama and Republican challenger Jerry Mikus. North Austin conservatives will be interested to know that their representative voted in favor of giving illegal immigrants welfare.

I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago. AISD met last night to take public input on a proposed property tax increase to pay for teacher raises and benefits. No one opposed to the increase showed up for the meeting. The board will vote next Monday to put the proposal on the November ballot.

I'm not vehemently opposed to giving teachers a raise personally. I just wish any tax increases would be matched with a complimenting increase in accountability.

Our mayor and city council... the bigger the price tag, the more they seem to like any proposal that comes to the chamber.

The Travis Monitor: Up in Smoke - Austin's BioFuel Boondoggle

Valleywag has more on T. Boone Pickens' energy scam:

Greenwashing: T. Boone Pickens proves where there's a drill, there's a way

Greenwashing — the practice of gussying up old-fashioned capitalism as newfangled Earth-saving — is an art form. I used to think local greenwashers Pacific Gas & Electric and spam-prone solar shill Steve Westly were the masters. But they look like rank amateurs compared to Oklahoma native T. Boone Pickens. The man is a case study in how to effectively cloak your greed in green. As a result, he's won plaudits, taxpayer money, and eminent domain over private property. The latest example?

Update: The Travis Monitor has more.

District 50 state rep. and uber-liberal Mark Strama extolled the virtues of the Democrats' "Drill nowhere. Drill never. Pay more" energy plan last at the Travis County Democratic Issues Policy Forum.

Sticking to the party talking points, Strama repeated the asinine "we can't drill our way out" meme (maybe not, but more drilling would certainly move us further toward energy independence than sitting on our hands) and claimed that even Republican T. Boone Pickens agrees. Blue Dot Blues has the real story on T. Boone's plan and it ain't altruism.

Predictably, Strama blamed Republicans for "making families suffer" because of their energy policy, but neglected to point out the fact that gas prices have risen 74% since the Democrats took control of congress.

Quid Nimis has been blogging about the Russian attack on Georgia since the outset. The Illustrate Conservative wonders, where's the outrage from the chronically-outraged?

Hmm... Fodder for the chain-emailers and something for Obamatons to cry foul over no doubt, but Obama holds both US and Kenyan citizenship.

h/t Libertarian Republican

O-no by Quid Nimis

TAB wants tougher accountability system:

The Texas school accountability system is not doing a very good job holding schools accountable, Texas Association of Business president Bill Hammond said at a news conference Thursday.

“We can’t have a first-rate education system in Texas with a second-rate accountability system,” Hammond said.

He took issue with the recent decision by Education Commissioner Robert Scott to give school districts another one-year reprieve on tougher dropout rules. That decision kept some districts being labeled academically unacceptable.

And the standards are too low, said Hammond, adding that schools can be deemed “academically acceptable” if only 50 percent of their students pass math.

Texas businesses — Hammond’s membership — are the ultimate consumers of the Texas education system’s product and they are finding the product lacking, he said.

Texas' school accountability system is abysmal. But of course, it's the same tired reprieve from school bureaucrats:

At a school finance summit organized by Scott, superintendents complained that the state is ratcheting up the performance standards but not given the districts the resources to improve the schools.

We've been going through this song and dance with school districts for decades. The people demand better performance, the school whine about money. We give them more money and they continue to perform poorly (or in many cases, perform worse) and whine for more money.

Per student spending in Texas has nearly doubled in the last ten years. The message is clear: more money is not the answer.

Texas Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict wants Republicans to hand over participant list for the 2008 precinct conventions, but it seems nobody's home at the Travis County Republican Party headquarters.

Libertarians' emails and phone calls requesting the lists have gone unanswered since April. Benedict plans to visit the TCRP office again on Monday to repeat the request in person.

Benedict says the precinct documents are public record, "The Texas Election Code specifies that all documents filed with and retained by political parties are public information, with several exceptions. An attorney with the Texas Secretary of State's office has told us that the copies of the precinct convention lists are public information, and that members of the public are entitled to make copies of that information."

Why do the Libertarians want the Republican's precinct lists?

"We know that many of the people who attended the Travis County Republican precinct conventions are Ron Paul supporters. We would like to contact them and invite them to join and support the Libertarian Party. The Republican Party has repeatedly shown them nothing but disrespect and hostility," Benedict said.

My advice? Give them the lists and pronto.

Blue Dot Blues alerts us of a MoveOn.org stunt to deliver a "petition" to Congressman Michael McCaul's office today at noon opposing off-shore drilling. Liberals are watching what's happening with the Don't Go revolt and they're getting worried. Not only are conservatives beginning to embrace and make effective use of social networking technologies once the exclusive domain of the left, domestic drilling has real traction with voters.

Update: Voice in the Wilderness is on it.

Getting a chance to hear Texas Public Policy Foundation education policy analyst Brooke Dollens Terry speak at last night's Austin Townhall Conservatives Meetup was fortuitous because I learn this morning that AISD bureaucrats are looking to raise property taxes this year in a referendum that may go to voters in November:

The Austin school district is proposing a $862.5 million 2008-09 budget, 8.8 percent larger than the current budget. The plan calls for an operations tax rate of $1.0765 per $100 of assessed property value. Including the portion of the rate used to pay off debt, the overall rate would be $1.1995.

The district is already at the highest operations tax rate, $1.04, that can be set without going to the voters for approval in a rollback election. Because property values on average went up this year, staying at that rate would mean more revenue as tax bills increase. However, new school finance laws require that Austin send more of that revenue to the state to give to property-poor districts, $61 million this year. So to raise additional money that the district can keep, administrators are seeking the tax rate increase.

AISD's proposal, which includes a 3% pay raise for teacher salaries, would raise property taxes on an average-priced home ($233,324) in Austin by about $340 per year, but the union wants more:

Teacher groups and a school board subcommittee met Tuesday to discuss the teacher salaries and benefits after reaching an impasse in negotiations.

Education Austin President Louis Malfaro said the Fort Worth, San Antonio, Dallas and Houston districts pay their teachers $5,000 to $6,000 more than Austin on average. He said teacher pay in Austin lags behind that of other Central Texas districts by up to $2,500. His organization, which represents more than 4,000 local teachers and staff members, wants a 5 percent salary increase, family health coverage and a $10 minimum wage for hourly employees.

The union's proposal would raise property taxes on an average-priced home by more than $430 per year.

Here's an idea: we'll give you the money, but reduce the across-the-board rate of increase and use the rest to reward teachers who perform.

Update: somewhat surprisingly, the Austin American-Statesman has come out against the tax increase:

Both proposals are too high. The union's plan to squeeze 8 more cents from taxpayers is particularly egregious, given the economic slump in which many people are struggling to pay for basics — gasoline, housing, utilities and food.

Give them — and the rest of us — a break.

h/t: Texans for Fiscal Responsibility

Undress4Success - Slap In Face Of Telecommuting:

Seems the Democrats have their nose out of joint because the Connecticut Republican leader Lawrence Cafero has proposed a telecommuting plan, and they didn’t think of it first. At least that’s what I gather from a piece Christopher Keating wrote today in the Hartford CT Courant.

In fact, of 50,000 Connecticut state employees only 140 telecommute. Our numbers suggest something like 40% could.

But Slap doesn’t seem to have a clue, “”The reality is that the GOP plan would not save taxpayers any money and would not ease congestion. In fact, the only people the plan would help would be Republican caucus staff members.”

Really? “A good starting place would be to document how much money a telecommuting plan might save taxpayers,” Slap said, according to Keating.

Okay, using national average numbers for time and distances for the commute, and $4/gallon for the price of gas, if 5,000 Connecticut employees started telecommuting it would save over 1.1 million gallons of gas or almost 4.5 million dollars in fuel bills. State employees are taxpayers, remember.

You'd think the self-proclaimed saviors of the planet would be all over this.

Close races and Republican dissatisfaction are lending Libertarians new-found clout.

Libertarians meet with speaker's staff:

Libertarians continue to enjoy overtures from Republicans who, at least in some circles, worry that third-party candidates could be a factor in close races this fall.

Just days after ex-state Rep. Suzanna Hupp, R-Lampasas, urged Libertarians to quit key races, three members of Speaker Tom Craddick’s staff met Monday afternoon with Libertarian leaders.

In the past, Libertarian candidates might only get 5 percent of the vote, but that’s enough to determine the winner in a close legislative contest.

With the House closely split between Republicans and Democrats, a handful of legislative races could affect the partisan outcome and perhaps Craddick’s chances to remain speaker.

No doubt a glimpse of things to come for Austin drivers, North Texas officials will ask the legislature to approve a huge hike in vehicle registration fees to pay for expansion of light rail. And to rub a little salt in the wound, they're calling it a "user" tax:

While it is being billed as a "user tax," it is nothing of the kind, because it would fund a rail system, not roads. A user tax would be if rail riders paid the cost of the system, but because the costs of rail almost always exceed the benefits, proponents seek to shift the cost to non-users. While it is true that constructing rail requires an enormous initial outlay, that also applies to toll roads, but whether or not one agrees with the policy, the private sector is willing to invest in them because the benefits are proven to exceed the costs over the long haul.

Currently, the only cities in the world where a rail system operates profitably are Tokyo and Hong Kong, and they each have at least 10 times the population density of the Metroplex.

In the article, rail advocates also describe the possibly triple-digit increase in the vehicle registration as a "sin tax," but even someone who purchases a hybrid car would pay and many people are trading in their cars for more fuel efficient vehicles, but they would be punished by this tax.

Wendell Cox, a leading expert on transportation policy, has noted, "The annual cost per new rider of virtually every light rail line built here in the past 20 years has been more than the annual cost of leasing each new commuter a new car. Light rail has no part to play in a transport system, because of its expense. Rapid transit busways virtually equal light rail capacity, at a fraction of the cost."

Suzanna Hupp, formerly state rep for District 54, made calls to three Libertarian candidates in close House races asking them to drop out. Texas Libertarian Party Executive Director Wes Benedict encouraged the candidates to stand their ground and make the Republicans "earn those votes". Good advice.

I don't want to see Democrats win in these districts any more than Hupp does, but her stunt was ill-advised, unhelpful and downright lame. Republicans are in trouble all over the country for good reason: they've stopped governing as conservatives. You can't turn your back on the people who elected you and not expect there to be fallout.

After flip-flopping on ANWR...

... Noriega just can't seem to figure this whole energy policy thing out. From the Austin Chronicle:

You know those kids' puzzles where you have to find the four or five differences between two nearly identical cartoons? That's how Texas voters might feel as they try to distinguish between the energy plans of our incumbent junior U.S. senator, Republican John Cornyn, and his Democratic challenger, state Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston.

Noriega seems to be going for the "me too" plan. Take Cornyn's energy plan and throw in a silly threat to sue OPEC. Yeah, that'll show 'em.

[By way of Sal]

From thenewspaper.com - a transportation policy blog:

GAO Questions Wisdom of Public Private Partnerships

Government Accountability Office testimony warns of need to better assess the true cost of privately operated toll roads.

The Government Accountability Office last week questioned the wisdom of using public-private partnerships to build and maintain toll roads. GAO's Director of Physical Infrastructure issues, Jay Etta Z. Hecker, summarized the congressional watchdog agency's work in testimony before a US Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on Thursday that focused on the cost to the public of privately operated toll road leasing arrangements.

Broadly speaking, these arrangements allow private companies to lease existing roads in return for the ability to collect toll revenue for a fixed term that can last up to 99 years. In some cases, these companies will offer local politicians billions of dollars in up-front cash payments for leasing rights. The private company would then be responsible for maintaining the road. In other cases, the private company would build and own entirely new roads, delivering significant new highway capacity to the public in return for significant profit potential.

...

You can read the rest of the GAO report here.

I would hope that everyone doesn't take as a lesson from our current toll road nightmare that all privatization or public/private ventures are bad. Getting the private sector involved in public works - if managed correctly and ethically - can save the taxpayer billions. The real problem here is plain old-fashioned corruption.