Muse called it a bone headed move. I will go one further.
Renew Houston, a group of Engineering Firms have asked Houstonians to self tax (fee) themselves by voting for a dedicated funding source for flood control (Proposition 1). HISD has recently voted unanimously to oppose this tax (fee) citing a $3million impact and possible loss of teachers. Renew Houston's response?
HISD: Cut the Waste not the Teachers. HISD should do a more responsible job of managing taxpayer funds before laying off teachers and opposing a fiscally responsible plan to keep its students safe.
Renew Houston, a bunch of millionaire engineers, has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign to convince us to self tax ourselves so they can continue to be millionaires. And they have the gall to tell our schools, the ones that have been strapped for cash, to cut waste so they can make millions off our tax dollars?
Are you kidding me? If Renew Houston can't manage their own message, how can they manage the lining of their own pockets with the millions we are going to voluntarily give them? Let me give Renew Houston some ideas:
1) How about donating all the profits your engineering firms are going to make off of our tax dollars to our schools? We won't call it a "tax". We will call it a "fee".2) How about working with City Council to find a way to avoid taxing HISD or any public school that is already cash strapped.3) How about reading "How to win friends and influence people". (Amazon.com $19.95)
Our schools have been ravaged over the last 10 years due to fiscal irresponsibility. They do not deserve to be hit yet again with even more taxes because someone wants to make a few million dollars off the tit of the government.
Yes. I am pissed.
4 comments:
The tragedy of this ill conceived program is that as big influence property owners peel away with exemptions (no doubt justified for HISD), others follow: the churches, the hospitals, etc. Who is left holding the $8 billion bag? Us homeowners, who might have been relieved of this excessive tax burden had the past two city administrations had the foresight to apply for Stimulus funds, tailor made for a project like this, implementing accepted low impact environmental technology in place of the byzantine concrete technology currently in use, turning residential streets into ponds as a matter of city policy.
So now you're not for it, John? You were.
I recall a small group of us called BS on Costello a year ago. The man's reason for running was completely self serving. Not that we don't need a real drainage solution, but Merriman and others have pointed to the obvious. We should have looked to stimulus funds for improvements and the resulting jobs.
So who didn't go after the stimulus money? What was that man's name?
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