Carona Hints That Delisi May Face Tough Confirmation Battle To Transportation Post

It should come as no surprise that Governor Rick Perry’s newest appointments to the Texas Transportation Commission are pro-tollers, and that fur is already flying over the two appointments:

The GOP governor’s support of private investment in public tollways as a key avenue for needed infrastructure is echoed by former aide Deirdre Delisi of Austin and a second appointee announced Wednesday, Bill Meadows of Fort Worth.

Both appointees see private investment as an important part of the picture, though not all of it, and said they want to work with lawmakers. The Legislature has sought to curb such projects, alarmed the state would go too far in ceding control of Texas’ infrastructure.

In other words, these two see no problem with sweet-heart deals like the CINTRA/Zachary partnership to build the early phases of the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor. It will be interesting to see whether or not the Senate confirms either or both nominees next January. State Sen. John Carona is already hinting that Delisi may not get a positive nod from the Senate:

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Peeved Over The Franchise Tax

Not surprisingly, a lot of Texas businesses are peeved over the new franchise tax (or, rather the changes to the franchise tax) passed by the special session of the Texas Legislature back in 2006:

Hundreds of thousands of Texas businesses, fresh from paying their federal income taxes earlier this month, are now busy calculating what they owe the state under its new business tax – and many don’t like what the numbers show.

The new tax – approved by the Legislature in a special session in 2006 as part of a massive tax overhaul package – debuts this spring with businesses large and small expected to navigate their way through the complex requirements and file their returns by June 16.

Among the disenchanted taxpayers is Dallas businessman Andy Ellard, owner of a machine shop with 28 employees. Mr. Ellard said the size of his tax bill doesn’t match up with the pledges of state lawmakers. “We were promised a number of things, and none of them happened,” said Mr. Ellard. He estimated that he would pay about $8,900 under the new business franchise tax, more than double the $4,200 he paid last year.

“There are going to be some mad business owners [on June 16], and I think you’re going to see some people get voted out of office because of this,” he said.

Ya’ think? The fact of the matter is that the 2006 special session wasn’t conducted for the reasons that most Texans thought it was: more money for public schools. Yes, the Legislature was up against a court-mandated deadline to “equalize” funding for public schools and end what the court declared was essentially an unconstitutional tax, but it did so not with more money for public schools, but with a tax shift of gigantic proportions–all in the name of the bogus concept of “property tax relief.” To wit:

Even with the $1,700 he saved in property taxes – a result of the tax overhaul law – his net state tax increase is still about $3,000.

“We were told there would be no increase if we paid the [old] franchise tax last year,” he said, referring to the promise of lawmakers not to penalize businesses who were paying the franchise tax while many others skirted the tax. “I haven’t talked to a single businessman who isn’t looking at a tax increase.”

What exactly can the Legislature (or at least those who voted for the plan) say here? “Oops, our bad?”

This simply proves the point that the idea of property tax “relief” is a truly bogus concept without a complete re-write of Texas’ tax system. Clearly, just tweaking the franchise tax (incidentally, I notice that, these days, nobody is talking about all of those “loopholes” that were closed in the franchise tax rewrite) doesn’t do anything to equalize the tax burden.

While I do believe that big businesses (ie, banks, Wal-Mart, TXU) should be responsible for more taxes than the average man or woman ‘on the street’ by nature of their profits, the “wash” that small businesses were promised, i.e., “you won’t actually pay more taxes by the time you see your property tax relief and your new business tax and, indeed, may actually pay less taxes” seems to have not materialized.

Until we have truly meaningful tax reform in Texas, there will always be such difficulties.

Crisis Pregnancy Centers A Hidden Threat To Women’s Health, Says New Report

A new report by NARAL Pro-Choice Texas evaluating taxpayer-funded crisis pregnancy centers charges that the facilities are detrimental to the health of Texas women, and lack accountability and regulation in their use of millions of taxpayer money.

The report answers key questions about the Texas Pregnancy Care Network which are worth noting:

Does the TPCN meet self-identified goals? No. A close look reveals the TPCN did not come close to reaching self-identified projected goals. For example, the TPCN failed to meet their projected goal of “clients served” by more than 35% in the first two fiscal years (FY 06 and FY 07) of the contract. Over the first two fiscal years, the entire statewide TPCN network served an average of 127 women per month at a cost of more than $3 million. Assuming there are twenty workdays per month, the entire TPCN network reached about six women per day statewide.

2. Is the TPCN an efficient public structure? No. By any reasonable standard of service delivery competence, the TPCN contract is grossly inefficient and wasteful. Under the contract, the state of Texas is paying the TPCN almost $1.4 million (44% of all funds) in administrative fees and passing through almost $1.8 million (56% of all funds) to service providers (pre-existing local organizations that were already providing services to women long before TPCN was created). For every $1 that is passed through the TPCN to a local service provider, Texas taxpayers are paying the TPCN over $.44 – almost half - in overhead!

3. Does the TPCN, acting as a public structure to assist pregnant women, offer recommended services to prepare Texas women for a healthy birth and raising healthy children? No. In contrast to services recommended by mainstream, non-controversial organizations such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and National Association of Social Workers, the TPCN does not offer, and is not required to offer, recommended services for pregnant women. These services include licensed medical services, licensed counseling and support, or (with the exception of maternity homes) significant material assistance, such as cash, housing, or transportation assistance. The Texas “Alternatives to Abortion” program fails to consistently deliver recommended services for pregnant women. Texas women and families deserve a higher standard of care than the TPCN and its CPC partners are designed to provide.l Furthermore, hardworking Texas taxpayers deserve to know their multi-million dollar investment is justified by efficient and beneficial public structures.

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Surprise, Surprise: Texas Ranks Poorly When It Comes To Healthcare

The 2007 National Healthcare Quality Report of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research has been released, and–surprise, surprise–Texas ranks very poorly.

Texas ranks 16th among the states in terms of the number of residents with breast cancer, and 20th when it comes to colorectal cancer.

We ranked 29th in terms of prenatal care, and 36th when it comes to having all Texas children fully vaccinated.

And, something we shouldn’t be proud of at all, we ranked 4th in the nation in terms of the number of nursing home/long-term care residents with pressure (bed) sores. That’s awful.

With (according to the report), more than 20 percent of Texans uninsured, some of these rankings are unsurprising. Given our pollution rate in areas like Houston, the cancer rates are probably not surprising to some either.

There is no excuse for being 36th in the nation in terms of child vaccinations. And, we all know who to blame: the Perry/Craddick Republicans in Austin who, starting in 2003, crafted a huge permanent wall keeping kids from health insurance.

TIERS System Failing Texas Families

With the primary less than two weeks away, I am afraid that this story in the Austin American-Statesman may not be getting enough attention:

To Texans applying for food stamps, it may not seem to matter whether their application goes through the state’s old computer system or the updated one.

But new state data show that less than half — 48 percent — of Texas food stamp applications processed using the updated computer system, known as TIERS, are completed within the 30 days the federal government requires.

In the old system, SAVERR, 90 percent of cases were processed within the federal timeline.

One problem is that there aren’t enough workers trained in TIERS, and the state is losing them almost as fast as they are hired. To combat attrition, state officials announced Tuesday that they’re giving 6,000 workers raises or promotions.

Last month, I saw this post from a blog by an HHSC employee, which noted that there were significant problems for Food Stamp clients because of the new system. If you read HHSC Employee’s post from his blog, you can get a first-hand account of the hell that Food Stamp clients in TIERS have to go through.

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Your Tax Dollars Are Buying Lap Dances

Yes, your tax dollars are going to fund lap dances at strip clubs, according to records from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission released to Robert Guest, the attorney-blogger behind I Was The State:

TABC spends a lot of tax money on beer and lapdances. They document this waste of tax dollars on “purchase of evidence” reports.

Here is a POE report from Dallas for two weeks in May. It shows no less than 9 lapdances purchased with public money. This undercover work appears to be more of a government subsidy for strip clubs than actual law enforcement.

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Mum Is The Word On Voter Registration System Audit

The Galveston County Daily News has a particularly interesting story discussing the audit of the ‘new’ statewide voter registration system which caused a lot of havoc before the May elections.

Although the audit, which was due out last month but was delayed, is complete, nobody wants to talk about what it is in it:

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Get Out Your Lighters & Pimp Your Rides: It’s The (Revised!) Franchise Tax Tour!

Via the Texas SALT Law Blog, we have news that the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts office will be holding a franchise tax tour!

And, it’s not just a franchise tax tour, but the Revised Franchise Tax Tour! How fun is that? This is going to be better than Lollapalooza! It’s a Taxapalooza!

Make sure you bring plenty of undergarments to throw at the stage, enough lighters to be able to hold up a flame every time someone says “John Sharp,” (Dude! Sharp!) and a first aid kit. We hear the mosh pits at these things can be very dangerous.

Tour tickets, tee-shirts, commemorative books, posters, and CDs are not available through TicketMaster.

Lax Enfocement At The Railroad Commission Should Be No Surprise

BlueDaze is one of the few Texas blogs that has dedicated significant coverage to the Texas Railroad Commission and its public and non-public scandals, including one regarding gas pipeline regulation which played out very prominently in a three-part series by one of the state’s most well-respected television news investigative reporters.

I encourage you to read the series by TXSharon at BlueDaze, linked above. And, when you do, consider this:

In a recent report filed by Railroad Commissioner Michael L. Williams’ campaign PAC with the Texas Ethics Commission, you are hard pressed to find donations that don’t come from oil and gas providers and utility companies, including the Chairman and CEO and Chairman Emeritus of TXU.

And, over the years, Atmos Energy’s political action committees have given thousands of dollars to RRC Chairman Michael L. Williams, and RRC Commissioners Elizabeth Ames Jones and Victor Carrillo.

State Rakes In Federal Dollars, And So Does TxDOT

Remember the whole “TxDOT is going broke!” saga that played out a couple of days ago?

That’s an especially interesting theme to consider in light of a newly released report that not only shows that Texas is raking in federal dollars, but that TxDOT ranked among the top state agencies in America in terms of federal money received–behind only a California state agency and states who received unusually high payouts as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita:

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