Prop 1 vs. Prop 2

JuanValdez · Nov 3, 2004

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2880760

City's competing revenue propositions both pass
By RON NISSIMOV
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Two competing charter amendments that would limit annual increases in city revenue were approved by large margins Tuesday, but Mayor Bill White said only his Proposition 1 will become law because it got more votes.

However, backers of Proposition 2, an initiative that would restrict city revenue more severely than Prop 1, said they will sue if both propositions are not enacted.

"If the mayor says, 'We'll see you in court,' we'll see you in court," said Bruce Hotze, spokesman for the group Let the People Vote, which collected more than 20,000 signatures to get the initiative on the ballot.

White said city law clearly says only Prop 1 should become law and that a lawsuit "would be a waste of taxpayers' money."

With all precincts reporting, Prop 1 had 63 percent of the votes. Prop 2 passed with 56 percent of the votes.

White said it was significant that Prop 1 drew 271,061 votes in favor, compared with 234,598 for Prop 2.

White says the city's charter states the one with the most votes will be implemented because they are in conflict. In fact, city officials crafted the language of Prop 1 to ensure it conflicted with Prop 2.

Prop 1 limits annual increases in the city's property tax revenue and water and sewer rates to the combined total of Houston's population growth and inflation, with property tax revenue increases limited to no more than 4.5 percent.

Prop 1 would also increase homestead exemptions for senior citizens and disabled people to a projected total of more than $70,000 by 2008. A city ordinance, already approved, is scheduled to increase those exemptions to about $64,000 by 2007.

Prop 2 would cap annual increases in almost all city revenue — not just property taxes and water rates — to the combined rates of population growth and inflation.

The language of Prop 1 says: "The City Council shall have full authority to assess and collect any and all revenues of the city without limitation, except as to ad valorem taxes and water and sewer rates. ... If another proposition for a Charter amendment relating to limitations on increases in City revenues is approved at the same election at which this proposition is also approved, and if this proposition receives the higher number of favorable votes, then this proposition shall prevail and the other shall not become effective."

But Hotze said the two propositions are not contradictory and there is no reason both cannot be implemented.

"I just can't believe the mayor would deny the popular vote of the people," he said.

White said he was not surprised that both propositions passed.

"A lot of people voted yes to both propositions to send a message to government," he said.

White said what Houston residents really want is a cap on property tax increases, which have outpaced increases in income in recent years.

White contends Prop 2 could hurt the city's bond rating and lead to cuts in basic services such as police and fire protection because its cap includes the so-called "enterprise funds" of water, aviation, and convention and entertainment. That means if the revenues in one of these funds increase dramatically one year — such as if a drought causes increased water usage — the city would have to cut general-fund spending to meet the overall cap. The general fund pays for basic services such as police and fire.

Backers of Prop 2, including Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, have maintained there is no evidence it would lead to such cuts. They said White was using scare tactics to persuade voters to reject the initiative. Prop 2 backers say Prop 1 would allow politicians to raise various fees for services, negating any limit on property taxes.

A third charter amendment, Proposition 3, which would give Houston controllers the authority to audit city departments, offices, agencies and programs, was approved overwhelmingly Tuesday. With all precincts reporting, it had 85 percent yes votes and 15 percent no votes.

Controller Annise Parker, who proposed the amendment, has said Houston is the nation's largest city that does not allow an elected controller to conduct independent audits. The situation has led to several public disagreements between previous mayors and controllers who wanted to conduct audits.

Parker has said she has had no such problem with White, who supports the proposition.

There was no organized opposition to Proposition 3, which is also supported by City Council members.
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If there is recent discussion on this already, I didn't find it. I'm not surprised that both passed. If you ask voters/customers if they'd like you to not charge so much, what would you think they'd say?

So now, I wonder: (1) Will Bill White win out in not implementing Prop 2? (2) Should he? (3) Do the Prop 2 folks have a case, or will the case get tossed? (4) If this does get fought in court, is it going to be a gigantic mess?

Jeff · Nov 3, 2004

The city charter is pretty clear and White and his team went through a lot of legal discussions to ensure that the language was in conflict with Prop. 2. I think it will go to court, but I think the Mayor will get his way.

The Chron had a poll on it before the election and found that when those who were familiar with both overwhelmingly supported Prop 1 over 2, but the poll also showed that something like 60 percent of voters didn't really know or understand either.

Personally, I have a very hard time supporting anything Bruce Hotze or Barry Klein support in full force. Klein, in particular, has fought zoning, historic preservation and even argued that HISD should not receive a school tax increase when schools were suffereing serious infrastructure problems. He seriously said that if there were fire code violations in any schools, rather than fix the problems, we should petition the state to make the fire codes more lenient bringing schools into compliance without making any changes to them structurally.

Of course, two elementary schools had their rooves collapse (fortunately during the summer months) due to their age and weak structural problems, but whatever.

Hotze, for his part, was the one (along with his brother) that was so outraged by the city passing a equal rights for gays ordinance that he pushed a "striaght slate" of councilmen and judges with that as their main issue. He has also argued that the laws of the Bible should be implemented as the laws of the United States.

I just don't trust either of them to make rational decisions for the majority of Houstonians.

DonnyMost · Nov 3, 2004

Prop 1 wins.

Rocket River · Nov 3, 2004

Originally posted by Jeff
The city charter is pretty clear and White and his team went through a lot of legal discussions to ensure that the language was in conflict with Prop. 2. I think it will go to court, but I think the Mayor will get his way.

The Chron had a poll on it before the election and found that when those who were familiar with both overwhelmingly supported Prop 1 over 2, but the poll also showed that something like 60 percent of voters didn't really know or understand either.

Personally, I have a very hard time supporting anything Bruce Hotze or Barry Klein support in full force. Klein, in particular, has fought zoning, historic preservation and even argued that HISD should not receive a school tax increase when schools were suffereing serious infrastructure problems. He seriously said that if there were fire code violations in any schools, rather than fix the problems, we should petition the state to make the fire codes more lenient bringing schools into compliance without making any changes to them structurally.

Of course, two elementary schools had their rooves collapse (fortunately during the summer months) due to their age and weak structural problems, but whatever.

Hotze, for his part, was the one (along with his brother) that was so outraged by the city passing a equal rights for gays ordinance that he pushed a "striaght slate" of councilmen and judges with that as their main issue. He has also argued that the laws of the Bible should be implemented as the laws of the United States.

I just don't trust either of them to make rational decisions for the majority of Houstonians.
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which one did they support again?

Rocket River

Jeff · Nov 3, 2004

Originally posted by Rocket River
which one did they support again?

Rocket River

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