The View From the 'Owner's Box' By Molly Ivins Posted on June 2, 2005, Printed on June 2, 2005 So, the Texas Legislature decided it's OK for gay couples to be foster parents, but only if they're not married. I would explain what message that sends, if only I understood it. Look at it this way: At least we can hunt inside city limits now. My personal fave was the day they voted themselves a huge retirement pension and the next day cut retirement benefits for the teachers. Classy move, boys. Retiring solons will now get $36,000 a year after 12 years in the Lege. The job pays $7,200 a year and requires 140 days of work once every other year. Welcome to a Republican-dominated state. As all hands know by now, the Lege got nowhere on the Big One -- the interrelated issues of property tax relief and school financing. The whole state is screaming for property tax relief because of the rise in real estate values. In order to lower property taxes, you have to raise them on something else. So of course the House decided to tax ordinary people, instead of taxing big corporations. Not for nothing is the House gallery, where the business lobbyists sit, known as "the Owner's Box." The House was prepared to saddle us all with the highest sales tax in the country. By lowering property taxes and raising sales taxes, the House lowered the tax burden on the richest Texans and dumped it on the poorest Texans, in a state that already has a staggeringly regressive tax structure. The Senate passed a fairer bill, all things being relative, but House Speaker Tom Craddick refused to compromise. Craddick is the easy winner of this session's Number One d******d Award. "The Speaker said no," was the story of the whole session. If the state Supreme Court, which consists of nine conservative Republicans, backs the lower court decision that our current school financing system is unconstitutional, we'll have to close the public schools in October. That's how irresponsible these people are. You know, it's one thing for Republicans to run year after year railing against government. But once you win, you got to run it, people. One good thing: The state added 2,500 child protection workers. This was after a study showing that 509 Texas children died from abuse or neglect over a two-and-a-half-year period between 2001 and 2004. More than a quarter of those children had previously been investigated by Child Protective Services. CPS workers are so overburdened, they're handling up to 70 cases each, when the recommended load is somewhere in the 20s. Gov. Goodhair Perry ordered the statewide study after the beating death of a 2-year-old in San Antonio just a few weeks after she was returned home from state custody. God bless the child -- at least she didn't die in vain. Thanks to the Lege, we can now legally drive 80 mph out in West Texas and start drinking before noon at public events on Sunday. They also raised juror pay from $6 a day, one of the lowest in the nation, to $40 a day -- only took them 50 years. As former state Sen. Carl Parker says, the Texas Legislature believes 12 citizens drawn at random are competent to decide on the death penalty, but not competent to decide fair and reasonable damages against industries that poison workers. This year, the Lege put a limit on awards in asbestos lawsuits. After years of fooling around, this was supposed to be the year the Lege would finally address the school finance problem. People, we have to get this done. As a rule, the Lege never does anything hard unless the courts are holding a gun to its collective head. Then, of course, they blame it all on "activist judges." This may be a shrewd political ploy for the "Craddick-al Right," but it is grossly irresponsible. The basic problem is what former Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock called the two-legged stool: a 19th century tax structure on a 21st century economy. Almost all of the state's income is from property taxes and sales taxes. If you lower one, the other goes up. We don't have an income tax, and our business taxes are spotty, scarce and riddled with loopholes. Some political scientist should be able to figure out just exactly how much a company has to give in campaign contributions to get a special tax loophole in this state. I recommend we try the old Blue Ribbon Commission ploy: Find someone with the energy of Ross Perot (if there is such an animal) to draw up a sensible plan without paying any attention to politics, and then sell it to the business community by showing them, again, their own self-interest lies in investing more in the schools. How about a special emphasis on math and science ed? Newspaper editorials around the state graded this session an "F." As Bud Kennedy of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said, the session opened with low expectations and managed to exceed them with an even lower performance. Molly Ivins writes about politics, Texas and other bizarre happenings. © 2005 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved. View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/22147/
Dean needs to come to Texas and make sure EVERYONE knows who is in power and what is wrong with this state. However, more importantly, he and the Democratic party need to prove why they have the better message and the changes that are needed to fix school finance, state funding and taxes. How can we let these fat cats, of ANY political stripe, get away with cutting teachers pensions and raising their own?? Doesn't that make ANYONE just a LITTLE mad?! Thank god the Kinkster will sweep through Austin, even if he doesn't win I hope he will push the dialouge. My only question is how Republicans will spin this session to blame it on the Democrats--maybe we'll get a Hillary reference, it's her fault right? Or maybe it's the activist, republican appointed judges or all the homos that want to murder children, burn the flag wrapped around a bible and make the "red" state of texas into communist red...
Let's be very clear for a moment. BOTH sides of the aisle suck in state politics. I recall looking at the candidates in the last gubenatorial race and thinking to myself that I could not believe that in the state of Texas these were the two best guys we could find. Please. Bottom line...being crappy in Texas is not solely a Republican phenomenon. I will seriously consider voting for Kinky Friedman. But keep in mind that first on the list for his agenda is to eliminate political correctness in Texas. So those of you who are left-leaning may not find him to be a satisfactory choice.
I'm very left leaning, and absolutely hate political correctness. I'm all for Kinky, though there was one part of his platform I disagreed with. I'm not in Texas to vote anymore, but the way I see it, only the psuedo-non-thinking left is for political corectness. Long time liberals abhor political corectness. I've heard Dick Cavett say that he hates it more than just about anything else.
Wow...you really told me Of course I'm making generalizations. However, how WILL they respond, better yet, will they even feel obligated to respond? Republicans are in a precarious position nationally and in the State House. Control over every branch of government means that the problems are YOUR responsibility and the buck, so famously cliched to death, stops at the RNC headquarters. Don't think for a minute that the lowest-common-denominator-pandering will work forever and that emotion will rule the ballot box as it has in the last three elections. Listen, Democrats got it to, witness the Contract with America Republicans and the ousting of Democratic control--America saw the job that they were doing and replaced them. Again, as I said in my original post, politicians of ANY political stripe--the Democrats in this state have a long history of under-handed, racist, good-ole-boy-network crookery. However, the pendulum has reached it's apex and will come back with twice the inertia it swung on it's opposite trip--count it
Either you cannot or are too lazy to read. Check out his website...priority one is education reform. Kinky's response to Political Correctness..."A man ought to be able to light his cigar once in a while". Notice he did not say "A man ought to be able to use the N-word once in a while". There is political correctness, and then there is just plain correctness. Those who lean to the right often get the two confused.
I checked out his website, and under education reform, he said he would spend more and pay teachers more. I am not sure how that amounts to education reform. I would be interested to see what he thinks about vouchers and charter schools.
Nice dude. Good way to start out. I read his website the day after he announced candidacy. Perhaps he redid his website recently. When in the hell did I suggest that he said that and when did I advocate that? No need to be incendiary. No, I understand that completely. Those who lean to the left often make this mistake.
