I did not read this long profile of Tony Buzbee, because life is short and we all have better things to do. I did briefly scan the print version a bit, and in doing so I noticed the following paragraph, which tells you everything you need to know about Tony Buzbee, Loudmouth Rich Guy Who Wants To Be Mayor:
Buzbee opposes the idea of lifting Houston’s property tax revenue cap. Instead, he wants to enact budget cuts he says will fund his proposals, such as hiring 2,000 police officers in eight years — which would spike the department’s budget by almost 40 percent — and granting firefighters pay parity with police.
This is impossible. It literally cannot be done. Do you remember when Mayor Annise Parker was faced with a big deficit in 2010 following the economic crash, which caused property tax revenues to plummet? She ran on a promise of balancing the budget without making any cuts to the police or fire departments, and she achieved that in large part by laying off over 700 municipal employees. Someone with a more detailed knowledge of the current budget would have to run the numbers to check this, but to hire that many new police officers and give the firefighters a raise of that magnitude, I would question whether there are enough municipal employees left to lay off to pay for it. I mean, if we don’t want trash collection or a permitting department or building inspectors or anyone working in the parks and libraries – and maybe if we also defaulted on our bonds – you could make it work. I guarantee you, Tony Buzbee has not done the math to show how he could make it work.
On a side note, let me refer you to this:
Houston Police Officers’ Union President Joe Gamaldi questioned whether the department would even have enough cars, uniforms and equipment to handle the increased headcount.
“We would love to see that type of growth,” Gamaldi said. “But realistically, we’ve never hired more than 375 people in a fiscal year, so we would really need to look to see if HPD’s infrastructure can even handle that.”
Note that this story has Buzbee hiring those two thousand cops over his first four years. I mean, when the president of the police officers’ union says that your plan to hire 500 cops a year every year for four years is a bit much…
I remember when Mayor Parker gave $7 million to the “Heights Walmart” developer in return for nothing.
I also remember more recently when two city employees were fired for doing other business on city time.
Are there cuts in city government that could be made? No doubt. Enough to do what Buzbee says? Likely not.
How did the City “give” Walmart $7 million? Didn’t Walmart build infrastructure the City was responsible for and would normally build? Besides, that came out of incremental sales tax receipts over time, rather than coming out of current cash flow.
Ross, wrong, it was paid in a lump sum and not based on sales tax receipts.
Developers are required to build sidewalks, for example. Why did we pay for them?
Isn’t 2,000 new hires in eight years only 250/yr, not 500 ?
Looks like the Heights Walmart got a brand new Yale Street bridge out of the deal…
Buzbee seems like a doofus but I don’t see the 2000 officers in 4 years anywhere, could have missed it.
Yes they did get a nice new bridge, that was extra.
Ok I found it, and it says he followed up w an email saying it was 2000 over 8 years. Not sure if the article was updated with that info after Charles posted the link or not.
Jules, the 380 agreement was with Ainbinder, not Walmart, and was for construction of $6 million in improvements the City would have had to build at some point. You can see the agreement here https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/380/ainbinder.pdf and it contains the infrastructure improvements Ainbinder was going to make.
I won’t be voting for Buzbee or King, because neither of them has a clue on government budgeting, and how the accounting works. They seem to think that money just magically appears. They are also lying sacks of crap about crime rates, and with their accusations that Turner spent $400 million without Council approval.
Jules, the 380 agreement was with Ainbinder, not Walmart, and was for construction of $6 million in improvements the City would have had to build at some point. You can see the agreement here https://www.houstontx.gov/ecodev/380/ainbinder.pdf and it contains the infrastructure improvements Ainbinder was going to make.
I won’t be voting for Buzbee or King, because neither of them has a clue on government budgeting, and how the accounting works. They seem to think that money just magically appears. They are also lying sacks of crap about crime rates, and with their accusations that Turner spent $400 million without Council approval.
Ross, that’s why I said the “Heights Walmart” developer. I’ve read the 380. Read the part where they can pay it off early and not pay interest. That’s what they did. The payment had nothing to do with sales tax generated.
The city isn’t responsible for getting water to people’s property. Or their trees.
You believe what you were told, but it was not true.
This is the most entertaining election I’ve seen in a while.
You have a liberal Democrat plaintiff lawyer pretending to be a Republican.
You have a moderate Republican pretending not to be one.
You have a Democratic incumbent that is in a feud with HFD.
You have HFD that recruited two candidates each attacking the two parts of the incumbents base votes.
You also have incumbent spending millions helping perpetuate the liberal Democratic plaintiff lawyer’s lie that he is a Republican.
Well Buzz can’t be that dumb, he was a Marine officer and then he went and got a law degree and took on the callous corporations to help the little folks, and he beat the corporate lawyers and was very successful. If he’s dumb I hate to think of what that says about the rest of us.
Both Buzz and King want to increase the HPD, but I would suggest that when something has been so bad for so long, the best thing to do is start all over again with a clean slate. It can also be reduced, by signing an MOU with the myriad of law enforcement agencies that operate inside the loop. If they coordinate their efforts, HPD could be reduced. Nowhere else where I lived have constables run around patrolling and writing tickets. Plus every school, university, and hospital has a police force. Plus Metro police. And every little enclave inside the loop has a police force. And River Oaks has its patrol.
Around the neighborhood the Anyone But Turner signs have gone up, and that’s what’s important. If Turner gets zero votes, he can’t win. I would love to see Houjami or Kendall Baker get in, although I like the idea of a rich guy getting elected rather than all of these people who get in office and then use their office to become rich.
Ross & Jules, Houston’s 380 agreements are indeed a form of corporate welfare, it being proven a number of times (as recently as City Controller’s audit last year regarding the program under former Mayor Parker in Report No. 2018-08) that the city did not properly document or enforce provisions of the agreements much of the time. But the developer was responsible for upgrading the streets, traffic signals, drainage, and so forth, making the claim that the city “gave $7 million to the “Heights Walmart” developer in return for nothing” inaccurate. This was discussed years ago on this very website and in great detail, the city separately negotiating with Walmart at the time to make the deal happen, one of my objections was that it did not create new jobs so much as shuffle existing jobs from existing area Walmart locations.
Jason, there are a few problems with your suggestion, not least of which is the fact that virtually every policing agency in the area claims to be woefully under staffed. As such, none of them are going to sign a deal to cover the city of Houston in any significant manner, nor do any of them have the means to ramp up their numbers to provide such coverage. Something else you may not have considered is that many of the surrounding police agencies are full of fired or retired cops from HPD so you wouldn’t be getting anything close to a clean sweep under the best of intentions.
Regardless, no local source of potential employees exists to provide 5000 or more cops unless you are suggesting those other agencies simply turn around and hire those currently working for HPD, defeating the purpose of your desire altogether unless you want to do so as a means of breaking their labor contract and that wouldn’t happen. There are some merits to combining various agencies but there isn’t a single government entity willing to give up the money or the fiefdoms associated with having their own group, the overlapping jurisdictions are very protective about their slices of the pie.
As to the bigger picture of adding 2000 cops to HPD in 8 years as the article discusses, not 4 years, HPD already loses around 250 a year so it would require 500 new employees a year at a time when the city has reduced qualifications to get what they can. At yearly budget hearings it gets pointed out their existing fleet of squad cars is perpetually aging so in addition to the stated 40% increase in personnel costs, $360 million for those afraid of math, you’ll also have to find another ton of money in the operating budget of $2.5 billion, not to mention the costs of the unconstitutional raises for the fire employees Mr. Buzbee champions. Few of those running for any of the council offices have championed the city instituting a garbage fee which at best would have raised $80 million, and absent some massive infusion of funds or the city ending most services, 2000 more cops is a pipe dream even if there was a plan to use them effectively, which there is not.
At this point, neither Mr. Buzbee or Mr. King have shown a better plan for public safety personnel, nor have they provided any legal, sensible ways to generate the funds needed to support their proposed changes, Mr. King’s suggestions sounding okay until you look at them closer and Mr. Buzbee acting like he’d just go sue someone to pay for it all. Mr. King’s insistence on making further cuts to HFD’s pension led to their union endorsing a nonviable candidate who can’t win and Mr. Buzbee’s complete lack of skills running a municipal government make both of them questionable picks at best.
Jason, I agree that there was separate negotiations with Walmart around this deal.
Ross, the relevant part is: “The City shall purchase the City Improvements from the Developer and reimburse the Developer for the Improvements Cost of the Detention Improvements by paying the Total Payment Amount to the Developer no later than the fifteen month anniversary of the Operation Date (the “Payment Date”).”
They did not require or do the Detention Improvements, but it never floods in Houston so no biggie.
The City paid Ainbinder $6,712,822.69 on 7/11/2014. The 380 also says “The Total Payment Amount, net of interest, shall not exceed $6,050,000.” So some of that must be interest.
I believe this was the 380 that was paid late in the Audit Jason mentioned, although the Audit does not say which one was paid late.
Ooops Steve not Jason. Apologies to both of you.
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