Tag Archives: property taxes

This is what happens when budget cuts are the only tool in your bag

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

You get the government you’re willing to pay for. [F]rom Oct. 23 to Oct. 30, [Peter] Wang counted a total of 12 [traffic signal] outages at various intersections, from Barker Cypress down to Telge Road. He initially thought it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

The county’s financial picture is pretty grim, too

Posted on November 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This, too, is ugly. County budget officials are looking for more than $130 million in spending cuts for the fiscal year that begins on March 1. Budget officials and county government department chiefs have three months to come up with … Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The deficit debacle

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Think things are bad now? Just you wait. Texas faces a budget crisis of truly daunting proportions, with lawmakers likely to cut sacrosanct programs such as education for the first time in memory and to lay off hundreds if not … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The county’s budget woes

Posted on September 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Don’t look now, but Harris County is running really low on cash. The $154 million reserve fund Harris County started its fiscal year with is expected to be nearly gone by March as it gets spent to cover shortfalls in … Continue reading →

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Them that has, gets

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This is how it works in this state. Some of Texas’ most vulnerable residents – the very poor, the mentally ill, those suffering from birth defects, and children from troubled families – would lose state support and services under several … Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

That sound you hear is another school finance lawsuit coming

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

It may be sooner rather than later, but one way or another it’s coming. Despite numerous challenges and Band-Aids to Texas’ school funding system over the past three decades, school leaders say another school finance lawsuit is imminent. If it … Continue reading →

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Dewhurst the deficit peacock

Posted on July 31, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst wants you to believe that he cares about deficit spending. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst warned Wednesday that new federal health care legislation will bust Texas’ budget, saddling state taxpayers with $27 billion in extra costs over … Continue reading →

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How much do kids count?

Posted on July 30, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

In Texas, the answer is not much at all. Between 2000 and 2008, the number of Texas kids living in poverty grew by 240,000, accounting for 23 percent of the total child population. The national child poverty rate is 18 … Continue reading →

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Rhetoric is the easy part

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

There are two things that I wonder about as I read this story about poverty and the Texas schools and the alarming trends we’re seeing in things like the dropout rate. First and foremost, will anyone ever listen to former … Continue reading →

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Why we can’t just cut our way out of the budget deficit

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

For one thing, there’s very little fat, and not much discretionary spending in the biggest budget items like health and human services. Of the $23 billion in state dollars appropriated in the current budget for health and human services programs, … Continue reading →

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Dallas has it worse than we do

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Houston has its budget proposal for this year, and while it’s no thing of beauty, it’s not got any layoffs, furloughs, or truly drastic cuts in it. The city of Dallas is still working on their budget, and they’re in … Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Business tax falls short again

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Same story, next verse. The state business tax again comes due Monday, and no one is suggesting it will yield near the approximately $6 billion originally forecast. The tax is expected to bring in $4.3 billion this year. “I think … Continue reading →

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We will keep trying the same solutions until they work

Posted on May 13, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Speaker Straus says that all options are on the table for dealing with the budget shortfall, as long as we’re talking about spending cuts. The table isn’t big enough to accommodate any other kind of options. Straus, R-San Antonio, said … Continue reading →

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Mayor Parker’s first budget

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

It sounds good, and she kept her promises about not raising the property tax rate, at least for this year, but there are some blanks that still need to be filled in. Mayor Annise Parker unveiled a $4.1 billion spending … Continue reading →

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The Valero effect

Posted on April 24, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This is just what all of our cash-strapped local budgets need right now. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is not typically a big player in school finance debates. But an upcoming decision by the commission could strike a major … Continue reading →

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Wrapup from “Houston Have Your Say: Education Crisis”

Posted on April 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I thought last night’s broadcast of Houston Have Your Say: Education Crisis went very well. You can see rebroadcasts of the show on Thursday, April 22, at 1:00 am; Friday, April 23, at 8:00 pm; and Sunday, April 25, at … Continue reading →

Posted in School days | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The coming train wreck

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Two local school superintendents – HD Chambers from the Stafford Municipal School District and Louis Stoerner from the Alief Independent School District – wrote an op-ed for the Chron about the financial catastrophe that school districts are facing. With a … Continue reading →

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Collecting sales tax on Internet purchases

Posted on April 19, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Tax revenues are down in nearly every state. Most states rely on sales taxes for a significant portion of their revenues. Purchases made over the Internet are generally exempt from sales taxes. You do the math. In recent weeks, legislators … Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The state of the city 2010

Posted on April 8, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Mayor Parker gave her first State of the City address today before the Greater Houston Partnership. Here are a few highlights from her address, which you can read as written here. We don’t know everything that lies ahead. The pressures … Continue reading →

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First, you have to admit you have a problem

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Peggy Fikac has a frustrating conversation with State Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden. I say frustrating because I know he knows what the correct answer to this is, and I also know he’s never going to say it out … Continue reading →

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Whose job is it anyway?

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This Chron editorial reviews the Weingarten/Alabama BookStop situation, and raises a pertinent issue: Most cities aggressively protect the handful of places that make them special. Houston doesn’t. We offer incentives to make stadium deals work for sports teams. Why not … Continue reading →

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Property tax values drop

Posted on April 3, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

This budget news is really really bad. Thirty percent of Harris County homes declined in market value this year, as the area’s overall tax base dropped for the first time in at least two decades, officials announced Thursday. The reduced … Continue reading →

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The hole keeps getting deeper

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve said multiple times that even if we survive the 2011 legislative session, the budget problems we’ll be dealing with next year aren’t going away. The reason for that is because we have a structural deficit, as the giant unaffordable … Continue reading →

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Fixing school finance, the neverending story

Posted on March 26, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Work on dealing with the state’s revenue shortfall and what it will mean for the schools is already underway. Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Florence Shapiro, co-chair of the 15-member panel, acknowledged that the funding system is in trouble and needs … Continue reading →

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It’s the “I am rubber, you are glue” election

Posted on March 24, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron notes that some of the charges that the two gubernatorial campaigns will lob at each other could easily be lobbed right back at themselves. Perry slammed White for not ruling out new taxes, pointing to 2003, when state … Continue reading →

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The tax question

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

So Bill White gave a straightforward answer to a question about taxes, and everybody goes nuts. Well, Rick Perry and his minions went nuts, and everybody else followed. The former Houston mayor, asked by the Tribune’s Evan Smith whether he … Continue reading →

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The city’s budget gap widens

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Everywhere you look, it’s bad budget news. Mayor Annise Parker raised the possibility of furloughs and layoffs for city employees for the first time Wednesday, saying the city’s dire budget outlook will require City Council to consider all available options … Continue reading →

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What passes for good budget news these days

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Sales tax revenue didn’t decline as much as in previous months. In February, the state’s sales tax collections were down 8.8 percent compared with the same month a year earlier. Though still in the red, the February figure looked better … Continue reading →

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Here comes the county budget

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Considering how gloom-and-doomy the reports have been, this is downright sunny. Commissioners Court today will consider a $1.4 billion budget that cuts spending by about 3.2 percent from the fiscal year that ended on Feb. 28. The spending blueprint does … Continue reading →

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The county budget blues

Posted on February 22, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

The news keeps being bad. Not unexpected, but bad. During hearings last month, department heads said worst-case scenarios could mean layoffs, less mosquito spraying, tax office closures and fewer resources to serve a still-growing county population. County Auditor Barbara Schott’s … Continue reading →

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D Magazine on John Carona

Posted on February 21, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

Interesting profile, worth a read, on State Sen. John Carona, who’s become somewhat of a radical in his party for actually being old-fashioned enough to try to solve problems and make government work. I think he’s right about this: With … Continue reading →

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Sales tax collections keep going down

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

That sound you hear is the budget writers gnashing their teeth. In more grim news for Texas’ budget, state Comptroller Susan Combs said Friday that monthly sales tax collections are down again, the eighth straight month of double-digit declines. Collections … Continue reading →

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The abandoned shrine

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

What a waste. A multi-million dollar mess has neighbors in an upscale Houston neighborhood looking for answers. They’re tired of seeing a big, empty building with boarded-up windows, broken doors and dead landscaping. “An eyesore, quite ugly,” said Jan O’Brien, … Continue reading →

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

From the “You get what you pay for” department

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Charles Kuffner

I have a hard time wrapping my mind around this story about the struggle of suburban fire departments to provide services for residents who don’t want to pay for them. I just don’t understand the mindset. Montgomery County ESD No. … Continue reading →

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