Texas House Committe Advances Property Tax Increase Limit for Cities and Counties

The Texas House Ways and Means Committee passed a property tax limit bill by a 8 to 1 margin last Thursday to advance it to the full House for a vote. San Antonio Express-News

City mayors and lobbying organizations immediately started crying that the sky would fall and local governments would fail.

Paul Bonnen, Ways and Means Chair, R-Angleton said: “It doesn’t make it where a city or a county can’t continue to manage their communities and meet the needs of their communities, but it does provide an absolute protection for the taxpayer if for some reason those budgets get a little out of control.”

The mayors and their surrogates immediately tried to refocus the discussion on school taxes. That is just a "red herring" to try and deflect the focus away from themselves and their responsibility to be conservative stewards of the taxpayers money.

This bill being passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee is a major event along the path to eventual passage of a bill constraining local governments from increasing taxes over a thresh hold without explicit taxpayer approval.

Georgetown Joins Coalition Against Local Liberty

Georgetown has formally joined a coalition of cites to stop the legislature from enhancing the liberty of Texas voters/taxpayers. Community Impact

Prior to the start of the special session, San Marcos city officials decided they needed a way to amplify their voice. With a number of bills filed that could diminish the city’s power over local tree ordinances, property tax regulations and texting-while-driving, city officials decided it would be best to band together with other municipalities along I-35 and share common concerns.

San Marcos began contacting fellow I-35 corridor cities, and has formally made a coalition with the cities of Round Rock, Georgetown and Buda.

Notice that the concern is about the state legislature diminishing the power of local officials, not assuring the freedom and liberty of the local citizens.

Who is the city council working for, you or themselves?

It is time to let your city council members know that you expect them to preserve your liberty and not preserve their power over you and the citizens of Georgetown.

Mayor Rants Against Property Tax Reform

At the last city council workshop, Jack Daly, assistant to the city manager reported on proposed legislation that would affect Georgetown. At the end of the presentation the Mayor started ranting about the proposed property tax changes. See the video here at the 11:00 minute mark.

The Mayor indicated that if this proposed bill were the current law, the average Georgetown taxpayers bill would have increased $10 instead of the $48 under existing law.

The Mayor clearly does not understand what is happening to the taxes paid by the average property taxpayer in Georgetown.

Lets look at the actual numbers:

The tax receipts collected by the city of Georgetown have been increasing at a 10.06% compound annual rate over the last 5 years. A previous post has shown that population growth plus inflation has grown at a 7.1% annual rate over the last 5 years.

Why is the city collecting property taxes at a rate 3% above population plus inflation?

This is not a recent phenomenon as the same trend has existed for over 10 years when population growth was less and inflation was about the same.

What the Governor and legislature are trying to do is give the authority to increase property taxes more than 4% year over year to the taxpayer by letting them vote automatically on any proposed increase over 4%. If there is a strong case for higher taxes, then let the taxpayers/voters decide if that is in their best interests.

The bottom line from the workshop was that city staff was to continue to oppose legislation that would impact the city's ability to raise taxes without a vote of the taxpayers.

So your taxpayer dollars are being used by the city to lobby against your best financial interest so that the city will not be constrained by the state of Texas.

Texas Senate Passes City Annexation Bill

The Texas Senate passed SB 6 today. It is now referred to the Texas House for action.

SB 6 requires cities in counties with populations above 125,000 to get voter approval for annexation of areas where more than 200 people live.

For annexation areas with fewer than 200 residents, cities would have to circulate a petition and get signatures from more than half of the property owners.

SB6 was authored by Senators Campbell, Buckingham and Schwertner.

Campbell said SB 6 will provide for a more democratic process and give citizens the right to vote on whether they are annexed.

Campbell said the current law is taxation without representation, and we fought a war over that issue. Under this proposed law, those being annexed will have a vote to be or not to be annexed.

This a key element in the Govenor's plan to return freedom and liberty directly to the citizens of Texas.

States Have the Constitutional Right to Regulate Cities

This article in Forbes makes powerful constitutional arguments that the state does indeed have authority over cities.

Local politicians, following the lead of the Texas Municipal League, have voiced concern about the state regulating budget growth, property tax growth, tree ordinances and others.

Austin Mayor, Steve Adler labels Abbott’s call “a war against cities.” 

Another newspaper editorial goes further: “Greg Abbott’s position on local control is way off base—and hypocritical.”
Critics of state intervention in local affairs charge that conservatives protest federal overreach into the affairs of the states, but these same leaders then miss the contradiction when they reach into the affairs of political subdivisions.
But state regulation of cities constitutes neither a change in attitude nor hypocrisy. It represents what the U.S. Constitution enables and requires. 

That’s why this “hypocrisy” charge comes too late—226 years too late, to be exact. It was 226 years ago (1791) that the first ten amendments to the U.S Constitution were adopted. The Tenth Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

In short, the argument that a state’s regulation of its political subdivisions hypocritically violates conservatives’ allegiance to local control misses entirely the existence and meaning of the Tenth Amendment. If the Texas Constitution contained a provision that stated—“The powers not delegated to the state by the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, nor prohibited by either to the state’s political subdivisions, are reserved to the political subdivisions respectively, or to the people”—the charge of hypocrisy would stick. 

But, as I have argued previously, no such clause exists in the Texas Constitution. Without it, this criticism amounts to no more than a political sentiment, rather than a constitutional or legal argument. 

Recognition of the primacy of liberty in our constitutional order dispels the notion that a state’s intervention in its political subdivisions is hypocrisy. As Bolick states it, to protect individual liberty, “no government at any level should operate free from scrutiny or constraint.”

Christina Sandefur, of the Goldwater Institute, agrees. According to Sandefur, “We don’t promote local control as an end in itself. We promote it as a means to achieve liberty. When it becomes destructive of those ends, when it’s in fact being oppressive, then absolutely we believe in state control.” 

Read the entire article. 

Georgetown 2018 Budget

The Georgetown 2018 budget is available on the agenda for the city council workshop on Tuesday, July, 25. Workshop Agenda There are 377 pages chock full of numbers and other information.

The bottom line budget number for 2018 is $317,648,697. The chart below shows the budget growth over the last 5 years.

Here is the relevant chart for population growth.

You will hear continuously from the city staff and council that the budget growth is caused by the growth in city population. However, it is observed that the budget growth(10.34%) compounded annually over the last 5 years is almost double the population growth. Adding in inflation growth over the last 5 years, which is 1.59% compounded annually, the population plus inflation growth is 7.1% annually.

It seems the city is bending the budget growth curve over in the last 2 years, but, there is still improvements to be made to align the budget growth with population plus inflation which is a good conservative benchmark.

Governor Abbott is Right and Texas Mayors are Wrong

18 Texas Mayors signed a letter opposing reforms designed to protect Texas property owners. Ross Kecseg

"A group of Texas mayors penned a letter to the governor opposing several of his special-session priorities. While they claim the reforms are a state takeover that erodes “local control,” the exact opposite is true—they empower Texas property owners. 

“Local control” sounds noble, until you realize it’s being hijacked to protect local government control and bully their taxpaying constituents."

These mayors are taking their talking points from the Texas Municipal League, just like the mayor and city council of Georgetown. They miss-characterize the proposed reforms so that headline writers can twist the meaning 180 degrees from what is written in the proposed legislation. This is effective in misleading the public who rarely reads the proposed legislation, even though it is readily and easily available at the Texas Legislature Online.

The Sad State of Knowledge About the Founding of the USA

The Texas Municipal League, TML, published their legislative wrap up of the 85th Texas legislature. Georgetown/TML

They are clearly frustrated that the Texas Legislature believes that individual property rights and liberty belong to the people, not local governments.

Their ignorance of the founding of this country is clearly shown in the following quote;

"... years of litigation against the federal government have convinced some leaders that state government is the pinnacle of all governments. A dangerous side effect of this mentality is now a recent increase in lawsuits by the state against cities. To some, state government is supreme, and higher and lower levels of government need to get on board with that concept. As lawsuits by the state against cities increase, so too do bad bills that would harm cities."

Any student of American history knows that the states created the federal government through their ratification of the United States of America's Constitution.

Local governments were also created by the states when the state constitutions were ratified by the state governments and/or the people.

Therefore, state government is the "pinnacle of all governments". State governments, through their elected representatives, can eliminate, modify, or add layers of local government within the constraints of their state constitutions.

TML clearly needs remedial instruction on how governments in the United States of America operate and the basis for their authority.

Renewable Energy Continues to Struggle

Stories from around the globe continue to chronicle the problems being faced by renewable energy firms.

Solar and Wind Industries Dying as Subsidies Dry Up

"Yes. That’s right. Slowly, deliciously, like a leech starved of blood, the renewable energy industry is withering away and dying. It can only survive through government enforced subsidies or bribe-incentives. Once those dry up, so does its trade.

I wish I could say it gave me no pleasure to see all those jobs being lost, all those businesses collapsing, all those investors losing their shirts. But I’d be lying. The jobs aren’t productive ones, the businesses are an ugly manifestation of crony capitalism, and the investors should have realized that in finance there’s no such thing as a one way bet. And in any case the victims of the renewable energy industry’s ongoing collapse will be far outnumbered by the victors. Renewables are, and always have been, a scam perpetrated by the few against the many. 

While Germany has succeeded in increasing the share of wind and solar in German electricity production to over 30 percent, the average German household spent 50 percent more on electricity in 2016 than 2007. German firms open new manufacturing facilities not in Germany, but in Slovakia and other countries with much cheaper electricity.

Indeed, so economically suicidal is the renewable energy scam that you can use it as the benchmark against which to test a functioning Western economy. The more enthusiastic about renewable energy it is, the more deluded its leadership and the more likely it is to experience economic collapse."

City Plans to Charge Admission to Garey Park

The city of Georgetown has decided that they are going to charge admission to the new Garey Park when it opens. This has apparently been decided with very little public knowledge and approval. Mr Garey has generously given the land and approximately $5M for development and yet the citizens are to be charged fees to use the park. The city is also issueing $8.5M in bonds for park construction to be paid by taxpayers.

Of course staff will have to be hired to man the park and collect the fees 7 days per week. The city is thus incurring salary and benefit costs for the foreseeable future.

Here are the proposed fees.

With these revenues, the city expects about 70% of the costs will be paid from fees, with the remainder paid from the general fund.

Wake Up Citizens of Georgetown!

There are people and organizations that are trying to subvert our Republican form of government every day. Even in Texas!

Here is a photo taken in the Texas Capitol within the last 24 hours.

The radicals have taken off their masks and no longer work in the shadows to overthrow our government.

Be vigilant and do not let them infiltrate our institutions and local government. Only we the people can preserve our country and way of life.

Republican Party of Texas Supports Government Spending Limits

Dear Fellow Texas Republican,

Governor Abbott’s call for a special session included 10 items that pertain to our RPT Platform planks. One of those items is caps on state and local spending, which is addressed in RPT Platform plank 167:

“Amend the Texas Constitution and state statute with a stricter spending limitation based on population growth and inflation, and apply the new limit to all General Revenue and General Revenue-dedicated state spending.”

Platform Breakdown:

• Calls for a Constitutional Amendment.
• Also calls for change in state statute.
• Base spending limit on population growth & inflation, not on personal income growth.
• Establish a new, stricter limit.
• Apply the limit to all General Revenue funds and spending.

To learn more about plank 167, please click here.

If you would like to help turn Plank 167 into passed legislation, here are some important action items. Take 2 minutes to do your favorite 2 action items right now!

• Contact your legislators. Let them know you support plank 167. Tell them you’d like to see the legislature address municipal annexation reform in accordance with RPT Platform plank 167. Click here to find your legislators.
• Share this post on Facebook and Twitter to spread the word about plank 167. To spread the word about caps on local spending share this post on Twitter
• Call the House and Senate “Designated Sponsor” for this item. Governor Abbott designated Senator Kelly Hancock and Representative Mike Schofield to take the lead in ensuring that legislation pertaining to plank 167 and limiting state spending gets passed. Call Senator Taylor’s office (512) 463-0109, and Representative King’s office (512) 463-0528, and let them know you support their efforts to address caps on state spending in accordance with the RPT Platform plank 167. Call Senator Craig Estes’ office (512) 463-0130, and Representative Villalba’s office (512) 463-0576, and let them know you support their efforts to address caps on local spending in accordance with the RPT Platform plank 167.

Thouhts on Subsidized Housing on Williams Drive

Subsidized housing for low-income families and individuals is advocated to improve their lives as well as being compassionate and improving the economic well-being of all citizens. This illustrates the fundamental difference between constitutional conservatives and progressives. The problems associated with subsidized housing are deemphasized or ignored by progressives who believe the government has the solution to all societies’ ills. Constitutional conservatives believe individual initiative and the free market is the superior approach.

Housing subsidies by the government are not fundamentally government’s responsibility and they are unnecessary and counterproductive. They only derail what the private market can do on its own. Subsidies have profoundly destructive unintended consequences. They undermine the efforts of those poor families who work and sacrifice to advance their lot in life—and who have the right and the need to distinguish themselves, both physically and psychologically, from those who do not share their solid virtues.

Poor families, like every other family, should live where they choose based on their family circumstances, needs, and aspirations. To move up the economic ladder, poor families (again, like other families) would prefer to live in neighborhoods that are safe and healthy, have good schools, and are located close to jobs and economic opportunities. These are the kinds of neighborhoods that support upward mobility for families and especially kids.

The proposed housing along western Williams Drive, Kaia Pointe, Merritt Heritage, and Live Oak are all government subsidized using tax credits and thus have income restriction on those eligible to live there.

These developments will necessarily increase traffic and hence congestion on Williams Drive. There is no public transportation available or planned for this section of Williams Drive. This means more vehicular traffic and the associated problems of entering and exiting Williams Drive.

The City is currently engaged in a study to improve traffic flow and safety while reducing congestion on Williams Drive. According to publically available documents a traffic study will be initiated to identify the scope of the problems and project the demand into the future. The available documents do not mention the addition of the three low income housing developments along Williams Drive, but, clearly they need to be factored into the study. This traffic study will help guide the efforts to mitigate traffic induced problems.

It should be remembered that there are no high schools and only one middle school west of I-35. Adding this low-income, high density housing will add to the school transportation requirements for Georgetown ISD. This will mean more school bus and automobile traffic on Williams Drive. Ultimately, the school district will have to add schools in the western reaches of Georgetown. Low density, rural homes do not add significantly to the school and transportation requirements. Sun City, which dominates the western part of Georgetown with 10,000 homes planned does not put any burden on the school system even though they pay school taxes.

It has been suggested that the addition of public open spaces or parks should be built to mitigate the higher housing density being proposed along Williams Drive. Georgetown was recently given 500+ acres for a park that is currently under development. The combination of San Gabriel and Garey parks certainly meets the need for parks many years into the future. It will likely be many decades before Georgetown needs to undertake the cost of developing and operating another park.

Even though there are medical clinics along Williams Drive, the major hospital is on the east side of I-35. Barriers like I-35 and major rivers have limited crossings and when a crossing is closed, or multiple crossings are closed, significant additional time is required to reach a major hospital. Of course our City tells us repeatedly that it is essential to saving lives that the time to reach a victim and transport them to a hospital needs be minimized to the extent possible.

Finally, people are concerned about increased crime coming along with high density, low-income housing. There are many studies and analyses that show higher crime in and around low-income developments. There are arguments about whether or not low-income developments cause the increased crime, but, the public perception is that it does.

Local Officials Continue to Mislead Taxpayers

Local officials continue to whine that the Texas Legislature is trying to take local control from municipalities by restricting their ability to raise property taxes without the consent of the property taxpayer.

The issue is not "local control", but, "local liberty". Individual taxpayers need the ability to directly vote on whether or not their property taxes should increase more that 4% per year. Taxpayers should not have to wait "x" years to vote officials out of office who continually raise taxes in excess of conservative values of inflation + population growth.

"Local officials in Texas continue to mislead the public regarding statewide property tax reform. While over two hundred government officials and employees traveled to Austin in 2017 to oppose taxpayers, it’s their false rhetoric that Texans should find most repugnant." property tax reform

"Texans should be wary of local officials who oppose tax reform and relief. Texas homeowners pay the fourth-highest property tax bills in the nation, and the second highest among those without a personal income tax. Taxpayers deserve real, structural tax reform from Republican lawmakers in the upcoming special session, which officially kicks off on July 18. But taxpayers must speak louder than the local government forces opposing them."

Tell your state senator and representative that you want them to support local, individual liberty, not local control! Pass legislation that puts the power to raise property taxes in the hands of the taxpayers, not local politicians who often have a different agenda than property owners. 

Annexation on the Special Legislative Agenda

One of the items identified by Gov. Abbott to be addressed in the Special Session is eliminating the ability of municipalities to annex property without the express approval of those being annexed.

No Annexation Without Representation

"Under current law, many Texas cities have the power to take land outside their borders without any consent from those living there. So, if you, like me, decide to live in the county and outside city limits,  your choice may be stripped away if a neighboring city chooses to annex your property. This increases your taxes, regulates your activity, and requires you to pay off city debt you didn't accrue."

A key element in freedom and liberty for all American citizens are private property rights. Let your state senator and representative know that you support the Governor's proposal to stop annexation without explicit voter approval of those being annexed.

NRG Reducing Debt and Exposure to Renewable Energy

NRG, the energy company that purchased the right to complete the solar energy farm from bankrupt SunEdison, is now reversing course according to the WSJ.

"NRG, which owns and operates power plants, said it would sell $2.5 billion to $4 billion in assets, including possibly all of its interest in NRG Yield Inc., a dividend-generating company with renewable energy holdings.

The moves are the final steps to undo a bold, but unsuccessful plan, under a previous NRG chief executive to diversify away from coal and gas into wind and solar. The strategy turned out to be a drag on earnings and depressed the share price."

Georgetown has a contract with NRG for them to begin supplying solar generated electricity from the plant near Ft Stockton by July, 2018. 

What are the implications for Georgetown with NRG moving away from solar and wind generators?

Georgetown City Official Working Against Taxpayers Interest

We knew back in May that the Texas Municipal League, which is funded by Georgetown, was actively working against property tax reform, Watchdog, but we did not know that employees on the city payroll were in Austin before the legislature lobbying against property tax reform. Empowertexans

Hundreds of city and county officials joined an anti-taxpayer coalition in Austin recently to oppose a critically important property tax reform bill. Among other important provisions, the Senate’s version of the bill (SB 2) would empower taxpayers to vote on excessive property tax hikes imposed by cities and counties.

On the list of officials testifying against SB2 is Georgetown's Fire Chief, John Sullivan.

I guess that makes it clear where Chief Sullivan's loyalty lies. It is not with the hard working citizen taxpayers of Georgetown.

City officials like to talk about keeping "local control" and by that they mean they are in control of all things they believe should be controlled by the city.

We need to change the mantra to "local liberty" where the individual is in control of most items/issues that affect their own lives. In other words, keep all government small and non-intrusive as possible.

The property tax reform issue is on the table in the Special Legislative Session that the Governor has called for next week.

Let your city council person know that the city should not be sending employees to Austin to lobby against property tax reform, or, any other issues that restrict the liberties of Georgetown citizens.

Georgetown's Public Budget Process Starts Today

The public can get their first view of the proposed 2018 budget today at 2pm in the City Council Chambers.

Here is one tidbit that some may be interested in:

The City sets utility rates above utility costs so that the "profit" can be transferred into the city general fund, which allows the council to keep property taxes lower.

Thus, it is observed in 2018 they expect to transfer $8.4M from utilities to the general fund.

It is left as an exercise to the reader as to whether or not they agree with this revenue generating method.

Is City Council Fiscally Irresponsible?

The Council is set to approve $1/2 Million dollars for the restoration of the Grace Heritage Center in downtown Georgetown at their next meeting.

What is the Georgetown Heritage Center? It is a church building given to the City in 1992.

The City uses it as an event center to host weddings among other activities.

Here is the cost estimate.

Less than two years ago, the cost estimate was $290,000. The costs have increased in the interim and the scope of the project has increased.

Notice that about $200,000 in bonds are to be sold to pay for this restoration.

Remember less than three months ago, the city had $1.9M in unallocated funds in the council's "slush fund". Where was the request for the $491,550 for the Grace Heritage Center? Why was this not put into the lists of possible uses of the $1.9M?

Instead the city is going to issue another $200,000 in debt.

The city's sales tax receipts are running several hundred thousand dollars above budget for 2017. Why not use that surplus instead of issuing more debt?

Adendum 7/15/2017
The city has leased Grace Heritage Church to Preservation Georgetown (recently know as the Heritage Society of Georgetown). This is a non-profit group in Georgetown who recently celebrated 40 years. Preservation Georgetown rents out the venue to people to get married and have other events, and Preservation Georgetown gets to keep the profit from those events. 

Looky Here at the Texas Municipal League

The TML is an association of cities that pay annual dues to finance lobbying for cities benefit and against individual citizens.

They are not transparent at all and look at the warning on their latest TML Legislative Update.

TML member cities may use the material herein for any purpose. No other person or entity may reproduce, duplicate, or distribute any part of this document without the written authorization of the Texas Municipal League. 

They certainly do not want city citizens to see the "fake news" that they are pedaling.

All the citizens of Georgetown should be offended that Georgetown is using taxpayer money to work against individual freedom and liberty.

Talk with Senator Schwertner and Representative Wilson and let them know that you expect them to represent you in protecting your individual freedoms and personal liberty in the Texas Special Legislative Session that starts July, 18. Do not let cities curtail your rights and liberties by passing restrictive ordinances that reduce your property rights.

We will revisit these unfounded allegations at a later time with real numbers about budget growth, population growth and property tax growth for Georgetown. Mean while enjoy the fake news at the link.

Georgetown Sales Tax Revenue Over Budget So Far

The Texas Comptroller just announced sales tax revenue for Texas in June was $2.4B. This is 10.3 percent more than in June 2016.

For Georgetown, the sales tax revenue for June is up 7.59% over June 2016.

Georgetown has budgeted $23.1M sales tax revenue, which is a 10% increase for FY2017 over the amount budgeted for FY2016.

However, the actual sales tax receipts for FY2016 came in above budget and the FY17 budget is just 4.1% above the actual receipts.

Bottom line is it appears the sales tax receipts are going to come in several hundred thousand dollars over budget, which is a good thing. The citizens just have to watch how our City Council spends that potential windfall.

High Temperatures Severely Reduce Wind Power Generation

According to Bloomberg, high temperatures result in reduced winds.

Of course during hot weather, electricity demand for air conditioning soars.

Temperatures are soaring across Texas, and that’s bad news for the state’s wind power generators. 

Wind farms -- which now account for about a fifth of the state’s power mix -- are forecast to generate significantly less electricity this week as the heat builds and keeps turbines from spinning. Wind generation may peak at about 5,900 megawatts on Thursday and 6,900 megawatts Friday, less than two-thirds of what they totaled a week earlier, according to grid manager Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or Ercot.

This will be especially damaging during the night-time hours when there are no alternatives for Georgetown to obtain electricity, except from coal and gas powered generating plants, which will be able to charge a premium price.

Expect this problem to worsen in the future as subsidized wind and solar plants under cut the price of electricity during times of excess electricity generation. Low subsidized prices for electricity for wind and solar will drive the coal and gas generating plants out of business, and when that happens, the electricity price will really increase during periods of low wind and solar electrical generation.

Do not count on stable electricity prices in Georgetown, no matter what politicans tell you.

The Dangers of City-Wide Integrated Information Systems

As reported in the June 8 edition of Georgetown Watch Dog, the city is embarking on a significant upgrade to its software/hardware systems. The new system, called Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), allows all the city departments to be interconnected using common protocols. Each department performs a series of common, repetitive tasks: issuing permits, performing inspections, making zoning determinations, among many others. And, of course, there are ongoing, administrative responsibilities: writing checks, accepting and processing payments, processing payroll, hiring staff, and others. 

The management of the business functions and processes within these departments requires software that serves their unique needs: financial software for accounting purposes; HR software for personnel management; and police software for coordinating dispatch and records. 

Once this powerful system is installed, the tendency of the city managers will be to connect more and more functions to the system that will allow enhanced control of the citizens through the "smart city" concept where everything is connected via the Internet.

 The central idea of a smart city (similar to the ‘smart grid’ for electrical power) is to use information and communications technologies – especially the Internet-of-Things (IoT) – to enable the city to collect, communicate and process data from all of its assets, with a view to better managing the city. This covers roads and transportation systems, buildings and land, hospitals and health services, water and energy infrastructure, waste management systems, law enforcement, and so on. Smart cities provide city managers an unprecedented amount of data about what is happening at every node of the grid, and therefore much greater control over the city.

Perhaps it's time for the City Council to consider establishing policies that will prevent future Councils and managers from connecting the ERP to information from individual homes, other than basic usage of city services, and using the information gathered to exercise control over the residents.

Georgetown Needs to Improve Customer Communication

Your erstwhile blogger experienced an electrical outage today at about 5:30pm. Luckily we determined that the outage was confined to the local area. We determined this by driving around and saw stoplights working among other things.

We assumed that neighbors had reported the outage and indeed they had as within an hour a service truck was at a local electrical distribution/transformer complex.

After about 1.5 hours I logged onto the Georgetown Utility website to see if any information was being provided. Here is what I found;

REPORT AN ELECTRIC/WATER OUTAGE

 Please call us at any time to report an electric or water outage at (512) 930-3640.

Additionally, during an outage, you can follow the City of Georgetown Facebook page for updates.

At the Georgetown Facebook page there was no information posted about the outage or when it was expected that service would be restored.

Fortunately, about 1 and 3/4 hours after the power went off, service was restored.

As of 3 hours after the power was lost, no information has been posted on the Facebook page.

At this time of year with temperatures exceeding 100 deg. F, the City should provide timely information about electrical outages and when service is expected to be restored. 

Latest City Pension Liability

City employees are invested in the Texas Municipal Retirement System (TMRS) for their retirement. The TMRS continues to assume a long term investment rate of return of 6.75%. 2016 was a good year for investments and they exceeded that rate of return. Here are the results from their Comprehensive Annual Financial Report.

They achieved a 7.42% return in 2016, however, their 10yr return was just 6.09%.

For 2016 TMRS reported to Georgetown that their liabilities are $129,483,368 and their assets are $107,413,854, which leaves an unfunded liability of $22,069,514. Some simple math shows that their funded ratio is 83.0% at the assumed rate of return of 6.75%.

Using the 10yr rate of return of 6.09% instead of 6.75% results in a funded ratio of 68.9%. This shows how sensitive the funded ratio is to the rate of return.

So when "experts" tell us that a funded ratio of above 80% indicates the pension fund is healthy, remember that ratio depends on the assumed rate of return.

Even though the TMRS is in relatively good shape, that is not true for public pensions around the country. Here is a chart from Bloomberg

Keep in mind that these funding ratios are likely very optimistic. Texas overall is at 75.6% and only one state, North Dakota, is fully funded. 

Once the public pension funds start to fail, and they will, the politicians think they're doing the right thing when they attempt to "socialize the issue" with federal bailouts and tax hikes. That will be a complete disaster!

Georgetown Development Plans

The City has recently published a map showing development being planned, development under construction, and currently available building sites. here

This map is eye watering in the scope and size of development going on in and around Georgetown. Notice the developments outside the current city limits and also notice the Extra Territorial Jurisdiction (ETJ) boundaries. Here are some numbers.

There are 6677 building sites in the planning stage, 955 sites in the construction stage, and 607 sites currently available. That is over 8,000 building sites!

See the map for more detail. here