The All Renewable Energy Delusion

"The all-renewable future envisioned by greens would require paving the equivalent of California with nothing but wind turbines." National Review

"By my count, since 2015, more than 200 government entities have moved to reject or restrict Big Wind. Given the rural resistance to today’s wind turbines, which stand 500 to 600 feet high, it’s easy to imagine how that resistance will flourish when Krugman gets his hoped-for turbines, with their red-blinking lights, and spinning blades, 85 stories high."

Georgetown ISD Budget Growth

It looks like the school district is using the same budget playbook as the City of Georgetown. That is the budget continues to grow substantially faster than student enrollment growth and inflation.

Over the last 5 years, student enrollment has grown from 10,397 to 11,425, an increase of 1028 students. That equates to a 1.9% compound annual growth rate. Over the same 5 year period inflation has grown at compound annual rate of 1.22% using CPI(U) as measured by the Census Bureau.

The combined growth rate of student enrollment and inflation is 3.12% annually over the last 5 years. Thus a rational expectation would be that the school budget would increase at the same amount annually.

However, the GISD budget has increased from $101.2M to $145M for the current year. That is an annual growth rate of 7.46%.

Where is the stewardship of the taxpayers money that allows the spending to grown at over twice the rate of enrollment plus inflation?

Waving ones hands and saying enrollment growth is the reason for the budget growth just doesn't hold water when looks at the actual numbers!

Where has this extra taxpayer money been spent? We know it hasn't been on teacher salaries! Have more administrators been hired? Have more unnecessary functions been incorporated into the school system? Have some of the facilities been "gold plated"?

Taxpayers deserve answers to these and other questions about how and where their money is being spent.

More Pension Info

@TRSofTexas, tweeting from the Teachers Retirement System Board of Trustees meeting that;

"#TRSTrustees split votes at 4-4 on two motions to lower the 8% investment return assumption to 7.5% in the first motion and 7.25% in the second motion. They will take up the matter again at their July 27 meeting."

All the trustees clearly have not yet accepted the reality that 8% investment returns long term are unachievable in today's market environment.

Of course they know when they reduce the discount rate/investment return to realistic levels, the pension fund will be seriously under funded and will become a political problem for all the school districts in Texas.

Pension Woes Across the U.S.

Even though Georgetown is in relatively good shape with respect to their pension obligations, Council must keep a wary eye as the situation can turn negative rapidly as it is doing in several Texas pension funds and in pension funds across the United States.

The war between public pensioners and tax donkeys is heating up

Public pension obligations are rising so fast that even repeated tax increases can't keep up.

This is setting up a second front in the war between entitled Baby Boomers and younger taxpayers who pay most of the federal and local taxes. Public pensioners are a subset of the entitled Baby Boomers, but their pensions can't be paid with borrowed money like Social Security and Medicare; public pension obligations come out of local and state taxes, and as those obligations soar then public services must be slashed and taxes jacked up by annual double-digit increases.

One of the reasons that Georgetown's pension fund is in relatively good shape is that the council has been funding the city's share at the required level.

This has been possible because the city's tax base has been growing. Texas and Georgetown must keep their budgets and therefore the taxes in check so that they can meet their pension obligations when the growth slows down.

This is what happens when the tax burden become too great!

Update on Council Slush Fund

The City staff modified the proposed uses of the slush fund in their presentation to the Council at the workshop yesterday. Here is the modified chart.

The result from the workshop was that the first two items would be funded as presented and $175K would be allocated to the Economic Stabilization Fund, but, the remaining allocation would be delayed until the sale proceeds from the sale of the city buildings is known with certainty sometime in May.

Remember, the funding for the new city hall is dependent on the proceeds from the sale of several existing city owned buildings on and near the courthouse square. The Council established a $13M cap on the cost of the new city hall.

2018 Council Slush Fund

It is time once again for the City Council to disperse its 2018 slush fund. This year there is $1,805,639 in the fund which is a result of over taxing the citizens. In other words, the City collected more taxes than they planned on just a few short months ago.

The use of these funds will be discussed at the Council workshop today 4/10/2018 at 3pm. Here is what the staff recommends.

One might ask why the employees pension fund does not receive any of this, since they are NOT 100% funded.

In fact, here is a partial list of City unfunded liabilities.

Click to enlarge

Of course the City could return the excess money to the taxpayers or accelerate the payment of debt. So many choices. Will the Council spend the excess funds according to your wishes?

Renewable Energy is Disingenuous Claim

The 100% renewable claim is being exposed for not being truthful. Texas Public Policy Foundation

But what does 100% renewable energy mean? This question was asked a lot when Georgetown, the first city in Texas to move to 100% renewable energy, decided to take this step. According to David Spence, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, for now it “means that those cities purchase as much renewable electricity as they can get.” 

Neither Denton nor Georgetown can guarantee that the electricity will always be 100% renewable. Saying so is “misleading,” says Charles McConnell of Rice University’s Energy and Environment Initiative. 

Producing non-renewable energy at Denton Energy Center while claiming “100%” renewable exposes the claim’s contradiction. Denton, like Georgetown before it, is trying to claim 100% renewable energy. However, their actions show that renewable energy alone is not currently a reliable option.

Read the entire article. 

Georgetown Continues Performing/Paying For Non-Government Functions

The City continues to spend your hard earned taxpayer dollars on non-government functions. It was reported in the Wilco Sun that the City Council unaminously supported entering into a "partnership" with Habitat for Humanity to administer $24,000 for home repairs.

Why in the world is the City funding private home repairs? It may be decent and moral to help those less fortunate repair their homes, but, that is the purview of private charities and individuals,not government.

The city governments role is to provide for the public safety, police and fire, streets and roads, city parks and libraries. It most definitely not the role of city government to repair citizens private homes.

Another excursion into non-government activities is Georgetowns call for an artist to create a 21-by-15-foot mural on a private building downtown. This potentially leads to some citizens discontent and maybe even a law suit if one of Georgetowns citizens is offended by the mural. This indeed has happened in other cities where the city paid for art and then paid again for removal.

Again, why do the city council believe this is a proper role of government? It clearly is not a governmental role even though other government entities, including the Federal Government, have funded such activites. There has been serious advocates for eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts because many of their projects have offended many citizens.

All the citizens of Georgetown would be richer if the City stopped funding non-governmental activities.