The Parking Garage Fiasco

The City leadership is once again suffering from a self inflicted wound. Many Georgetown residents are upset with the process and lack of transparency used in selecting a site for a new 4 story parking garage near the historic downtown square.

There have been editorials and letters to the Wilco Sun over the last several weeks showing the unhappiness citizens are experiencing with the secrecy surrounding the entire garage project.

At the January 14, Council meeting over 25 people signed up to speak about the garage. Here is a link to the video of the council meeting. The parking garage issue is Item V. The entire video is 1.5 hours long.

One citizen captured many of the issues in the following 6 minute video.

The general lack of transparency is identified as well as the immaturity of the budget estimates which have doubled in just a couple of months.

The average cost of parking structures is $21,500 per parking space according to the engineering design firm under contract to the city. Yet, the cost for this proposed garage, so far, is $74,100 per space.

Does everyone see the problem here? Expect more controversy in the future if there are no changes to include citizens in the process of site selection and building cost, size and look.

Voter Fraud in Texas

There is voter fraud in Texas and all must be on-guard to assure that it is not happening in Georgetown or Williamson County. Here is an excellent video describing the fraud in the Valley of Southern Texas.

One of the best ways to assure voter fraud is not happening is to work at the polls, both early voting and election day. A poll worker has the ability to observe what is happening at the polling location. Although one won't get rich, poll workers are paid.

The Wilco Elections office must assure that there are not fraudulent mail-in ballots, as that is a major source of fraud as described in the video.

Race Relations Improve

Gallup, in it's latest poll, found a 14% improvement in race relations since President Trump took office. This is a significant improvement and should be widely acknowledged, but sadly it is not getting much media attention.

Mayoral Candidates Proposes to Control Growth

"Larry Brundidge wants to add three propositions to the ballot for the May 2, city election.Wilco Sun

1. a moratorium on construction for 16 months 

2. prohibition of airport alterations

3. prohibition of a structure at Sixth and Main streets

He wants to start with a moratorium on new residential, commercial and industrial construction for 16 months starting February 1, 2021, which he said is meant to avoid a treated water crisis. This would also prohibit applications for rezoning, plat adjustments, annexations, municipal utility districts, planned development projects and all other administrative procedures.

Mr. Brundidge’s next petition asks that the city be prohibited from altering the Georgetown Municipal Airport by:

1. increasing the number of runways

2. increasing the length of any existing runways

3. acquiring any property, either through negotiated purchase or eminent domain proceedings, to enlarge the area of the airport

4. enlarging existing structures in the air traffic control airport administration and any other function of airport operation.

Finally, he wants to stop the city from building a structure or selling its property at Sixth and Main streets."

It's Official, Ross Not Running for Re-Election

Truth About Taxpayer Funded Lobbying

The Texas Municipal League(TML), of which Georgetown is a member, engages in lobbying on behalf of cities and against the interests of taxpayers.

The Texas Municipal League, which consists of over 1,100 Texas cities, made the statement during a conference held in Austin this week. Corsicana City Councilman Chris Woolsey shared an image of the presentation from one of the conference’s sessions on Facebook; the presentation was titled “Shaking the Money Tree: A City Revenue Discussion” and was delivered by TML Legislative Counsel Bill Longley.

“Sadly, the ‘shaking the money tree’ reference wasn’t an offhanded comment, it was the TITLE of the presentation,” Woolsey said in his post. “While taxpayers across the state are being forced out of their homes by rising property taxes, Texas Municipal League, the leading advocate for taxpayer-funded lobbying and opponent of property tax reform, sees them as little more than a never-ending source of revenue to be shaken down even further.” 

Here is the title slide of his presentation:

Read the entire article. Shaking the Money Tree

Its time for Georgetown to get out of TML and put the interests of the taxpayer first!

City Management of Capital Improvement Project Finances

In fiscal year 2019, the city's Capital Improvement Plan(CIP) budget total was $$62,571,835.

At the beginning of this fiscal year the CIP budget was $69,265,200.

At the time of the January budget amendment, the city said the approved 2020 CIP budget was $77,770,171.

A budget amendment was approved at the January 14, 2020 council meeting in the amount of $46,487,128.

The city provides the following description:

In summary, capital projects, maintenance and equipment replacement are continuing in the following funds: General Capital Projects, Streets Maintenance, Community Development Block Grant, Main Street Facade, Parks, Parkland Dedication, Village Public Improvement District, Police Seizures, Georgetown Transportation Enhancement Corporation, Georgetown Economic Development Corporation, Airport, Stormwater and Water.

So now the CIP budget for 2020 is $115,752,328 or $124,257,299 depending which approved 2020 CIP budget one accepts.

If the city could not spend its $69.2M CIP budget in 2019, how in the world do they expect to efficiently and effectively spend $115.8M in 2020 or $124,257,299?

If the staff could not spend $69.2M in 2019, why wasn't the 2020 CIP budget reduced to accommodate the rollover of $46.5M from 2019?

It appears it is time for our city council to start asking the hard questions of the city staff.

Beware of Effort to Change Selection of Texas Judges

During the 2019 legislative session, the House and Senate voted for – and the governor signed – legislation creating a commission to study Texas’ judicial selection process. Only 11 members of the House and six members of the Senate opposed the legislation.

The commission is comprised of several House and Senate members, as well as individuals appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor, and House speaker.

At the commission’s first meeting two weeks ago, several appointed members let it slip they wanted to remove the “party label” from judges. That’s been put forward in the past as the first step to taking judicial slots off the ballot altogether.

Nonpartisan elections result in voters electing judges who are significantly more liberal than the population. They also deprive voters of important information about the ideological views of judicial candidates.

Recall the Republican Party of Texas’ platform explicitly calls for protecting the right of citizens to elect judges.

The fastest way for Texans to lose their right to elect judges would be to stop participating in judicial races. Citizens need to be asking more direct questions of those men and women who seek to don the black robe and take up a gavel. Texans need to press them harder, and not let ourselves be intimidated by the titles. Just like presidents, governors, and school board members, judges make decisions affecting all of us. They must work for, and be answerable to, the people.

Be on guard against politicians who would deprive citizens the right to directly elect Texas judges!

UK Wind Farms Paid Million to NOT Generate Electricity

Here is a novel idea! When will Georgetown embrace the idea of paying the wind and solar generators to NOT generate electricity when there is a surplus to the city's needs? UK Pays Wind Generators to Shut Down

Over £12 million was handed out to wind farms in the United Kingdom last week, following a major outage in a powerline that transported energy from Scottish wind farms to England. The handouts will be tacked onto consumers’ energy bills throughout the country. 

The firms were paid between 25 and 80 per cent more than they would have earned were the turbines actually running, reports The Telegraph.

Notice how the payments for no electricity are tacked onto the consumer's bills!

Is this the next "innovation" the city will try?

This Weeks Hot Button Issue - Downtown Parking Garage

The proposal to close part of 6th street in order to build a 4 story parking garage behind the old Council chamers has generated a lot of heat for two primary reasons; 1. It violates existing city ordinances: 2. The placement and design has been conducted in secrecy.

Read all about the issues at this link.

If you are concerned about this issue, it is on the agenda for the Council workshop at 2:30pm on Tuesday, January 14 at City Hall and also the partial closure of 6th street is on the regular council agenda on the same day at 6pm at City Hall.

Tax Incentives Don't Work Says New Study

Here is the summary of a new National Bureau of Economic Research paper. This paper from researchers at Princeton and Columbia Business School found "no evidence" that business tax incentives given to individual companies increased broader economic growth at the state and local level.

• Research shows states continue to offer up increasingly large sums of money to big-name companies in an effort that proves more effective at generating headlines than economic growth.
• The apparent decline in house prices provides some weakly suggestive evidence that the welfare effects of these subsidies might be negative on average.

Evaluating State and Local Business Tax Incentives

Cailin R. Slattery, Owen M. Zidar

NBER Working Paper No. 26603
Issued in January 2020

This essay describes and evaluates state and local business tax incentives in the United States. In 2014, states spent between $5 and $216 per capita on incentives for firms in the form of firm-specific subsidies and general tax credits, which mostly target investment, job creation, and research and development. Collectively, these incentives amounted to nearly 40% of state corporate tax revenues for the typical state, but some states' incentive spending exceeded their corporate tax revenues. States with higher per capita incentives tend to have higher state corporate tax rates. Recipients of firm-specific incentives are usually large establishments in manufacturing, technology, and high-skilled service industries, and the average discretionary subsidy is $178M for 1,500 promised jobs. Firms tend to accept subsidy deals from places that are richer, larger, and more urban than the average county, and poor places provide larger incentives and spend more per job. Comparing “winning” and runner-up locations for each deal in a bigger and more recent sample than in prior work, we find that average employment within the 3-digit industry of the deal increases by roughly 1,500 jobs. While we find some evidence of direct employment gains from attracting a firm, we do not find strong evidence that firm-specific tax incentives increase broader economic growth at the state and local level. Although these incentives are often intended to attract and retain high-spillover firms, the evidence on spillovers and productivity effects of incentives appears mixed. As subsidy-giving has become more prevalent, subsidies are no longer as closely tied to firm investment. If subsidy deals do not lead to high spillovers, justifying these incentives requires substantial equity gains, which are also unclear empirically.

The Georgetown City Council needs to read this research paper as it applies to local government as well as state government.

Why does Costco need taxpayer provided incentives? Providing incentives to private businesses is not a core government function!

Justification for Georgetown Fire's Hook & Ladder Truck?

It looks like Georgetown is getting a 5 story building that may require the use of Georgetown Fire's new $1.4M hook and ladder truck.

A developer intends to break ground in early 2020 on an upscale, resort-style senior living community.

The current plan calls for approximately 230 apartments across 13 acres at the Northwest corner of Del Webb and Williams Drive. That is basically behind the Walgreens store.

There will be a 5 story Independent Living tower, a three-story assisted living building, and a single-story memory support community. State-of-the-art amenities include a fine dining venue, café, an open-air courtyard and bar, wellness center with salon and spa, fitness center, club rooms, theater, resort-style pool with outdoor music venue, meeting spaces and multiple entertainment areas for friends and family.

Information seminars will be held January 30, 2020 at the Sheraton Austin Georgetown Hotel. 

There has been no publicity about this development from the City, but we assume you will be notified after the building starts!

P.S. This will be "non-affordable" housing as the rents will start at $4,000/Month!

Beware of Misinformation

It is being widely reported that citizens are subject to misinformation about all public policy issues. Not only are people subject to misinformation, but as significant, the withholding of truthful information.

Everyone has personal anecdotal experiences about misinformation propagated by the media, but now a nationally representative annual survey commissioned by Just Facts, a non-profit research and educational institute has been conducted on the subject.

Just Facts, a non-profit research and educational institute had the survey conducted by Triton Polling & Research, an academic research firm that used sound methodologies to assess U.S. residents who regularly vote.

Based on Just Facts data and analysis,Issues and Insights found the following:

"The highest levels of misinformation were found on questions relating to child hunger, tax burdens, poverty, landfills, health insurance copayments, and two elements of Social Security finances. For these 7 questions, 75% or more of voters provided an incorrect answer. 

Among 8 of the 10 questions in which the electorate was most deluded, the wrong answers they gave accorded with progressive storylines propagated by the media. Moreover, these answers were often far removed from reality, not just slightly mistaken. 

For example, 79% of voters think that the middle class pays a greater portion of their income in federal taxes than the top 1%. Yet, the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Treasury, and the Tax Policy Center have all documented that households in the top 1% pay an average federal tax rate that is about 2.5 times higher than that of the middle class. More specifically, the latest Congressional Budget Office data on federal taxes shows that on average in 2016: 

• middle-income households paid $10,100 in taxes on income of $75,900, or a tax rate of 13%.

• the top 1% of households paid $595,900 in taxes on income of $1,789,800, or a tax rate of 33%.

Nevertheless, media outlets commonly report the opposite based on deceptive studies that exclude large portions of people’s taxes and/or incomes. A remarkable 93% of Democrat voters have accepted this canard, as well as 65% of Trump voters."

Of course we have experienced this misinformation here in Georgetown with respect to the Georgetown Electric Company. In addition to the misinformation reported by the national media, our local elected Representatives have failed to provide truthful information either by design or through incompetence or ignorance.

The citizens of Georgetown need to be skeptical of all media, ask questions and request corroborating independent sources.

Another Mayoral Candidate

Larry Brundidge, an Old Town resident, plans to run for mayor to ensure growth is organized and intelligent.

He is drafting two proposals for the November 2020 ballot that would constrain growth. 

One, would call for a moratorium on all new industrial, residential and commercial building for 16 months. This is to allow the infrastructure of roads, water and waste water to catch up.

The second ballot proposal would deny the city council the authority to change the Georgetown Municipal Airport into a regional airport.

Mr. Brundidge said he will not seek or accept campaign contributions in order to assure the voters that his vote is not for sale to any donors.

However, as the owner of a restored residence in Old Town,it can reasonably be expected that he would favor projects, restrictions and services that favorably benefit Old Town. 

Will Texas Senate Bill 943, Which Became Law January 1 Provide Transparency in Georgetown?

The Statesman describes a state law pushed by government transparency advocates that took effect Wednesday may require local and state governmental entities to start providing answers. As a result of this law, the Statesman has initiated new requests from public entities that had previously been denied.

They are requesting a renewable energy contract involving the city of Georgetown.

State Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, author of the bill said:

“If a governmental entity enters into a contract and uses taxpayer dollars to pay that contract, the public will be able to determine the major terms of the contract, so it can play a role in determining whether it’s how they want taxpayer dollars spent,” he said.

How the law plays out will become clearer as public officials make appeals to the state attorney general about whether they can withhold information, said Kelley Shannon, executive director of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

It appears that the City will still be able to withhold some aspects of the utility contracts, but, they will have to prove that releasing documents would result in the disclosure of trade secrets or proprietary information.

Stay tuned! 

Coal Miners Not Likely to be Good Computer Coders

The following comment by presidential candidate Joe Biden this week shows how far out of touch politicians, and especially Joe Biden are from the "real" world.

“Anybody who can go down 300 to 3,000 feet into a mine sure as hell can learn how to program as well,” he said. “Anybody who can throw coal into a furnace can learn how to program for god’s sake.”

The following screed was provided by a retired programmer that illustrates the point that Joe Biden doesn't have a clue about the skills and temperament required for coding.

"Coal miners are probably short on the skills to become a good coder. Besides, folks like Disney let their American coders go to replace them with foreigners that make a fraction of the money. Other large employers did the same. So for coal miners, the switch isn’t worth the money, even if they were good coders.

To be good, you need to know your math tables, great grasp of algebra, be a perfect speller, and have strong logic and analytical skills. The environment is rigid and unforgiving, and in a crunch, the hours can be weird and long.

There were two instances in my career that I had to tell the analyst that "speced" the program I was working on that it wouldn’t work. They didn’t like it, but their data storage requirements were greater than the memory their very large computers contained even when running the program all by itself. I could make a program search 4-dimensional arrays when the computer can only handle 3. With the right data, 5 could be possible but the coding would be a challenge. Not everyone has that skill level to create or modify such a working program.

Coal mining coders was not a winner in 2016 with high unemployment. It’s even less attractive in a roaring economy that has use for coal miners mining."

The first point emphasizes the fact that US companies use H1-B visas to hire "cheap" foreign labor. In addition to Disney, there are many other companies that have used this tactic to enhance their "bottom line".

Congressman John Carter is our representative and is a strong supporter of the H1-B program at the behest of Dell Computer and other local hi-tech companies.

The other tactic used is to "offshore" company functions, including coding to again put company profits ahead of American prosperity for displaced American workers.

It's time for our disconnected politicians to get in touch with "real" people so that they can effectively represent them.