Climate Change and Renewables

The climate change advocates that blame mankind for emitting CO2 and thus causing the planet to warm are spewing their disinformation again as evidenced by letters and articles in the Wilco Sun.

A well known climate scientist of 40 years, Dr. Roy Spencer debunks the claim that mankind has caused most or all the temperature changes in the last 2,000 years. In his latest blog post he observes the following:

Am I claiming that there is no such thing as human-caused warming? No. I’m claiming that it is overblown. The Public Citizen memo makes much of recent record warm years clustering together, which sounds alarming — if one doesn’t mention the small fractions of a degree involved. If there was no natural year-to-year variability, and the temperature was increasing at 0.01 or 0.02 deg. F every year, then every successive year would be a record warm year…but who would care? The rate of ‘global warming’ is too weak for any one person to notice in their lifetime.

Furthermore, we already know the climate models (which are the basis for proposed changes in energy policy to get us away from fossil fuels) are producing generally twice as much warming of the atmosphere-ocean system as has been observed. The most recent energy budget analysis of surface and deep-ocean warming suggests that the climate system is only half as sensitive to our CO2 emissions as you are being told…. maybe 1.5 deg. C of eventual warming from a doubling of atmospheric CO2. At 410 ppm, We are currently half way to doubling.

Finally, the Public Citizen memo claims that today’s technology would already allow 80% to 100% of our energy to come from renewable sources. This is patently false. Solar and wind are relatively diffuse (and thus expensive) sources of energy which are intermittent, requiring fossil fuel (or nuclear) backup. It would be exceedingly expensive to get even 50% of our energy from such sources. Maybe someday we will have such technologies, but until that day arrives, the massive amount of money that would be required to achieve such a goal would worsen poverty, which historically has been the leading cause of premature death in the world.

Dr Spencer is the co-inventor of the satellite based temperature measurements of the global lower atmosphere and he collects and archives that data for all to use.

Peruse his website and educate yourself. The site has real scientific data and analysis of global temperature that laymen can understand and appreciate. 

Water Rates are Also Increasing in Georgetown

The typical Georgetown resident who uses 20,000 gallons of potable per month will see their combined water and sewage monthly bill increase from $95.15 to $126.10 in 5 years. That is a 5.8% annual growth rate.

According to City documents, the city population is growing at either 3.6% or 4.8% annually. So why are the water rates increasing at a higher rate? Is the City trying to make up funds that should have been funded by developers of the new homes? Inquiring minds would like to know.

Get involved! Attend your City Council Workshops and Meetings and ask questions!

PS: Do you remember the City telling you that the water services are also a "profit" center that takes in more money than it costs to operate. In 2018 the water services are scheduled to turn over $2.7M to the General Fund to be spent as the City sees fit.

School Accountability is Coming to Texas

In August 2018 – for the first time - each school district will get a fair, transparent, and easy-to-understand A through F letter grade that measures how well the district is serving its students. School Accountability

Georgetown to Increase Electric Rates

Councilman Fought has alerted citizens in his council district, via his subscription newsletter, that utility rates are going to increase in the near future.

We have been told over the last two years that our electric rates would not increase because of the long-term contracts for solar and wind generated electricity. This turns out to not be absolutely true.

The current argument is that the electric company cash reserve has been used to fund projects to accommodate the growth and needs to be replenished, even though it has been city policy that growth is to pay for itself.

So, the first question to ask is why haven't the new customers paid to expand the electric system to meet their needs? What happened? Why should existing rate payers fund the replenishment of the cash reserve?

The analysis presented by Councilman Fought focuses on increasing the fixed rate customer charge as the solution and the only options considered related to how quickly the customer charge is increased. There is another option to be discussed below.

Here are the current residential rates from the Georgetown website.

Councilman Foughts analysis selected a monthly usage of 1000 Kwhrs for a typical residential customer. At the current rate, the cost per Kwhr excluding sales tax would be 12.08 cents/Kwhr. Looking at a typical usage for April or May of 239/Kwhrs, the cost per Kwhr increases to 18.7 cents/Kwhr. This 50% increase is entirely due to the fixed charge of $20/month. Just keep in mind the large impact the fixed charge can have on your cost per Kwhr!

Now does anyone remember the City telling you that the electric company is a "profit center" for the City? In 2018 the electric company is scheduled to turn over $5.5M, that is excess to their operating costs, to the City General Fund to be used for whatever the City decides to spend it on.

The question is: Why doesn't the City use some of that "profit" to replenish the electric company cash reserve?

PS: The comparison of tax rates, water rates or electric rates to surrounding jurisdictions is completely superfluous. The only metric that matters is how much it costs the individual Georgetown tax or rate payer.

PPS: At the June 26 Workshop, the City said they are "really really" going to make the developers pay for all necessary upgrades in the future.

A Classical Education Provides Superior Results

A  school report demonstrates that students that receive a classical education as opposed to an education based on common core, soar to the top achievement levels.

A school in Florida that dumped the Common Core program in favor of traditional teaching methods has soared to the number one position in the State’s top schools list, according to government statistics.

Thanks to the classical approach of phonics, an impressive 90 percent of the third-grade students at Mason Classical Academy (MCA) were proficient in English Language Arts, compared to just 58 percent in the county overall, most of whom rely on Common Core. In fact, the MCA third-graders were in Florida’s top two percent, while fifth graders from the academy ranked in the state’s top one percent.

To observe the operation of a school using the classical approach, visit Founders Classical Academy in Leander. Both the Mason and Founders schools use the classical teaching techniques and curricula developed by Hillsdale College.

Buckthorn Solar has been Sold by NRG

What are the implications for Georgetown's contract with NRG for the electricity produced by the Buckthorn solar farm? 

Again, no transparency from the City of Georgetown on any impact of the ownership change at Buckthorn. The citizens have to gather this information on their own.

This news release was posted in February 2018. Further analysis was reported yesterday as to why NRG was selling their renewable energy business.

The company has also struggled with balance sheet problems over the past few years. In short, the company is over-leveraged relative to its income. This should not really come as a surprise due to the damage that the aforementioned rate war inflicted upon all of the companies in the space. These financial problems persisted even after the company managed to shed nearly $3 billion in debt via the 2017 bankruptcy of GenOn.

More information GIP: 

NRG Yield, Inc. (NYSE: NYLD, NYLD.A) today announces that Global Infrastructure Partners (“GIP”), a leading global independent infrastructure investor, has entered into a binding agreement (the “Transaction”) to acquire NRG Energy Inc.’s (NRG) full ownership interest in NRG Yield and NRG’s renewable development and operations platform. With over $45 billion in assets under management and approximately $9 billion of equity invested or committed in the renewable energy sector, GIP provides NRG Yield with a leading sponsor with substantial financial resources to accelerate development of the next generation of drop down projects. GIP has deep experience as a sponsor of publicly traded vehicles in the energy and power sectors and has the unique ability to enhance NRG Yield’s long-term growth opportunities and access to capital. Furthermore, GIP’s demonstrated commitment to the expansion of renewables globally aligns its economic interests with those of NRG Yield’s public shareholders.

NRG and NRG Yield entered into Purchase and Sale Agreements for NRG Yield to purchase NRG’s interest in the following ROFO pipeline assets: 527 MW Carlsbad Energy Center and 154 MW Buckthorn Solar for additional cash proceeds of $407 million, subject to certain adjustments.

 Do we know the health of NRG Yield and Global Infrastructure Partners, or, will we find out later they are just like Sun Edison? Over leveraged and under cash flowed with bankruptcy in the future! Time will tell and you can be sure the City will not tell us!!

City Claims of "100% Renewable Energy" are 99% Misleading

The executive director of the Energy and Environment Initiative at Rice University says: "Let’s not get carried away. Although activists herald these pledges as major environmental accomplishments, they’re more of a marketing gimmick. Use my home state of Texas as an example. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas oversees 90% of the state’s electricity generation and distribution. 

Texas generates more wind and solar power than any other state. Yet more than 71% of the council’s total electricity still comes from coal and natural gas.The trick is that there’s no method to designate electrons on the grid as originating from one source or another. Power generated by fossil fuels and wind turbines travels together over poles and underground wires before reaching cities, homes and businesses. No customer can use power from wind and solar farms exclusively." WSJ

So how do cities make this 100% renewable claim while still receiving regular electricity from the grid? They pay to generate extra renewable energy that they then sell on the market. If they underwrite enough, they can claim to have offset whatever carbon-generated electricity they use. The proceeds from the sale go back to the city and are put toward its electric bill. 

In essence, these cities are buying a “renewable” label to put on the regular power they’re using. 

When the sun is shinning and the wind is blowing in West Texas, the generating plants under contract to Georgetown generate more electricity than Georgetown can use and so that electricity is used by other Texans connected to the grid. When the sun is not shinning and the wind is not blowing, Georgetown's electricity comes from the coal, nuclear and gas fired plants, just like everyone else in Texas.

So recognize the marketing propaganda when you hear it! 

Misguided City Priorities

As Sun City has grown, so has the traffic. In the area around the intersection of Del Webb and Sun City Boulevard, the safety of pedestrians has been comprised because of the increased traffic. The City conducted a traffic analysis and concluded several actions could be taken to mitigate the risk to pedestrians and these actions include: lowering the speed limit to 30mph, tree trimming and installing motion activated flashing lights at three pedestrian crosswalks.

Alas, the city has decided that it cannot afford to install the flashing lights because they are too expensive!

Consider this statement of the Georgetown 2018 final budget on page 1 of the General Fund Summary: "The projected available fund balance after accounting for contingency, economic stability reserve, and the benefit payout reserve totals $1.9 million."

It is unlikely that three motion-activated flashing lights would cost in excess of $1.9M. If public safety is not the number 1 responsibility of the City, then what is a higher priority?

Texas Sales Tax Revenue Up

Presumably the sales tax revenue for the City of Georgetown will increase a like amount. More money for the Council to spend! 

(AUSTIN) — Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar today said state sales tax revenue totaled $2.77 billion in June, 13.7 percent more than in June 2017."Sales tax revenue increased for almost all major economic sectors," Hegar said. "The strong revenue growth was led by collections from the mining and manufacturing sectors. The construction, wholesale and retail trade sectors also saw strong gains."Total sales tax revenue for the three months ending in June 2018 was up 12.4 percent compared to the same period a year ago. Sales tax revenue is the largest source of state funding for the state budget, accounting for 58 percent of all tax collections.

NRG Solar Farm Comes Online

The solar farm that has been built North of Fort Stockton in Pecos County has started producing electricity and inserting it into the Texas electrical grid (Wilco Sun). NRG Energy purchased the bankrupt project from SunEdison in 2016 and subsequently completed the project. They also negotiated a contract to sell the entire output to the City of Georgetown for the next 25 years.

As is typical in Texas energy projects, NRG declined to share the cost of the project as well as the content of the contract with Georgetown including the price of the electricity being charged to Georgetown.

Also in typical fashion, it was disclosed that portions of the rate are fixed for the 25 year duration of the contract, but, other portions of the rate charged Georgetown may vary.

So much for a fixed and constant rate for Georgetown consumers over the next 25 years.

Where is the transparency in our city government?

A Court Victory for Small Business

The United States Court of Appeals for the 7th circuit has provided a significant victory against government overreach when a three-judge panel ruled on behalf of landowners. 

ST.EVE, Circuit Judge. This case concerns just shy of 13 acres of wetlands, which lie in a south‐suburban plot of land called the Warmke parcel. Orchard Hill Building Company purchased the Warmke parcel in 1995 with plans for a large‐scale residential development. Not wanting to run afoul of the Clean Water Act, Orchard Hill requested a determination Case: 17-3403 Document: 34 Filed: 06/27/2018 Pages: 17 2 No. 17‐3403 from the United States Army Corps of Engineers that the wet‐ lands (or the “Warmke wetlands”) were not jurisdictional “waters of the United States.” The Corps decided that they were, and Orchard Hill has spent the last 12 years challenging that decision. We find that the Corps has not provided sub‐ stantial evidence of a significant nexus to navigable‐in‐fact waters, and therefore vacate and remand with instructions that the Corps reconsider its determination.

What is particularly disturbing about this case is the fact that it took 12 years and many legal actions to arrive at this point in time. The amount of money that Orchard Hill has spent defending its right to develop its land is mind biggling. Keep in mind this property was 11 miles away from any navigatable water. 

  

School Property Taxes

The Georgetown ISD has recently become a significant payer of the "Robin Hood" taxes that require property rich districts to send money to the state for redistribution to "poor" school districts. Here is a graph of recent GISD payments.

As can be seen, these tax payments are on an unsustainable trajectory.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation has come up with a method to ultimately eliminate the Maintenance and Operation portion of the school property tax.

If state lawmakers cap the state’s budget growth at four percent per year – and dedicate 90 percent of the surplus to lowering school property taxes – the Robin Hood tax could be phased out in 10 years. By the 11th year, the entire school property tax for maintenance and operations (M&O) could be abolished, reducing the average Texan’s total property tax bill by 40 percent or more.

The Texas State Legislature needs to be encouraged to pass legislation embodying this principle at the 2019 legislative session to permanently reduce the property tax burden on Texans.

Don't Believe Hype About Carbon Fee & Dividend

There are some in Georgetown that are advocating with City Council to pass a resolution supporting a carbon fee and dividend similar to the one passed in Austin. Many liberal politicians, pundits and even climate scientists endorse this carbon tax. Notice, there are no trained economists supporting this idea.

In fact, here are two economists who show that such a scheme would fail miserably. RealClearEnergy

Today, some pundits and politicians who claim the conservative mantle argue that a carbon tax is a free market solution to a market failure. The purported failure is that the marketplace does not adequately price the estimated social cost of carbon, which is deemed to be the global damages of climate change from carbon dioxide emissions. Yet, there is nothing conservative or free market about the government expanding its role in our daily lives through a carbon tax. 

Often ignored by advocates of Pigouvian taxes is what gets referred to as “the knowledge problem.” That is, the few individuals in government lack sufficient information from prices and other sources available among the millions of individuals in the market to make sound decisions. 

By taxing an economic input like energy production, government essentially taxes everything that we do, wear, eat, and use. History shows that this is all very destructive: Carbon taxes in Australia and British Columbia reduced standards of living, with Australia eventually repealing its carbon tax within just two years. 

While proponents of the dividend approach, or even a revenue-neutral tax swap, claim this is a market-based, conservative plan, the truth is a carbon tax is based on highly questionable assumptions, leaving it as mainly a policy tool for social engineering with huge economic costs 

The EPA reports that the aggregate emissions of six common toxic pollutants (carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, and sulfur dioxide) have declined by 67 percent since 1980. Meanwhile, gross domestic product is up 160 percent and population is up 42 percent. Energy-related carbon emissions are down to near 1992 levels —thanks primarily to innovations such as hydraulic fracturing that has allowed far more production of cleaner burning natural gas.

What is the old homily? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Beware Short-Term Climate Predictions

A thoughtful article on climate predictions for north Texas uses facts to discredit the use of flawed models to predict changes in climate.

Similar caution should be used when using models to predict 2.4 ft increases in sea level by 2045 along the Texas coast. Statesman

Wind Generator Impacts on Local Residents

The residents of Comanche County Texas share their experience with the giant wind turbines in their county. Comanche County

These devices disrupt individuals lives, pits neighbor vs neighbor and causes the value of their land to depreciate. These are the burdens placed on the few people by the corporations and consumers that demand renewable energy.

How are these people compensated? The answer is; they are not!

Renewable Energy Continues to Require Massive Subsidies

The "cheap" electricity that Georgetown residents currently enjoy are possible because of the massive ongoing subsidies by the Federal Government extracted from all the US taxpayers.

Stephen Moore provides some perspective.

But the idea that renewables are “cheap” is a lie and those on the left know it. Yet no one in the media ever challenges them. Let’s be clear about an economic reality that environmentalists have spent four decades trying to hide: Without massive government subsidies, there would be no wind or solar energy to speak of. They are complete creatures of government favoritism, and after 30 years we still can’t cut the umbilical cord.

For every dollar that coal and nuclear power receive, wind power gets almost $5 of subsidy and solar receives about $20. This does not even include the biggest subsidy of all: About half the states have renewable energy standards requiring utilities to buy 20 percent to 30 percent of their power from wind and solar regardless of the price. What other industry in America has that kind of golden parachute?

As mentioned in a previous post, renewable energy electric producers in Texas also receive relief from property taxes at the expense of all other local property taxpayers.

It's time to stop the subsidies!

Georgetown Electric Rates

The City posted the electric rates for various entities in the 2017 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. Here are some of those rates:

Two observations:
Residential rates including transmission costs and purchased power adjustment is $099.8 per kWh or $99.8 per mWh. Recall the Mayor has told us that wind power costs $18 per mWh. Thus the citizens are being charged more than 5 times the cost for the electricity at their home. It is understandable that the City has to charge enough to cover the operation of the Georgetown Electric Company, but, 5+ times!

Secondly, notice that the school district is being charged $118.0 per mWh including transmission costs and purchased power adjustment. There are 19 schools in GISD. The City charges itself $66.50 per mWh for electricity. The school district obtains it funding from the taxpayer, so why is it charged almost 2X what the City charges itself? Just a stealthy way to extract more money from property owners!

Mayor Ross Touts Wind Energy

In an interview with Axios, Mayor Ross extols the economic benefits of wind energy to the citizens of Georgetown. 

What he fails to mention is the tax credits the wind energy companies receive from the Federal government, the property tax benefits the companies receive from the local taxing entities, like school districts, where the windmills are located and the marked reduction in quality of life for those living near the windmills.

I am sure the property owners in the counties where the windmills are located just love giving the windmill developers a tax holiday for 20 or 30 years while their property taxes continue to increase.

Once the windmills are built, it takes just a handful of workers to maintain them over their expected life of 20 to 30 years, so there is no significant, sustained economic benefit to the local counties and their residents.

In other words, US taxpayers and local taxpayers where the windmills are located are subsidizing the cost of electricity for the residents of Georgetown. That seems like a immoral position even though it is legal.

A side benefit of the interview is that the Mayor discloses that wind energy costs $18/MegaWatt Hour. This information has not been available to the citizens of Georgetown where the rate charged residents is $93.9/MWHr.

Rewriting the Tree Ordinance

 Councilwoman Jonrowe is considering rewriting part of the city's Unified Development Code that deals with tree preservation based on the experience with the current code. This is a hot button issue that will bring out the tree lovers and the property rights activists.

This issue was considered in the last state legislative session with proposals to legislatively deny cities the ability to regulate trees or their removal on private property.

The bill that did pass into law, HR7 placed restrictions on a city's ability to regulate trees smaller that 10 inches in diameter on private property.

That bill does not impact Georgetown's current ordinance that only applies to trees greater than 12 inches in diameter. If however, more stringent rules are enacted, court actions can be anticipated if all economic or productive use of the land is curtailed.

Attorney General Ken Paxton issued the following opinion:

SUMMARY

 If a municipal tree preservation ordinance operates to deny a property owner all economically beneficial or productive use of land, the ordinance will result in a taking that requires just compensation under article I, section 17 of the Texas Constitution. 

Furthermore, a court is likely to find a regulatory taking if a municipal tree preservation ordinance, as applied to a specific property, imposes restrictions that unreasonably interfere with landowners' rights to use and enjoy their property. In analyzing whether the interference is unreasonable, the court will consider all relevant circumstances, including: (1) the economic impact of the ordinance; (2) the extent to which the ordinance interferes with distinct investment-backed expectations; and (3) the character of the governmental action. 

KEN PAXTON Attorney General of Texas 
JEFFREY C. MATEER First Assistant Attorney General 
BRANTLEY STARR Deputy First Assistant Attorney General 
VIRGINIA K. HOELSCHER Chair, Opinion Committee 

Where are Global Warming Predictions After 30 Years?

The WSJ has a piece examining the predictions on global warming over the last 30 years. On the 30th anniversary of James Hansen’s galvanizing testimony before Congress, it’s time to acknowledge that the rapid warming he predicted isn’t happening.

"Global surface temperature has not increased significantly since 2000, discounting the larger-than-usual El Niño of 2015-16. Assessed by Mr. Hansen’s model, surface temperatures are behaving as if we had capped 18 years ago the carbon-dioxide emissions responsible for the enhanced greenhouse effect. But we didn’t. And it isn’t just Mr. Hansen who got it wrong. Models devised by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have, on average, predicted about twice as much warming as has been observed since global satellite temperature monitoring began 40 years ago. 

His explicit claim in the testimony was that the late ’80s and ’90s would see “greater than average warming in the southeast U.S. and the Midwest.” No such spike has been measured in these regions. 

Several more of Mr. Hansen’s predictions can now be judged by history. Have hurricanes gotten stronger, as Mr. Hansen predicted in a 2016 study? No. Satellite data from 1970 onward shows no evidence of this in relation to global surface temperature. Have storms caused increasing amounts of damage in the U.S.? Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show no such increase in damage, measured as a percentage of gross domestic product. How about stronger tornadoes? The opposite may be true, as NOAA data offers some evidence of a decline. The list of what didn’t happen is long and tedious."

Read the entire article and notice that observed data does not match the model predictions made over the last 30 years. This indicates that the models are flawed and need substantial improvement before they will be useful.

  

The Human Costs of Wind Energy

While the citizens and leaders of Georgetown bask in the glory of using renewable wind energy, those who live near the windmills have suffered a significant decrease in the quality of life.

Look at this short video that describes the effects on people who live near the humongous windmills.

Windmill Effects on Local Residents

Texas Supreme Court Rules Bag Bans Unconstitutional

In a victory for rule of law and limited government, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that cities like Austin cannot prohibit the use of plastic bags by businesses. The Statesman

Backing businesses over environmentalists, the Texas Supreme Court on Friday said cities like Austin may not ban retailers from providing customers with disposable bags at the checkout counter. 

In a unanimous ruling, the state’s highest civil court said bag bans run afoul of a state law that prohibits cities from trying to reduce waste by banning “containers” and “packages.” Although the terms are not defined in the law, their plain meaning should include bags, the court ruled. 

The decision upheld a lower-court ruling that struck down a bag ban in Laredo, but Friday’s decision also preempts similar bans in about a dozen other Texas cities, including Austin and Sunset Valley, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said — leaving retailers to decide if disposable bags will be made available to customers.

Georgetown's Budget Growth

The Wilco Sun recently printed a story on how the city's financial report shows the numbers are up. The numbers presented are indeed up over a 1 year period, but, relevant information is omitted from the story that allows a better assessment of the financial direction of the city.

Here is the data from the city's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report(CAFR) for 2017 shown by the Sun:

What is missing is the total budget expenditures over a period of time. These data are from the city's annual budget reports.

It is clear from this chart that total budget growth over the last 5 years ranges from 12.24% to 16.5% with the 5 year annual growth rate of 11.64%. This gives a clear picture of how the City Council continues to spend the citizen's money at a much higher rate than the growth in population plus inflation(7.6%) over the same 5 years.

Where is the money going? Why to expanded city services like Geary Park, GoGeo bus service, and the new city hall.

Where is Former State Representative Gonzales?

It was reported in the Wilco Sun that former state representative Larry Gonzales, who resigned earlier this month, has taken a job as a lobbyist.

Gonzales represented the southern part of Georgetown. So right now there is no one representing the citizens of House District 52.

Government Intervention in Energy Markets

Here is a textbook case of government intervention in energy markets.

Massachusetts Legislation

A bill passed last night in the Massachusetts Senate removes the state’s caps on net metering, sets a 100% renewable energy mandate, boosts the state’s energy storage procurement target to 2 GW and more. 

At the same time, the state’s solar market has been hamstrung by restrictive caps on its net metering program, which have been ratcheted up so slowly that new caps have at times been met as soon as they are raised. 

It would also change Massachusetts’ renewable portfolio standard (RPS) so that it increases 3% every year, meaning that utilities will be required to source 49% of their electricity from renewables in 2030, 79% in 2040 and 100% in 2047. While Hawaii is the only state that currently has a 100% mandate (by 2045), the rate of this mandate would make it the 6th-most aggressive such policy in the United States.

Furthermore, the bill sets new 2030 and 2040 greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets under the rubric of the Global Warming Solutions Act, which was passed in 2008. These were missing in the original bill, which has been identified by climate activists as a major hole that allowed for the state to fall behind on the path to the 80% reductions mandated by 2050 in the bill.

The bill would also supersize Massachusetts’ energy storage procurement mandate from the current 200 megawatt-hours (MWh) by 2020 set by the Baker Administration to 2 GW by 2025. Along with this, the bill would create targets for each utility, including municipal power companies, as well as mandating alternative compliance payments if utilities fall behind in deployment.

Utilities will not be allowed to own more than 20% of the storage they deploy, and the program will be subject to annual reporting.

Finally, the bill puts limits on the kinds of demand charges that state regulators can allow for residential customers, in light of Massachusetts’ recent approval of Eversource’s demand charge imposed on its residential customers who deploy solar.

These regulations will ultimately cause the cost of electricity to skyrocket and will favor some in the state economy. Either fortunately or unfortunately, these kinds of policies will drive more people and businesses to Texas as long as Texas allows the free market in energy to work in Texas. 

Draft Road Closing Policy

Here is the draft traffic management policy, which includes a procedure for closing a road.

Draft Traffic Management Policy

This draft policy will be presented to City Council in  a workshop at Council Chambers 2:30pm today, June 11.

Remember council rules do not allow public speaking at workshops!

Why Renewables Don't Solve Energy Requirements

This news article from England illustrates why the world will not be reducing dependence on nuclear and fossil fuel power plants.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-07/u-k-wind-drought-heads-into-9th-day-with-no-relief-for-weeks

Texas will require fossil fueled and nuclear power plants to meet demand when the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. Electricity users will have to pay for the plants to be available when the renewables are not.

Logic says that paying for two different sets of generating plants is not cheaper than one. So even though renewables are touted to be cheaper, with subsidies, electricty will not be cheaper as rate payers have to pay for the tranmission lines from West Texas as well as the renewable energy.

Property Taxes Levied by City of Georgetown

Some city council members seem to be upset when the State of Texas, which created cities, impose reporting and transparency requirements.

Here is very relevant information in the City's budget that the State required be disclosed in a prominent, simple and straight forward manner. Notice the State requirement at the top of the graphic.

Our, city leaders like to justify the ever increasing budgets by pointing to the growth in population. Notice that only $827K out of $2591K of increased property tax revenue to the city for 2018 comes from new property added to the roles. That is 32%. 68% of the increase comes from existing property owners, but, it is even worse than that because approximately 1/3 of the Georgetown property owners have their property taxes frozen because of their age, disability, etc. That means about 45% of existing property owners shoulder the burden for the entire increase in property tax revenue collected by the City.

Notice also, property tax revenues increased year over year by 10.1%.

Why is the city taxing residents at a 10.1% rate when the population is increasing at a 5% rate? It would appear the City Council is not being frugal with your property tax dollars as this 2:1 spending versus population growth has been going on for 10 years or more.

The following information is part of the disinformation provided by all politicians with taxing authority in Texas. They tell the public what great stewards of public funds they are by showing they held the tax rate constant. Georgetown City Council touts the fact that the tax rate did not change between 2017 and 2017. The question is: why did they not reduce the rate since the property tax revenue increased 10.1% from 2017 to 2018?

In fine print at the bottom we are told the total debt secured by our property is $127,248,211. But, this is not all the city debt. At the end of the fiscal year 2017, the City of Georgetown’s outstanding debt was $276,790,000. Of this amount, $184,060,000 comprises the CO and GO debt backed by the full faith and credit of the City. The revenue bond totals $92,730,000. The Sales Tax Revenue Bond (Georgetown Transportation Enhancement Corporation) debt total is $6,685,000.

The City debt will be explored in a later post.

Questions For Your Local School Board

As most property owners know, school property taxes comprise the largest part of your annual property tax bill. Here are some questions to ask your Georgetown school board members that relate to the cost of schools.

1. Over the last 15 years, GISD has issued $400M in bonds. $350M remains to be paid plus $209M in interest for $559.2M currently owed. Do you support an increase in bond debt, and if so, how much more?

2. Over the last 5 years, enrollment has grown at 1.9% annually and inflation has been 1.22% annually for a total growth rate of students plus inflation of 3.12% annually. Why has the budget grown at a 7.46% annual rate over the same period? Do you support limiting the budget growth rate to student growth plus inflation?

3. The GISD apparently hires an architect and designs schools from scratch each time a school is created or replaced. Would you support a common school design, one each for elementary, middle and high schools that might only differ cosmetically at the entrance? Round Rock ISD proposed a bond election last year that would fund a $160M high school! That is rediculous!

4. The average GISD teacher’s salary is $49,402 while the average salaries of professionals and administrative personnel range from $61,197 to $109,782. The Superintendent makes $246,400 annually. Does that seem fair or appropriate given that the teacher is the most important person in the education of children?

A wealth of information is available online at the Texas Education Agency

More Hate Has Surfaced in Georgetown

Two Southwestern University students have been caught removing Confederate flags from the cemetery of the International Order of Odd Fellows located behind the University.Wilco Sun

The women students were caught May 2, 2018 removing the flags from Confederate graves. They were caught with about 100 flags and their excuse was they were concerned some of their university friends would be offended if they saw the flags.

The Georgetown police did not file any charges, even though they should have, and any disciplinary action was left to Southwestern University.

The message should be broadcast loud and clear that hateful actions like grave desecration are not to be tolerated in Georgetown.

Is Georgetown About to Get More Non-Voter Approved Debt?

The City has embarked on building a new city hall complex using two existing buildings on the West side of downtown near the library. It is projected to coast $13M with $6.2M of that to come from the sale of three existing city owned buildings.

113 East 8th Street - the old post office
103 West 7th Street - the existing municipal court/city hall
101 East 7th Street - the visitors center

Unfortunately, these three buildings have been appraised at $3.4M, leaving a$2.8 hole in the budget for the new city hall.

The bidding has been closed on these building with the winning bids to be presented to City Council today.

If the bids do not significantly exceed the appraisals, the city will have to issue Certificates of Obligation to make up the difference. Recall that Certificates do not require voter approval even though the funds are being spent on long term capital improvements.

The city's Fiscal and Budget Policy states that "Certificates of Obligation are the least preferred method of financing" and "every effort will be made to ensure public participation in decisions relating to debt financing".

The city needs to use the "slush fund" monies and other reserves before resorting to more debt financing.

Some Texas Pension Funds OK in 2017, Not so Good Long Term

This report needs to be a warning for Georgetown to watch their pension fund even though Georgetown's pension fund, Texas Municipal Retirement System, was not a part of the study reported herein.  City Council needs to make sure it is fully funded with an assumed rational discount rate. Texas Public Pension Funds 

Texas’ public employee pension funds returned an average of 11% in 2017, as they rode the strong gains of US equities last year, according to a survey by Maples Fund Services for the Texas Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems (TEXPERS).

The report from Maples reviewed the asset allocation and investment performance for 63 local pension systems that are members of TEXPERS, which have a combined market value of approximately $57.1 billion. It found that the 63 funds’ average annualized returns for one, three, five, 10, 15, and 20 years were 11.0%, 5.5%, 7.4%, 4.9%, 7.7%, and 6.6% respectively. Overall, the Texas public retirement system has 75 member systems, with approximately 2 million participants, and $165 billion in assets.

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.