Houblog

As we’ve all been told time and again, red light cameras are ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL about the safety, right? Well, KHOU reports that citizen Byron Schrimbeck found an odd safety violation near one camera, located at FM 518 and I-45 South, and decided to document it:

Texas law requires a light be yellow a certain length of time to safely give drivers time to react and stop.

Schirmbeck then called League City Police Chief Michael Jez and Jez asked The Texas Department of Transportation to investigate. TxDot found Schirmbeck was right about the yellow lights being short.

The eight-tenths of a second made a difference in more than 1,700 citations issued between October of last year and March.

Let’s read that again: The eight-tenths of a second made a difference in more than 1,700 citations. Now, this light was apparently supposed to be under the control of TxDOT. I guess that, since the article doesn’t tell us so. Nor does it tell us what the required minimum time is. But the important question is, who made out like bandits from this money-machine, for six months? Note that the article says refunds are being issued — but doesn’t say by whom. Follow the money, KHOU, follow the money. Doesn’t the state get a cut of it, these days? I’m sure League City gets the lion’s share.

One wonders if some bureaucratic tangle will “delay” the checks. Not that I have anything but total faith in the sincerity of our elected and unelected masters when they say “the check is in the mail.”

KHOU and blogHOUSTON have been talking about the city and county’s decrepit land holdings. Maybe they should look more closely at the tool the city uses to acquire and disburse these properties: LARA.

From the minutes of the August 2009 meeting:

Didn’t we already kill that idea a few months before that?

Read the full minutes on the City’s website — the appearance of Jolanda Jones at the meeting, and the board’s discussion of participating in politics by submitting chosen questions to the mayoral candidates through the League of Women Voters are both illuminating…

Try as I might, I can’t find any mention in the minutes of just how much most of these properties are being sold to developers for, except one lot sold at full value ($10,000) and constant references to the “$1 Lot Program.”

To be able to stop referring to Google as the Chinese Oppressor’s Search Portal.

Freaking libtards took this long to figure out that the Chinese government was going to roll them for info? Eeeeeeeediots.

Since March, there have been rumblings inside the City of Houston’s PW&E department that a large shortfall was pending in the Combined Utility System’s funding. The public first learned about the city’s overall budget problems in Bill King’s oped, which we discussed here. The CUS, which is supposed to be independent of the city’s general fund is a separate issue altogether, though certain funding tricks used during the White era make their appearance once again. Specifically: back-loaded borrowing in which the city pays only a little up front, but then faces a balloon note down the road. According to Lee McGuire’s article for KHOU:

…nearly $1 billion in credit must be renegotiated early next year, and debt payments have spiked $50 million above earlier projections. All told, the system currently faces a $100 million cash shortfall – a significant problem for a department that took in $332 million in water bills last year.

“Re-negotiate” is CPA-speak for “re-finance” or “obtain debt relief, rather than default.” Simply put, the city’s rate-payers are about to face the music for years of living off borrowed money. How bad is it? The city has been making ordinary expenditures, such as yearly water meter purchases, from the capital funds instead of operating expenses. In household terms, they’ve borrowed money to pay for the groceries. And while this specific example represents only a tiny portion of the total, it’s one of the ways that total has been accumulated.

Today’s article was based on item #13 on today’s agenda, a proposal to hire consultants McKinsey & Co. to look for inefficiencies in the Public Works Department. This item was tagged and will return on next week’s agenda. Once again, the mayor is proposing to spend a large amount of funds for a questionable purpose. Unfortunately, KHOU’s article contains a few key errors, and some misleading statements. This may simply be the result of deadline pressure, or it may be that not all of the information provided to the press was…. shall we say, totally accurate.

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Some people wonder why a city employee would blog anonymously (on the rare occasions when I still do).

This is why, and the snark didn’t even work for the county….

We already seceded.

Just on the odd chance that anyone has managed to run across my blog without seeing any of the majors today, you need to get your butt over to Michelle Malkin’s place.

Reading this blog has problably resulted in your being designated as an extremeist.

Posting at Houblog:

HB 1388 passed the Senate today. That’s the GIVE act, aka “The Obama Youth Act of 2009.” It will:

“combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service,” while establishing “campuses” that serve as “operational headquarters,” complete with “superintendents” and “uniforms” for all participants. It allows for the elimination of all age restrictions in order to involve Americans at all stages of life. And it calls for creation of “a permanent cadre” in a “National Community Civilian Corps.”
But that’s not all. The bill also calls for “youth engagement zones” in which “service learning” is “a mandatory part of the curriculum in all of the secondary schools served by the local educational agency.” This updated form of voluntary community service is also to be “integrated into the science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula” at all levels of schooling.

(DC Examiner Editorial, emphasis added)

So in other words, it doesn’t matter whether your kid enrolls in it or not, they’re still going to get the indoctrination force-fed to them.

Republican senators voting AYE: 22. NAY: 19. That’s right, more than half the Senate’s GOP voted FOR this bill.

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Controller Anise Parker attempts to quell fears over the city’s shaky finances, by talking about how it’s borrowing money from itself!

City investments and debt on solid ground
As anyone with any investments knows, this is not your ordinary financial market. The city has an investment portfolio but also uses debt financing to pay for public works projects and other infrastructure improvements. The ongoing turmoil on Wall Street and within the banking industry requires innovation and quick action on both sides of the ledger.

“I want to assure Houstonians that we are exploring every possible option and taking utmost care with your tax dollars during these difficult times,” Houston City Controller Annise Parker said.

When financing public projects, the city commonly borrows using short-term instruments then watches the market for the best opportunity to convert to long-term fixed-rate financing. Last fall, when the credit markets all but dried up and several banks either failed or were struggling, Mayor White and the city controller announced they would pursue various financing alternatives to keep interest rates on city debt as low as possible.

The controller noted that financing through other governmental entities is one alternative that has been employed successfully. For example, she said the city has purchased the debt of (loaned money to) city governmental partners at Metro and Harris County. Likewise, Harris County and Metro have purchased city debt.

City invests in own debt

Parker said the city’s own investment portfolio holds about $229 million in city debt, made possible because the city maintains segregated funds. Interest rates in the municipal bond market have varied widely. By investing in its own debt, the controller said the city earns 1.5-2%. An earlier purchase of $30 million of Metro debt yielded about 4%, and investment in Harris County Flood Control debt returned 6.25-8%. In comparison, more traditional financing options are yielding less than 1%.

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Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit makes the following observation:

THE RACE TO find alien earths. In science fiction stories, you often see references to “forerunner races” who settled the Galaxy before humans emerged. But what if we’re the forerunner race?

Oh great. As if I didn’t have enough to worry about. Now I gotta worry not just whether we’re screwing up my country, but the entire galaxy.

A little birdie just forwarded me this letter from Bill King, ex-candidate for Houston Mayor. Emphasis added.

As most of you know, I have been considering a candidacy for mayor of
Houston for sometime. I have recently decided that I will not be a
candidate for mayor or any other office in 2009.

There are several reasons for my decision, some personal and some
political. Most prominent among these, I believe that my candidacy
would likely result in an election that would emphasize partisan and
other divides. It is my belief that such an election would not be
healthy for the City or, frankly, particularly favorable to my
candidacy.

The City is in for some very difficult times over the next several
years, especially as it relates its finances. The multiple challenges
of crime, crumbling infrastructure, crushing pension debts, falling oil
prices and the aftermath of Ike will all weigh heavily. This is hardly
a time that we can afford to be divided along partisan or other lines.

As I have attempted to become informed on issues facing the City, I have
become increasing concerned, and in some respects, even alarmed at the
problems we are facing with regard to our municipal finances. I believe
we have made unsustainable commitments that will financially hobble
future generations and that it is imperative that we have a candid and
realistic discussion of these critical issues.

Before Hurricane Rita while I was still the mayor of Kemah, I began
raising the alarm that we were not prepared to evacuate the region in
the event of a major storm. Because I held an elected office, many
discounted my warnings as political posturing. As a result, little was
done and 150 died in the Rita evacuation. I fear that if I begin a
discussion of the financial challenges facing our city as a candidate,
there will be similar reaction. Perhaps if no political agenda can be
attributed to my views, there will be a less skeptical reception.

I want to express my profound appreciation to all of you that have
encouraged me to consider a candidacy. The mere fact that so many of my
fellow Houstonians have expressed their belief that I am capable of such
a leadership position has been a great honor.

I hope that you will stay tuned. We have some important issues to
tackle.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. This is the critical time to be divided among partisan lines: the party of “Fixing It” vs. the party of “Continuing to Ignore It” The second is a disaster in the making.

Our elected officials have continued to ignore citizens at all levels and from all walks of life who are unhappy with the way the City of Houston is being mismanaged. On the Democratic side, we are looking at a solid slate of “go along and get along” pols, none of which will rock the boat to tackle serious issues; every one of them is hoping only to push the collapse back beyond their term. How do I know this?

Because if they saw a need to fix anything, they’d be out there in public making their point. Instead they’re feeding us baby food. Bland, mostly tasteless, and thoroughly uncontroversial, it goes down easy and turns into crap in the end.

The problem is there’s only so many candidates out there that are viable. I’m sure as hell not. I can’t do much but work in the background and act as a cheerleader. (Those of you who know me, please scrub that imaginary picture of me carrying pompoms and dressed in a short skirt right out of your brain. Now.) We can support, but we can’t lead. We need a standard bearer to rally behind, and yet another has chosen to leave the field. In an era when we need Pattons, we get another Milton M. Milquetoast. Merely quitting wasn’t bad enough; he had to spout nonsense about not dividing people, and avoiding being accused of partisanship.

Final word: If you’re going to be held hostage to what your opponents say about you, forget ever being an effective politician.

Obama on Coal:

You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, uh, you know — Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, uh, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money.

If we elect this dunce, we deserve what we get.

So I’m researching non-profits for a project I’m working on (more later), and I run across this, while looking for information on sample by-laws. Note the part I bolded:

The Klingon Language Institute (http://www.kli.org/kli/KLI.Bylaws.html), a Pennsylvania nonprofit, offers these sample bylaws (in English).

I wonder if the state would have accepted them if they’d been in Klingon…

Probably not. Unless they claimed to be an oppressed minority.

And some people wonder why I try to never buy Chinese goods. Bad enough that they fix their exchange rate artificially low; they’ve destroyed our heavy industry, what was left of our semi-conductor industry, our textiles; it’s gotten so bad they’re stealing Mexican jobs from the maquiladoras.

But I’m sure President Osama, I mean Obama, will seek better relations with them by fixing that thorny Taiwanese problem. If I were Taiwan, I’d be cozying up to India, Japan, and Russia right now. None of them alone would be enough to save them, but the combination might keep the dragon at bay.

I wouldn’t put money on it. Wonder if I could find a Taiwanese internet bride, really cheap, in a few months? Heh. If I’m lucky, she might like wearing cat ears… “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Catgirls! Nya?”

Overseas military votes disallowed in Virginia.

Remind me again, why haven’t we started stringing these bastards up from lightpoles?

h/t Instapundit.