Seeing is believing

May 20, 2013

This is sad.

Our current city councilman who is running for mayor filed two corrections to previous state mandated campaign finance reports on May 16, 2013.  I picked this up from the elpasonews.org web site.  According to the article the candidate under reported $40 thousand in contributions.  You can read the article here.

Actually, it is hard to see.  Not understand, see.  The portion of the document where the contributions are listed uses typeface  that is so small and blurry that even after printing out each sheet and using a magnifying glass it was hard to see.  You can try it yourself.  Scroll down about 10 pages and try to read it.

What is clear to see is in the explanation of correction that is part of an affidavit attached to the amended reports:

“… On May 6th the COH [candidate office holder] identified discrepancies regarding the total contributions and total expenditures previously filed.  Upon further review, the COH identified several bookkeeping errors that led to the unintentional omission of several campaign contributions and expenses.  The COH has since identified the omitted campaign contribution [sic?] and expenditures and included them in this amended Campaign Finance Report.”

Several?

One, two, a few mistakes — I guess that would be human.  Is this the way he proposes to handle our money if we elect him mayor?

Timing

The candidate found the errors on May 6th, five days before the election.  Why did he wait until 5 days after the election before making the legally required corrections?

I note that the other candidate also had to file a correction.  His original report was filed Thursday, May 2, 2013.  His report was filed in person and as we know Thursday is the last day of the week that city hall is open.  The very next day that city hall was open for business was Monday, May 6, 2013 and that was the day his correction was filled.  It consisted of a listing of more expenditures.  Evidently he had already reported all of his contributions as the law requires.  May 6 was five days before the election.

The councilman/candidate saw problems on May 6 and took 10 more days to file the corrections.  He filed his corrections after the election.  I also note that his original report was filed using the new electronic system that the city has so he did not have to sign the incorrect report.

Who?

Who did he leave off his list of contributors?  As I said earlier it is hard to see.  I did find one contribution from a lady that has the same last name as one of the ball team owners.  Go figure!

Times

As of this moment the El Paso Times has chosen not to cover this story.  There was a dearth of news in the Saturday and Sunday issues of the Times this week so the failure to cover the story could not be for lack of space.

We deserve better

Brutus

Leave a Comment » | City government, El Paso Times, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Testing, testing 1,2,3

May 18, 2013

The Texas senate has passed a bill that would reduce the number of tests that a student would have to take to graduate high school from 15 to 5.

Good!

I don’t know how this would  affect the lower grades but I do know that we are spending too much time preparing for and taking tests.  Teachers that I know are virtual slaves to the testing regimen to the extent that they teach to the test, not to the subject.

In my time we took standardized tests, both the Iowa and California ones.  The results reflected on us as students.  The results reflected on our parents.  Poor results brought the parents to the schools to find out what was wrong.  Was the child incapable?  Was the child not diligent?  Was the teacher not doing the proper job?

The families got involved and did not leave it up to our state government to see that the student progressed.

Now unfortunately we seem to have a nanny state where our government is acting to replace parenting.

Let the free market handle this.  A poorly educated student yields a low paid employee.  Parents used to recognize this.  Students were told this over and over.

Give the students a helping hand, not a push.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

3 Comments | El Paso Independent School District, Federal Government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Another record for El Paso

May 16, 2013

El Paso seems to have pushed the envelope again.  When city council told the citizens that they either had to pay for the $50 million ball park or add 2% to the hotel occupancy tax the citizens voted to let the visitors pay that part of the bill.

What did we do?

This link to information about house bill 1908 will give you an idea.  Evidently Texas has hotel occupancy tax rates among the highest in the nation.  Where does El Paso rank?  Well, be proud.  We are the highest in the state at 17.5%.

The bill will limit future increases to 17% as the absolute maximum.  El Paso would be grandfathered.

According to the link high rates impact the “ability to compete for group and convention business.”

Bring more business to El Paso.  Tax the living daylights out of it.  The two ideas work against each other.

Of the 50 largest cities in America, El Paso has the 5th highest tax rates.  See For whom the bill tolls.  At one time (I have not seen figures recently) El Paso was the fourth poorest city among cities with 250,000 or more according to our then state senator.

We need leaders that understand economics.

Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty

Cato

2 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Cato

Sardine school of architecture

May 12, 2013

This editorial in the El Paso Times once again shows who they are.

The piece gives credit to their favorite mayoral candidate for bringing a new school of architecture downtown with 500 students.

Let’s start with the fact that the city gave away 16,587 square feet of the Union Depot for 75 years.  Actually the taxpayers will get $1 per year for each of the next 75 years so he did get something for our property.  It does not take much of a salesman to get someone to move into a beautiful building  for free.

Then we have the fact that the Union Depot is not considered to be downtown by many of those over at the city — at least not when it does not suit them.

The editorial made it sound like 500 people would be eating lunch and revitalizing downtown every day.  The space involved is 16,587 square feet.  How many students can you get in that amount of space?

Maybe there should be an article about this.  Is Texas Tech going to build some more buildings to handle 500 people?  Have they invented a new system where they can pack lots of people in very little space?  Inquiring minds would like to know.

Then again the Times does not inquire when dealing with their masters.   They print what they are told to print.

Muckraker

2 Comments | City government, El Paso Inc., State Government | Permalink
Posted by Muckraker

Designing

May 5, 2013

It seems that Texas Tech will open a branch of their school of architecture in El Paso.  That seems good to me.

They need a building.  The City wants to lease them 16,587 square feet in the Union Depot building.  Sounds good.

You can read about the proposed lease here.

The lease is for 25 years for $1 per year!  I wrote in Maybe we should bear the tax burden for the entire state about how the city gave the Albert Fall mansion away on a $1 lease to Texas Tech.

Keep on giving

A 25 year lease for office space is a long lease.  Since our council seems to want to exceed our expectations in any way they can they are offering not one, but two 25 year extensions as part of the lease.

That gives the space away for 75 years!

I am happy to see the school moving here.  I just don’t understand why local taxpayers have to pay for a state function.

Maybe downtown property is worthless.

What about UTEP?  Are they entitled to our subsidies also?

We need someone at city hall that understands negotiating.  Maybe we could have gotten $2 a foot, at least something.

We deserve better

Brutus

8 Comments | City government, State Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

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