Power not balanced

May 26, 2017

Recently various federal judges have issued orders stopping some presidential orders.

This post is not intended as a discussion over whether we agree or disagree with the orders.

Unfortunately we have reached the point where a single federal judge can stop the president of the United States.

These judges are not elected.  They cannot be fired.  They do not answer to the citizens.

However they have the power to stop action initiated either by congress or the executive.  They have the power to order action that they feel should occur.

I don’t know what the right answer here is.

Maybe for the time being congress should set up a requirement that in cases where local judges issue orders like these the cases are heard for appeal more quickly.

Otherwise presidents and congresses  from all portions of the political spectrum are subject to being paralyzed by a single judge.

We deserve better

Brutus

19 Comments | Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Political cat fight

May 25, 2017

We live in interesting times.

Our county judge and our EPISD school board president both seem to want to be our next United States congressman.

The Times has been pretty much hands off in regard to the situation over at EPISD.  That is up until now.

Word on the street is that the county judge’s operatives have decided to sick the Times on the school board president and the superintendent.  Unfortunately the situation at EPISD will give the Times a lot to write about.

Some say that the school superintendent and board president are toast.

The board president comes from the moneyed side of the power equation in El Paso.

Will we see her and her supporters now talking openly about the problems over at the county?  Will they put financial pressure on the Times?

Will the editor of the Times be caught in the middle?

Stay tuned.

We deserve better

Brutus

7 Comments | County Government, El Paso Independent School District, El Paso Times | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Agency mission creep?

May 24, 2017

According to a Times article the other day:

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently arrested 26 people in El Paso during the agency’s largest ever nationwide gang crackdown.

Count us among those that want thugs taken off the streets.

However, as far as we know it is not illegal to belong to a gang in the United States.  It is illegal to perform or be involved in the performance of certain acts.

Why is it that ICE is performing “gang crackdowns”?

From the ICE web site:

Is this a case of the publicity people misreporting what was done, or is this agency doing the job of other law enforcement groups?

We deserve better

Brutus

15 Comments | Federal Government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

District 8 runoff?

May 23, 2017

Will the city representative district eight election result in a clear winner?

We are told that a run-off election will cost us about $40,000.

We hope that the voters in district eight pay attention.

We deserve better

Brutus

2 Comments | City government | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

Property tax rates compared to other cities

May 22, 2017

The “50-State Property Tax Comparison Study for taxes paid in 2015” from the Minnesota Center for Fiscal Excellence has just been published.

The study is 103 pages long and unfortunately lists El Paso in the lists of cities that have the highest tax rates.  Their numbers as they relate to El Paso are:

Homestead property tax rate–3rd highest among the 50 largest cities

Industrial property tax rate for properties valued between one and 25 million dollars–3rd highest among the 50 largest cities (second highest for properties valued at $100,000)

Apartment property tax rate–10th highest among the 50 largest cities

These numbers are before the majority of the quality of life bonds and school district bonds (EPISD and Ysleta) are sold.

Recruiters needed

Do we have any volunteers for the job of bringing new businesses to El Paso?

We deserve better

Brutus

19 Comments | City government, County Government, El Paso Independent School District | Permalink
Posted by Brutus

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »