Some say the voters were “Tricked” into voting for a “rain tax”….. Maybe the voters wanted a verifiable way to see their streets were going to be fixed. Did they get it? Admission the city has no more borrowing power….Maybe excessive pension costs have something to do with this. The drainage fee is intended to be an addition to revenues “dedicated” to street repairs WITHOUT the need to borrow more money. $40 million of conflicts of interest being “tolerated” because nobody cares? I care. And I believe most Houstonians do too. I want to do something to make a positive impact on this issue. Note the following: 1. The “drainage fee” was intended to raise $125 million a year but, according to the City budgets, has only raised $ 103 million each year. 2. 11.8 cents of property taxes were supposed to go into the fund, less debt service on outstanding infrastructure bonds. This has not happened. 3. Developer impact fees and 3rd party contract revenues? No report. 4. Maximum of 25% of fund allocated to maintenance? No report Houston needs more transparency and clarity. Then we can have meaningful debate about which streets get fixed first. Until then….watch out for all those pot holes!
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 12:25:05 +0000
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