Wall Street or Main Street

Recently two freshmen senators, Rick Scott of Florida and Mike Braun of Indiana, introduced a bill to end congressional pensions. Many Americans probably cheered but think about that. The two authors of the bill are millionaires many times over, they could live in the lap of luxury for the rest of their lives on the income from their investments alone. Now it’s true that millionaires make up a disproportionately large fraction of Congress at 38% as compared to 9% of the general public but this bill just makes it that much harder for non-millionaires to put in the effort to serve their country.

Truly working class people like the recently elected Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez often struggle to make ends meet given that they must cover the expenses of a home in their respective states and one in Washington, D.C. A member of Congress is paid $174,000 per year and that seems like a lot, it’s more than twice my salary anyway. Now consider what it costs just to rent an apartment in the Washington, D.C. area, one bedroom and one bath in 746 square feet goes for $2,990. That’s half the size of my house and nearly three times the mortgage payment.

Oh and the pension isn’t all that generous either, you get nothing unless you serve at least five years and don’t get a full pension, which can be no more than 80% of your last year’s salary, until you turn 62. The average annual pension as of 2016 was just over $41,000 for those in the current system which started in 2003. Millionaires like Rick Scott, worth about $255 million, won’t notice whether they get a congressional pension or not but the people we need in Congress most, people like you and me, would be much less willing to serve with no chance to even earn pension benefits.

If we really want to make our representatives more beholden to the people who elect them then bills like the STOCK Act which made it illegal to use inside information about upcoming legislation when investing can help. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have introduced a bill that would ban members of Congress and senior staff from buying or selling individual stocks while in office. Members would also be barred from serving on any corporate boards.

Merkley and Brown cite two recent trading scandals, one involving a Republican congressman from New York and another involving former representative and one-time Trump administration Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, for inspiring the bill. You might remember that Price bought stock, then authored bill benefiting company which earned him a bundle. Rick Scott, perhaps also inspired by Tom Price, is moving in the opposite direction, he’s removing his investments from a blind trust and holding them directly, this will allow him to know how legislation he’s voting on can affect his finances.

It really comes down to whether you want the halls of Congress to look more like Wall Street or Main Street.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 22, 2019

David Whitley Attempts Voter Suppression

We in Guadalupe County should be thankful for Elections Administrator Lisa Adam and her staff who are handling the Secretary of State’s attempt to purge voters with dedication and professionalism. When Secretary of State David Whitley’s office decided to send lists of 95,000 registered voters that it hadn’t confirmed were citizens it was touted on social media as a “voter fraud alert”.

In Cameron County where the list contained 366 names not a single one was found to be a non-citizen. Travis and Harris Counties are still working their lists which number in the thousands but so far they’ve cleared more than half of the people on their lists. As of this morning the state has revised the list, reducing it by half.

This whole effort seems to be aimed at spreading anxiety in two ways; first to rev up the Republican base with claims of vast numbers of ineligible voters and second to suppress the votes of Latino voters to whom the majority of names on the state’s list belong.

Gov. Greg Abbott just nominated David Whitley to the Secretary of State post and that nomination is currently before a committee in the Texas Senate. Whitley is facing tough questions about his actions and his understanding of the concept of voter suppression.

Several groups that work on voter registration and empowerment have notified the Secretary Whitley that his office is in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA) which sets out requirements with for the administration of voter registration and protects registered voters against wrongful removal from voter rolls in Section 8. The NVRA protects duly registered voters from improper removal by requiring states to “ensure that any eligible applicant is registered to vote” and mandating that, once the voter is on the rolls, the state “shall not remove” that voter except in a few limited circumstances: at the request of the registrant; by reason of criminal conviction or mental incapacity as provided by state law; or pursuant to a general program of voters list maintenance that makes a reasonable effort to remove voters who become ineligible due to death or a change in residence.

When anyone, including these naturalized citizens on the state's list submits a voter registration application they are require to sign under penalty of perjury affirming their U.S. citizenship. The guidelines sent with the advisory suggests removal from the voter rolls for anyone who can’t be readily matched to citizenship records unless they come forward and provide documentary proof of their citizenship. This violates the obligation on Texas under the NVRA to ensure that eligible applicants who submit valid registration forms are registered to vote and are removed only for one of the statutorily-specified reasons.

Failure to provide citizenship documentation is not one of the permissible grounds for removal of a duly registered voter. There’s no doubt that the state is permitted to remove non-citizens who have somehow become registered to vote, but the NVRA does not permit an overbroad program such as the one outlined in the Advisory that will inevitably sweep in significant numbers of eligible citizens due to the inadequacies of the Department of Public Safety’s database.

Numerous good government groups like the Common Cause Texas, of which I am chair, MOVE Texas Civic Fund, JOLT Initiative, the League of Women Voters of Texas, the ACLU of Texas, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the NAACP of Texas have raised their voice regarding this attempted purge. Some are suing the Secretary of State, others are calling for his nomination to be denied.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 15, 2019

Time for The Green New Deal

There’s been a lot of news about proposals by young activists and some Democrats in Congress about what they’re calling The Green New Deal. Its purpose is two-fold, saving our environment by quickly converting to the use of clean renewable energy production and resetting the economic disparities broadened by crony capitalism over the last 40 years harking back to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s efforts to revitalize the economy so that impoverished Americans could find jobs and care for their families.

We must address our production of greenhouse gases soon because scientists working together from all over the world and involving multiple disciplines have concluded that the earth is on track for 5-7 degrees Fahrenheit of warming, causing sea level rise of several feet and making extreme weather more frequent and dangerous. The next 4 to 12 years are critical if humanity wants to limit that warming to something survivable. Every year we wait to reduce greenhouse gases makes it harder to achieve.

So far, America’s efforts to address the problem have failed like the Obama administration rules to reduce coal use, which have been stalled by lawsuits brought by polluting industries. Donald Trump is rescinding most of those rules and Republicans have generally opposed any substantial action using the truly stupid argument that it is too expensive. That’s like telling a 40 year old with a bad heart that surgery is too expensive you’ll just have to die.

Right now The Green New Deal is a statement of principles, just the goals to be achieved, there are plenty of details to work out which is why it’s important to start work on it now and not wait until 2020 with the hope of a Democrat in the White House. The goals of the 10 year plan will require the effort of World War II and the scientific focus of the Apollo project to land a man on the moon. Some key points are dramatically expanding existing renewable power sources and deploy new production capacity with the goal of meeting 100% of national power demand through renewable sources.

Achieving the goals of The Green New Deal will require upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety. We’ll have to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries. We’ll work eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from transportation by repairing and improving roads, highways, bridges, and other infrastructure.

The effort to save our climate will require all hands on deck which makes it a great opportunity to provide all members of our society the opportunity, training and education to be a full and equal participant in the transition, including through a job guarantee program to assure a living wage job to every person who wants one.

Our congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, should be a vocal supporter of The Green New Deal given that his district including Guadalupe County will be among those suffering the most if we don’t address climate change quickly. Unfortunately he hasn’t joined the other 40 Democrats including Joaquin Castro in speaking out in favor of the effort.

There is a way to get him to join the call for The Green New Deal and that involves you, your family, and your friends. If we all take 5 minutes to call his office and let his staff know that climate change and good paying jobs in the green energy industry are important to us he can be convinced to join those other Democrats already working toward The Green New Deal. Call his Washington DC office at 202-225-2531.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 8, 2019

Tax Cuts or Cost Shifting

One of the most popular promises politicians, like Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, make is tax cuts because the so many voters immediately think that they’ll get more in their pay checks. Sometimes they really do get more each month but then find that other costs go up and the end result is roughly the same. One example of this in Texas is state taxes that should fund public education being cut so the state legislature reduces the dollars per student it pays districts which then are forced to increase property taxes to make up the difference.

Since Texas doesn’t have a state income tax, who gets the tax cuts that force you and me to pay higher property taxes? Big companies of course.

You say you don’t own property so you don’t pay property taxes? If you believe that you’re mistaken as part of your rent goes to pay your landlords property taxes and when property taxes go up you can bet increased rent isn’t far behind.

Texas used to have some of the best highways anywhere in the south, that’s no longer true. State highway and road funding has been far from adequate for so long that toll roads are popping up in more places all the time just like the controversial one in Cibolo. If the state adequately funded the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDoT) cities like Cibolo would be unlikely to feel the need for alternate funding sources to build needed roads but as things stand now they don’t feel they can wait 25 years or more in the hope that TxDoT will get around to funding them.

Another result of lower taxes is increases in user fees at both the state and local levels. Examples are: increased park and museum fees,  increased licensing fees, increased business registration fees, increased ticketing, increased fines,  increased parking fees, increased permit costs, increased court fees, and so on. 

Another way you and I pay for reduced corporate taxes is the additional costs we absorb sending our children to school. If you have a child in a public school you’ve found that a significant proportion of items on the school provided list of supplies are things like paper towels that you’d think would be supplied by the school. If your child participates in sports or band or many other extracurricular activities you’ve probably noticed the high fees expected from parents. If you’re a teacher you find yourself spending significant amounts of your own money to provide supplies for you classroom.

Tax cuts like the one Donald Trump signed into law last year often just lead to deficit spending which simply means that future generations will pay for today’s spending. That whole notion is anathema to Republicans when Democrats are in control of government and want to build things but seems to be just the thing to do when they can line their supporters’ pockets.

Every example above illustrates the concept of cost shifting, which is making someone else pay for what beneficiaries are getting; most of the time that someone else is you and me.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - February 1, 2019