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THSC PAC Home : Commentaries : Michael Quinn Sullivan Commentary
Michael Quinn Sullivan Commentary
Unpopular TxDOT, Do-Nothing Candidate, Annoying Taxpayers, Math Tax
Dear Friend,
In our pre-packaged, shrink-wrapped political marketplace, it’s nice to find
unabashed, unadulterated honesty. Sometimes it’s intentional, sometimes
accidental. This week we find honesty, sickening truth, and some delusional
self-righteousness thrown in for fun.
Vote For Nothing
[Give
us your comments!]
In what may be the most appealing “small government” campaign mounted in recent
history, Ed Hamilton is telling voters in Kerr County, Texas, that if they elect
him to the post of County Treasurer he won’t do the job, won’t take the
$46,000-per-year paycheck, and will do what he can to have the post abolished.
Hamilton says the position is duplicative, and those responsibilities could be
more efficiently merged into other offices. The problem is that “county
treasurer” is proscribed in the state constitution, so a constitutional change
would be required. No big deal. Voters overwhelmingly adopted an amendment last
November that abolished the constitutional position of “inspector of hides and
animals.”
Dumas Superintendent: Don’t Trust Taxpayers
[Your
thoughts?]
While most Texans think its high-time for taxpayers to
have a stronger say in tax levies, one school superintendent doesn’t trust the
people who pay his salary.
Larry Appel, Dumas ISD superintendent, denounced voter approval for tax hikes,
saying, "It is much harder to convince them to vote for a tax increase" since
most voters don't "typically have kids in school."
But you see, Mr. Appel, it's their money. And you work for them. Remember?
Mr. Appel is like so many bureaucrats running Texas’ schools, ignoring the fact
they are public servants in the business of educating kids. These
tax-and-spenders view property owners as an ATM machine, with teachers and kids
only a convenient excuse for spending.
Why shouldn’t voters get a voice on tax increases to fund school operations?
When there is a bond measure for a particular road, most voters may not use that
road but they get to vote on the tax increase. Same goes for jails, hospitals
and the like – taxpayers who will never use the services still get to vote on
them. Seems only just for those who’ll foot the bill get a chance to have a say
on the price-tag.
But for bureaucrats like Larry Appel, the only legitimate sound emanating from
taxpayers is of their cash flowing into the public coffers.
Bad Math Tax
[What
do you think?]
But Mr. Appel and his cronies are, apparently succeeding in producing a steady
source of income for the state: Lottery revenues from the poorest neighborhoods.
Let’s be frank: State lotteries amount to little more than a tax on people with
poor math skills. Does this mean the state has a perverse incentive to keep math
skills low and lotto players high?
Remember being told that the Lottery would solve our education finance woes?
Yep, that was a good one. Now the same band that gave us a state monopoly on
games-of-chance want us to feel guilty that the poor and uneducated play the
Lottery, and especially the high-dollar versions, at higher rates than more
affluent and educated folks.
The Houston Chronicle this week couldn't bring itself to criticize the state's
Lottery. In fact, they say that it’s “an affordable pastime for even the poorest
Texan” to squander money on the $1-per-play tickets that have crummy chances of
winning. Affordable? Really? When your kid doesn’t have health insurance, it’s
acceptable? Apparently.
Where the newspaper gets its pages in a wad is the existence of $50 tickets. The
paper claims a new study shows "the very poor are much more likely than the
well-to-do to buy these scratch-offs."
According to the Chronicle, the Lottery "preys upon those least able to afford
it." Yep, that's it; the Lottery forces people to play. And that bottle of $4
box of wine just jumped in the car along with a six-pack of Twinkies and a
carton of smokes.
For Texas,
Michael Quinn Sullivan