Harris County Democrats seek to raise taxes
- Harris County to consider disaster declaration “loophole” to raise property tax rate above SB 2 limit
As reported in a 6 August 2020 article at TheTexan.news, Harris County Democrats under Lina Hidalgo want to raise your taxes during this election year.
During a special meeting of the Harris County Commissioners Court Thursday, new Budget Management Executive Director David Berry provided information on four possible tax rate scenarios. It included a plan to take advantage of a potential loophole in Texas law that could allow the county to raise property taxes by nearly eight percent.
According to Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), passed by the Texas Legislature in 2019, the county can only increase it’s Maintenance and Operations tax rate by 3.5 percent without voter approval, but the measure includes an exception for areas under a “disaster declaration.”
Berry, and First Assistant County Attorney Robert Soard advised commissioners that adopting the eight percent increase would likely trigger taxpayer lawsuits.
“I think there are some risks in taking the position that we can go all the way up to eight percent,” said Berry. “The governor for example, has said in public that he doesn’t agree. So, it would be logical to assume it would be litigated.”
Earlier this year, Governor Greg Abbott stated that the disaster exception only applied to regions with physical damage. Attorney General Ken Paxton also issued an opinion affirming that economic damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic does not trigger an exception to SB 2.
If the county does assume that an eight percent increase without voter approval is allowable, Soard warned that any taxpayer could file suit and possibly halt all tax collections until the case is decided.
County tax rate considerations usually take place in October, but Berry and Soard said if the court wanted to seek an increase that required voter approval, they needed to begin the process immediately. Among other requirements, the county clerk would need to be notified by August 18 to place a measure on the November ballots.
Berry also cautioned that the Harris County Appraisal District (HCAD) could not yet provide complete property valuation numbers since some 15 percent were still under protest. Final numbers and a Budget Management office analysis will not be ready until early September.
In addition to a plan that would increase tax rates by nearly eight percent, Berry presented information on adoption of a “no-new-revenue” plan that would reduce rates for many property owners.
According to the preliminary numbers from HCAD, the “no-new-revenue” plan could result in a budget shortfall of approximately $10 million, since actual revenue fell short for the previous fiscal year.
(Read more at TheTexan.news)
Just like Democrat Mayor Turner’s attempt to raise taxes after Hurricane Harvey, this jump from Lina Hidalgo’s mandated shelter-in-place to a tax increase is unconscionable
In 2017, Mayor Turner helped create a problem by telling Houstonians to ignore the predictions of 50+ inches of rain that were predicted with Hurricane Harvey. Problematically, it rained over 60 inches in Houston during Hurricane Harvey. Furthermore, 62 people died from drowning (having listened to Turner’s advice to shelter in place).
With that backdrop, less than a year later, Mayor Turner worked to raise property taxes on a hurting Houston (and he knew that Houston was hurting, because he called on Houston landlords to allow their tenants to skip payments).
Now we come to Lina Hidalgo and her continual efforts to shut down Harris County to business. First, she closed restaurants and bars. Next, for months, she issued a “stay home, work safe” order that locked away most of Houston.
Even though research shows that children do not convey coronavirus to adults, Lina Hidalgo requires schools to remain closed. Additionally, she continues to attempt to enforce wearing masks and close certain businesses.
Now she seeks to raise taxes on the whole of Harris County.
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Democrats seem to believe in “speak it into existence” theology
- For Democrats, the era of American exceptionalism is over
Breitbart reports that Democrats have been preaching that the era of American exceptionalism is over.
Defunding city police departments. Exploding murder rates. Free health care for illegal aliens. Crushing debt. Obliterating American history.
For Democrat politicians, the era of American Exceptionalism is over. Welcome to the land of “Shelter in place!”
The fear-mongering and demagoguery are enough to choke a mule. At least it would choke the mule that symbolized the old Democrat Party. Even the Democrat Party of just a few elections ago.
These people today? They have gone plumb mad. The patients have taken siege of the asylum.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, Hawaii Democrat, stormed out of a committee hearing this week rather than denounce the fascist domestic terrorist group calling itself “Antifa.” The loose-knit, violent mob has been implicated in firebombing police stations and federal buildings, attacking peace officers — including blinding four cops with laser pointers — and violently assaulting innocent citizens.
Yet, Democrats such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler dismiss the mayhem caused by these anti-American terrorists as “a myth.” Despite reels and reels of video evidence.
In a public hearing, Mr. Nadler actually blamed the violence on President Trump and Attorney General William Barr. It is all manufactured footage for President Trump’s re-election campaign, he charged.
It is literally impossible to take these people seriously. You would not trust them to change a flat tire on your bicycle, let alone run the government.
Turns out that enforcing laws, to these people, is the equivalent of tearing down statues and bludgeoning innocent people. And to think: Mr. Nadler is the highest-ranking House Democrat on matters of the judiciary.
Ms. Hirono is on the actual committee that chooses federal judges — the very black-robed men and women who mete out life and death decisions for regular, tax-paying citizens of this country.
So much for equal justice under law. Or justice in any form other than mob justice.
Terrifying.
But this is what happens when an entire party is hijacked by fascist mobs that govern by Twitter. They blot out any dissent. First, on “social media.” Then in the streets, where their preferred weapons are brass knuckles, ropes and Molotov cocktails.
The only response from Democrat pols in Washington is to condemn law enforcement and accuse police of being the “fascists.”
Remember President Obama? Remember 2008?
That was a different time. A different campaign. It was hopeful. He at least pretended to love America.
He denounced divisions between “red” America and “blue” America. Not that he governed like that. But at least he was wise enough to know he could never get elected peddling any of the crazy nonsense these Democrats today are slopping out.
(Read more at Breitbart)
It seems that the Democrats are trying to create the failing judicial system, failing economy, and divided America they blame on President Trump
Since the press stands firmly on the side of the Democrats and has maintained the guilt of President Trump on issues ranging from the disproven Russia conspiracy theory to the disproven allegations during the impeachment hearings, the likelihood that they would try to push the riots on Trump is high.
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Democrat Kim Ogg has released felons to kill
- Kim Ogg’s bond reform death count has hit 53
When I last posted about the findings of Crime Stoppers Victim’s Advocate Andy Kahan, 36 innocent people had lost their lives at the hands of felons released by District Attorney Kim Ogg (as indicated by the tweet at the earlier post). Now it seems that 53 people have paid with their lives to prove that bond reform does not work.
Just in case Facebook blocks his post, Andy Kahan said:
Story that aired last night depicting the real life ramifications of bond reform.
- 53 people have been killed in the past two years by defendants released on multiple felony bonds and PR bonds
- 18 defendants are now charged with Capital Murder
- 11 defendants were granted a PR Bond
- defendants are wanted fugitives
- 4 defendants were on Deferred Adjudication and Felony Bond simultaneously
- 7 defendants are right back out on bond
- 2 defendants granted bond for murder were actually on Parole at the time-1 is a fugitive
- 23 cases have occurred so far in 2020
- 1 defendant was on Deferred Adjudication and released on bond for murder only to be charged again with another murder: He is now a wanted fugitive
- Of the cases released on multiple felony bonds and PR Bonds the 232nd District Court led the league with 5, followed up by the 263rd with 4
- I will be sharing my op-Ed on this subject this week
- The Houston Chronicle found my information not to be newsworthy.
- The public needs to be made aware of how many people’s lives have been destroyed under the guise of criminal justice and bond reform
In the event that this was not enough, Andy Kahan shares the particulars of one case:
In case Facebook blocks his post, he said:
FYI
The now deceased suspect Ashton Broussard background:
- Four prior felony convictions
- His last felony conviction was in 2019
- He was granted a PR BOND 7/21/20 for Assault of a Public Servant despite the Governor’s orders not to grant Felony PR BONDS to violent offenders
- He was granted another PR BOND 7/27/20 despite already being on a Felony PR BOND
- He was granted yet another PR BOND for Escape on 7/27/20
- Despite being charged with 2 additional offenses after being granted a PR BOND his bond was not revoked
- His Felony PR BOND was forfeited on 7/30 for failure to appear in Court
- All the above PR BONDS occurred in less than 2 weeks
Had enough Harris County!
I want my Harris County, Texas to be safe place, but Kim Ogg has been working against that dream
When you prioritize the comfort of felons over the safety of citizens, then you (Kim Ogg) have forfeited your right to remain in office. Additionally, when any government official sets the priorities set by a donor such as George Soros and those priorities hurt the citizens, then the citizens should be told and allowed to vote you out.
The good news is that Kim Ogg is on the ballot and, unless some brain-damaging Democrat malady spreads among the people, she should be voted out.
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Democrats want to lay a guilt trip on us for living
- Liberals have invented a new level of privilege around coronavirus
Townhall points out that liberals have invented a new level of privilege around coronavirus.
So, I guess nuking two Japanese cities isn’t worthy of a lefty historical revisionist meltdown, which truly disappoints me because I think it would’ve been insanely entertaining. Instead, we’ll have to suffer through a new layer of privilege lectures. Barking about white privilege will always be a go-to for liberals to shut down folks who expose them for being total morons. In the COVID era, we have a new line: “immunoprivilege.” No, I’m not kidding. We’re back to making stuff up again. Apparently, this has to do with some German dude, New Orleans, and yellow fever in 19th century America. Of course, Slate, contrarians extraordinaire over there, has more:
Vincent Nolte, 19th-century German immigrant and cotton merchant, made millions after he survived a bout of yellow fever and went on to prosper in New Orleans. As historian Kathryn Olivarius writes, Nolte benefited from “immunoprivilege”: Since he had made it through the sickness, he became credit-worthy and found himself accepted in elite society. His experience did not, however, endow him with much sympathy for his fellow victims of yellow fever. He believed both that God had blessed him and that he had saved himself, having “not at all fe[lt] like dying.”
Olivarius wrote about New Orleans’ 19th-century culture of immunoprivilege in the New York Times way back in April, when we didn’t yet know how complicated the question of coronavirus antibodies was going to be. Back then, some were floating the idea of asking young people to deliberately infect themselves with the coronavirus so they could, brimming in antibodies, spearhead the “reopening” of the economy. Reading Olivarius’ work—an article in the American Historical Review, her dissertation—in the more uncertain month of August, I felt a violent shock of recognition at the social phenomena she chronicles.
In New Orleans, Olivarius finds, elites refused to do anything at all about yellow fever for a hundred years. Theirs was a mindset of fatalism and cruelty that reinforced the society’s many human hierarchies; they saw yellow fever as a dangerous rite of passage that the truly worthy would come through. But poorer people who survived yellow fever were rewarded with the worst, most dangerous jobs; white people used Black people’s supposed “natural” resistance to yellow fever to justify the continuation of slavery. And the wealthy often turned profoundly hypocritical when it was their own families in danger. (That era’s elite fled to their summer houses too.)
Olivarius’ book, Necropolis: Disease, Power, and Capitalism in the Cotton Kingdom, which will be coming out next year, is about the Deep South—Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and eastern Texas. Since the work I was able to read was about 19th-century New Orleans’ culture of yellow fever, that’s what we covered in our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Is there a privilege for making up and peddling bulls**t? Because I think liberals are just getting beyond arrogant now flaunting that in our faces. Oh, and you bet our friends at Twitchywere on this for sure. Get off the crack pipe over there, Slate.
(Read more idiocy from the left echoed at Townhall)
Democrats: Regarding laying survivor guilt on us — you first.
If you want to make us feel guilty for not dying, you can set the example.
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Mark 1:1 
Of course, one thing that I assumed (but did not communicate very well) was that all of these bonehead moves are being made during an election year.
For smart campaigners, these moves would be delayed until after all of the campaigning was over. Instead, Democrats move to raise taxes, berate America, allow felons free to kill 53 Americans, and then lay a guilt trip on Americans for surviving.
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Anyone who lives in the Houston area and has researched regarding the raise in taxes, have you noticed that all local publishers (Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, and others) say “Local leaders seek to raise taxes” or “Local leaders look to use tax loophole” when they talk about the raising taxes?
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