Texas and specifically Houston is still in the midst of a catastrophic flood. It will take a lot of money to recover even after assistance from the government. Mayor Sylvester Turner is proposing a temporary tax hike to defer some of the costs. Will Houstonians do the responsible thing or succumb to the expected TEA Party false rhetoric.
The Houston Chronicle reported the following.
Mayor Sylvester Turner will ask City Council to approve an 8.9 percent hike in the city’s property tax rate this fall to help Houston recover from Hurricane Harvey. Turner’s proposal, which will begin with a series a public hearings later this month and reach a formal vote in mid-October, would increase the property tax rate from 58.64 cents per $100 of appraised value to 63.87 cents. …
Debris removal could cost more than $200 million and will require the city to foot 10 percent of the bill without being reimbursed by the federal government. Houston also lost 334 city vehicles and saw the municipal courts building, City Hall and its adjacent annex, and two sewage treatment plants knocked offline by flooding.
I’ve watched the Mayor go from neighborhood to neighborhood talking directly to people. The Mayor along with his team has done an exceptional job managing this catastrophe by all accounts.
Kingwood home to one of the most active TEA Parties in the country. Their meetings at times are surreal. I expect they will irresponsibly try to convince their followers to come out against the tax hike, damn personal and social responsibility.
Kingwood tends to get quick city services comparatively. I watched Mayor Turner in Kingwood make a stop in here to listen to residents. Unfortunately, some of the Kingwood residents were less than fair in their treatment of the mayor as they complained about debris removal soon after the storm. Interestingly this is a job that FEMA is doing, and they got to Kingwood rather early comparatively.
I would urge some of my complaining members to visit some of the devastation in poor parts of our community like off Homestead and other places that go little or no news coverage and little coverage from much of their government. They have something to complain about right now.
PS: I did my Politics Done Right show, under less than optimal conditions, there on Saturday. Many of us are heading to the Homestead area today to help Coffee Party USA colleague, Bobby Rodrigo, serve food via his We Do Better organization.