The man who just spent a fortune and helped set back Democrats for perhaps a generation in Texas tries to quibble with Rick's rarely seen in public campaign manager Rob Johnson on the issue of debt in Texas...
In other news, this is the first a lot of peeps have seen Rob Johnson in a long time... granted I was not there at this forum but seeing actual moving pictures still counts. It's like he has been over there in some kind of bunker during this campaign.... possibly hiding from the Lieutenant Governor...
Come on out Rob... you can breathe now... and frankly you can ignore peeps like Matt Angle to your heart's desire... he is worse than irrelevant... he has antagonized a lot of peeps who want to serve some cold revenge... and meanwhile you own the capitol now...
As for their argument here... Texas has one of the lowest debt levels per capita in America... and the highest bond rating it has ever had... debt is really not the issue in Texas... and to the extent that Texas has debt at all it is almost all voter demanded voter approved bond issues... in fact the kind of debt that is not supported by specific fees to pay it off has actually declined quite a bit over the past decade... even though voter approved bonds which have specific revenue mechanisms to pay themselves off have proliferated on the scene...
Here's an idea... make it harder to put bonds on the ballot somehow. Maybe not in law but in practice... is Matt Angle going to go for that? Probably not... but you know what he will go for whether he likes it or not... loser pay... the trial lawyers are going to be severely punished this session... I can just feel it... they can thank Matt Angle's ineffectiveness in part for that punishment they are about to receive...
... the trial lawyers are going to be severely punished this session... I can just feel it...
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Man I hope you are right about this?
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martywd, the liberal trial lawyers are BITTER that their poster-child Bill White got his butt handed to him in a double-digit landslide 2 weeks ago and you don't hear from Back to Basics (they disappeared in mid-October after seeing the polling showing Perry leading by 13-14 points).
ReplyDeletePick up a paper lately? We have bond debt all over the place. Texas appears to have low debt for two reasons.
ReplyDelete1) Cost of living. This is important as it restricts the ability of Texas to raise revenues through higher taxes.
2) Most other states take on the governmental responsibilities at the state level what we give to the municipal level.
When total governmental debt and cost of living are taken into account, Texas is number 2.
And that's before the Texas Workforce commission takes on another $2 Billion in bonds to cover unemployment insurance gaps. And that's before the Texas Tomorrow Fund takes on another $2 Billion to cover shortfalls in a program that will end soon. The importance here is that the bonds don't get them to a more secure place...a place to acquire better returns. The taking out of bonds is obligating Texans for programs that will not continue to operate in their current form going forward.