Let’s keep it simple. There’s a reason why the City, counties, and the State chose a Saturday to hold an election…classic low turnout allowing BIG government to get even bigger. So if you’re the guy trying to pull a fast one on the taxpayers, YOU WIN by virtue of more people shopping for Mother’s Day and gearing up for Spurs magic instead of getting around to voting for little known candidates and a bond package sold to voters as FREE, “It’ll only cost you a ‘yes’ vote.” And frankly, we couldn’t even endorse a candidate in so many races because there wasn’t a clear anti-toll candidate, that many just stayed home because there wasn’t anyone to vote for.
So San Antonio’s big employers (think Zachry) and the Greater Chamber types had their votes pull more weight than the average taxpayer about to get fleeced by paying DOUBLE the cost for every project over the life of a very pricey 40 year loan. Expect your property taxes to continue to skyrocket to bail the City out of this one…
Also expect your roads to get torn up all over the City, all at once, with no alternative routes planned by our friendly neighborhood pro-toll Public Works Director, Mr. Tom Wendorf and his partner in crime, TxDOT. And since 17 of these projects have no identified funding to complete them, expect the City to come back to the taxpayers with more tax increases or bond debt to put them all back together again.
District 8 candidate, Jacob Dell, pointed out that only 53% of the City’s budget goes to fund government necessities required in the City’s charter, the remaining 49% is non-governmental, non-essential fluff like $800,000 in corporate welfare to Express Jet for advertising and $515 million in property tax breaks for the world’s biggest billionaire, Bill Gates, in the Microsoft deal. That’s how the City gets away with coming to the voters to approve a $550 million, 40 year bond (loan). They fail to squander the taxes YOU ALREADY GIVE THEM so they can claim there’s no money for necessities like roads and drainage.
Drainage issues in particular have bubbled to the surface in the past 5-10 years due the City’s horrible planning and flawed development practices. They’ve allowed such rampant development that now areas of the City that NEVER had flooding or drainage problems now have them. The Army Corp of Engineers has had to change the floor plains and is requiring homeowners who have been in their homes for decades without any problems to have flood insurance. AND, the taxpayers now have to bail out the City’s overdevelopment with Prop 2 long-term debt to fix the out of control drainage problems.
There’s a high price to pay for being too busy to vote…re-election or a bond passing does not a mandate make. We’ll weigh in on the run-offs soon…but expect an endorsement for Jacob Dell in District 8!