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No one has commented since the last post, so I'm assuming the information I found was credible. I'm sure if it weren't, there would be a debate going on by now.
This experiment of having a huge growing population with low taxes is coming to an end.
mmm probably not...because it's succeeding very well. BTW, 47 states managed to get federal money and not close budget gaps, so the fact that Texas was able to close its gap without accepting all federal money offered is actually quite remarkable and speaks to the excellent governorship of your legislature and (wonderful, remarkable) governor. I love my Florida state government, but Texas is quite good too.
mmm probably not...because it's succeeding very well. BTW, 47 states managed to get federal money and not close budget gaps, so the fact that Texas was able to close its gap without accepting all federal money offered is actually quite remarkable and speaks to the excellent governorship of your legislature and (wonderful, remarkable) governor. I love my Florida state government, but Texas is quite good too.
You totally missed the point of what I was saying. The point is that Perry talks like Texas would be better off without the federal government, but then takes billions of dollars in stimulus money to fix the budget deficit, and contributes less than any other state to fix it. That's called hypocrisy.
Really? You think the state government does a good job. We just held up an entire legislative session (which only happens once every two years) over VOTER ID in the middle of a bad recession. If you think Texas has good government you haven't lived in enough states, or are simply not paying attention. For example, my wife and I waited for 2 hours at the DMV to transfer our Minnesota license to a Texas license, and we weren't just there on a bad day because I had walked away from similiarly long lines the few days before that. I have never waited that long in any state I've lived in, and I've lived in several states.
Did I also mention that the only roads that are getting built are toll roads, because god forbid we raise gas taxes by 10 cents/gallon when we can pay 40-80 bucks a month to drive on privately funded toll roads. That's really smart! We also have some of the highest electricity rates in the nation thanks to the Republicans in the Congress/Governor deregulating it. Home insurance rates are the highest in the nation, and this is because the Repubs in 2003 made a "file and use" system where all the insurance companies have to do is tell the govt. they are raising rates. No questions asked!
Oh, we also have 1 out of every 4 people w/o health insurance, which is the highest of any state in the union.
Of course, what do you expect when Republicans complain that govt. doesn't work, get into office, govern poorly, and yell SEE, I TOLD YOU SO!
You totally missed the point of what I was saying. The point is that Perry talks like Texas would be better off without the federal government, but then takes billions of dollars in stimulus money to fix the budget deficit, and contributes less than any other state to fix it. That's called hypocrisy.
Really? You think the state government does a good job. We just held up an entire legislative session (which only happens once every two years) over VOTER ID in the middle of a bad recession. If you think Texas has good government you haven't lived in enough states, or are simply not paying attention. For example, my wife and I waited for 2 hours at the DMV to transfer our Minnesota license to a Texas license, and we weren't just there on a bad day because I had walked away from similiarly long lines the few days before that. I have never waited that long in any state I've lived in, and I've lived in several states.
Did I also mention that the only roads that are getting built are toll roads, because god forbid we raise gas taxes by 10 cents/gallon when we can pay 40-80 bucks a month to drive on privately funded toll roads. That's really smart! We also have some of the highest electricity rates in the nation thanks to the Republicans in the Congress/Governor deregulating it. Home insurance rates are the highest in the nation, and this is because the Repubs in 2003 made a "file and use" system where all the insurance companies have to do is tell the govt. they are raising rates. No questions asked!
Oh, we also have 1 out of every 4 people w/o health insurance, which is the highest of any state in the union.
Of course, what do you expect when Republicans complain that govt. doesn't work, get into office, govern poorly, and yell SEE, I TOLD YOU SO!
Firstly, I don't live in Texas. I want to move there after college. I have, however, lived in seven different states in 20 years (Massachusetts, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and California).
And Texas' economy is doing a heck of a lot better than Minnesota's and most other blue states' right now. I'll take a job and two hour DMV lines over 10 minute DMV lines, high taxes and job losses, thank you very much. Are you sure you couldn't have made an appointment? In Florida, out of towners complain about DMV lines and then I ask them if they made an appointment and they say no. Paying enough bureaucrats to sit around the DMV office so that you can walk in any time and get your license is a waste of money, which is why Minnesota's taxes are higher and their business climate worse.
Texas doesn't have anywhere close to the highest energy costs per kilowatt hour. http://www.ifenergy.com/50226711/eia..._per_state.php Hawaii is almost twice as expensive. In total, there are ten states with higher costs per kilowatt hour. The fact that Texas' average monthly bill is second in the nation has to do with the fact that you need A/C (by far the largest drain of electricity) year round. In New York, where energy is $15 per kilowatt hour, you only need A/C for a month or two in the summer, and many people live without it. Regardless, how deregulation would lead to increased energy costs is beyond me. Deregulation almost always leads to more competition, and therefore lower costs. See the airline industry.
The Grand Parkway in Houston is getting built and that isn't a toll road. http://www.texasfreeway.com/houston/..._parkway.shtml There are plenty of local non-limited access highways (which are among the best in the country I might add...try driving in Boston or worse, the suburbs) being built that are not toll roads. Also, there are more toll roads in the Northeastern US and California than anywhere else, both of which have significantly higher gas taxes than Texas, so I really don't think you can blame the creation of toll roads on a low gas tax. The low gas tax is a blessing for which you should thank your Republican congress. The toll roads are a result of the fact that Texas needs to build roads faster than funding is readily available, thus they have to charge the people who use the roads, which makes sense to me at least.
As for the legislature, I'm sure that is not all they are discussing, first of all, Texas' economy is better than the nation's, second of all, and there have been rather bogus/irrelevant votes in Washington and in other state capitols in the middle of the recession too. The way I judge a government is as follows: are the taxes relatively low? are businesses coming or leaving? are the schools good? are the roads good and well maintained? is the city safe? are there any wasteful or excess government spending programs? Texas stacks up pretty well in all those areas for me (except crime in Dallas and Houston, from what I hear). You are allowed to have different priorities of course. That's one of the great things about having 50 different states. Now if only the Federal government gave states the autonomy they are allowed in the constitution...
I agree with you that the secession talk is over the top, but I personally do not believe Perry is serious about it. He certainly has taken no action to attempt to secede. I also think that Texas benefits from being in the union, but I don't think the bailout money has anything to do with that. If the Federal government were not taxing Texas citizens up to 35% of their income, Texas could probably justify a much lower tax on its citizens that would have closed the budget gap even better than the stimulus money, which ultimately was just giving back to Texas citizens what was theirs to begin with (since Texas is a net tax exporting state).
Last edited by mboyle1988; 07-26-2009 at 01:08 AM..
No one has commented since the last post, so I'm assuming the information I found was credible. I'm sure if it weren't, there would be a debate going on by now.
Do you mean legally? Of course it cannot. But as Ayn Rand said, "the question is not whether I can, but rather who is going to stop me."
I sure hope Texas doesn't try to secede because I think starting a second civil war would be tragic, but, regardless, Texas could secede, just as sociopaths can murder people. Neither action, however, is legal.
Firstly, I don't live in Texas. I want to move there after college. I have, however, lived in seven different states in 20 years (Massachusetts, Kentucky, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and California).
And Texas' economy is doing a heck of a lot better than Minnesota's and most other blue states' right now. I'll take a job and two hour DMV lines over 10 minute DMV lines, high taxes and job losses, thank you very much. Are you sure you couldn't have made an appointment? In Florida, out of towners complain about DMV lines and then I ask them if they made an appointment and they say no. Paying enough bureaucrats to sit around the DMV office so that you can walk in any time and get your license is a waste of money, which is why Minnesota's taxes are higher and their business climate worse.
Texas doesn't have anywhere close to the highest energy costs per kilowatt hour. IfEnergy: EIA Energy Cost per State Hawaii is almost twice as expensive. In total, there are ten states with higher costs per kilowatt hour. The fact that Texas' average monthly bill is second in the nation has to do with the fact that you need A/C (by far the largest drain of electricity) year round. In New York, where energy is $15 per kilowatt hour, you only need A/C for a month or two in the summer, and many people live without it. Regardless, how deregulation would lead to increased energy costs is beyond me. Deregulation almost always leads to more competition, and therefore lower costs. See the airline industry.
The Grand Parkway in Houston is getting built and that isn't a toll road. TexasFreeway > Houston > Future Freeway > Grand Parkway, Houston's Third Freeway Loop There are plenty of local non-limited access highways (which are among the best in the country I might add...try driving in Boston or worse, the suburbs) being built that are not toll roads. Also, there are more toll roads in the Northeastern US and California than anywhere else, both of which have significantly higher gas taxes than Texas, so I really don't think you can blame the creation of toll roads on a low gas tax. The low gas tax is a blessing for which you should thank your Republican congress. The toll roads are a result of the fact that Texas needs to build roads faster than funding is readily available, thus they have to charge the people who use the roads, which makes sense to me at least.
I agree with you that the secession talk is over the top, but I personally do not believe Perry is serious about it. He certainly has taken no action to attempt to secede. I also think that Texas benefits from being in the union, but I don't think the bailout money has anything to do with that. If the Federal government were not taxing Texas citizens up to 35% of their income, Texas could probably justify a much lower tax on its citizens that would have closed the budget gap even better than the stimulus money, which ultimately was just giving back to Texas citizens what was theirs to begin with (since Texas is a net tax exporting state).
Don't misinterpret attempts to improve one's state as biting the hand that feeds you.
Have you lived in MN? You sure seem to know a lot about it. I'm not saying there aren't any benefits to living in Texas. In fact, I like it reasonably well here (and I especially like the food more), but to suggest an inverse relation between having better public services and a job market is unfounded in reality.
The DMV was a first hand example of the kind of public services provided here. I mentioned it because I could say that I haven't just been reading this somewhere. I discussed the more serious problems, none of which you addressed, and I left out plenty of others.
A low gas tax is not a "blessing" if it costs more money to do the same thing! My point was that funding would be available if there were a will to do it, but that would take some leadership on the part of the legislature. It's an example of short-sighted thinking and nothing else. Conservatives and liberals alike dislike toll roads in DFW, but commuting to many portions of the metroplex would be hell without them, which is why people don't really have a true option to not use them.
Your energy data is out of date and misinterpreted. As anyone on here can tell you, prices for electricity have skyrocketed in DFW over the past 2 years. I pay almost $300 in electric bills for my 2 bed 2 bath apartment during the summer. Some people with 3,000 Sq ft. homes pay 700-800 dollar bills a month in the summer. Also, some areas of the state are regulated and some are not. The regulated areas, like Austin, were almost half as much as the DFW average last summer, so a statewide average is not the best way to look at it. Deregulation does not always lead to lower costs in certain quasi public markets, like electricity, just like it doesn't make roads cheaper.
Do you mean legally? Of course it cannot. But as Ayn Rand said, "the question is not whether I can, but rather who is going to stop me."
I sure hope Texas doesn't try to secede because I think starting a second civil war would be tragic, but, regardless, Texas could secede, just as sociopaths can murder people. Neither action, however, is legal.
Actually, I did think it was legal because I've read so much about it on the Texas forum that it's the only state that can secede, et al. Therefore, I figured the Texans were correct. I'm glad to know you have "your stuff straight." I really was convinced until I did some web researched.
There are surely many who want it to do so and Rick Perry is one of them. I don't get it, but I guess he's pretty ignorant to even "threaten" such.
Your energy data is out of date and misinterpreted. As anyone on here can tell you, prices for electricity have skyrocketed in DFW over the past 2 years. I pay almost $300 in electric bills for my 2 bed 2 bath apartment during the summer. Some people with 3,000 Sq ft. homes pay 700-800 dollar bills a month in the summer.
I have a 4000 sf home and admit that I had to pay 500-600 for electricity last summer. You know what I did? I shopped around, got a lower rate locked in for a year, repaired some windows, installed CF bulbs throughout the house, and raised my thermostat about 1 degree. After that I paid no more than 300. This year I'm thinking about installing more attic insulation and maybe a radiant barrier. I'm switching companies again this summer to an even lower rate - so my numbers are not out of date.
I don't need government regulation to do my thinking for me. I can make personal choices on a personal level, and at the same time I can be "greener" and benefit the planet too
I have a 4000 sf home and admit that I had to pay 500-600 for electricity last summer. You know what I did? I shopped around, got a lower rate locked in for a year, repaired some windows, installed CF bulbs throughout the house, and raised my thermostat about 1 degree. After that I paid no more than 300. This year I'm thinking about installing more attic insulation and maybe a radiant barrier. I'm switching companies again this summer to an even lower rate - so my numbers are not out of date.
I don't need government regulation to do my thinking for me. I can make personal choices on a personal level, and at the same time I can be "greener" and benefit the planet too
I assume you had to pay for all those updates? Most people in Texas couldn't afford that, and I am not able to do that even if I wanted to because I live in an apartment. I don't care if it's government regulation or privately supplied, I want to pay the lowest price. To be for the same thing despite the fact that it costs more is stupid, and illustrative of the fact that many people have religious like beliefs about the free market. That is, they start from the unquestioned assumption that the free market can never be wrong or bad as a matter of faith, and work backwards from there.
Many people living on fixed incomes (I am not one of them) cannot afford expensive electricity, and people cannot live a decent life w/o AC in Texas. That's why on your electric bill, it probably includes a box about donating money for people who need help paying their electric bills. Deregulation of the electricity market has failed, just like it has in every other state where it's been tried.
By the way, we don't have deregulation because it's good for consumers. We have deregulation because people don't pay that much attention to the state legislature, and most of the state legislature is bought off by energy interests. The congressmen/women work as representatives, do their bidding, and then go back to work at high salaries for the people that originally bought them off, and it's totally legal!
I assume you had to pay for all those updates? I don't care if it's government regulation or privately supplied, I want to pay the lowest price. To be for the same thing despite the fact that it costs more is stupid, and illustrative of the fact that many people have religious like beliefs about the free market. That is, they start from the unquestioned assumption that the free market can never be wrong or bad as a matter of faith, and work backwards from there.
All of it paid for in full with the money saved after 2-3 months with the lower bills - so it did not 'cost more' and in fact over the course of 1 year (you do the math) I did get to pay 'the lowest price.' In any case - the biggest savings came from the lower rate - the other stuff was more so I could feel like I was being as green as I could be (not very)
The free market does work (now I'm not assigning labels like 'good' or 'bad') if you let it and if you can stomach the ruthlessness of it. I guess thats one of the biggest problems - people get squeamish and interfere at the worst possible times - just when the free market is about to correct inefficient and unsustainable activity/behavior right out of existence. Then they turn around and blame the free market for the mess (I admit it can get messy) that they just compounded/intensified with their meddling (see Obama Administration - the first 6 months).
Last edited by tyanger; 07-26-2009 at 11:24 AM..
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I really was convinced until I did some web researched. 
