Political Sense

Again we find ourselves in a funding dilemma. Ever thought about why you spend the time you do in traffic? Every day - commuting, running errands — you probably face some type of traffic. Ever thought about how much it costs to build new highways?

IT COSTS A LOT. To the tune of about $30 billion is where we are. The funding streams do not exist for these. The ones that do exist have been carjacked and diverted to other uses - where’s the $1.2 billion per bi-ennium that is supposed to go towards transportation projects? In other coffers.

Recent proposals funding this have been brought forward, but still no relief.

Something needs to be done.  How do you think we should fund our transportation problems?

See the Fort Worth Chamber’s position here:
http://www.fortworthchamber.com/chamber_about/documents/09TRANSPOSITIONSignature.pdf

With a brutal economy, one might say it’s time to pull the reigns tighter and hold back on excessive spending. But recent polls are shedding light on certain expenses Americans feel are “impossible to live without.” From haircuts to internet access and satellite t.v., many victims of this economy refuse to give up certain luxuries.

• See the Stores.org survey results here
• Follow-up story in Savannah newspaper

How does this poll affect YP’s in Tarrant County? Give us your thoughts on what you can and cannot live without during our current recession.

You’re probably reading this at work. A lot of folks should be happy they have jobs right now. There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty in most of our professional lives - (especially if you subscribe to the LIFO theory of layoffs - Last In, First Out). We are fortunate in that most of us in Vision Fort Worth are young enough to withstand a layoff in this economic cycle. For some of us (pushing the end of our tenure here at VFW) this is the second time around in a down economy…

Which brings me to the point of this week’s post. You know where your tax dollars are going today? It’s called a stimulus package. Not just the one to bail out the banks anymore. Now we have some new projects on hand.

The Fiscal Stimulus Package bill (all glorious $825 Billion of it - insert song “Hallelujah”) was passed by three House committees this week and is expected to be voted on by the Senate soon. Included in the bill is a lot of stuff - spending on education, school districts, higher ed modernization, healthcare, energy transmission, energy distribution, energy production, worker benefits, infrastructure for highways, water, flood control, mass rail and transit, $21 million to sod the National Mall, $50 million to the national endowment to the arts and $650 million to digital TV certificates - how else are you going to learn about this stuff if you don’t go digital?

Did you catch those last items? I’m not kidding - and there will be more spending on items like this as we go - just watch.

Speaking of the stimulus package, the energy debate is becoming a big one and should be watched - especially here in our city with the benefits we’ve reaped from the Barnett Shale. Why? Because we are no longer going to be able to produce energy as we know it.

Part of the quid-pro-quo agreement from the Feds will be, “If we give you this money today, you change the way you play tomorrow.” Look for small green cottage industries to boom - not because it’s the right technology necessarily, but because it’s the right one for the federal government. And guess where all of this money from the package comes through before hitting our local communities? Austin. There will be another fight for funds once the Feds finish up.

Now is the most opportune time in America for young people to get involved in the debate, because we will be bearing the brunt of this financial burden. Many of us have about 30 years left in the working, tax-paying world (not that you don’t have to pay taxes when you retire but maybe you become an expatriate or something), that’s if we’re lucky - many of us a few more years.

Those cute little toddlers running around your house, they have a bigger burden. They’ll have to pick up where we leave off. I recently heard a statistic that claimed the U.S. has racked up $10 trillion in debt since WWII. Guess how much we racked up in the fiscal year of ‘09? $2 trillion. Why? Because if you look around, you might notice that there aren’t a lot of us heavily involved right now. There is a pretty big gap between your mentor and you, the mentee.

What happens in those years that no one is watching?

The 1st week of the Texas Legislature began on Tuesday and it was quite the opposite of where we ended two years ago. While the Senate finished strong and unified last session and the House melted down in the final hours, a year and a half later, the Senate started this session with a melt-down of its own over the rules front (voter i.d. and re-districting would be the exception) and the House began… well, unified!

An interesting session is before us, especially when you start thinking about the higher offices at stake. We start with the Governor’s race. KBH is probably coming home and this means turbulent times for Perry. How does the Governor come down on very conservative issues needed to win a Republican primary election against KBH, but then become more middle-of-the-road during the general election? Pay attention to every decision he makes this session with 2010 in mind. We can follow this down to the US senate race KBH will be vacating, and all of the statewide offices that will become available when those folks run for other seats.

The House and Senate both adjourned until post-inauguration. In DC, we prepared for an economic stimulus package we thought was going to focus on infrastructure and help us get needed money for projects like North Tarrant Express, Southwest to Northeast Commuter Rail, Trinity River Vision, Tarrant Regional Water District projects and many more. Now it’s said that the new administration is going to move the focus of the stimulus funds towards education and social services. We’ll see what happens after Tuesday.

Finally, the papers continue to report gloom and doom in our economy with layoffs, corporate bankruptcies and closings. We are soon going to see a lot of people out of work with time on their hands. It might be a good time to get more involved in the decisions made every day in Washington, Austin and here locally, that affect all of our lives.

On a credible major network news show last week, there was more emphasis on what the new First Lady would be wearing Tuesday and the breakdown of “Chicago Style” than any substantive speculation on what might be said at the inauguration and which direction this country might be led in the near future.

I think everyone needs to demand a little more.

They need to demand a little more from the people who are making decisions on how long it takes you to get to work everyday, where you’re going to send your kids to school, how much take-home money you’ll have at the end of the month, and how much groceries will cost.

We need to demand a little more from ourselves in these times. What are you going to do?