Recent editorials from Texas newspapers

Here are excerpts from recent editorials in Texas newspapers:

Victoria Advocate. Dec. 2, 2017.

No one knows the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey and how or when state and federal relief dollars will arrive.

This bureaucratic quagmire hardly inspires confidence that Crossroads residents will receive the help they need to recover. The best hope for the region is Placedo native John Sharp, the head of the Governor’s Commission to Rebuild Texas.

Sharp has shown throughout his long political career and then as chancellor at Texas A&M that he remembers his roots. As Harvey czar, he already has visited Victoria and surely won’t forget the Crossroads.

Even so, the recovery red tape hardly inspires confidence. As the Victoria Advocate reported recently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency hasn’t provided data showing which homes were damaged. Compounding that, the General Land Office, the state agency in charge of handling FEMA’s recovery programs, hasn’t determined how to work with local governments to distribute aid.

Under a new plan for Texas, the General Land Office and local councils of governments are supposed to work together to help local residents.

“The rollout of the GLO effort has been a rough start, obviously,” Victoria County Judge Ben Zeller told the Advocate. “And that’s caused issues all the way down the line.”

Unfortunately, officials are barely even at the starting line in terms of recovery efforts. They can’t even say with any certainty the extent of the damage. No local, state or federal assessment has been conducted.

This glaring oversight is because no single agency is in charge of U.S. disaster recovery efforts or tracking the full extent of the destruction. As the Texas Tribune recently reported, housing advocates are worried this will mean many Texans will fall through the cracks.

FEMA has started to recognize this and is trying to find a way to estimate the damage. Most local officials have not done anything more than “windshield surveys,” as Victoria Mayor Paul Polasek described driving around to look at some damage from the street.

John Henneberger, co-director of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, explained the problem with this approach to the Tribune: “Sometimes local governments are not in the best position to determine the rebuilding needs of Texas households, and they undervalue them.”

Victoria and other Crossroads cities are in danger of being undervalued and not receiving the help they need. In Victoria alone, FEMA has inspected about 11,500 homes for damage. That’s a huge number that can’t be understood or appreciated from a windshield survey.

Local officials can’t solve this problem alone, but they need to stand up and be heard on behalf of their residents. They need to make sure Sharp understands the depth of the damage in his hometown and is prepared to make sure the recovery dollars flow where needed.

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Houston Chronicle. Dec. 2, 2017.

Ed Emmett wanted his audience to know something was wrong, so he read from his tax bill.

The leader of Harris County’s government recited the numbers to a luncheon crowd gathered for his recent State of the County address. The county judge revealed that he’ll pay $8,038 to the Houston Independent School District this year and $1,305 to the Harris County Hospital District. Then there’s $3,188 to Harris County itself, $3,068 to the city of West University Place and $920 to the Houston Community College System. But to the Harris County Flood Control District? Only $216.

“Talk about out of whack,” he said.

What’s out of whack is a property tax system that’s wholly inadequate for funding what should be the top priorities of government in Texas’ largest county. There’s more. As Emmett made abundantly clear in what was a bold speech, Texas has state leaders who attack local government and cravenly pander to anti-tax activists without offering solutions to the problems confronting Harris County.

Emmett didn’t name names, but he didn’t have to. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and state Sen. Paul Bettencourt need to quit playing to a narrow base of angry voters, stop undercutting local government leaders and start working with Houston-area elected officials on serious issues facing the state’s largest metropolis.

Harris County isn’t just the third most populous county in the nation. Almost 2 million people live in unincorporated areas of the county. If that were a city, it would rank right behind Houston as the fifth largest in the United States. But the county government has virtually no authority to pass ordinances, and its services are funded almost entirely by property taxes.

Nonetheless, state lawmakers this year proposed legislation that would have further restricted Harris County leaders from raising the property tax revenue necessary to meet the needs of local government. For example, one bad idea that ultimately died in the capitol would have put a revenue cap on county government, using a formula based on inflation and the state’s population growth. Never mind that Harris County’s population is rising faster than the rest of the state, and none of the county government’s main services - like running a jail, paying for indigent health care and funding flood control - are tied to any measure of inflation. As Emmett himself trenchantly observed, that dumb idea was “neither logical nor conservative, it merely panders to a narrow self-interest group.”

What the people of Harris County need out of their state government is an investment from the Rainy Day Fund to pay for a third reservoir, more money for a beleaguered indigent health care system and increased funding for mental health care and transportation. Instead we have state leaders who stubbornly reject billions in federal Medicaid funds, shrug education expenses off to local school districts and prioritize passing bills about bathrooms.

“The next time a state official makes a big deal about a fraction of a cent cut in the property tax rate, ask them why they won’t help Harris County property taxpayers fund indigent health care . ,” Emmett said. “That would be real property tax relief.”

Emmett has served as county judge for the last decade, so he certainly bears some responsibility for the shortcomings of government that he decries. His sermon on prioritizing flood control and developing another reservoir is overdue, and we’re glad he’s finally preaching it.

Hearing a political leader so bluntly and forcefully criticize the top elected officials in his own party is the kind of candor our system needs. The county judge is dead right. Our state’s elected leaders need to get their priorities straight and quit messing with local government. Something’s out of whack, and it’s not just the county judge’s tax bill.

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The Dallas Morning News. Dec. 4, 2017.

Competing versions of the Republican tax plan cleared both chambers of Congress in the last two weeks. Now a big question remains: Which version will prevail?

There are myriad differences in how the bills treat income. Three of the most significant have to do with tax-code simplification, the Affordable Care Act and corporate tax rates.

Clearly, simplification is in order. At some 74,000 pages (up from 26,000 in 1984), the code is just too complicated for most taxpayers to complete without the use of software or a professional tax preparer. It shouldn’t be that way.

The House plan reduces the number of brackets from seven to four (12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and 39.6 percent) and seems the smarter way to go. The Senate plan maintains seven brackets (10, 12, 22, 24, 32, 35, 38.5 percent).

It’s possible some people would be moved into a higher tax bracket with the compression of brackets, but in most cases that increase should be offset by the near-doubling of the standard deduction that exists in both versions of the bill.

The Senate bill eliminates the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for the purchase of health insurance. While the mandate penalty acts as a tax, its reform has such complex ramifications on America’s pursuit of a better health care system that it is better considered as part of a legislative focus on the Act itself. The Senate move appears to be an accounting trick meant to carve out $338 billion in savings.

Both the House and Senate bills include a reduction of the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent. The U.S. corporate tax rate is one of the highest in the world - at both the statutory and effective rate - which is why so many companies have moved their operations abroad. Lowering these rates, while standardizing enforcement, would bring more of these companies home to pay taxes.

It also would increase capital investment and make the U.S. more competitive.

Thankfully, both the House and Senate versions of the bill retain a deduction for property taxes, though both are capped at $10,000. This deduction is important to middle-class Texans, where property taxes are high to offset the state’s lack of an income tax.

There’s still a lot of haggling to be done. The competing measures are in conference committee, where members will try to meld the two into a compromise measure. If they are successful, the new measure will go back to the House and Senate for final-passage votes before moving, if approved, to President Donald Trump for his signature.

The precise effect the measures will have on taxpayer productivity, economic growth and the federal debt is still the subject of debate. As Republicans work to get a bill on Trump’s desk for signature, we urge them to focus on simplification, the middle-class and boosting economic growth.

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Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Dec. 4, 2017.

Now is the perfect time to shine a light on the public body that tells property owners in Tarrant County how much they have to pay in taxes.

Every year we seem to be reporting on delays or errors at the Tarrant County Appraisal District (TAD). During the next few weeks public officials will decide who sits on the board that is largely responsible for a fix.

The Star-Telegram’s Anna Tinsley recently reported that several thousand local tax bills were still waiting to be mailed out just days before partial payments were due for some taxpayers on Nov. 30.

There is a disagreement about whether those mailings were delayed because of errors, as former Tax Assessor-Collector Ron Wright said in Tinsely’s report.

Chief Appraiser Jeff Law who oversees day-to-day operations says there were just 6,800 accounts, or less than 1 percent in question. He says most were property owners being evaluated for additional exemptions, including tax savings offered to seniors and the disabled. Other notices were delayed because of a spike in the number of property owners who protested their tax appraisals this year.

The delays for any reason, though, are a reminder of previous years when problems abounded at the Tarrant County Appraisal District.

To borrow from baseball’s great philosopher Yogi Berra: it seemed like déjà vu all over again.

We do know that the conversion to a new software system in 2014 caused a series of glitches.

In 2015 the appraisal district was on the hot seat after software errors resulted in local school districts including Fort Worth, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw and Grapevine-Colleyville being shorted more than $140 million in local revenue.

Last year appraisal notices included confusing or incorrect deadlines for filing tax protests. .

Assessment errors in 2016 left Tarrant scrambling to repay millions of dollars in property tax refunds.

An audit released last December concluded the Tarrant Appraisal District did not clearly outline technical requirements and properly test new computer software before putting it into use two years earlier.

Ultimately, the appraisal district’s five board members are responsible. They make up the governing board.

But when you look at the process for selecting them you can see why it may be a case of too many part-time cooks in the kitchen.

The state property tax code dictates how counties throughout Texas select their appraisal district board members.

In Tarrant County, officials with 73 public bodies that receive funding through property tax collections are voting to determine which candidates will serve on the board for the next two-year term. Those voting include members of city councils; county commissioners; and representatives of water districts, school districts and hospital districts.

The five selected board members and the tax assessor oversee district operations but they are only required to meet four times a year, and the appointed board members are not paid.

Daily operations in Tarrant currently fall to Chief Appraiser Law who reports to the board.

Law believes the appraisal district has turned a corner. He says “2017 was our best year yet,” following the computer conversion. He said more resources might have sped up the handling of tax protest cases but everything else went smoothly.

We hope he’s right. We hope new and returning board members will either affirm that or get to the bottom of any problems and fix them.

If property owners have a responsibility to contribute their fair share, then the tax appraisal district has a responsibility to provide timely, accurate tax information. Property owners shouldn’t have to work extra hard to figure out how much they owe or worry that the amount they’re paying is correct.

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Amarillo Globe-News. Dec. 4, 2017.

Big-time college football is down to its final four teams for its version of the national championship.

Did the committee which determined the four “best” teams get it right? Probably, but that is not the point of this editorial.

Here is the point:

At Clemson, the “estimated” costs for 2016-2017 is $25,160 per year for a full-time resident and $45,042 for a non-resident. (From www.clemson.edu.)

At Oklahoma, the “Required Tuition and Fees Fall 2017-Spring 2018” is $11,284.50 for a resident and for a $26,665.50 for a non-resident. (From www.ou.edu.)

At Georgia, the “2017-2018 Estimated Cost of Attendance” for a resident is $26,404 and $45,688 for an out-of-state resident. (From www.admissions.uga.edu.)

At Alabama, for the 2017-2018 academic year, the “total direct and indirect” cost for an in-state student is $30,184 and for an out-of-state student it is $48,634.

See where we are going here?

For the most part, student-athletes competing for big-time college football’s biggest prize do not have to worry about these costs. Nor will they ever have to spend a second worrying about how they will pay for their college diploma.

If only college students without the hyphen-athlete next to their title could be as fortunate, not to mention their parents.

Here is some more perspective for those claiming big-time college football players need to be paid - as if they are not already by receiving a free education, room and board and books. (And let’s be honest - college football players are treated like kings on campus compared to regular Joe Blow Student, who does not have access to world class training, nutrition, medical care and exercise facilities - all at no cost to the student-athlete.)

The NCAA - the governing body for major college sports - raked in nearly $1 billion in total revenue in 2014. That is a significant chunk of change - no doubt.

However, student loan debt is $1.3 trillion. That is trillion with a capital “T.”

In other words, the amount of money students owe in order to get a college degree dwarfs the money bringing brought in by college athletes, who do not have to pay for their college degree.

In 2016, the average student with a student loan had more than $30,000 in debt. For 2015, the average NFL salary was $2.1 million.

There is a reason many parents scrimp and save for their children’s college education. And there is a reason student loan debt in America is higher than credit card debt. (Think about that for a minute.)

Student-athletes should realize the value of a free college education.