Government Oversight Needed   3/03/08
David Tuthill

 
Only if your head has been in the sand could you have ignored recent news about the economy.  The stock market is volatile with gains and falls of over 100 points a day common.  Companies that insure the bond market are hard hit and are struggling for survival propped up by foreign investments. These companies insure the bonds that local municipalities sell in the financial markets and their problems will make it more expensive for municipalities in their bond offerings.  For a couple of years now, we are seeing record home foreclosures too. Dallas is at the top of the list for 2007!  Experts debate when this trend will abate.  Some biased favoring the short term, but many feeling this will go on through 2009 (the worst since the 80’s some say).  

With record gas prices (a gallon of gas projected to top $4 this year), food prices escalating and the ever-increasing health care costs, our local government leaders feel what their constituencies need are more taxes to  fuel their never-abating squandering.  Do our elected officials ever go out in the real world or do they hide away in endless feel-good meetings to convince themselves the realities affecting us all do not exist?  Or do they think and their decisions are immune from the realities that affect everyday people, the taxpayers? 

The most recent example of this type of thinking is the city council’s consideration of spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a new convention hotel!  

A majority of council feels the city should expand spending.  Not where governments should focus, such as street maintenance and police protection, but in areas where private investment usually reigns.  A majority of the council opposes allowing citizens to vote on this spending, with or without the convoluted and misleading wording they employed on the Trinity River Toll road ballot.  

Now, the DISD school trustees, who have miss-stewarded the district with never-ending scandals involving yacht trips, limos, cell phone bills, improper credit card spending, wanting to float a bond issue.  After all, it will only add about $99 per $200,000 valuation to your ever-increasing property tax bill.  

Do not forget this DISD bond tax would be on top of the city tax increase and the county increase.  Nor, does it take into account the gouging of valuations by the Central Appraisal District placed on homeowners -- well in excess of the 10% cap mandated by law -- despite the decline in the housing industry!

I am not convinced local governmental entities can be, or should be, trusted with our tax dollars.

I am reminded of a DISD spokesman's quote when questioned about the destruction of the temporary classrooms used to augment classrooms on campuses.  His response was not to worry about the waste of these buildings/resources “because we have plenty of money.” This attitude was illustrated best in Mayor Leppert’s campaign ad that showed an ATM machine mounted on the side of City Hall --- an “Automatic Tax Machine.”

With the conviction of a former city council member for embezzlement of funds (made loans to himself because of his financial problems) and the attitude of a majority of our local elected officials, there seems to be a growing need for closer review of elected officials’ personal financial records.

Local government offices seem to attract those who cannot manage their own affairs, let alone those of the public.  

David Tuthill