Posted on 05/31/2006 1:32:18 PM PDT by anymouse
At San Antonio convention, expect Perry pitching himself, immigration rumbling, vice chairman election
Things appear so dandy for Texas Republicans, delegates to this week's party convention could be excused for decamping to San Antonio's River Walk rather than sticking out the big show.
How do you fuel a fire when your candidates have won every statewide election since 1998?
Fred Meyer, state GOP chairman in the early 1990s when Democrats held legislative majorities and the governorship, sees the party's rah-rah role on the decline. The party's Austin operatives are outnumbered by well-funded elected officials, with its once-mighty message role skinnied to that of an occasional echo chamber for Gov. Rick Perry & Co.
The convention still allows statewide candidates to frame election hopes. This year, Perry's re-election pitch could prove a highlight of the confab themed "I Pledge Allegiance" that starts Friday. No doubt, he'll stress the recent adoption of higher state taxes and other changes to drive down local property taxes, relieving the state from a court deadline for action.
Semi-dramatic moments ahead:
• Tally the times Perry says tax cuts, and whether he overstates the cuts knowing the typical reduction will run less than $1,400 over three years at best even though his ads trumpet $2,000.
• Tough talk on immigration; count on more than 11,000 delegates and alternates to repudiate legislation affording U.S. citizenship for illegal immigrants. They'll also snare a closed-door border briefing from the state's homeland security chief.
• Maybe an attempt to censure Perry by conservatives upset at the state tax increases needed to fund expected tax reductions. Texas Senate nominee and talk-show host Dan Patrick of Houston will not have a convention speaking slot — not enough time for extra speakers, the party says. Patrick, hoping to touch on border security, cutting government and leashing property appraisal hikes, harrumphed: "It's disappointing that the conservative point of view will not be heard."
• Delegates choosing between a Christian conservative physician or the owner of the GOPUSA Web site for the party's vice chairmanship. Neither the doc, Robin Armstrong of Dickinson, nor the Web pro, Bobby Eberle of Pearland, has thrown stones, making their duel one of endorsements and backgrounds (yawn?) more than ideology.
Armstrong, for instance, makes no fuss about Eberle's past ownership of Talon News, which employed one Jeff Gannon, who came under fire last year for lobbing soft pro-Republican queries during White House press briefings. As Gannon left the scene last year amid news reports that he might have worked as a gay escort, Eberle shut down the Talon site.
If delegates favor Armstrong, he'll be the first African American to hold such a leadership post.
Meyer advises high-flying Republicans not to assume election victories forever, summing up: "Believe it or not, we're not going to win everything every time. You can be certain of that. Victory plants the seeds of its own defeat."
Texas Democrats, holding their convention in Fort Worth next week, should invite Meyer over to elaborate.
Looks like a conservative "Crack Down" is getting the liberals worried.
It's the Austin Armenian Spaceman.
That's unfair to Armenian Spacemen, they at least perform some useful function. The AAS makes fish smell bad and chaffes birds backsides. :)
The Washington State convention adopted as a platform item; The children of illegals should not automatically be deemed citizens. Whether by constitutional amendment or US law.
The Seattle papers and local media tried to make a big deal of it...but their base (liberals and the moderately liberal do-gooders) really didn't seem to think it was anything to be angry about:)
The Austin American Statesperson gets it wrong in part (as usual), but the tax issue is huge.
The $2000-over-3-years figure is flat wrong (as I discuss below), but the bigger problem is the idea that we are trading a temporary property tax reduction for a PERMANENT BUSINESS INCOME TAX!
We need to stand together and scream NO NEW TAXES.
The fact that the $2000-over-3-years figure is grossly inflated must not overshadow the bigger idea that WE MUST NOT TRADE A TEMPORARY PROPERTY TAX REDUCTION FOR A PERMANENT BUSINESS INCOME TAX!
With the priority of the two issues in place, now I can explain why I thing the $2000-over-3-years figure is grossly inflated without giving the wrong impression that the tax scheme would be OK if the numbers added up (which they don't).
There are 3 reasons why the $2000-over-3-years figure is grossly inflated.
First, the $2000-over-3-years figure is based incorrectly on average home sales price, but taxes are based on the much lower average home tax appraisal value. In fact, an average home appraised for $120,000 will sell on average for $180,000. This means misusing the sales price instead of the tax appraisal value will give you a 50% inflation of the figure.
Second, the $2000-over-3-years is inflated because it pretends that there is a cap on home appraisals, which is a great idea many Republicans proposed but the Texas Legislature refused to consider. Appraisals rose 7% last year, and there is no reason to doubt they will rise 7% this year and next and the next, and these rising appraisals will eat into the already inflated $2000-over-3-years figure.
Third, even without voter approval, school boards are granted the authority to increase the property tax rate by $.04 per $100 of appraised value. Every bit of our past experience tells us the school boards will in fact raise the tax rate by at least $.04 per $100, and this rate increase will eat into the already inflated $2000-over-3-years figure.
The rate increases by school boards (we NEED a cap) and the ever rising home tax appraisals (we NEED a cap) mean any property tax relief (probably it will actually be between 1/3 and 2/3 of the promised $2000-over-3-years) will be TEMPORARY. In exchange, we're getting a PERMANENT small business income tax.
One more issue about the new business income tax. It DOESN'T close loopholes for big corporations -- it only closes loopholes for small business which generate jobs. This business income tax scheme is a HUGE windfall for the property rich corporations and the expenses of the local businesses.
Who wins (big time): The mining industry, utilities and phone companies, big sales corporations, insurance companies, financiers, and the real estate industry (plus, to a lesser extent, hospitals who negotiated their own new loophole)
Who loses (as always!): small non-medical businesses who generate jobs plus all Texans who pay extra for the services as those small businesses are left with no option but passing the cost of the new business income tax on to their customers.
The photos that I took at the Republican Party of Texas State Convention in San Antonio can be found at the Republican Party of Galveston County web site at:
http://www.GalvestonCountyGOP.com
You can order prints or other merchandise with any of the photos by going to the link below.
http://www.digibug.com/handytech?login=texasgopconvention
You can always download the photos from the Party's web site, but the photos available on Digibug.com are the highest resolution suitable for the best prints.
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