Response on Prop 2

The latest blog entry by Uninformed Texan, entitled 'Developing in Austin', covers the issue of Proposition 2 which was turned down on election day. Proposition 2 is the proposed amendment of the current ability for the city to give retail businesses tax subsidies. This has been a highly controversial voting topic within Austin, particularly in regards to the Domain because this would be one of the main businesses affected. Both sides have great points in the matter, the whole point is to pick which are most important. The votes prove this with 52% of votes against Prop 2, and the other 48% supporting it, according to Bizjournal's article on the subject.

I agree with Uninformed Texan's idea that "a city's ability to attract potential developers is what can make or break a city." It is important that businesses continue to thrive and increase in quantity so that Austin's citizens will have not only more job opportunities, but also increase in wealth. Being able to offer developers tax break incentives definitely does raise the chances of new businesses being established, but even without them, many smaller business continue to open up. Local businesses play an essential role in Austin due to the diversity of needs and people residing here.

It has been said that if the proposition were to pass, many contracts would be broken, resulting in "lawsuits and legal fees" which taxpayers would absorb. But the fact is, this statement is only a prediction possibly even used as a scare tactic toward voters. However, there is the chance that some sort of lawsuits could occur, and then yes, it would affect taxpayers.

In my opinion, it's unfair that taxpayers have no voice on where these taxes are going to business-wise. But the fact is, there are some cases where incentives would be very helpful, and ridding the council of any choice on the matter wouldn't be beneficial overall.

Lawmakers prepare bills for January

This past Monday, November 10, 2008, was the first day that lawmakers were able to file bills that will be debated in the legislative session this coming January. The state of Texas is more financially able than many other states, but due to a few certain issues such as Hurricane Ike funds and the federal-state health insurance program, the budget is limited so the bills passed must be taken into great consideration finance-wise. A few of these proposed bills are giving insight as to what lawmakers will be possibly passing.

One of Senator Jane Nelson's propositions is turning fingerprint-based background checks into a requirement for those who will be working at nursing homes or with those who are mentally ill. She believes that technology should be taken advantage of and that using fingerprints would be a suitable replacement for just the original criminal background checks which may overlook important criminal history.

Senator Bob Deuell has proposed that some children ought to be able to use Medicaid, with the condition that their parents must pay a premium. This bill would be proactive because currently, only families that have a limited amount of income are able to qualify, and now parents will be able to obtain better jobs without having to worry about completely losing their children's insurance.

A final bill proposal by Senator Dan Patrick will require all women to have an ultrasound before they can have an abortion. Patrick's main hope is that women will see the image of the baby and choose to carry through with their pregnancies-whether it results in adoption or raising the child themselves. This is not the first bill related to the topic of abortion to be proposed; last year the Senate passed a similar one but never made it through the House.

At this point, Republicans outnumber the amount of Democrats-more specifically 76 to 74-but even after ballots have been counted, there are still speculations on whether these numbers are accurate. With Democrats filling the seats, there is the chance that some of these proposed bills will not have much hope in being passed.

Such proposals concerning very fragile topics such as abortion will be likely to cause heated debates not only in the legislative session, but amongst taxpayers who would be made to pay higher taxes for something they may strongly oppose.

The Big Day

Well, Barack Obama is our 44th president. Usually I can express myself but right now my emotions are all over the place.