It's All About Where You Cut

As Kelly stated in her post Cuttingbudgets on critical programs!! (shaking my head) the Texas government faces serious budget problems and lacks an appropriate method for solving these problems. I agree that the notion of cutting the already slim education budget is absolutely insane considering how poorly school systems in Texas perform relative to the other forty nine states in the Union. However, the low taxes in Texas are the main driver for the successful economic aspects of the state, thus I do not believe they should be raised. Rather, I believe the cuts should be made to areas where the government has indulged in blatant overspending such as the justice system.

 Consider that Texas spends around $21,000 on each incarcerated prisoner a year and has a non-violent prison population of around 90,000. A little multiplication tells us that the state of Texas spends right around $2,000,000,000 of tax payer’s money annually imprisoning offenders who pose no threat to the rest of society. Most of these offenders are charged with drug related crimes and even after serving prison sentences have a startlingly high rate of offending again and returning to prison. This is obviously not the most effective or cost friendly way of dealing with these non-violent offenders.  Texas should focus on helping these people, rather than simply imprisoning them, by investing in rehabilitation programs, halfway houses, etc. These programs are less of a drain on resources and they provide a way out for troubled citizens burdened by drug addiction. It just seems like common sense. The justice department must adjust to the changing times and acknowledge that not all crimes are equal. The number of prisoners in the Texas system continues to rise, but the rate of crime continues to fall at a much lower rate than that of the rest of the country. So in conclusion, the citizens of Texas are missing out on the possibility of better funded educational systems, healthcare systems, etc. without actually being any better protected from crime.

It is absolutely crucial that the government look several years down the road when considering the effects of cutting a program. What seems like a quick fix can often end up causing more financial damage than if it had simply been left alone, as Kelly alluded to in her discussion of recent cuts to family planning services. But if the research is done thoroughly, without bias, and with the citizens best interest in mind a balanced budget without a tax hike is possible. 

Public Transportation in Austin

The city of Austin desperately needs to modernize its public transportation system before it collapses beneath the weight of the city’s ever growing population, if it hasn’t already. The system of routes ran by city buses is unnecessarily complicated and at many points redundant with many buses covering identical lines over short periods of time. Attempting to determine the appropriate bus to ride by looking at the map of the systems routes has been known to cause headaches; the colorful lines on the map look more like an abstract painting than a functioning system of buses. The recently instituted MetroRail system was a novel idea and the perfect place to begin an overhaul of the public transportation system, but as it stands currently the rails do not cover enough of the city. The population of Austin has outgrown the city’s infrastructure. We must look to the public transportation systems of cities like New York City and Washington, D.C. whose extensive rails can deliver you to anywhere in the city quickly and safely. An underground rail system is the future of public transportation in Austin and the sooner city officials realize it, the sooner we citizens can avoid spending an hour stuck in a traffic jam on lovely interstate I-35. Periodic updates and adaptations are desperately needed in order to avoid a colossal and expensive complete overhaul; the route city official seem to have chosen.

Critique of 'Texas Fred'

“Texas Fred’s” commentary on Mitt Romney’s accusation that President Barack Obama leaked classified details about the U.S military raid that killed Osama bin Laden for political gain is incredibly crass, to say the least. This piece seems to have been written if only to generate a “hell yeah” response from Fred’s far-right tea party audience. He makes no effort to relay a point to the reader; comfortable simply restating the beliefs of some of our nations more radical citizens. If one were to attempt to derive a reasonable claim from this commentary, not an easy task, it would most likely be that Fred believes Mr. Obama is not fit for the job of President of the United States of America. Fred rests his credibility on being a self-proclaimed ‘redneck’ and his ‘if you don’t like it you can get out’ attitude. He chooses to bypass the use of structure and facts in his argument; he opts for simple, radical accusations instead. In this piece, Fred accuses President Obama of many awful things including “[bowing] to radical Islam” and having “NO love for this nation.” I think any reasonable reader will easily deduce that these are all baseless accusations regardless of whether or not Mr. Obama said more to the press than he should have. It is as if Fred needed only to read the title of the article he is commenting on in order to run off on this unsupported tangent about the evils of our current president. Needless to say, anyone looking for a reasonable political opinion should avoid texasfred.net.   

Health Care Reform in Texas

The author of “For better health, pay Perry no mind” is targeting the politically active citizens of Texas in an effort to reach the state legislature. Although he or she seems to have done their fair share of research, there is no mention of the authors name, occupation, or political experience in this editorial leading to no inherent trust in this opinion written.  The author bases his argument on logos; relying on numbers to forward his case that the state of Texas should cooperate with the national government in health insurance reform.  He notes the six million uninsured Texans and the opportunity to insure 2.3 million low-income Texans by 2023 if Medicaid is expanded.  While the numbers do not lie and there is clearly a health care issue in the state, the author underestimates the costs this reform would place on the government and in turn the citizens of Texas.  He supplies the number of a $15.6 billion burden on the government of Texas; quite a large burden considering the state government’s current budget issues and unwillingness to further tax it’s citizens. The author is correct in suggesting a need for change in the health care system of Texas, but I believe the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not the method of change this state needs and I support Rick Perry’s decision not to expand Medicaid or set up a health insurance exchange without first securing its financing. 

Proposed Change to City Council

The Austin American Statesman reports that a “Petition with 33,000 signatures calls for 10-district City Council plan.”  A citizen group, Austinites for Geographic Representation, has led an effort to change the way the city of Austin elects its city council members. Currently, six city council members are elected citywide.  The group hopes to expand the number of council members to ten with each member representing a geographic region of the city. Although the initiative will already be on the November ballot, the group symbolically produced a petition with 33,000 signatures, 10,000 more than is required to place an initiative on the ballot. The council has produced a hybrid proposal that would increase the number of council members to eight, but opponents argue that this would not change the current majority Central and West Austin hold on the council. This article is worth reading because it directly affects all students enrolled in this course, assuming those attending Austin Community College live in the city of Austin.  It is unfair to have only the interests of a couple regions of the city represented on the council. With an ever growing population, it is important that all areas of Austin have their voices heard. This article provides a nice introduction to an issue voters will have to decide upon in November.