Thanks to Empower Texans for calling out those spending YOUR cash without much oversight. Vote in some oversight, would ya?
And be careful what you vote for when voting for "WATER".
Texas currently has the second-highest per person, local debt in the nation. As of 2011, taxpayers were $233 billion in the hole, with 83% held locally by cities, schools and water districts.
The approval process to issue debt will be at the arbitrary discretion of the Water Development Board, which does not have statutory limitations requiring the funds be used only on projects that expand water production.
They can be used for low-interest loans, credit enhancement agreements, the deferral of interest obligations and other methods. Proposition 6 advocates claim the scope of financing is limited to the 562 projects in the state’s water plan; but that’s somewhat misleading.
Thanks to Republican spendoholics like Charlie Geren (HD-99) in north Texas, districts charged with supplying water like the Tarrant Regional Water District, have been authorized to waste millions of your dollars on economic development slush funds. The TRVA, a subsidiary of TRWD, recently approved plans to build an outdoor ice rink! So much for water…
It begs a very important question: Why would we encourage more state and local borrowing when water districts are allowed to spend millions on projects not related to water production?
House members like Giovanni Capriglione (HD-98), also from north Texas, pleaded for basic transparency requirements that would have posted water project expenditures online for public scrutiny and accountability. Again, the GOP moderates joined Democrats in rejecting those and other debt-related transparency proposals.
We’ve previously criticized the lack of transparency in local bond proposals that are deceiving taxpayers as to the true cost of debt. And now we’re being asked to trust that politicians won’t engage in similar shenanigans at the state level?
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