2017 - blogHOUSTON

Taxpayer advocate brings lawsuit on pension bond ballot language

December 18, 2017 Kevin Whited

Taxpayer advocate is suing the City of Houston over its latest deceptive ballot language (this time related to the pension bonds).

Vote NO on all the Houston bonds

November 5, 2017 Kevin Whited

On Tuesday, Houston voters will decide the fate of roughly $1.5 billion of proposed bonds, in the form of Propositions A through E. Proposition A will authorize roughly a billion dollars of borrowing (in the

The Houston Astros win the 2017 World Series! (and some comments about METRO and the parade afterwards)

November 5, 2017 Neal Meyer

This past week brought some wonderful news for a beleaguered Houston in the form of the Houston Astros winning their first Major League Baseball World Series in the 56-year history of the club franchise! Congratulations

Mayor Turner’s rhetoric on flooding doesn’t match Council agenda

November 1, 2017 Kevin Whited

Earlier this week, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted about an appearance he made on the “Houston Matters” radio program, in which he asserted that Houston MUST be smarter about development post-Harvey: “It doesn’t make any

Nontransparent, unaccountable quasi-government follies: Uptown TIRZ edition

October 26, 2017 Kevin Whited

At the Texas Monitor, Trent Seibert has published an interesting report on John Breeding, the president of the Uptown TIRZ, apparently behaving badly when it comes to public transparency and accountability regarding the latest money

King: Uptown cannot keep its story straight

October 26, 2017 Editor

UPTOWN CANNOT KEEP ITS STORY STRAIGHT by Bill King For over two years, the Uptown TIRZ has been promoting spending about $200 million on its bus lane project on Post Oak. About $120 million of

Frazer: Houston’s Proposition A = Extend and Pretend (again)

October 25, 2017 Kevin Whited

Bill Frazer, a Certified Public Accountant and a superior (based on qualifications and knowledge) but unsuccessful recent candidate for City Controller, has weighed in against Proposition A, the “Pension Obligation Bonds” ballot initiative that is

Flooding in Houston for the 21st century and beyond – Part 2 (Hurricane Harvey edition)

October 3, 2017 Neal Meyer

As the entire world knows, the Houston metropolitan area (indeed much of the Texas Gulf Coast from Corpus Christi to Lake Charles Louisiana) was pummeled during the last week of August 2017 by Nature in

Governor Abbott effectively hands City of Houston a $50 million advance

October 1, 2017 Kevin Whited

On Friday, Governor Greg Abbott arrived in Houston to hand over what effectively amounts to a $50 million advance draw on state funds for Hurricane Harvey relief, killing Mayor Sylvester Turner’s plans to enact an

Thinking about Harvey – three weeks later

September 16, 2017 Kevin Whited

Three weeks ago, Hurricane Harvey ripped through our state and dropped an extraordinary amount of rain on the Houston area in a very short time. Aside from District G, which experienced additional flooding thanks to