Editor, Author at blogHOUSTON

King: New county judge takes on pay to play

January 5, 2019 Editor

Bill King praises new Harris County judge Lina Hidalgo for her stance on pay-to-play contributions.

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

King: Turner pension plan includes largest bond issue in Houston history

October 17, 2016 Editor

TURNER PENSION PLAN INCLUDES LARGEST BOND ISSUE IN HOUSTON HISTORY: BUT YOU DON’T GET TO VOTE ON IT! by Bill King Included in the “outline” of the City of Houston’s new pension plan is a

King: A tale of two local governments

October 6, 2016 Editor

THE FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF HARRIS COUNTY VS CITY OF HOUSTON by Bill King The divergence of the financial performance of the City of Houston and Harris County since 2003 is stark and telling. Since that

King: The pension amortization scam

September 22, 2016 Editor

THE PENSION AMORTIZATION SCAM by Bill King Fair warning: This post is going to get way off in the weeds of the complex math that defined benefit pension plans entail. So if you are a

King: Turner’s Pension “Plan” – The good, the bad, and the incredible

September 17, 2016 Editor

TURNER’S PENSION PLAN: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE INCREDIBLE by Bill King Sylvester Turner announced his pension “plan” Wednesday. I put the word plan in quotes because the outline Turner delivered was so painfully

King: Kudos to Brown and Green

January 10, 2016 Editor

KUDOS TO BROWN AND GREEN by Bill King At the first meeting of our new City Council on Wednesday, Controller Chris Brown and CFO Kelly Dowe made their regular financial reports. Their reports were grim.

King: Audit shows city is nearing insolvency

January 9, 2016 Editor

AUDIT SHOWS CITY IS NEARING INSOLVENCY by Bill King On New Year’s Eve the City released its annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2015. Because of new accounting rules that require the

King: Growing concerns over TIRZs

June 13, 2015 Editor

GROWING CONCERNS OVER TIRZs by Bill King Like most Houstonians, I have not paid too much attention to the growth of tax increment reinvestment zones (“TIRZs”). However, recently they have been coming under greater scrutiny

Lemer: Mayor Parker’s despotic quest for free (fiscal) reign must be stopped

August 10, 2014 Editor

The following is a guest submission from Bob Lemer. Feel free to submit topical posts/essays for our consideration to [email protected]. As with our usual blog posts, the views expressed are those of the author. MAYOR