The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 223, Ed. 1 Sunday, July 6, 2003 Page: 4 of 87
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file JBaptohm dun
Sunday, July 6,2003
Sunday,July 6,-20(
The First Amendment
' Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech,, or of the press; or the right of the peo-
ple peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances.
Opinions
j#
®Jje IBaptoton g>un
Founded 1922
Wanda Gamer Cash, Editor and Publisher David Bloom, Managing Editor
Fred Hartman, Publisher Emeritus
1950-1974
Island Park project
II m aytown’shack door could be ___. ...
swinging wide if developers TIRZ: tax reinvestment zone
U achieve the success they ■ Economic development tool
anticipate when the proposed bland “XSgSS n» the to
Park project gets under way. publicly finance needed structural
Develppers told City Council they improvements and enhanced
plan to build a 600-acre waterfront infrastructure within a defined area.
community on Tri-Cities Beach
Road along Cedar Bayou on
Baytow|ns southeast side. The mas-
■ Developers pay start-up costs and
bear the risk if the project fails.
■ If improvements increase property
value, the additional revenue goes into
the TIRZ fund where it can pay for new
infrastructure projects and/or to
reimburse the developer for some of his
start-up costs.
•ter-plarined subdivision will have a
community center, two parks, boat
launch, fishing pier, recreation cen-
ter and marina. Built over the next
seven to eight years, Island Park , .
developers will pay for consultants
could eventually include more than . .... titv7 • ...
, nnn, J to organize this TIRZ, unlike the
1,000 homes. ° _ 4.
Baytown conld expect a $290 roil- Uty-pa,d admrasMion of the zone
lion increase in property value if the surround,ng San Jacinro Mall,
land builds out is planned by 2010. ^elopers have pledged to meet
the project developer said. c*na ^"8 envlron-
Tfoe proposal is put forth l?y the : mental and sewer and water
non-profit Commonwealth Housing c0"“ms’ P°hce and/lre c3P3cly
Corp. of Houston, best known for 31x1 condltK>,B ln
its affordable housing projects. BayOaks Harbor.
Commonwealth would buy the land T^e aPPeal of™ cLingj
and then transfer ownership to applied to any so-called blighted
Chartwell Land Development, economic area, is that all business
which would develop the property an^ residential taxpayers in
and sell lots to homebuilders. Baytown will benefit from the larg-
Part of the development would er ^ ^ase created through such
Include immediate infrastructure reinvestment,
improvements and construction of a With the Fred Hartman Bridge as
self-contained “package plant” to the gateway, Baytown’s southeast
provide sanitary sewer service in the neighborhoods are ripe for develop-
area the city currently struggles to ment. Using the TIRZ as the financ-
service.
City council seems generally
favorable to creating the city’s
second TIRZ, although individual
council members have relevant
concerns about the new proposal.
We encourage council to go for-
ing tool, the Island Park project
would do the heavy lifting for the
city. Its success would likely inspire
additional commercial and residen-
tial opportunities as a southerly
alternative for Houston refugees.
Considering the ambitious scope
ward with this project that will help of this project, city, council mem-
unfold new opportunities along the bers are understandably cautious.
Business 146 corridor. The city will We hope they are also visionary,
gain significant benefit from the
initial road, sewer and other Todays editorial was written by
improvements, if Island Park Wanda Gamer Cash, editor and
develops even half the homes they publisher of The Baytown Sun, on
anticipate. behalf of the newspaper’s editorial
An added plus is that Island Park board.
! About Us
Our editorial board
; The Baytown Sun’s editorial board meets
| weekly at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Individuals are
; encouraged to visit the editorial board to
! discuss Issues affecting the community. To
j make an appointment, contact Managing
{ Editor David Bloom, 281422-8302.
Members of the editorial board include:
• Wanda Gamer Cash, editor and publisher;
; David Bloom, managing editor; Joseph
! Lohan, city editor; Dee Anne Navarre, busi-
; ness manager; Jim Finley, retired Sun man
; aging editor; and Jane Howard Lee, retired
Sun reporter.
let us hear from you
The Baytown Sun welcomes letters of up
to 300 words and guest columns of up to
500 words on any Item of public interest.
•I l
Guest columns should include a photograph
Of the writer. We publish only original materi-
al addressed to The Baytown Sun bearing
the writer's signature. An address and
phone number not for publication should be
Included. We ask that submissions be limit-
ed to one per month. All letters and guest
columns are subject to editing.
The Sun reserves the right to refuse to
publish any submission.
Letters endorsing or opposing political
candidates or issues will not be published
within two days of an election, except in
direct rebuttal to a letter previously pub-
lished In The Baytown Sun. Please send
signed letters to: Wanda Gamer Cash or
David Bloom, The Baytown Sun, P.O. Box
90, Baytown, TX 77522.
Or, fax them to: 281427-1880. Or,
e-mail us at: sunnews@baytownsun.com.
<1
WHAT'S
INDEPENDENCE
DAY?
®ma*cwM axr
■ZOOS-
• • . ' . '
Letters to the editor
Take the politics out of redistricting
The Texas Legislative Council
has developed two computer pro-
grams for redistricting. The first, ’
RedAppl, is used by political par-
tisans to draw gerrymandered
districts that favor their party. The
other, Target, can be given a set
of specifications, and it will ran-
domly draw a district map that
meets those.specifications, with-
out the need for further human
intervention.
Instead of divisive debate over
particular maps, let the
Legislature adopt a bill that
would provide the general speci-
fications and whatever map the
• computer draws to those specifi-
cations. Let the software be fully
disclosed for anyone to examine,
and let the operation of the com-
puter be supervised by a grand
jury to guard against any undue
intervention.
The specifications should be
only that the districts have equal
population, be compact, contigu-
ous, simply connected, and that
only counties with populations of
more then 60,000 be split. There
should be no consideration of
ethnicity or voting history what-
soever, nor should districts be
drawn to protect incumbents.
To further insure against dis-
tricts that favor one party, let the
districts be redrawn every two
years, at least nine months before
the next election, so that as each
map is randomly drawn, advan-
what has happened at our schools
in the last weeks — the what ifs.
Say one of our high schools won
a baseball championship — it
would not be in there. There are
kids who are not as lucky as
yours to have a parent there to
record every graduation event. Or
maybe do not have the money to
buy the equipment. But many
years later it is so much easier to
recall those good ole days in one
place... your yearbook.
So give the hard working year-
book staff of Barbers Hill High
School a break. They are publish-
ing a book with an ending. You’re
doing a terrific job, kids!
Imagine in 20 more years — it
may be on a CD you pop in the
computer full of video clips to.
include those cherished voices.
But wait, how will we get those
darn autographs then? I know,
have them sign that Palm Pilot
and download it;.. LOL.
Lisa Nichols Dunn
Highlands
tages average out over several
elections.
This proposal is discussed at
www.constitution.org/reform/us/t
x/redistrict/cnpr_proposal .htm
Jon Roland
Austin
Give Barbers Hill
yearbook staff a break
Jane Howard Lee’s column...
it’s either a Sunday reading of
her bragging or whining. Never
uplifting. Most of the time it’s
too boring to finish. But WOW,
a whole column to complain
about high school yearbook
distribution!
Baytown’s high schoolers have
been receiving their yearbooks in
September since way before I
graduated from Lee in 1981, My
yearbooks are full of all the same
writings we all receive from
classmates. The seniors were able
to buy a memory book that would
hold the namecards we
exchanged, places to fill in fun
facts about a teen’s world then
and loads of autograph pages —
something special just for the
seniors. I will admit to not know-
ing if they do that now.
Maybe for you leaving out the
last six weeks of school is fine.
But 1 think most like having a N
complete school year in one
book. Think a little further at
Options for financing
public education
Replace the current public
school financing system.
Legislators need to eliminate
homeowners from paying all or
most school property taxes.
.Several options together may
replace homeowners as the cur-
rent source of financing”
a. Eliminate the loopholes in
the business franchise tax; make
businesses pay their, fair share
towards educating Texas children;
b. Use the state lottery; it was
supposed to be used entirely to
finance public education — either
take the current net for public
schools as originally intended or
raise the price of one ticket to $2
or $3 and take a larger percentage
for public school funding. Also
reduce the odds of winning the
lottery. This will double the net
revenue previously taken from the
lottery to finance schbols;
c. Initiate a small state sales
and use tax solely to support .
school financing. We are speak-
ing of a one or two-cent tax;
d. Eliminate AT THIS TIME
the consideration of a pilot school
voucher system. When homeown-
ers no longer pay skyrocketing
school property taxes and schools
are financed propdHy, there won't
be a need for a Costly voucher
system with high maintenance;
e. Set up a separate public edu- $
cation fund via sales and service
tax, again merely a one or two-
cent charge to go towards school
financing;
f. Apply a small school finance
charge to every business operat-
ing in Texas — companies should
give back to the community, no
exceptions;
g. Be more practical and reali-
ty-based in developing a more
specific state public school bud-
get with state tax dollars, and
strive to maintain the highest
quality of education for our chil-
dren. This includes providing
more money to hire the best
administrators and teachers,
reduce class size, and to research
and implement the best programs
and materials for our children.
Control of budget spending must
remain within each school dis-
trict. In addition, children should
be evaluated on their total educa-
tional development — not on
government-dictated test evalua-
tions. Our children continue to be
the most precious resource of the
state'ofTexas;
h. Provide schools and/or
districts with in-house profession-
al management (comptroller's
office) to assist in developing
reality-based priorities and
expenditures;
i. Take more of the current tax
or increase the tax on the pur-
chase of liquor and tobacco and
use negative habits for positive
purposes, financing our schools;
j. Take some of the current tax
■ or raise the tax on gasoline a few
cents and provide the legislation
for this money to go to public
education;
k. Tice a small percentage of
monthly charges by rental proper-
ties and apartment complexes to
go directly to public school
financing;
l. Establish a traveler education
fund whereby all hotels and
rental car companies charge a
service fee that goes to finance
education;
m. Establish an airport educa-
tion fund whereby the cost of
flight tickets includes a fee that
goes to finance education;
n. Add a $2 fee for driver
license renewal and for vehicle .
registration to go to finance
public education;
o. Add a $1.00 fee on monthly
utilities (telephones, electricity,
and gas) to go to finance public
education;
p. Add a $1 fee to all entertain-
ment tickets to go to finance
public education (theater, movies,
sports games, concerts, etc.).
Using all or several of these
alternative methods will replace
Texas homeowners from being
overburdened as the sole source
of school financing, and the qual-
ity of our children's education
will continue to Improve.
in this way all Texans will
share fairly in providing tax dol-
lars to maintain a quality educa-
tion for our children. In addition,
using more of these options will
ensure more money going into
the school system to finance
education.
____
rein ymii
Continued from I
Gutierrez, compli
signs posted
bound lane on
before El Chacp J|
small to keep t
irtg down.
( . “The trucks
; fast. This is a:
! Ledtyig said.
; ‘ trucks come to
p should slow
because there’s to
I visions along hen
! With Highwajj
! Interstate 10 as i
18-wheelers, the i
fic accidents alod
ways are higher |
residential neig
Baytown Poiic
Traffic Sgt. Mike|
; most- of the
Baytown occur
ways.
“A lot of the
year have been I
; There’s not a partiq
; tion,” Holden said!
Holden said on
; tions of coricerif
should be Garth ■
Rollingbrook and|
Road, Garth at
Lynchburg Roa]
146/Alexander at 1
and Highway 1461
“Motorists ala
hydroplane at the[
Fred Hartman Bl
northbound in the |
said.
This past yeal
EPA
toxic
ty JOHN HE
Associated Pra
WASHINGTON
amount of tox
released into thel
declined 13 percT
according to thel
latest inventory..
Some 6.T6 billiol
released that year, (
billion pounds a;
Environmental
Agency reported. |
Hard-rock
and coal-burning |
repeated their state
polluters. EPA’s
Inventory, create
law, includes ihfon
than 650 toxic <
Linda Fisher,
administrator, saicj
is one of the
things EPA does. ]
see figures mapp
county on the Inte
By chemical,
tion came from r
compounds, hyd
and lead,
nitrate and bariu
Sixty-nine percenj
CITY
Bowl a I
* '■
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Cash, Wanda Garner. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 81, No. 223, Ed. 1 Sunday, July 6, 2003, newspaper, July 6, 2003; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1051924/m1/4/: accessed June 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.