The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 191, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 30, 2014 Page: 4 of 20
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The Baytown Sun
STATE VIEW
Tuesday
September 30, 2014
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Endgame for The waters °f change
CJ The waters in the “Creek of Change” are riaino ...u
border surge
It s been three months since Texas Department of
Public Safety officers “surged” on the southern border.
Absent federal action, the $1.3 million a week plan
was an understandable response to the massive influx
of Central American migrants into the U.S.
And it was just the beginning. The following month
Gov. Perry ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to
support the DPS efforts, an open-ended mission that is
costing the state $12 million a month.
But while the state’s border presence has swelled in
recent weeks, the flood of migrants that first warranted
the escalation appears to be receding.
During a legislative committee meeting two weeks
ago, DPS director Col. Steve McCraw reported that
his agency apprehended just under 2,000 illegal immi-
grants in the Rio Grande Valley operation zone during
the previous week.
That’s about half of the average weekly apprehen-
sions in July, when DPS officials were stopping about
4.000 individuals each week and the president was still
calling the wave of unaccompanied children an “urgent
humanitarian situation.” And it is well below the sum-
mer high of 6,600 detentions a week.
Still, authorities are detaining more than 8,000 un-
lawful border-crossers each month, and untold num-
bers escape detection.
McCraw has back-peddled on his July claim to law-
makers that reducing unlawful crossings to fewer than
2.000 a week would satisfy the DPS mission’s “intend-
ed objective.”
He said that “it just so happens that was a goal we
had, but we’re not satisfied until we get 100 percent” !
of unlawful crossing eliminated.
That s fine rhetoric, but it’s also an impossible target.
Given the hefty price tag of border surge operations —
now the exclusive burden of Texas taxpayers — more
realistic goals are needed. Or any goals for that matter. j
The DPS surge is slated to continue through at least
the end of the calendar year; the National Guard’s com- !
mitment is indefinite.
Whether the “surge” has contributed to the decline in j
unlawful border crossings or not, the continued need !
for such a robust presence on the border needs to be !
re-examined.
Texans deserve to know what the endgame is.
— Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Republican snakes are moving to higher ground
to try to use their fangless jaws on school children and
little old ladies in wheelchairs trying to vote.
I did not condone voter fraud. Period! I did and do ob-
—,--------itizen voters because they
are different, women citizen voters because they beai
children or poor citizen voters because they lack a birth
certificate or driver’s license.
Good for you three, Martin, Mullens and Connealy,
American citizens.
Okay, Martin, Mullens and Connealy, here is my an-
kle. Take your best bite. You have about as much polit-
ical venom as a bee after he has left his stinger behind.
Real Americans do not interfere with legitimate vot-
and condemning voter fraud.
Just get your hobnailed boots off the necks of legiti-
mate, qualified, citizen voters.
Have a good day, Texas ... after the election!
Cyrus B. Fletcher
Baytown
[PHE CEO OF A
Rather la
OgrtNiZATION
relief
hops?
STEPPS POINN,
Hr
NEWS
JjEgT
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The father of the Texas lottery
What’s trending
@ www.baytownsun.com
Crime dominated the week’s top-10 stories for The
Baytown Sun, as counted by page views on the’ website.
The most-read article was about a fatal traffic accident
on Tri-City Beach Road, “Woman killed in wreck, hus-
band facing intoxicated manslaughter charge,” (Sunday).
The second-most-read article was from Tuesday, “Gun-
man steals car from 1-10 dealership.”
The third-most-read article was about the trial of a man ‘
charged in a Barrett Station shooting from September
2013, “Crosby man on trial for murder,” (Thursday).
Rounding out the top-10 articles were:
No. 4: “Anahuac man jailed in shooting,” (Tuesday)
No. 5: “Police shoot robbery suspect,” (Sunday)
No. 6: “Couple victimized in security system ‘upgrade’
scam,” (Friday)
No. 7: “Goose Creek bus boss addresses driver con-
cerns,” (Sunday, Sept. 21)
No. 8: “Regent counters ECHS claims by GC trustees,”
(Wednesday)
No. 9: “Police Beat - Theft at Kohl’s,” (Friday)
No. 10: “City seeks to remove mall from tax zone,” I
(Sunday, Sept. 21).
The year-to-date top three stories are: “BH softball
coach suspended for ‘inappropriate texting,” (May 1),
“Mayor announces new Kroger,” (March 18) and “Teen
killed, woman injured in crash,” (July 17).
— Mark Fleming
Share your opinions with our
readers. Send us your letter to
sunnews@baytownsun.com.
Be sure and include a phone
number so we can verify your
letter. You can also submit letters
online at www.baytownsun.com.
Letters are limited to 300 words and are subject to editing.
There’s talk about doing away
with the Texas lottery - including a
special Texas House committee to
| look into it.
How serious that will get depends
partly on whether those who want to
ax it have any good ideas for how to
replace the money it brings in that
doesn’t have to come from taxes.
There might not be a Texas lottery
at all were it not for a guy known as
“The Ragin’ Cajun.” That’s James
j Carville -the Louisiana native who,
with Texan Paul Begala, ran Demo-
crat Bill Clinton’s race for president
| in 1992.
But this lottery gambit came be-
fore the Clinton presidential run.
There had been periodic attempts
to institute a state lottery, but they
didn’t go anywhere - until the
1990s.
Texas had a constitutional prohi-
bition against lotteries ever since it
became a state. Texas religious lead-
ers thought (and still do) that the
state profiting off gambling was a
tawdry business that preyed on peo-
ple who could least afford it.
But that argument lost traction
during the 1990 Democratic prima-
ry race for governor.
The contest was between then-
State Treasurer Ann Richards,
then-Texas Atty. Gen. Jim Mattox,
and former Gov. Mark White. Texas
was facing a revenue shortfall.
Carville was Mattox’s political
consultant. He advised Mattox, de-
spite Mattox’s Baptist upbringing,
to copy a tactic he had successfully
used previously with clients in Ken-
tucky and Georgia: call for a state
lottery on grounds of avoiding the
need to raise other taxes.
Mattox followed Carville’s sug-
gestion. He charged that because
Richards and White were cool to
the idea of a lottery, that must mean
they are for raising other taxes - in-
cluding possibly instituting the dan-
gerous no-no of Texas politics, the
dreaded income tax.
In a televised debate, Mattox is-
sued the challenge
again. White and
Richards, attempt-
ing to defuse the
issue, said they
supported the lot-
tery idea.
Mattox went
into a runoff with
DAVE
MCNEELY Rlchards- Defying
-——---- Carville’s advice
to keep running ads about the lot-
tery, Mattox instead switched to ads
alleging that Richards, a recovering
alcoholic, had used drugs.
The tactic backfired on Mattox,
creating a sympathy vote for Rich-
ards. She won the primary, and went
on to beat favored Republican Clay-
ton Williams in the general election.
After Richards’ inauguration
. jn 1991, a proposed constitution-
al amendment 'torepeal the lottery
prohibition and to earmark lottery
proceeds for education fell 10 votes
short of the 100 votes in the Texas
House needed to provide the re-
quired two-thirds vote.
Richards had become convinced
that Texans weren’t going to con-
sider other revenue-raising propos-
als until the lottery had at least been
voted on.
So she called a special budget
session that summer, and personally
lobbied legislators until she got the
proposed amendment approved to
go to voters.
They liked it. Voters approved the
lottery by almost a two-to-one ratio
on Nov. 5, 1991.
However, this time it was specif-
ically not earmarked for education.
Hearing of experiences in California
and Florida, where lottery revenues
were earmarked for education, had
convinced Richards that voters there
thought the lottery had solved edu-
cation funding. But budgeters there
found that lotteries produced an un-
even revenue stream.
So instead, in Texas it went into
the General Revenue Fund - much
of which goes to education anyway.
In 1993, Republican George W.
Bush, challenging Richards for her
job, began making speeches about
how he - and his mama - thought
the lottery proceeds were earmarked
for schools.
“Voters approved the lottery in
large part because they thought its
revenues would go solely to edu-
cation,” Bush told a Rotary Club in
Palestine. “All government should
be. open and honest, and voters are
right to be concerned when they feel
misled.”
Although Richards had indeed
said the lottery would help fund
education, it was Bush who was
misleading. Richards and the Leg-
islature had specifically avoided
earmarking the funds for education,
and it was no secret.
But after Bush unseated Richards
in 1994, the Legislature in 1997 did
dedicate most of the lottery proceeds
that don’t go to winners or operating
expenses to education.
A fourth of lottery revenue now
goes to the Foundation School Fund.
But even though the lottery brings
in just over $1 billion a year, that’s
still less than 6 percent of what the
state spends on schools - not to
mention that spent by local govern-
ments.
However, a billion dollars is a bil-
lion dollars.
In 2013, the Texas House vot-
ed not to renew the Texas Lottery
Commission. But when legislators
were reminded that this could do
away with the lottery - and the bil-
lion-plus dollars - the balance shift-
ed, and the House reversed itself and
agreed to continue the commission.
Unless someone comes up with
some magic pixie dust, it’s likely
that those who want to kill the lot-
tery are going to face a stiff chal-
lenge to put their money where their
mouth is.
Contact Texas ■ poltical writer
Dave McNeely at davemcneelyll 1@
gmail.com.
Today is Tuesday, September 30, the
273rd day of 2014.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On September 30, 1954, the first nucle-
ar-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus,
was commissioned by the U.S. Navy.
On this date:
In 1777, the Continental Congress —
forced to flee in the face of advancing
British forces — moved to York, Pa.
In 1846, Boston dentist William Mor-
TODAYIN HISTOBY
ton used ether as an anesthetic for the first
time as he extracted an ulcerated tooth
from merchant Eben Frost.
In 1939, the first college football game
to be televised was shown on experimen-
tal station W2XBS in New York as Ford-
ham University defeated Waynesburg
College, 34-7.
In 1955, actor James Dean, 24, was
killed in a two-car collision near Chol-
ame, California.
In 1962, James Meredith, a black stu-
dent, was escorted by federal marshals to
the campus of the University of Mississip-
pi, where he enrolled for classes the next
day.
In 1984, “Murder, She Wrote,” starring
Angela Lansbury, premiered on CBS.
Ten years ago: President George W.
Bush and Sen. John Kerry met at the Uni-
versity of Miami for their first presiden-
tial debate, with Kerry accusing Bush of
a “colossal error in judgment” in ordering
the invasion of Iraq and the president not-
ing that Kerry had voted to authorize the
military action.
Thought for Today: “If you can’t be a
good example, then you’ll just have to be
a horrible warning.”
— Catherine the Great
Russian empress (1729-1796)
Thlteaytown Sun
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Bloom, David. The Baytown Sun (Baytown, Tex.), Vol. 94, No. 191, Ed. 1 Tuesday, September 30, 2014, newspaper, September 30, 2014; Baytown, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1065801/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Sterling Municipal Library.