Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 223, Ed. 1 Monday, March 13, 2017 Page: 4 of 16
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OPINION
4A
Monday, March 13, 2017
Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
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Published by Denton Publishing Co.,
a subsidiary of A.H. Belo Corporation
S| Founded from weekly newspapers,
■ the Denton Chronicle, established in 1882,
^3 and the Denton Record, established in 1897.
Published daily as the Denton
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Bill Patterson
Publisher and CEO
Scott K. Parks
Managing Editor
Mark Finley
City Editor
Mariel Tarn-Ray
News Editor
PAST PUBLISHERS
William C. “Will” Edwards
1903-1927
Robert J. “Bob” Edwards
1927-1945
Riley Cross
1945-1970
Vivian Cross
1970-1986
Fred Patterson
1986-1999
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hen rocker Tom Petty found out
Republican George W. Bush was
blaring his song “I Won’t Back
Down” at campaign rallies in 2000, he sent a
cease-and-desist letter. Maybe the reason
Donald Trump avoided
the song in his cam-
paign is that he didn’t
want similar trouble.
Or maybe it’s because
he will, in fact, back
down.
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■T
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Texas must reform
public school funding
After a federal court
blocked his February
travel ban, Trump
tweeted, “See you in
court, the security of
our nation is at stake!”
From that bold declaration, you would ex-
pect him to fight all the way to the Supreme
Court. But he didn’t. Recently, he caved in
and issued a new travel ban designed to ap-
pease the judiciary.
Backing down is not a departure from his
usual style. It is his usual style. Trump is not a
guy who can be counted on to stand his
ground. Often, he crumbles under the slight-
est pressure.
Ask the Chinese. Shortly after he was
elected, he took a call from the president of
Taiwan, in defiance of the long-standing U.S.
policy of recognizing only one China. Then,
when the Beijing government took offense,
he snapped back on Twitter, asking, “Did
China ask us if it was OK to devalue their
currency?”
Conservatives applauded his manly bra-
vado. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton
said Trump was alerting the Chinese that
“nobody in Beijing gets to dictate who we
talk to.”
Actually, somebody in Beijing does. His
name is Xi Jinping. He’s the president of Chi-
na, and he refused to speak with Trump on
the phone until he agreed to eat his words. As
China’s government media reported, Trump
tamely assured Xi that “the U.S. government
adheres to the One China policy.”
Sean Spicer did his best to mask the hu-
miliating retreat. Asked whether the presi-
dent had gotten anything in return, the press
secretary insisted, “The president always gets
something.” Of course he does. In this in-
stance, he got a lesson in the ancient Chinese
art of kowtowing.
The surrender came as no surprise to
anyone who watched him during the cam-
paign, or after.
After months of promising his supporters
that he would build a border wall at Mexico’s
expense, he paid a visit to President Enrique
Pena Nieto in Mexico City and, at a news
conference afterward, admitted he didn’t
even raise the topic: “We didn’t discuss pay-
ment of the wall.”
In fact, Pena Nieto said later that during
their session, he informed his guest that
Mexico would not pay for it. Only when he
was safely back across the Rio Grande did
Trump dare to repeat that our neighbor will
foot the bill.
During his second debate with Hillary
Clinton, Trump informed her, “If I win, I am
going to instruct my attorney general to get a
special prosecutor to look into your situation,
because there has never been so many lies, so
much deception.”
He hasn’t.
After his boast about grabbing women by
the genitals came out on video, several wom-
en came forward to accuse him of groping or
kissing them without their consent.
He denied it and announced, “All of these
liars will be sued after the election is over.”
When is that lawsuit going to be filed?
Probably right after he finishes fighting
the lawsuit against Trump University. Oh,
wait — he has already finished that fight, by
capitulating.
“I don’t settle cases,” he said last year
about the dispute. “Watch how we win it.”
But in the end, Trump agreed to pay $25 mil-
lion to the people accusing him of fraud.
Idle threats are his specialty. Last year, he
pledged to “immediately terminate Presi-
dent Obama’s two illegal executive amnes-
ties,” one of which allowed unauthorized im-
migrants brought here as children to stay
and work. But that order is still in place, to
the disgust of anti-immigration groups. “His
thinking is: We don’t have to deal with this
right now,”’ explained Spicer in February. Oh,
you thought “immediately” meant “right
now”?
Steve
Chapman
ahbelo.com NYSE symbol: AHC
house divided against itself cannot
stand, yet the Texas Legislature is
waging war against Texas cities.
This conflict is fueled by an invalid claim
that “runaway spending” by cities is taxing
people out of their homes. Runaway spend-
ing by cities is not the problem, however.
Lack of attention to school funding by the
Legislature is the
problem, and it is in-
tertwined with two
bills now under con-
sideration by legisla-
tors.
A
Opposing view/3A
Other voices
rates have stayed the same.
So, how has this shift come about?
Let’s consider a home assessed in 2016 at
$250,000 and calculate property taxes as-
sessed at the rates of my city, Denton, and
the local school district, to demonstrate the
impact on local taxpayers. (If you live in an-
other city and/or school district, simply plug
in the rates you pay.)
School taxes due for 2016 were $3,465
($250,000 x $1.54 per $100 of value), as-
suming a $25,000 homestead exemption.
City of Denton taxes due for 2016 were
$1,674 ($250,000 x $0.68 per $100 of val-
ue), assuming a $5,000 homestead exemp-
tion (note this is less than one-half the total
amount of school taxes).
Now let’s assume the 2017 assessed value
for the same house increases by 8 percent,
which is a realistic potential increase, in light
of recent growth and historical data.
Local school taxes on the new assessed
value of $270,000 would be $3,773 ($308
increase), once again assumingthe $25,000
homestead exemption.
City taxes would be $1,811 without a cap
($137 increase) and $1,784 with a 4 percent
cap ($110 increase).
Let’s look at another scenario: What if the
assessed value of that same house grows 8
percent over a three-year period?
After year three, the assessed value on the
home will be $314,928 with a school proper-
ty-tax bill of $4,465 ($1,000 over three
years). City taxes would be $2,118 ($444 over
three years) with no cap and $2,000with a 4
percent cap ($326 over three years).
Multiply these figures by millions of
property tax bills across the state and it is
clear how more than $18 billion has shifted
to the local taxpayer.
By failing to address public school fund-
ing, the Legislature provides a classic exam-
ple of the old saying, “Do as I say, not as I do.”
It is refusing to hold itself accountable to the
same standards it is trying to impose upon
local communities.
Even if SB 2 and HB 15 are approved,
we’ll be having this very same discussion
again in a few years because the state contin-
ues to shift public school funding to local
taxpayers.
There is no property tax relief without
comprehensive public school funding re-
form.
Legislature finds bullet
it doesn’t like
Ians for a Houston-to-Dallas bullet train face politi-
cal obstruction in Austin. More than 20 bills have
been filed that would slow the steady progress on
this privately funded project that could transform three to
five hours of start-and-stop traffic into a 90-minute ride.
Put a cowcatcher on the front of that locomotive, be-
cause it is about to run into a whole lot of bull.
Rural legislators are throwing everything they can find
to stop this investment in our state’s two largest economic
centers, not to mention the halfway stop near College
Station.
Opposition groups say they’re worried the rail project
will eventually require public financial support. Or that
the owner, Texas Central Partners, will exploit eminent
domain, which can force the sale of private property. Or
that the whole thing will simply disrupt a rural landscape.
Particularly confusing are bills like Senate Bill 979 and
House Bill 2179, filed recently, that specifically prohibit a
private, high-speed rail project from utilizing eminent
domain — as if a slower, louder, taxpayer-funded train
would be fine.
Legitimate criticism exists over Texas’ eminent domain
laws, but the need for across-the-board reform is no ex-
cuse to stop a single project.
At its core, this opposition to high-speed rail is just
another case of NIMBYism — Not In My Backyard. It is a
philosophy that blinds people to the world beyond their
own home and prevents lawmakers from imagining a
future beyond the next election cycle.
If only our state could boast a class of political leaders
like those Houston had a century ago. When Houston
was founded, we were nothing more than a muddy town
on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. By the turn of the 20th
century, we were the city where 17 railroads met the sea.
Investment in transportation infrastructure put Hous-
ton at a nexus of industry, commerce and travel. Through
work and planning, Houston set itself up to become an
indispensable core of growth and success, the connection
between a vast inland empire of oil and agriculture and
the Port of Houston’s access to the greater globe. And, yes,
plenty of that rail and port construction required the use
of eminent domain.
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Senate Bill 2 (SB 2)
and House Bill 15 (HB
15) are the weapons by
which the Legislature
is proposing to usurp
the decision-making
authority of local elect-
ed officials.
These bills propose to cap city and county
property-tax revenues at a maximum of 4
percent more than collected last year.
If the city or county found it necessary to
exceed that rate, a mandatory election by the
voters would be required. Today, if taxes col-
lected are more than 8 percent over the previ-
ous year’s collection, then local citizens may
petition to roll back the tax rate to last year’s
effective rate and send the matter to a vote.
School districts are already limited in rev-
enue because the state gets the benefit of ris-
ing property values.
As mayor of the city of Denton, I am com-
mitted to operating the city at the lowest tax
rate that reflects the needs and desires of our
community.
Last year, Denton was able to lower the
rate by more than one-half cent.
However, I have yet to see anyone ad-
dress the issue from the perspective of the
individual taxpayer. How will the proposed
legislation address “runaway tax bills” and
provide property tax relief for the average
taxpayer?
A little background: The Legislature has
exclusive control over public school financing.
It allocates aper-studentfee to local school dis-
tricts for operations and maintenance.
That fee is funded by school property tax-
es collected locally and state funds.
The state benefits from property value
growth, but the local schools do not. As
school property taxes increase locally, the
state reduces its share of school funding by
that amount.
Local school taxes comprise 50 percent
to 60 percent of a property owner’s total tax
bill. During the last 10 years, the estimated
burden of local school funding has shifted
from state coffers to local property taxpayers
in excess of $18 billion.
This redistribution is due to soaring as-
sessed values, even though local school tax
Chris
Watts
GUEST COLUMN
But if today’s politicians had been in charge back then,
we’d be the city where nothing met nada. Now they’re
setting us up for a future where our economic growth will
be restricted by lagging infrastructure.
Houston is burdened by a statewide political system
beholden to imaginary fears that one day, maybe, taxpay-
ers might end up spending money to support a privately
funded rail project. That’s in contrast to, say, the money
taxpayers absolutely will have to spend expanding and
maintaining the roads, freeways and airports that connect
the nation’s fourth and fifth largest economic centers.
Texas Central Partners wants to spend $12 billion of
investors’ dollars in a high-speed rail system. It is hard to
imagine another time when Texans didn’t want a business
to spend billions of dollars in our state.
It is time to put imaginary fears to rest and focus on
the reality of a state in need of new transportation infra-
structure. Our state legislators must brush aside the rail
opponents, stare the future of our state head-on and bite
the bullet. Support high-speed rail for Texas.
I encourage all citizens to write their re-
spective legislators and demand they vote
against SB 2 and HB 15 and address public
school funding.
To find contact information for your sen-
ator and representative, go to www.fyi.stat
e.tx.us.
CHRIS WATTS is mayor of Denton.
Letters to the editor
Not the case
First, before anyone assumes me to be a
liberal, I am not. I am a monarchist who be-
lieves the usurpation of the Protestant Wil-
liam of Orange to be one of the greatest di-
sasters to befall Western civilization.
That being said, I cannot be the only one
who finds it patently absurd that so-called
conservatives, including Trump, define ev-
ery news source that isn’t Fox News or hasn’t
got their lips firmly attached to the Tram-
pian rump to be “fake news.”
Fox News claims to be “fair and balanced,
unbiased” but this is clearly not the case. I
beg one and all to consider this ridiculous
charge and, if youreally believe yourself to be
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— Houston Chronicle
This day in history: March 13
In 1781, the seventh planet of
the solar system, Uranus, was
discovered by Sir William Her-
schel.
Today is Monday, March
13, the 72nd day of 2017.
There are 293 days left in the
year.
a conservative, think well on it.
Janies S. Blankenship,
Knim
On March 13, 1947, the
Alan Jay Lemer and Frederick
Loewe musical Brigadoon,
about a Scottish village which
magically reappears once every
100 years, opened on Broadway.
The Best Years of Our Lives
won the Academy Award for
best picture of1946; Oscars also
went to its director, William
Wyler, lead actor Fredric March
and supporting actor Harold
Russell; Olivia De Havilland
won best actress for To Each
In 1845, Felix Mendels-
sohn’s Violin Concerto in E Mi-
On torture, NATO, seizing Iraq’s oil and
the Iranian nuclear deal, Trump’s Cabinet of-
ficers have contradicted him — and he has let
them.
nor, Op. 64, had its premiere in
Leipzig, Germany.
In 1865, Confederate Presi-
dent Jefferson Davis signed a
measure allowing black slaves to
enlist in the Confederate States
Army with the promise they
would be set free.
In 1925, the Tennessee Gen-
eral Assembly approved a bill
prohibiting the teaching of the
theory of evolution. (Gov. Austin
Peay signed the measure on
March 21.)
Denton Record-Chronicle mission statement
When confronted by people with sturdy
backbones, Trump has real trouble backing
up his fierce words. And he is finding it hard-
er to intimidate political opponents and for-
eign leaders than he expected.
We’ve all heard of the wolf in sheep’s
clothing. More often than not, Trump is a
sheep in wolf’s clothing.
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His Own:, Anne Baxter won best
supporting actress for The Ra-
zor’s Edge.
STEVE CHAPMAN writes for the
Chicago Tribune. His column is distrib-
uted by Creators Syndicate Inc.
— The Associated Press
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 223, Ed. 1 Monday, March 13, 2017, newspaper, March 13, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131823/m1/4/: accessed June 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .