Keith Self's Blog

Folks, I know that these emails have increased in frequency the past week, but the budget season is very important to your future taxes. Between now and September, when we vote on the 2008 budget, I plan to send frequent updates in order to keep you up to date on progress. I will try to keep them short.

We will meet again today in the Commissioners' Courtroom, and you are invited to attend.

Yesterday was the first day of budget discussions by the Commissioners Court. I found no enthusiasm at all for a tax rate cut, even though the tax base increased 10.9%. You know what government officials who want to increase the amount of money out of your pockets every year say - disaster is right around the corner. That argument is like a clock that is stopped; occasionally the clock is correct, but not often.

Salaries have NOT been decided. We had one discussion on elected officials' salaries, but made no decisions.

"Accepting a government grant with its accompanying rules is like marrying a girl and finding out her entire family is moving in with you before the honeymoon."
President Ronald Reagan

Have a great day,
Keith

Citizens of Collin County,

The power to compel 725,000 Collin County citizens to spend their hard-earned dollars on any project is an awesome responsibility that should be exercised with great discretion. Making sure that every tax dollar is spent on core government functions, keeping your taxes as low as possible, and maintaining your freedom to spend your money as you choose should be at the center of every decision by government to spend your hard earned dollars. As Ronald Reagan warned us, "It doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of private property to impose socialism upon a people," meaning that excessive taxation and inappropriate spending also lead to socialism.

It turns out that my decision to NOT support the transportation bond recommendations is not unique. It appears that some Commissioners Court members will NOT support the recommendations of a different committee - the 2007 Facilities Bond Committee. The project in question was NOT recommended by the committee, yet some want to give tax money to it anyway. The project in question asks for $15,000,000 in your tax dollars in order to construct a building for a group of private organizations. The debt payment every year would be well over one million dollars! They are asking for your tax dollars in spite of the fact that the group is designing a "magnificent water feature" at the expansion of their existing facility. Make no mistake; this group is well funded with private donations.

Don't get me wrong, this organization does excellent work in an important area. In fact, I can recommend this group to you as a worthy charity for your private contributions. But excellent work does not make them a government organization.

In spite of the fact that this is a private group and the committee did not recommend tax dollars support the project; the County Manager is preparing a stand-alone bond proposal for the Commissioners Court for vote on August 14. The fact that he is preparing this bond proposal means that at least some commissioners plan to NOT support the bond committee recommendations, but instead are at least considering a vote FOR placing this facility on the bond election and funding this facility for $15,000,000, with a yearly debt service cost over $1,000,000.

If the Commissioners Court spends your tax dollars to support private organizations, they not only lose focus on core government functions, they also unnecessarily reduce your freedom to choose which private non-profit organizations you support (not discounting county efforts to provide statutory requirements such as indigent health care.) There are over 1400 non-profit organizations in Collin County - freedom means being able to contribute to those organizations that YOU choose to support. Our citizens are incredibly generous people, and we should trust them to support good charitable organizations that provide excellent service to the community - exactly what is happening with the well funded private organization around which this facility request is based.

For a more complete review of this topic, I invite you to review my archived blog entry at www.KeithSelf.com from October 30, 2006, titled, "Trust Our Citizens with Charitable Contribution Decisions."

I also invite you to review my archived blog entries from November 16, 2006, where I posted my November 15 remarks before the Commissioners Court - before I took office in January. While the topic that day was health care, the comments still apply today. Excerpts are below.

Quote from blog
President Reagan said, "No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth." I urge you to focus our county on those core county functions that require government funding, that are the county's perpetual responsibility.
The well-meant extra-governmental spending encompassed in today's proposals are the province of private charity.
President Reagan said, "...anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-gooders (Reagan's term), we are denounced as being against their humanitarian goals. They say we are always "against" things, never "for" anything. Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so."
I urge you to find solutions to this and every issue that preserve individual freedom and limit government intrusion.
End quote

Again, the power to compel 725,000 citizens to spend their hard-earned dollars on any project is an awesome responsibility that should be exercised with great discretion. Let's focus our budget and our bond elections on core government functions. Let's preserve the freedom of our citizens to the maximum extent possible.

I will continue to attempt to focus your county government on core government functions while protecting your hard earned dollars from profligate spending.

I am one vote on the court. If you agree with me and do not want to spend your tax dollars on this proposal to fund infrastructure for private organizations, I need your help with the community to change the direction of this court.

This could be a defining moment in this county. Let us work together to address the congestion on our major highways rather than giving tax dollars to benefit a private group.

Sincerely,
Keith

The Commissioners Court received the 2007 Transportation Bond Committee recommendations on Monday, July 23. I very much appreciate the long hours and hard work by the committee members.

The recommendations totaled $235.6 million. This is a loan that you will pay back using county tax dollars. I believe that your county tax dollars should be used to build your county transportation network.

Transportation is a core government function; and one of the most important in this fast growth county. Every citizen of Collin County experiences tremendous congestion on our major roads. The North Central Texas Council of Governments (COG) estimates that the major highways in Collin County will experience far faster congestion growth than other roads in the next twenty years - almost a 250% increase! This transportation bond decision is one of the most important issues the Commissioners Court will face this year.

I call the most important highways in the county, now and into the future, the "county backbone highways." These are the highways that now carry, or will carry the most traffic; where you already experience the most congestion; and where the congestion will increase the most over the next decades.

Regrettably, the 2007 Transportation Bond recommendations do not address the most pressings needs of the county - through no fault of the committee members. In fact, the recommended transportation projects amount to a 5-year self-imposed moratorium on the improvement and construction of county backbone highways. Only 14 miles of the county backbone highways - the most important highways - have funds identified in the recommendations. A few miles of the backbone have other sources of funding, such as the NTTA contract to build SH 121 from Frisco to US 75, but the vast majority of our backbone highways have no future funding identified.

I must, therefore, reluctantly conclude that I cannot support this 5-year moratorium on the most important and most congested highways in Collin County - I will vote against the recommendations in their current form. I believe that the citizens of our county deserve relief from congestion as soon as possible. I believe that Collin County should use available transportation tax dollars - your tax dollars - to build the county backbone highways now.

A nationally known speaker at the recent Texas Transportation Forum in Austin stated that the current national transportation goal is, "Making things get worse slower." I reject any slow decline as a worthy goal. A former Chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission stated that, "Decline will be most severe in the areas of most economic development." That means Collin County. We are the fastest growing county in the nation, (by percentage and over 500,000 population) and will suffer the most severe decline if we do not act now to build our transportation backbone.

I believe that if we think strategically to develop a long-range plan that focuses your tax dollars on congested highways and future congested highways, we can improve traffic congestion, air quality, and quality of life for our rapidly growing population.

I will write again soon as information develops, but believe that it is important that you know where I stand on this important issue.

The Commissioners Court will vote to accept or reject these recommendations on August 14. I appreciate and value your inputs. Your tax dollars and your transportation backbone are at stake.

Sincerely,
Keith

Citizens of Collin County,

I need your help. I ask that you participate in the upcoming determination where your tax dollars will be spent on roads. The Transportation Bond Committee will present their recommendations to the Commissioners Court on July 23 at 7 PM. Please plan to attend this public meeting.

Transportation is one of the most critical core responsibilities of government. The county Transportation Bond Committee is examining projects for a possible $200 Million bond election in November. A bond is essentially a loan approved by the voters. And of course, the loan will have to be paid down with tax dollars before we could ask for another loan in the future. Given the rapidly increasing transportation requirements, it is imperative that we get this bond (loan) request correct.

The North Central Texas Council of Governments projects that the most congestion over the next 20 years will occur on the principal arterials across Collin County - the major highways. Traffic on these principal highways is supposed to increase by almost 250% - an astounding figure! Right now, they are already the roads where the most congestion occurs, and congestion will only get worse over time.

I believe that the county should maintain a strategic focus in order to determine those principal highways that require county taxpayers to spend the bond (loan) funds that you may be asked to approve. We am working to identify those highways that should qualify for county level focus and spending.

This clear focus on major roads is even more important after the last legislative session. One effect of the 2-year transportation moratorium seems to be that the State funding program known as "Pass Through Financing" will be terminated. If that is the case, and most agree that it is, the Collin County request for a major source of State highway funding will not materialize.

There is precedence for a strategic perspective from the county. The President George Bush Tunpike is one example of a previous Commissioners Court looking strategically at the future. Another example is the county funds that were committed to the frontage roads along SH 121, which I understand speeded up the process. The county must keep our eyes on the major roads across the county if we are to alleviate the congestion today and tomorrow on the principal highways across Collin County.

If we do not use your hard-earned tax dollars on major road projects until the next bond election in 4 or 5 years, it will be a self-imposed 5-year moratorium on major highway building projects across Collin County.

It has already been suggested to me from several sources that if the projects identified by the bond committee do not recommend spending your tax dollars on county-level major roads, we should increase the tax rate to have the funds for the major highways. This is exactly what many politicians do - rather than re-prioritizing funding to meet critical requirements, they increase your taxes to cover new spending. I believe that we should correctly prioritize county projects to focus on the most critical requirements - the major highways that will experience the most traffic growth and the most congestion.

Again, the Transportation Bond Committee will present their recommendations to the Commissioners Court on July 23 at 7 PM. Please plan to attend this public meeting.

Sincerely,
Keith