“The badguys all want the water fund” we’ll vote on in November or, so says the headline at AgendaWise. The story begins with” “Meet Steve Bresnen. He is a lobbyist for trial lawyers and gambling interests. Now, as a supporter of H2O4Texas PAC, he’s pitching in with the business lobby to help pass the water fund amendment this November.”
Author Weston Hicks describes Bresnen as “a ruling class utility man, making him no friend of average Texans. The water amendment he is promoting is not Texas-friendly either.”
Hick’s column goes on to state that “the water amendment will cook our state’s books by arbitrarily keeping $2 billion of water money from counting against the spending cap. What is the point of spending caps if our elected officials simply cook the books when they hit the limit?
“The water amendment will also create a veritable slush fund for connected people to sell land and services for outsized sums, and with very little oversight. The amendments offered on the bill that were designed to make the water fund more transparent and accountable were opposed by all but the conviction conservatives who authored and supported them. They were defeated by the moderates and liberals,” Hicks points out.
Hicks is right about the transparency which was purposefully kept out of the big water infrastructure financing bill we’ll be voting on. He’s also right that it essentially “cooks the books” by placing a large chunk of spending outside the already weak constitutional spending gap. But, even given all of that I’m not sure it’s worth opposing in November given that it will pass because people think a water bill is going to magically produce water!
Polluted or not, the big water bill will pass in November
“The badguys all want the water fund” we’ll vote on in November or, so says the headline at AgendaWise. The story begins with” “Meet Steve Bresnen. He is a lobbyist for trial lawyers and gambling interests. Now, as a supporter of H2O4Texas PAC, he’s pitching in with the business lobby to help pass the water fund amendment this November.”
Author Weston Hicks describes Bresnen as “a ruling class utility man, making him no friend of average Texans. The water amendment he is promoting is not Texas-friendly either.”
Hick’s column goes on to state that “the water amendment will cook our state’s books by arbitrarily keeping $2 billion of water money from counting against the spending cap. What is the point of spending caps if our elected officials simply cook the books when they hit the limit?
“The water amendment will also create a veritable slush fund for connected people to sell land and services for outsized sums, and with very little oversight. The amendments offered on the bill that were designed to make the water fund more transparent and accountable were opposed by all but the conviction conservatives who authored and supported them. They were defeated by the moderates and liberals,” Hicks points out.
Hicks is right about the transparency which was purposefully kept out of the big water infrastructure financing bill we’ll be voting on. He’s also right that it essentially “cooks the books” by placing a large chunk of spending outside the already weak constitutional spending gap. But, even given all of that I’m not sure it’s worth opposing in November given that it will pass because people think a water bill is going to magically produce water!