“Texas voters will go to the polls this fall to decide if the state should continue spending billions of taxpayer dollars on cancer research and prevention, after state senators on Friday endorsed a measure that calls for a referendum on the issue,” reported Bob Sechler for the Austin American-Statesman.
The matter will go on the November 5th ballot to amend the Texas constitution to authorize another $3 billion in general obligation bonds.
For those who still don’t understand that bonds are simply a way to borrow money, to go into debt to those who buy the bonds, what you will be voting on is a continuation of this scheme where we borrow money and then hand it out to universities to fund research. You repay the bond debt and the interest through your state taxes.
If legislators think Texas universities should be researching cancer funded by us, they could save the large CPRIT overhead and the interest on the debt by simply appropriating funds directly
Senators Perry, Buckingham, Fallon, Seliger, and all the rest of them, unanimously, voted to put this wasteful scheme on the ballot once again. I say again because it was authorized by voters in 2007 with the same $3 billion amount in bond debt approved at that time.
Over the years I have written many commentaries* on why the agency managing these funds should be closed. CPRIT, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, does not prevent cancer and does not do research. CPRIT uses our money to enrich its bureaucracy and to bully grant recipients to adopt policies at local universities, way outside of the realm of research, that its highly political officials favor.
The scheme is a clear example of unnecessary government middle-man cost and shockingly it is Republicans who pushed CPRIT and this renewal.
If legislators think Texas universities should be researching cancer funded by us, they could save the large CPRIT overhead and the interest on the debt by simply appropriating funds directly as they do in almost all other situations.
Texas legislators support wasteful government with CPRIT debt
The matter will go on the November 5th ballot to amend the Texas constitution to authorize another $3 billion in general obligation bonds.
For those who still don’t understand that bonds are simply a way to borrow money, to go into debt to those who buy the bonds, what you will be voting on is a continuation of this scheme where we borrow money and then hand it out to universities to fund research. You repay the bond debt and the interest through your state taxes.
If legislators think Texas universities should be researching cancer funded by us, they could save the large CPRIT overhead and the interest on the debt by simply appropriating funds directly
Senators Perry, Buckingham, Fallon, Seliger, and all the rest of them, unanimously, voted to put this wasteful scheme on the ballot once again. I say again because it was authorized by voters in 2007 with the same $3 billion amount in bond debt approved at that time.
Over the years I have written many commentaries* on why the agency managing these funds should be closed. CPRIT, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas, does not prevent cancer and does not do research. CPRIT uses our money to enrich its bureaucracy and to bully grant recipients to adopt policies at local universities, way outside of the realm of research, that its highly political officials favor.
The scheme is a clear example of unnecessary government middle-man cost and shockingly it is Republicans who pushed CPRIT and this renewal.
If legislators think Texas universities should be researching cancer funded by us, they could save the large CPRIT overhead and the interest on the debt by simply appropriating funds directly as they do in almost all other situations.
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