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BCD Daily News for: April 22, 2008 |
GREETINGS FELLOW DEMOCRATS!
Remember the May 3
Texas Democratic Women Luncheon
Noon.
Margarita Rocks
Presentation of Scholarships to a graduating senior from Bryan and CS.
Just a reminder:
IRAQ WAR PROTEST - THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
Corner of University Drive and Texas Avenue
We all know the human cost of the war in Iraq: 4,000 American servicemen and women dead; 30,000+ gravely wounded; hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead; 4.5 million refugees. Next Thursday, April 24, in conjunction with events across the country, the Brazos Valley Coalition Against the War will hold a protest focused on the economic consequences of the war.
Money spent on Iraq War as of April 15th 2008: $511,294,742,654.
Taxpayers in College Station, Texas have paid $73.8 million for the Iraq War thus far. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:
16,855 People with Health Care OR
56,210 Homes with Renewable Electricity OR
1,710 Public Safety Officers OR
1,296 Music and Arts Teachers OR
9,674 Scholarships for University Students OR
7 New Elementary Schools OR
880 Affordable Housing Units OR
31,702 Children with Health Care OR
10,581 Head Start Places for Children OR
1,384 Elementary School Teachers OR
1,186 Port Container Inspectors
The numbers don't lie!
PROTEST THE WAR BECAUSE IT'S CAUSING RECESSION!!
WHEN: THURSDAY, APRIL 24, 5:00 PM
WHERE: CAMPUS CORNER OF UNIVERSITY DSRIVE AND TEXAS AVENUE
BRING FRIENDS, FAMILY, SIGNS, AND VOICES TO BE HEARD!
For further information, contact Marco Lopez at mjj112002@yahoo.com
Brazos Valley Coalition Against the War, Texas A&M Chapter
Great job, Jonathan.
Reject CS tax freeze
By Jonathan Coopersmith
Should younger taxpayers and non-homeowners subsidize senior citizens buying $300,000 houses to retire here? That is the essence of the proposition to freeze senior citizen property taxes that College Station will vote on next month. This liberal-sounding notion looks appealing, but the reality is that it is actually a subsidy to wealthy homeowners masquerading as helping poor seniors.
If passed, this proposition means that even as the value of their houses increases, seniors will not pay any more in taxes. The people who will benefit most will be seniors buying large homes to retire here, secure in the knowledge they will never pay their fair share of taxes.
While a good break for them, it's a bad deal for the community as a whole. According to The Eagle, if the tax freeze passes, the city could lose as much as $3.2 million over 10 years. Jim Keblinger, who organized the proposition, has stated finding this lost revenue is not his concern but the city council's. He'll get his tax break and the rest of us, well, we'll either pay more or make do with fewer city services.
What Keblinger and his supporters have not publicized is that College Station already exempts from property taxes the first $30,000 of a senior's house. In 2006, 1,821 senior citizens claimed this exemption. If the tax-freeze supporters were truly concerned about helping low-income seniors, they would have proposed raising that tax exemption from the current $30,000 to the median cost of a house. That would ease the cost of retirement for people with low to moderate incomes without overly subsidizing wealthy senior citizens.
In February, 2008 the median price of a house in Bryan-College Station was $130,000, meaning half of the houses sold for more than and half for less than $130,000. Raising the city's senior tax exemption to $130,000 would reduce the property tax by $439.40.
Instead of that reasonable proposal, we are asked to vote on a measure that would benefit rich citizens far more than their poor brethren. I appreciate senior citizens. Indeed, I hope to become one myself some day, but I also appreciate that being a citizen means a shared sense of responsibility, and that includes paying for the services we want.
Sadly, the tax freeze could actually hurt the quality of life for seniors here. If the freeze passes, community support for a senior center would probably diminish. After all, if the users of the proposed center don't want to help pay for it, why should everyone else?
Voters should reject this proposal and instead ask the College Station City Council to raise the tax exemption for seniors to the median value of a house. This would directly benefit those most in need while lowering the potential tax burden for all of us.
• Jonathan Coopersmith lives in College Station.
Michael Moore to Endores Obama
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Monday April 21 2008. It was last updated at 15:51 on April 21 2008.
The outspoken film-maker Michael Moore endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination on the eve of the Pennsylvania primary tomorrow, accusing Hillary Clinton of cynically trying to inject race into the contest.
In an angry posting on his website, Moore said he had intended to stay neutral in the Democratic contest but was led to speak out after last week's debate in Philadelphia when Obama was questioned about his pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
Moore, who became famous for his cinematic rants against the gun industry, the Bush administration, and the US health care system, said he was disgusted when Clinton followed up on the moderators' line of questioning to Obama by mentioning Wright's contacts with the Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan.
The remarks, said Moore, were the final straw.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/21/barackobama.hillaryclinton1/print
Brazos County Democratic Party
P.O. Box 4568
Bryan Texas 77805
979-779-5600 Fax 979-779-5601
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
Harry S. Truman, Democrat, President of the United States of America |
