Travis County Commissioners Court
July 21, 2009,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next.
this item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda for up to three minutes.
gus pena has signed in.
number 2, ronnie reeferseed.
3, morris priest.
>> good morning, judge, Commissioners.
gus pena.
good to be back here with you all.
number 1, I would like to talk about the property appraisals and there was a lot of action out in the community regarding property appraisals and the protest issue.
i think I've stated for the record many times before that there are certain things that are going on here in Austin, Travis County, for example, the t.o.d., the transit oriented district.
property taxes in Austin if they are not the highest they are the highest in Austin and Travis County.
that is categorically by the record that was made by the apraiser himself.
the house we used to own, it's a little structure, right now it would be worth 50,000, it's apraised 250, close to $350,000.
we're taxing the people out of their homes and property.
i think we said this before.
i don't know what can be done.
i know it was to news recently, but -- and I think y'all are going to place this item on the agenda, I'm not too sure, but anyway, it would be a good idea to look at that, review it and revise the manner in which properties are appraised.
and I'll leave it at that and I'll look forward to you speaking on the issues at that time.
capital metro.
going to do away with the dillos.
they don't have too much ridership, that's good.
but to lay off employees, that's not acceptable, Commissioner Gomez, you are the board chair, board president, and I have not been able to attend the meetings, I just don't have time.
i just don't have time.
i have my 17-year-old, he's ill and I have to take care of him.
but anyway, what's going on at capital metro is not acceptable.
i tell people please call your Commissioner, call the mayor, call your city councilmember, whoever represents out the council and the board.
i have nothing to do with that.
they complain to me.
so anyway, Commissioner, you are as president and I just feel it's time for a change in management.
the individual we have there, and I'm not going to say anything negative, a former federal investigator, et cetera, et cetera, but I don't like to talk negative about people, the manner in which he is running capital metro, it's time for a change.
i'll leave it at that.
social service agencies, it's been my topic for many, many years.
please fully fund as much as we can social service agencies.
right now if you go for help, it's not there.
the agencies recently got a big influx of money from I want to say applied materials, might be incorrect.
there's a lot of people homeless.
there's an article in the paper about the Austin housing authority getting a grand from h.u.d., that's for homeless veterans.
but there are a string of red tape.
>> [buzzer sounding] I'll leave it at that.
please fully fund social service agencies.
school supplies for the kids, fans for the seniors and needy and the kids and family at family elder care.
>> thank you.
mr.
reeferseed.
>> thank you.
yes.
my name is ronnie reeferseed and I'm here to talk about the nuclear pact signed yesterday between india and the u.s.
which only accelerates nuclear war.
decades ago israel became an atomic power and lied to the rest of the world about it.
and unlike iran, who was one of the first signators of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, israel has never signed.
israel for decades even revealed they had a nuclear program of any kind, much less sign the treaty.
signators of that nonproliferation treaty like iran, unlike israel and now india, allow inspections of their nuclear facilities.
not so to israel and india.
israel and india selfishly and short-sightedly instead to hide the truth about their nuclear programs.
the potential chaos and worldwide death and destruction to israel and now india's refusal to sign the treaty is an excellent opportunity for the united states to stop funding the criminality of that socialist total taken regime.
the u.s.
by golly ever since jfk was mysteriously eliminated was given the most advanced weapon systems and untold amounts of aid and military aid to israel, but we don't have to.
george washington advised us to avoid foreign entanglement so as to demonstrate fair trade relations with all nations.
thereby through fair trade we can build a word with less chaos, more peace and freedom.
that means no other nations or ethnic groups held above all others so as to limit resentment from others.
less resentment means more peace, obviously, which should be everyone's goal, right?
guess what, it's not.
our very own media banks the complex of criminals would rather secure profits from sales of death tools than secure life on our planet.
our very own president obama appointed not only joe build a burger biden and raul emanuel, but his number one science adviser has written several textbooks spelling out evil plans for population elimination.
>> [buzzer sounding] yes, people, that's their plan to kill at least 80% of all of us so as to get if human population number down to some obscure number they feel is best.
me, on the other hand, I choose to lead by example, not to kill anybody for any reason.
there are no guarantees to anything but in my humble opinion but sharing info and leading by example.
so online you can read american free December dot net to read dr.
ron paul's ideas and check out campaign for liberty.com.
info words.com for alex jones, 90.1 fm is a great source.
thank you for your patience.
>> thank you.
mr.
priest.
>> morris priest, for the record, and I hate toll roads.
you can go across the state of oklahoma for about $7 on a toll road, but here in Texas it takes you about $7.33 for your toll frees from georgetown to buda.
the Texas digest in dallas talks about the tolls to increase in north Texas, tolls are going to rise in north Texas after a decision to raise rates by an average of 3.5 cents a mile, the north Texas tollway authority on Thursday authorized the increase which means that toll packages will pay an average 14.5 cents a mile from about 11 cents a mile.
the dallas morning news analysis said a round trip commute from far north suburbs of downtown for toll tag users will cost about $8.60.
that route will cost more than 11 -- will cost more than $13 for people paying cash.
that's just the same as money.
the tollway authority also authorized rates to increase by 6% every two years without a vote from the board.
brian rogers, myself, linda curtis, podar, many people were out in front of the tax appraiser's office and you know, brian rogers, the guy we all know and love, has got a website, cost of growth.com.
residents used to pay 52% of the tax burden and the commercial developers paid about 48%.
when it comes to our appraisals.
residents are now shouldering 62% of the tax burden versus 38% of the tax burden that commercial developers are paying.
so we have $11 million properties that are apraised at $3 million.
la bear is still in limbo and I think they have hit a snag.
hopefully I'll be able to speak at the city council meeting on item 115.
we have a situation where the city has unclean hands with la bear allowing them toen in a location they previously shouldn't be allowed to be in in the first place.
they have a stack of apd complaints.
i filed a protest with the tabc.
also talked to the lieutenant governor's office who has given me a referral to a.g.'s office.
there may be some other issues we can bring up, a tort letter, recall election, I'm not sure what we have to do to get our elected officials' attention, but I just subscribe to the belief some of the people life looked up to in this community that I consider a mentor which people talk about education all the time, but you can turn on channel 17 and see good examples in our government such as Ron Davis.
i've got the Ron Davis philosophy, don't give up.
>> [buzzer sounding] never give up.
don't stop.
don't quit.
i appreciate you all.
have a great day.
>> thank you.
>> thank you, mr.
priest.
anybody else for citizens communication whether you signed in or not?
by the way, we will discuss the commercial appraisals item this morning at roughly 10:15 to 10:30.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 2:31 PM