Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, July 13, 2010,
Citizens Communication
Citizens communication is next. This item gives residents an opportunity to address the court on any matter not on the agenda. Kenneth snyder has signed in. Zeta garnet, ronnie reeferseed number 3.
>> kenneth snyder, northridge subdivision, half in travis, half in williamson county. We got this letter -- i just got this here yesterday and everything. I gave a copy to the judge and a copy -- i don't know, but still going to be tuesday they are going to have a hearing on planning commission so i'm going up there and talk to them and i'm going to oppose of it. If they want to help us, fine, we might work something out, but we don't need more water coming down on us down there. If a cesspool is a health risk and the water development board meeting, i think it's the 24th or something like that, i got to go up there too, and i'm going to tell them they need to start programs, they need to finish them when they start one. Instead of splitting the money up, they ought to put all the money in one pool and fix the problem and go to the next one. There's too much money being split up and not going nowhere and taking five and ten years to fix a problem. And you know every year you wait, every day you wait, actually, prices goes up and up and up. Just like that water we got in, they could have done it five years earlier and it would have cost a whole lot less than to get the water in this time. And they had to pump in the water out of the ground, put the water lines in the ground. Same thing they are doing with septic tanks. Water running down the streets, dead animals and everything. I'm going to --
>> [indiscernible] when i get through because i'm going to fight this until i drop because i'm tired of having colonials, they've been calling and tell me they cannot believe this being a few miles down the road having a colonial neighborhood. Some people tell me it's worse than mexico. And i did get a call from somebody in the president's office in washington, d.c. He said he wanted to make a trip out here, but i don't know, it's kind of hard, you never know what you are getting on t.v. When somebody calls you off the internet, but that's what they said. This is all the pictures. Once i learned how to put them on the e-mails and everything, got the pictures and everything, i can put all these pictures on that. There is birds out there in that swamp dead. I seen a couple of them died laying on that crusty stuff laying across the top like the top of a septic tank. And the rain kind of washed some of it down. Probably washing it down into austin so we get contamination in austin just like we have out there. And there is contamination out there. If they want to have any grants, they need to make them work. Going five, ten years and $50 here, $50 there and still sitting in the same problem five years down the road. I've been fighting this since '96, but actually since '90. I'm getting calls since i can get on the website, but it's uncalled for we got to be like this and everything. Maybe you can check into this, maybe you want to go to that meeting.
>> [buzzer sounding] i guess you all know about this. I'm not sure. Seems like you all would because that's in travis county.
>> have a resident of travis county contact me, mr. Snyder.
>> that's --
>> have a resident of travis county contact me.
>> okay. I'll have nettie call you.
>> we'll look into it. Zeta garnet is second. Bearing gifts.
>> good morning, commissioners, judge.
>> good morning.
>> zeta garnet with human resources. I was just coming to talk to you guys with our completion of our eight-week program, walk across texas. We had 30 teams to compete against each other and walk across texas for 830 miles. Each participant had to walk at least 13 miles a week. We had a great response, great turnout. Yesterday we recognized all the participants for their achievement and gave them out awards, and just wanted to thank everybody for their support, especially the -- the court and -- for the continuing support of our wellness program. And we do have a couple of more challenges that's going to be coming down the pipe real soon so we look forward to seeing you guys at those challenges.
>> we may want to share with the court that i got carried away today and -- pledge the whole court to walk next time.
>> the judge was there to give out the awards and we really appreciate it. Thank you for that.
>> will we have a quorum issue?
>> [laughter]
>> so i just want to again thank the participants for participating and i look forward to seeing everybody working towards a healthy lifestyle. That's my goal, to get us into top shape and to be one of the best wellness programs in texas.
>> you are so wonderful. Thank you.
>> [applause]
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> so do i get another one?
>> [laughter] oh, okay.
>> thank you very much.
>> you deserve gifts, not us. You deserve gifts.
>> a bunch of goodies too. Is there a fourth one or do i get to choose which one?
>> i think we need to wear these for court today. Everybody pull out your head bands.
>> mr. Reeferseed is next.
>> thank you, sir. Ronnie reeferseed, saying hey, kids, stop imitating us so-called grownups. Live life with joy now because with that first hit off a cigarette or joint or that first swig of alcohol you've just killed it. Say hello to bills obligations criminal adults, et cetera. No kids, you don't want that. Avoid it. Conserve the gift. You too, grownups, conserve the gift of life on our garden planet by protecting and defending our precious u.s. Constitution, mankind's greatest invention. Our original document that began with the words we the people was uniquely powerful because it spelled out limited powers in government. But more importantly, it spelled out rights to never be trampled on. The first one out of the gates is the first -- after the first ten was, of course, the 11th amendment. The 11th amendment was further legislation to limit the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state, as in this -- arizona voter led resolution. Hey, it follows word for word the federal laws already in place that are never enforced by the federal government, and who is to blame for that? Not those brave responsible leader voters from arizona, defending our borders is a federal responsibility that traitors in washington -- stop the ongoing melt down for free schooling and police and medical services and everything else that's bankrupting the 49 of 50 states on the brink of bankruptcy because of the entitlements delivered to criminals. Rejoice so-called president, so-called barack obama, kenyan born indonesian
>> [indiscernible]. Precious u.s. Constitution for what? Clearly lock up servitude to the criminal banksters who destroy our economies worldwide by design and have been doing it for decades, has hit the fan with our dollar turned to toilet paper like the rep suffered. What's next? Okay, monday, u.s. Representative from texas ob-gyn dr. Ron paul said our involvement in afghanistan is an ill advised quagmire with no end in site after nearly ten years approaching $1 trillion spent, the conflict is going nowhere because there is nowhere for it to go. After all a victory is never really defined, defeat is inevitable, and for what? Billions of tax dollars from hard-working americans are ending up lining the pockets of corrupt afghanni officials. The point is sending aid money to afghanistan is not making poor people over there better off, it is making poor people here worse off. Robbing citizens to fund corruption over there is not helping.
>> [buzzer sounding] -- after citizens anywhere. Call toll free for weekly updates from dr. Paul. And ask the mayor to please stop polluting our waters.
>> our final speaker is alfred stanley.
>> good morning, judge and commissioners. I'm alfred stanley, i'm a 33-year resident of austin and travis county.
>> good morning.
>> good morning. I had a friend when i was a little boy named johnny, and when johnny and i would get in trouble, i would tell me mom johnny did it. And she would say if johnny jumped off the bridge would you follow? I'd say no, mom. Travis county has a johnny and it's called the city of austin and the historic tax exemptions. I always upped liked seeing historic buildings, driving by them, seeing that they were protected. I figured the city of austin was giving them a 10, 20% tax break. No, city of austin is making decisions and all the taxing entities are giving a tax break. And it's not really a well understood problem. Last year i started receiving in my west austin neighborhood notice after notice after notice that houses within 500 feet of me were applying for the historic tax exemption. And i started looking into it. First thing i did, i went to the city of austin website for an explanation. I wondered, well, where's the hospital district on this. Well, it turns out there is a hospital district, the city awards the exemption and the hospital district has to give it to because of a decision the hospital district made but it's not listed by the city of austin. Travis county. Judge, you said in the paper the other day that when you combine the homeowners exemption and the senior exemption and the historic exemption, people wind up paying almost nothing. And i went to do the calculations on that. And it seems to me that the way that tcad is calculating the homeowners exemption is -- must be wrong. Because let me give you a quick example. Say you had a $400,000 house. With 200,000 in the structure and $200,000 in the land. Travis county gives a 100% exemption on the structure. So that $200,000 goes away. Gives a 50% exemption on the land. So there's $100,000 left. Now, you would think that if you were giving a homeowners exemption on something that was, you know, only had $100,000 left to tax -- i mean homestead exemption of 20% on $100,000, you would be giving a $20,000 homestead exemption. That's not how it works. The way it's calculated is you take the 400,000 full value of the property, calculate the homestead exemption of 20%. Okay? That's $80,000. Set that aside. Now you apply the historic district exemption. Eliminate the tax on the structure, 50% of the land, that's $100,000. Go back and find that homestead exemption, $80,000 and subtract from the $100,000, 20,000 you are taxing. There's only 95% left. I have real-world examples that show that properties that have gotten this historic exemption recently from the city of austin that you are only taxing 7% of this particular property here. You are only taxing 3% of this million and a half dollar home here, which is probably under valued by tcad in the first place because it's hard to value large expensive residences that don't sell with that much frequency. Those are the end of my comments. May i submit these calculations to you all?
>> okay. Thank you.
>> thank you. Those are the four who signed in under citizens communication.
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 13, 2010 2:35 PM
