Amid mounting budget concerns, Parker plans to push for revenue cap change. Katherine Driessen, HoustonChronicle.com($$$)
(Paywall protected, please read the entire thing if you can)
"I'm going to make them vote up or down," Parker said of the revenue cap. "If they want to give a pay raise to firefighters without having to cut huge numbers of programs across the city they're going to have to figure out that, you know, that's one way to bring some relief in."
In Houston, this is what passes for leadership. Parker's tough talk backed up by.....? More rhetoric. In fact, the only time that Parker has been anything close to tough has been when she was advocating for HER Ordinance which was, unsurprisingly, very important to her personally and probably the one thing that could be considered to truly be on her political agenda.
What the raising of the cap allows politicians to do, long-term, is avoid making tough choices and exercising fiscal discipline. When you consider that the top-tier Mayoral candidates (with the exception of Bill King) are all talking about "investments" in communities and "public-private partnerships" in lieu of fiscal responsibility you know that Houston is looking down the barrel of fiscal calamity.
Even worse is the candidate pool for City Council. I've been following a lot of them on Twitter so you don't have to and let me assure you that Houston is paddling around in the kiddie section of the leadership gene pool. Everyone has a plan to spend money, everyone has an idea how to increase what's being called "city revenues" (taxes and fees) and some are even worse than that suggesting that ideas from Brazil (seriously) would be good for Houston to adopt.
Another thing that I find funny, mentioned in the article, is how mercurial and quick to cower to the mayor Ellen Cohen is. Texas Monthly likes to think they rank politicians as "Best, Worst and furniture". And while they tend to do a fairly mediocre job getting the rankings correct (the lists are usually just placing politicians into the respective buckets based solely on whether or not the TM staff likes them or not) they are leaving out one pretty vital category.
The political sock-puppet, a politician who serves no purpose but to parrot the positions of someone who is either their political patron or more experienced then they. Ellen Cohen is Mayor Annise Parker's sock-puppet of that there can be no doubt.
While I make light of this situation it's important to realize that the City's finances are central to Houston's well-being. I get that there are some who are considered serious political thinkers who think that One-bin recycling and parklets are "meat and vegetables" issues but none of that stuff happens if the plate itself is cracked.
And that's the problem in a city where there's no leadership. Trinkets, and things that wet the pants of gleeful political bloggers, get piled on plates that don't have the strength to support it. It's very much like putting too much potato salad on a single paper plate. There's no way you're making it to the picnic table before all of those "meat and vegetables" become food for ants.
So, beware pundits trying to distract from the fact that Houston's got a big budget problem, and shake your head at the media who are only just starting to figure this out. The games out leaders have been playing and the trinkets they have been buying all come with bills that are about to come due.
It might be a good idea to start asking city candidates how they plan to pay those bills instead of just letting them spout platitudes.
