Commentary #2

     Several years back, I too had the privilege of paying about $270 every year for 3 years. This is not including the court fees and fines I had to pay for driving while my license was invalid. And yes, your license will get suspended if you miss a payment, which is exactly what happen to me. And to top it off while my license was suspended, I just so happened to get pulled over and ticketed on my way to work for making a rolling stop in my neighborhood. In addition to more fees and fines for that ticket I received, my license stayed suspended and my 3 years of surcharges started over!

     I would have to agree with my colleague over at “Texas” when she says that there has got to be a better solution for punishing folks that commit whatever it was that they did. I will say that for some offenses the surcharge is just, such as DWI’s. However, this doesn’t mean that I’m for the surcharge program. To me, this program is just another one of the states’ vessels to extract money from its residents. It seems that the state is just interested in squeezing every freaking penny they can from us. With fees for late payments, convenience charges for online payments, it’s just an ongoing cycle of getting screwed over! If the state focused on its people as much as it focuses on making money, our way of life would be so much better.

     Much like my colleague had mentioned, a point system might just be the perfect solution for punishing offenders. But before we can get the surcharge program 86’d, we the people have got to become pro-active in finding that new solution, and then bringing it to our representatives to make that change possible.

Tipping Is Not a City In China

     With the cost of living steadily rising in Texas, why has the minimum wage for service industry workers remained the same? Texas sets their “tipped minimum wage” at the federally mandated minimum of $2.13/hr., which was last raised by congress in 1991. Texas even keeps the “regular minimum wage” set at the federal minimum of $7.25/hr., while other states have chosen to raise it above that federally mandated number to balance out with the rising cost of living. To take it a step further, states like Washington, Oregon, and California, along with several others have eliminated the “tipped minimum wage” in its entirety, leaving only one minimum wage for both tipped and non-tipped employees.

     If these other states are doing so, then why can’t Texas? Texas is the 2^nd most populous state in the nation and also having 4 of its largest cities, all of which bring in millions of dollars in taxes every year for the state. With all this, one would think that eliminating or increasing the tipped minimum wage would be something the state would do to help balance out the rising cost of living for its service industry residents. Instead of this, the state requires their service industry workers to pay for a certification that allows them to serve and sell alcohol while counties such as Travis county, also requires workers to have a food handlers certification that one not only must pay for the class, but also has to pay to get it registered with the city.

     If you ask me, it’s all about the Benjamins. Why else would the state continue to hold both the minimum wages at the bare minimum in an economy that continues to be on the rise? With an increase or elimination of the tipped minimum wage, workers would be making more money, which in turn means they’ll be spending more, which means the state gets more in taxes. But most importantly would give us service workers a chance at a better life, because living off just tips can prove to be very difficult for some. Especially, when diners aren’t aware the amount per hour we are making, and when they think that 15% is an acceptable amount to leave as a tip. I’m sure at one point 15% was an acceptable amount to tip but now-a-days it’s barely scraping by. Maybe it just comes down to voters not being educated when it comes to the amount of money tipped workers get paid an hour. Either way, it’s in everyone’s best interests, including the state, to finally get rid of or raise the minimum wage for its tipped workers.

Commentary #1

     I do agree with Ms. Huizar when it comes to the fact that our legislative sessions do seem to be too short to get everything addressed that needs to be.  But if 140 days is too short, my question is how many days would be sufficient? If the legislative session is too long then all these state representatives  will be taken out of their respective districts which in turn would make them largely unavailable to the people they represent. And if the legislative session is not long enough, then we would be running into the same problem that we are seeing now.

     I don’t think that the length of the session is the only thing that’s leading to all these representatives “running around like chickens with their heads cut-off,” but also the tendency that many of us have to procrastinate when it comes to important things. I feel if our state reps buckled down and do a better job than what they’re doing now, they can get a lot done. But that still doesn’t mean they can get everything addressed that needs to be. And further more Ms. Huizar has an excellent point, what happens to all the items that don’t get to be addressed? Do they spill over on to the next legislative session or do they simply just get forgotten? These are all questions that the people of Texas need to be asking, because after all without questions we can never receive an answer.

Careful....Scary Ghost Votes are Lurking!

     What would you say if your state representative whom you voted into office and who you expect to be there to vote on the laws that will affect the people in your community is not there to vote in your stead, but rather another state representative is casting their vote under your state reps name? And in some cases those other state reps that are casting their vote in the name of your state rep are from the opposing party.

     This is a common practice known as “ghost voting,” and it’s been going on for quite some time now. This is when a fellow state representative casts a vote on any particular law from the voting terminal that belongs to another representative while he/she is away from their desk. Even though the House rules state that “a member must be on the floor of the House or in an adjacent room or hallway on the same level as the House floor, in order to vote,” a lot of these representatives can’t be found anywhere near capitol grounds.

     What’s going on here? These same representatives that voted on a law that makes it mandatory for the public to show an i.d. card in order to cut back on multiple votes from the same person aren’t practicing what they are preaching. If we the people must show proof of who we are and can only vote once, shouldn’t it be the same for them as well? Now don’t get me wrong, not everybody in the legislature is doing this ghost voting, but enough of them are doing it to raise an eyebrow or 2. Why isn’t this illegal? Some of the state representatives argue that it’s absurd to think that a representative is bound to sit and vote on laws 12-14 hours a day for the entire time that the legislature is in session for the full 140 days. Isn’t this what we pay them for?

     I know that it’s often hard to be at your desk to hear and vote on every single law that arises, but isn’t this is what these office holders have signed up for? I realize that there are restroom breaks that must occur, meetings in other parts of the House, lunch breaks, etc. So what’s the solution? Maybe scattering voting terminals throughout the House so that our representatives can do their duty and vote on every law might be worth looking into. But putting extra terminals isn’t going to help with those who leave the capitol grounds entirely. Passing a law that makes it illegal for these representatives to leave the House before that legislation work day is out might be in the best interests of the people that they are representing.

     Only when we start paying closer attention and start being more active can we stop this practice of ghost voting. And while it’s not illegal, at least not yet, it’s most definitely wrong and unethical.

Tasers are being Phased

     In a report made by the San Antonio Express-News, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has been recently under fire for the use of Tasers in Texas’ schools. The use of Tasers and other non-lethal weapons such as the use of pepper sprays are being argued by some to have no place in our schools and should be banned from use.

     Most recently back in November of 2013, a Bastrop County student was shot with one of these Tasers resulting in the student being in a coma for 50 days coming from his head hitting the ground after being zapped with up to 50,000 volts. In addition to being comatose for almost 2 months, the student Noe Niño de Rivera could suffer lasting brain injuries.

     The author expresses that some of the opponents are saying that such weapons should not be used on students especially with all the options law enforcement officers have today. But both the author and the opponents fail to mention some of these other tactics that can be used when needed only saying that pepper foams are less likely to affect bystanders. However they do go on to say that the use of such weapons can be acceptable in a life or death situation but never acceptable as a method of controlling students.

     While I do agree with the author when it comes to alternatives for some of the non-lethal weapons currently being used in schools, I must respectively disagree that these weapons should be banned completely. Rather, I believe that training should be improved for the officers that are placed in these schools. After all it’s not the Tasers pulling the trigger. With better education officers can react and respond to situations that contain students (kids, not adults) in a manner that is more acceptable to educators and most importantly the parents.

You Need Fast Cash?

     Houston Mayor Annise Parker proposed an ordinance back in November that if passed, would heavily restrict payday and auto-title loans, making Houston the fifth major city in Texas to do so. Since Houston is the biggest city in the state it only makes sense that it also has the largest number of payday and auto-title stores. All combined, these stores did more than 1 billion dollars in business in 2012.

     These businesses made their money preying on vulnerable folks to make an absurd amount of profit, with annual percentage rates that often exceeded 500%. These practices are driving consumers deeper into debt by making it difficult to pay off their principal amount with all the fees and interest accumulating at a rapid rate.

     If passed, consumers would be limited in the amount of a loan they can receive that is dependent upon their monthly income or a percentage of what their car is valued at. Mayor Parker initially wanted a “Houston only” measure, but soon realized that joining the other 4 major cities that already passed restrictions on these loans would only strengthen the proposal. Without a doubt it’s interesting to see these “loan” stores bowing out, and some of the larger and more well- known stores pulling out of the state. To see a list of the other major cities that have already passed ordinances or to see which company is pulling out all their 28 stores from Texas, click here.