Sign Petition/Letter to Austin City Council-No Tax/Fee Hikes!
Yes, it is totally true — the City wants to raise your energy, water and property taxes by an average of $265 per year. Sign this petition/letter to the 4 members of the Council up next for reelection — Mayor Leffingwell, and Councilmembers Cole, Martinez and Spelman. They must end unnecessary projects and the practice of the “growth lobby” (aka the big boy developers and the real estate lobby) offloading the costs of growth onto current residents. As we say at ChangeAustin.org, ‘welcome to Austin, but pay your own way’ and growth must pay for itself. Sign here and pass it on, folks, or forever hold your peace on Austin’s affordability.
You can ALSO print out the Petition-No Tax Rate Hikes 2012 City Budget here, take it around and mail it back to us by September 10th, before the City Council votes on September 12.
Rodgers on the Water Wars
Brian Rodgers wowed a crowd that gathered at McKinney Roughs Nature Trail on March 19th in Cedar Creek at the “Texas Water Wars: Is there a solution and who decides” conference sponsored by Independent Texans, Environmental Stewardship, Lost Pines Sierra Club and Neighbors for Neighbors. Here’s his 14 minute talk on water and the dangerous plans by the “growth machine” to continue moving precious groundwater to unsustainable (water poor) developments — and make current residents pay for it. You can watch the rest of the videos on the Independent Texans You Tube channel. Make growth pay for itself y’all!
The Real News on Water Treatment Plant #4: From the Comical to the Real Estatesman
When big news stories broke in the good old days, Austin citizens relied on their one daily paper to get the details. Along came the Austin Chronicle as the new boss, the progressive alternative to challenge the old boss American-Statesman; a rivalry good for coverage of community issues. But a while back, the new boss Austin Chronicle (despite the good sensibilities of its publisher Nick Barbaro) decided to be damn nearly the same as the old boss Austin American-Statesman, and kowtow to the real estate growth lobby. Which maybe explains why some people call them the “Comical” and the “Real Estatesman”.
This issue will be coming back in May 2010 for a vote of the Austin City Council. So far, they are split 4 in favor (Leffingwell, Martinez, Cole and Shade) and 3 against (Spelman, Riley and Morrison).
Get the story the Statesman and Chronicle failed to report, watch the debate yourself and YOU decide a major decision on Austin’s critical future on water policy!
What Now After the Protest?
Thanks to all who protested with us last week at City Hall.
It took us a few days to think about our next steps.
Thanks to SouthernShift.com, you can watch this wonderful 5″ video on “Travis County’s Dirty Little Secret” on the residential property tax inequity that is driving Austinites out of their homes.
We love you KXAN! Scroll down this page to watch the 2.5 minute piece they did that helped us reach thousands.
We love you KXAN!
[zdvideo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odHaSxR7mb8[/zdvideo]
Will Travis Co. Listen to the Little Guy & Gal?
10:30 a.m. tomorrow (Tuesday), Brian Rodgers will address the Travis County Commissioner’s Court along with Chief Appraiser, Patrick Brown.
Rodgers, ChangeAustin.org co-founder, founder of CostofGrowth.com and a longtime commercial real estate investor himself, will discuss the under-valuation of large commercial properties in Travis County. Brown will respond and Rodgers will have an opportunity to rebut.
Our first meeting
ChangeAustin.org had its first meeting last Saturday at Opal Divine’s and it was a great success. Over thirty people showed up to learn more about us and to hear a presentation about Impact Fees by Jim Duncan and one about the candidates in the May election by Brian Rodgers.
Many of the attendees joined as voting members and even more signed up to join one of our organizing teams. If you are interested in joining one (blogger team, research team, speakers bureau, administrative team or organizing team) please contact Albert @ 512-775-7617 or albert@ChangeAustin.org.
Brad McClellan, Carol Strayhorn’s son and Perla Cavazos, who is running for the open seat soon to be vacated by Lee Leffingwell were present and introduced themselves to the crowd.
Representatives from several other organizations including Vote Rescue, Texans for Accountable Government and others also joined us in our efforts to clean up City Hall.
Our first volunteer day is this coming Saturday when we are going to be hitting the pavement and the phones.
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