Home of Today's Common Sense

Throughout the country, the media is full of surveys, studies and anecdotal opinion contributions, expressing disgust with the current crop of politicians that were charged with representing us.
The administration has lost most of the confidence of the nation and the only thing worse is the Congress which has recently posted in the low teens as a percentage of the folks that support that august institution.
Here in South Texas, in Cameron and Hidalgo Counties there have numerous reports of public corruption in the media and the appearance of a lack of interest in taking appropriate action on the part of those charged with protecting us.
It also appears that there is little difference in the two major parties.  The party of Lincoln that always advocated a smaller government and more freedom has been found to be increasing it and limiting freedoms. The party of the working man also seems to be more interested in more government control than in its traditional ideals.
The focus is so far gone that there is serious doubt as to what the real objectives of either party are other than to ensure and increase continued power.
The Libertarian Party, the third largest political party in the United States, is committed to providing an alternative. More »

Published Brownsville Herald 9/23/2007
As I read the internet comments and those in the local papers, it seems that the folks perceive that politicians have little or no interest beyond getting elected and increasing their power to control government spending and thereby the control of our lives. The main difference between the predominate parties is the focus. They both seem to be creating a problem or social ill that must be solved immediately or we will not survive. Many issues are important and need to be dealt with but none will end the world as we know it within one elected term.
In fact, over our brief two hundred plus year history, the years that have been most prosperous are years when one party had control over the Congress and the other the Administration.
Looking further back, the great empires fell into decline primarily because of an excess of direct government or religious control/interference over peoples’ personal lives.
Every time when we trade in our personal freedoms and choices one at a time to the government, it is one more step towards that decay.
Frequently, we become so keyed up with the government reducing our personal tax bite a measurable amount or getting a little benefit, we forget the cost. In my last column, I was so surprised by the report of a genuine reduction in the amount of tax collected by the biggest hand in our pockets that I overlooked “the rest of the story”.
As Bobby Wightman-Cervantes so accurately pointed out in his September 10 blog, the State of Texas reformed the overall school funding tax method so as to be more broadly based, and promised a 33% reduction in property taxes for the folks. BISD did reduce tax rates, but by my count, not the 33% promised. Additionally, BISD, along with the other taxing authorities, benefited mightily from the substantial property value increases. More »

Published Brownsville Herald September 9, 2007 

This month completes three years of Common Sense Columns in the Brownsville Herald, and it has been an exhilarating time. In the first two years I was amazed that my articles were accessed more than 60,000 times on my internet site; in just the last year the articles were re-read and reprinted more than 100,000 times. There is a regular readership from Germany, the Russian Federation, Sweden, France, Japan and China to name the most frequent visitors, in addition to the United States. 

It is very humbling to consider these statistics. My goal is that the columns put today’s world in a Common Sense perspective with a suggested solution for some of the ills, and then someone thinks about the issue and works toward a better result. It seems to be getting some attention. 

Among the most read articles are ones that examine our local taxes. The news in the last week or so have been full of this or that taxing authority reducing taxes with the exception of the City of Brownsville. 

On September 5, Cameron County was reported to have reduced the tax rate by $0.0011129 from a current rate of $0.034932 to $0.0338191 per $100 of valuation. It doesn’t quite look like a ½ of a penny cut to me. This would mean that a $75,000 house which may not exist anymore, would have been taxed an amount $261.99 and the same house if the appraisal has not been increased, also unlikely would require that the same modest house be taxed at $253.64 or a savings for one year of $8.35. However, if our taxpayer was like me, the value of his property was also appraised at an amount 10% higher than last year or $82,500. So our beleaguered taxpayer will still have to cough up $279.00 or an additional tax of $25.36. So instead of getting a free breakfast on the county the taxpayer of very modest means, will have to give up breakfast for three days. More likely the case would be the seasoned citizens in our area who live on fixed incomes who might just forgo the prescription this month.  More »