
Texas Jeff
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Big Sandy Creek near Jonestown is up 4 ft in the last 30 mins. The flow is 10x higher than it was 30 mins ago.
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I visited the National Archives in May. Very cool. Takes about an hour with a timed ticket. I am amazed that the common folk can get that close to the real founding docs. However, it would kinda not be America if everyone couldn't go take a look for themselves. If you would like to check it out from home, the Archives has a great website with document scans and articles about the docs. The website has smaller versions that you can click on or larger ones you can download. The actual documents are pretty faded, although the Constitution is in better shape than the Declaration and the Bill of Rights. https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs The scans on that site look almost exactly like what I saw in person on display. I was looking at the scans before I went and I saw a handprint in the corner of the Declaration. Sure enough, when I got there, you could see the handprint.
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Lake LBJ has gone up about a foot and a half over the last hour. Looks like the first water has made it about that far.
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Within minutes of yesterday's bill passage, I received a propaganda email from the Social Security Administration, the text was the same as their post here. I'm not sure why I got it. I'm not due for benefits for a long time. I did request a social security statement of past wages and an estimate of future benefits a few years ago, the thing they used to send in the mail. The email talks about how the bill "ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits". Well, currently about 64% of seniors already don't pay tax on SS benefits. So about 25% of seniors may get a new tax benefit in the form of an increased deduction. The email also says "The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples. Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned." I'm reading the bill and I don't think the first sentence is true. The second sentence is true, they provided a new $6000 exemption for those over 65 that qualify. The second sentence (the deduction) is what they are claiming provides the first sentence (elimination of SS tax). They are stating it twice as if they were separate benefits. The new $6000 deduction expires in four year and is phased out for above certain income levels ($75,000 for individuals, $150,000 for couples). It's unclear to me if you have to itemize to get the deduction or if it is more like an exemption. Had they NOT included this section in the bill, the $4000 personal exemption would have come back for everyone below the exemption phaseout income level, which was $250k-$300k in 2015 depending on your filing status. Seniors are going to read this email and think that Trump eliminated tax on Social Security. It will be used as a rallying cry in the mid-terms. No such thing happened. One in four seniors may get a new benefit, and had the government done nothing at all then most of us would have gotten a benefit. And the administration is pushing out misleading information presented as official government communications. This is Trump's America.
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Texas Jeff started following Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran. , Uniform Pron , ICE activity/raids and 3 others
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Evidently a woman accidentally shot herself in the hand yesterday in the produce section of the Mueller HEB. She allegedly had a gun in her purse and she reached in and whammo. Out of all the HEBs in Texas, I would have never guessed that the Mueller location would see a self-shootout.
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Most likely. I've never watched an entire car race at any level and I thought it was great. It is a movie made to be seen in a theater. It would be cool at home but it looks great on a big screen with great sound. Doesn't have to be IMAX, but it's a reason to get out of your house. They visit a lot of F1 tracks, and of course they are different, which adds some beauty and variety to the film.
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American Hustle. I enjoyed the story. Amy Adams was a braless wonder.... I wanted to see the story behind this scene that someone recut to be the Texas welcome party to the SEC:
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The destruction of America's public education system
Texas Jeff replied to Captainant's topic in Cloak Room
Ideally the tax you pay should pay for everything .. teacher supplies, the teacher, the building. Austin ISD raises plenty of money through taxes to pay teachers enough. But the state takes half of it away, and so there it goes. I've thought about ways of getting teachers more money so they can afford to live in the community they serve. I welcome everyone's ideas. The only thing I've come up with is gift cards or just handing over cash, since district revenue is strictly controlled by the legislature, and they are not even covering increases in inflation. I get that not everyone can donate. And it's also not fair to schools with higher numbers of poor kids, and our schools are very economically segregated. All true. About 5-10% of my wife's students give her a gift card at the end of the year, and most cards are $10-$20, and about half of them are Starbucks, and we don't drink coffee. This is at a 10% eco-dis school, so not the poorest parents in town. If you do like a teacher and want to give them something at the end of the year, HEB or Amazon cards are probably a better choice. If your school is hitting you up for teacher gifts 3-4 times a year and you are giving $20 each time, you are in the top tier of givers. I have seen good teachers leave for a non-teaching job with 2x or 3x the pay. Teachers want to teach, but they also want to someday own a house and maybe have a newer car. If your school is known for a good program ... a good robotics program, or a good band, or chemistry or advanced mathematics ... that good program that the school is "known" for is likely the result of the efforts of 1 or 2 teachers at the school. Many "good" schools are one or two teacher attritions away from losing their best programs. Should it be this hard to collect enough money to build good schools, attract and keep teachers, build good programs, and ensure that all kids have access to a good education and all teachers can afford to live in the communities they serve? Seems harder than it should be. -
Generally the administration proposes a budget and the board adopts a tax rate to meet the budget. Sometimes it needs voter approval. If the admin needs more money to pay teachers, they have to look at the O&M component of the taxes. If the admin needs more money to build schools, they have to look at the I&S component of the taxes. For the money for operations part, which is called "operation and maintenance" or O&M, there are three components: 1. First there is a basic rate, decided by the board but limited by state rules. This is subject to recapture. In AISD this is about 50% of the money raised. 2. Next there are an optional 8 "golden" pennies. If the board uses those then it gets to keep all of the money they generate. 3. Next there are an optional 9 "copper" pennies. If the board uses those, then they are subject to recapture and in AISD's case about 75% of the "copper" money goes to the state. AISD was already doing 1 and 2 and passed 3 as Prop A last year. AISD is maxed out on operations tax. They can not raise the rate unless the state changes the rules. The "basic" rate is getting compressed, so that part of the tax rate is going down. For the bond part, which is called "interest and sinking", or I&S, generally the administration works with a community committee to create a set of projects and an estimate of the cost for those projects. The proposal goes to the voters and they either approve it or do not approve it. If approved, the administration and board have permission to borrow those dollars to create those projects. They are supposed to stick with the "bond book", which is a description of what will be built. The bonds are sold at an interest rate and must be paid back. The board sets the I&S tax rate at a level sufficient to pay back the interest and principal on the bonds. This works just like buying a house and paying a mortgage. The board sets the rate so that the total amount of the taxable property in the ISD times the rate is enough to service the debt. The state sets a limit of 50 cents for the tax rate for the I&S part. So once a district has borrowed so much money that it requires 50 cents in tax to service the debt, the school can not issue more bonds. The districts you see that seem poor but have nice new football stadiums are probably at the 50 cent limit. If a school district just issued bonds to build schools and later paid off all of the debt, the I&S tax rate would drop to zero. But usually school districts replace debt as it is paid off with a new bond, so that they can say "your tax rate is not changing" .... but what they don't say is that your tax rate would be going down if you didn't pass the new bond. AISD's interest and sinking rate is currently about 13 cents. They could borrow a ton more before hitting the 50 cent limit. But they are choosing not to do that, for a variety of reasons.
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I saw Elio today. Felt like Pixar made a movie for the parents of kids, not necessarily for kids. There were some 80's and 90's movie shout outs for older folks like me. Carl Sagan and the Voyager probes are featured, which was great for me since I remember Carl Sagan and the Voyager probes. Maybe not as great for a five year old who is wondering who the heck is talking. I liked the movie, but I've been down the parent path. Kids can probably skip this one. The animation was fantastic. They need stories with a broader appeal. Kid fish gets lost. Dad fish has to find kid fish. Something like that. The trailers, all for other kid's movies, all appeared to suck. Not a great summer for the munchkins at the movies.
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It's important to distinguish between bond money and money for school operations. Last year, Austin ISD passed Prop A, which was money for school operations. By law, they can tax up to nine copper pennies. The pennies are called "copper" because they are subject to recapture. So in this case, you are correct, we had an election to raise our taxes. Austin ISD got $40 million per year out of the deal and the state got $130 million per year. It was not a bond election. The money for school operations part is maxed out. The district cannot raise taxes any more for this portion. And, it is subject to "compression", which means that the rate gets reduced so that the tax money raised cannot go up by more than 2.5% per year. The money for bonds is different. When you vote for a bond, you are giving permission for the school district to borrow the amount of the bond. In 2022, Austin voters gave permission for the district to borrow about $2.4 billion dollars and use the money to improve schools. The district went through years of planning after the election and started to borrow the money, and now projects are under way. Each year, the district raises tax money to pay back the bonds, but like a mortgage they don't pay it back all in one year. Your bond tax dollars go to interest and principal on the loan, just like on your house. Most importantly, NONE of the bond money is sent to the state for recapture. This is one way that poorer school districts get those nice football stadiums. We send part of our "school operations" money to the state, and the state sends part of that to the poorer district. That district does not have to raise as much money for school operations. So they turn around and crank up their tax for "bond projects", which turns out to be the super nice football stadium. I'm not against those districts building decent facilities, but something is wrong when the "rich" district has crapola facilities and the "poor" district has a Jumbotron.
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I would be OK with more money for schools if the schools actually got the money, and if schools were free to raise more money, with voter approval, to pay teachers what they think they are worth. I'm OK with Austin ISD's school bond money and I wish they would ask for more, as I think the 2022 bond is underfunded. All of the bond money stays in the district. It is bullshit that I pay "property tax", which is labelled as "school tax", which is actually "money to be paid to the state for education", which may become "money to put razor wire in the Rio Grande". It should be illegal to collect a tax for one purpose and confiscate it for some other purpose. If the state wants Robin Hood money or private school tuition or more razor wire, they should do it via a state-wide tax.
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When my kids were young we bought all of the Harry Potter books on CD. Our kids loved the books but the audiobooks were awesome too.
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I love it when a taxing authority says "Well, we are raising our tax 10% but we are a small part of your overall tax burden." Think about a property tax bill split equally among 10 entities. Each has a small amount of your tax burden, and each can raise their part 20% and claim that it's just an overall tax increase of 2%, just a cup of coffee a day. If all 10 entities do this, then the overall tax goes up by 20%. The taxing authority says "Hey, we don't set your taxes, we only set the rate." The county assessor says. "Hey, we don't set your taxes, we only set the appraised value." The state legislature says "Hey, we don't set your taxes ... we just cap what can be done at the local level and take half of your school tax for whatever we want." I don't mind paying taxes and if it were up to me school taxes would be a lot higher. But is disingenuous for a local politician to say that their tax raise is just a negligible part.
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Elon Musk: Nazi traitor piece of shit [Confirmed]
Texas Jeff replied to MaybeACoordinator's topic in Daily Texan
For those of you not in the Austin area, Waymo is all over west campus and up and down Lamar. I used to see 1-2 per day but it's now up to 7-10 per day. A few days ago, I was stopped at a light on 29th st behind two Waymos, and a Waymo passed us going the other direction. Unlike human drivers in Austin, the Waymo goes when the light turns green because the robot is not doing the Wordle while waiting at the red light. It's a great solution for students that don't have a car, but need transportation a few times per week. It's integrated with Uber so that you don't know if you are getting a human or a robot when you order Uber. You opt-in to Waymo in the Uber app and if one is available It just shows up. It's very impressive technology. I think Tesla's Robotaxi has about a year to catch up before Waymo becomes the Kleenex/Xerox of the self-driving taxi industry. I will be very surprised if Tesla does it. I expect Elon to abandon the effort in a year or two and say "we are focusing on robots" or something like that.
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