Op-ed: City of Houston, Harris County – We could do better

By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq

It is anticipated that the 2020 Census will show that more people live in unincorporated Harris County than live inside the City of Houston. If this expectation turns out to be correct, unincorporated Harris County would essentially be the largest “city” in Texas.

Some of the reasons why more people are living outside of the City are: the cost of housing for low income and working class individuals (including the annual increases in property taxes as a result of annual property valuation increases), access to good paying jobs that provide a wage that lifts full time employees above the poverty line and the cost of transportation as a result of an inadequate citywide public transit system. Some people would also include on this list the perception of the public education system and concerns about crime in Houston.

Former Houston City Council Member Peter Brown was one of the first people to write about the city of Houston shrinking in size relative to the rest of the county and what that could possibly mean for the future of Houston. (See Michael Nichols and Peter Brown, Exodus to suburbs has Houston holding the bag, Houston Chronicle, August 30, 2013, pg. B7.)

Change is coming and it’s time for our community to have a foresighted conversation about the future.

City residents are both city and county taxpayers. It’s time for a serious conversation about consolidation of city and county services to reduce duplication and provide taxpayers with better services and property tax relief.

Part of this consolidation conversation must include expanding the size of Commissioners Court to six (6) Commissioners and the County Judge. The goal should be getting this expansion of Commissioners Court in place for redistricting in 2021. That is just four years from now and will require being prepared to go to the Legislature in 2019 to get this done.

It’s time for the County to stop building new Toll Roads. They contribute to flooding throughout the County and City of Houston.

Instead of building more Toll Roads, the County should use excess toll revenue, after debt service, to fund flood control projects and help Metro expand better bus service and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) countywide and regionally to those cities and counties in the Houston-Galveston Area that wish to participate. We also need to connect the City’s two airports and Southwest Houston/Alief to the Metro Light Rail System.

Vehicles pass through EZ TAG lanes on the Sam Houston Tollway …”It’s time for the County to stop building new Toll Roads. They contribute to flooding throughout the County and City of Houston.”

 

With the widespread use of autonomous vehicles by Uber and Lyft on the horizon, the City of Houston and Metro need to figure out how to integrate those new services (as well as traditional cab companies) into our region’s public transit system. (See generally, John Zimmer, The Third Transportation Revolution: The Road Ahead, Medium, September 18, 2016.)

The City and County need to work together with the Houston Technology Center, cable and phone companies and technology innovators such as Google, Amazon and IBM Watson to make our entire county and all the cities in it “smart cities”. We need to do this not just for countywide Wi-Fi and high speed 5G broadband services for faster internet and cellphone service, but for better emergency preparedness, resiliency and recovery as well as to implement cutting edge consumer services technologies to help improve the overall quality of life for all who live, work and visit our community.

If done correctly, this technological transformation could do more than just help synchronize our traffic lights and reduce congestion on local highways; it could create new well paying jobs and help reduce economic inequalities across our region.

It’s time for us to once again lead the way in our nation.

We can’t keep doing the same old things and expect things to get better in Houston or the County.

We have more pressing problems in Harris County that go far beyond spending taxpayers’ dollars to fix up the Astrodome. Those tax dollars would be much better spent investing in flood control projects and expanding all day, quality Pre-K countywide.

We have a broken bail system that needs to be reformed to help stop the criminalization of poverty in Harris County. We need to deepen and expand the Port of Houston to ensure that our region continues to benefit from international trade.

Environmental justice and reducing air pollution and other health hazards in minority neighborhoods across the city and county are also issues that must be priorities for all local elected officials. So too must be addressing homelessness and the poverty across Harris County and in Houston. (See, e.g., Isabel Soifer, Facing up to grinding poverty, Houston Chronicle, September 5, 2015, pg.B7.)

It’s time to eliminate the Harris County Treasurer’s Office and turn its responsibilities over to the Harris County Budget Office. We should also eliminate the Harris County Department of Education and invest those savings in flood control projects and countywide all day Pre-K.

 Streamlining, Consolidating and Modernizing local and county government in Harris County deserves an open, honest and transparent community-wide conversation ahead of the next round of city and county elections. Let’s not wait until redistricting in 2021 to debate the future of governance and public policy priorities in our County.

Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. is a former Democratic candidate for Congress and General Counsel of the Texas Democratic Party who has served as an At-Large Member of the Houston City Council as well as a Houston Community College Trustee. Robinson is also an Associate Professor who teaches at a School of Public Affairs and has taught at two Texas law schools.

Transforming the Texas Education System – TSU Dons Offer Substantial Tips

Funding More All Day Pre-K

By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. & Dr. Michael O. Adams
  • Eliminate the Harris County Treasurer ‘s Office, transfer it’s duties to the County Budget Office, and invest the savings in all day Pre-K through Independent School Districts (ISDs) in Harris County.
  • Eliminate the Harris County Department of Education, transfer it’s functions to local community colleges and ISDs, and invest the savings in all day Pre-K through ISDs in Harris County.
  • Transfer Developmental/Remedial Education funding from higher education to investing more in ensuring that all Texas children statewide are reading and doing math at grade level by Third Grade. This is a better use of these funds. It is more cost effective to get students the academic foundation they need for college and career readiness by Middle School rather than trying to do so after they have graduated from High School.
  • Move the High School Allocation to helping fund all day Pre-K statewide or to increase funding for Middle School math and reading programs.
  • Finally, Community Colleges across the state should work with school districts (ISDs) and Charter Schools to establish more Dual Credit Early College High Schools. Early College High Schools help students better prepare for college while also earning college credits during high school thus reducing the cost of a college education. Making college more affordable must be a priority if we want more college graduates in Texas.

The legislature should also require Texas universities and community colleges to report to the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and local school districts the number of students from rash of their high schools that have to take developmental education courses. Each school district should be required to cover the cost of each of their high school graduate once the current funding for developmental education is reallocated to school districts for all day Pre-K and to help them with K-3rd grade math and reading improvement.

Our goal should be to eliminate the need for developmental education for any Texas high school graduate in the next five to ten years.

Pre-K funding would have to be distributed by a voucher in school districts that don’t have the capacity for more students or interest in starting a Pre-K program.

Statewide all day Pre-K will require strengthening standards for Pre-K providers and teachers to maximize the educational benefit of this effort.

Invert Education Funding

To keep the Texas economy growing, reduce our state’s prison population and help make sure that future generations of Texans have enough personal wealth for their retirement years, we must make sure that more Hispanic, African American and low income Texans-regardless of race-graduate from High School, in the coming decades, college and career ready.

To do that, we must fundamentally transform our state’s education funding system by inverting it.

Instead of the current system of investing hundreds of millions of dollars in remedial developmental education at the higher education level, those funds along with the High School Allotment should be invested in statewide all day Pre-K early childhood education and ensuring that all Texas children are reading and doing math at grade level by third grade.

Based on existing education and brain science research, spending/investing in early childhood education offers the best long term cost benefit and return on investment (ROI) in terms of academic achievement and student success.

Instead of waiting until High School and college to spend extra funding on remedial education and specializations such as languages, those funds would have a greater impact in the earlier years of our education system when children’s brains are at the most formative and important stages of development.

In addition to shifting funding to early childhood education and the earlier years of our education system, the State also needs to ensure that we utilize on-line education to strengthen and expand the State’s prison education system. Research has documented the fact that the more educated a person is when they are released from prison, the less likely they are to re-offend. This is not a call for more funding but rather a call to more efficiently and innovatively utilize the funding already being spent in this area.

If we can reduce the state’s prison population and recidivism rate, that would free up hundreds of millions of dollars annually to reinvest in the State’s education system from early childhood education to college affordability.

In addition to those efforts, we need to move our State’s education system from a farm to factory model to a smart and sharing economy education system. This is a transformation that is bigger than, and goes beyond, the current debates on “teaching to the test”, vouchers and Charter Schools as the answers for school “choice”, and H.B.5 (2015 Texas Legislature Regular Session) as the reform for reducing our state’s High School dropout rate and the solution for increasing college and career readiness.

Community colleges across our state must take on a greater leadership role in this transformation of education in our State.

Community colleges in Texas should pre-admit every elementary school student in their service area and offer them a college scholarship if they graduate from High School on time and with a 2.75 or better Grade Point Average (GPA). The higher a student’s High School GPA, the more successful they will be in college. Pre-admission could serve as an incentive to encourage more students to stay in school, focus on achieving academically and graduating on time.

Community Colleges should work with the School Districts in their community to convert all High Schools in Texas into Early College High Schools. Higher Education research indicates that Dual Credit courses help better prepare African American and Hispanic students for college level academic work.

It’s time to move beyond the old debates, in education, to begin a transformation of the Texas education system that acknowledges and addresses the demographic changes in our student population and the ongoing transformation of our State’s economy as well as that of our nation and the world.

To lead the world, our State and Nation need a new education system built for the “new” and coming “sharing” and cognitive economies. Texas must help lead our Nation into this new reality to maintain our economic and competitive advantage.

Robinson and Adams are professors at Texas Southern University’s Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs in Houston, Texas.

China remains America and the world’s greatest geopolitical threat – not Russia

Mitt Romney may have been correct, in 2012, when he said that Russia was America’s greatest geopolitical threat. Notwithstanding Russia’s current bad behavior, Romney’s assessment is no longer correct.

By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. & Dr. Michael O. Adams

China is now America’s (and the world’s) greatest geopolitical threat. China has allegedly hacked the federal government, something some foreign policy experts consider an act of war. This is in addition to hacking American companies and stealing their intellectual product.

 China wants to be the world’s new singular economic and military superpower. China wants to control the China Sea – a vital global economic artery – through military force so that it can intimidate and dominate its regional neighbors and control global trade.

 While Americans are focused on the Russian email intrigue, China is militarizing man-made islands in the China Sea to eliminate the international norm of freedom of the sea.

The U.S. needs to deploy more aircraft carriers to Asia and help Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Taiwan build missile defense systems similar to the “Iron Dome” system in Israel. America must also strengthen our relationships and alliances in our own hemisphere, especially in Latin-South-and Central America as well as the Caribbean. This includes building on the Obama opening to Cuba.

Additionally, America needs to invest in Africa. We must help the nations on the continent strengthen and grow their economies and fight terrorists and work with India to strengthen its economy and military including a missile defense system.

Rebuilding America’s infrastructure, cutting taxes and deporting undocumented immigrants will not be enough to make America richer so it can spend more on the military.

To create more jobs and grow the American economy to have the funds to reduce the national debt and invest more in the military, there must be people around the world who can afford to buy American goods, services and products, and have the willingness to do so.

America must help build foreign markets for American goods, services and products and help ensure freedom of the sea and sky to protect the movement of global commerce.

Our nation will have to work with Russia, Jordan and the Saudis to bring peace and stability to Syria and the broader Middle East. Part of that effort will have to include strengthening America’s energy security and independence from Middle Eastern oil.

America has been trying to maintain a post WW II structure of the world that is just no longer realistic. The new reality of the 21st Century has to be acknowledged and used to inform the creation of a new American foreign policy framework and global consensus.

 Investigating and responding to Russia’s hacking of the DNC and John Podesta’s email accounts must also include a serious and objective analysis of how to respond to China and North Korea’s hacking of the federal government and American businesses.

The failure to properly respond to prior incidents of foreign hacking, in the United States, is a part of the reason why Russia felt emboldened enough to hack the DNC and John Podesta’s email accounts.

 The reality is that America is not fully prepared to defend the nation against cyber war.

It’s time to put partisanship aside and get to work on properly preparing our nation for the new challenges and adversaries before us and those to come.

 Finally, journalists need to understand that their hyperbolic coverage of investigating the Russia hacking story is strengthening Putin on the world stage as a grand geopolitical strategist, (Ivan Krastev, Russia Isn’t Pulling All The Strings, The New York Times, December 21, 2016.)

 Domestically, so-called establishment and mainstream media outlets are also significantly undercutting their own credibility. Far too many journalists are now engaged in ahistorical partisan advocacy as opposed to objective fact based reporting historically contextualized.

 Putin has destabilized and further divided our nation without firing a shot while elevating his own stature on the world stage. This has been accomplished, in part, by media coverage. The safety and prosperity of our nation depends on how we view the world and respond to its changing needs and circumstances.

♦ Robinson and Adams are members of the faculty of the Political Science Department at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.

 

Where Do We Want To Go?

By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. & Dr. Michael O. Adams

America is getting older and not enough senior citizens have enough money saved for retirement. Social Security and Medicare will not be enough to keep far too many retirees from falling into poverty in their “golden years”.

“Retirement insecurity” needs to be addressed and that can’t be done by gutting public pension funds.

Younger Americans are increasingly people of color and multi-racial. Too many of them are not getting a good enough education to help lift them above poverty and move them into the working class and keep them there.

The strength and effectiveness of our nation’s education system will impact our long term economic growth and national innovation potential. To address this challenge, we need to restructure our education funding priorities to invest more money in Pre-K and early childhood education.

The earlier we can get students reading at grade level and competent in math, the more educationally successful they will be in terms of high school and college graduation as well as career readiness.

America needs A Prosperity and Accountability Agenda focused on encouraging, growing and supporting entrepreneurship and shared prosperity.

America needs A Prosperity and Accountability Agenda focused on encouraging, growing and supporting entrepreneurship and shared prosperity.

Subsidizing poverty is no longer enough. The new goal must be helping and incentivizing people to turn income into wealth.

People need an income that allows them to take care of themselves, their family, pay down household debt, pay off college debt, buy a home, start a business and save for a safe, healthy and quality retirement.

Moving our nation from a fossil fuel economy to an alternative and renewable/clean energy economy will require investing in innovation through research and development as well as economic and tax incentives.

Air pollution, climate change and polluted water are more than environmental challenges; they are health challenges that disproportionately impact people of color and their neighborhoods. These challenges impact both urban and rural communities as well as the suburbs.

Technology, in terms of Big Data, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) are changing the world. These are “forces of change” that will either shape us or be shaped by us. Our preference is these changes/technologies be shaped by us.

To shape change, we have to know where we want our nation to go over the next decade and beyond. Where do we want all Americans to be in terms of achieving the American Dream? What do we want our cities-large and small-to look like? How do we modernize government at all levels to make it “Great” as Jim Collins defines greatness in his book Good to Great for the Social Sectors?

The decisions we make today will shape our future history.

Criminal Justice Reform, Smart Infrastructure, Better Education, A Clean Environment, Healthier Americans through wellness and prevention, and Shared Prosperity through equal pay for equal work, and elimination of the racial income and wealth gaps will help build a better America

To achieve these goals we must build a public policy and political strategic plan. To quote Stephen Covey, Our plan must “begin with the end in mind”.

Robinson and Adams are members of the faculty of the Political Science Department at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.

State of The Democratic Party – The Bigger Questions

By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. & Dr. Michael O. Adams

The Democratic Party has been asking all the wrong questions since losing the 2016 presidential election. There has been the argument that the party’s message didn’t connect with white rural voters because it was too focused on appealing to “minority” democrats; people of color in urban cities, especially on the East and West coasts. This observation misses the fact that in many Midwest cities minority turnout was down.

More importantly, the argument that the Democratic Party needs a message to appeal to white rural voters takes for granted the possibility that the party’s current message does not actually appeal to a broad cross section of African Americans, Hispanics and Asian Americans and that those voters are simply voting for Democrats out of habit and fear of Republicans.

Democrats need to remember that it’s only been a little over fifty years since African Americans migrated from the party of Lincoln to the party of FDR, JFK, LBJ, Carter, Bill Clinton and Obama. Change is not static.

The working class is bigger than just rural white voters. It’s not just white voters who want more than a minimum wage job even if the minimum wage is $15 dollars an hour. That’s just $31,200 a year for a full time worker before federal, state and local taxes.

Democrats need to remember that it’s only been a little over fifty years since African Americans migrated from the party of Lincoln to the party of FDR, JFK, LBJ, Carter, Bill Clinton and Obama. Change is not static.

Where the Democratic Party goes from here is not just a question of who should lead the DNC; should President Obama speak out against the policies of the Trump administration or do we need a new generation of leaders to win back the House, Senate, Presidency, state legislatures and Governors’ mansions?

The real question is where do Democrats want to lead our nation? How do Democratic policy specifics add up to equal a coherent whole?

Rebuilding the party should not be based on a messaging strategy to reach voters based on race, region or gender? Nor should it be based on winning back the presidency just for the sake of winning or changing leaders just for the sake of change.

What is the vision for our nation in light of the technological, economic and geopolitical changes reshaping our world? Will we shape or be shaped by these “forces of change”?

One of the habits of highly effective people is that they begin with the end in mind. (Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People). This should be the starting point for rebuilding  the Democratic Party and it is bigger question than simply what needs to be done to win back the White House in 2020 or who should elected Chairman of the DNC in 2017.

If we agree that technology is reshaping our nation’s and the global economy in ways that go beyond industrial era manufacturing and an education system built for the transition from an agrarian to industrial society, then the future of public education transformation is bigger than a debate over vouchers, school choice and Charter Schools. Democrats must lead this transformation debate and they should start with restructuring education funding at the federal, state and local levels to invest more in early childhood education over a ten-year window.

This education investment strategy should be the cornerstone for a Democratic budget blueprint at the federal, state and local levels.

We know from academic research and brain science that the stronger the academic preparation and foundation at the earlier ages (3-10), the greater the level of student success in High School, College and workforce readiness.

This education investment strategy should be the cornerstone for a Democratic budget blueprint at the federal, state and local levels.

Reforming the criminal justice system and investing in education, coupled with rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure to make it smarter, more efficient and cost effective would free up money to invest in healthcare services focused on wellness, prevention and broad based pre-natal care.

A healthy and well-educated America would drive innovation, economic growth and shared prosperity even more than tax cuts and tax simplification.

Innovation and not just oil is what will be required to make America energy independent and secure.

Innovation and economic incentives and not just regulations will be required to reduce global warming while driving domestic and global economic growth. A clean environment and economic growth are not mutually exclusive nor are they opposite sides of a zero sum equation.

Think about it this way, it’s 2066, fifty years from now, what does America and the world look like and how did we get there? What role did the Democratic Party play in terms of domestic-economic-and international policy, diplomacy and politics to help get us there?

In other words, what is the Democratic Party’s strategic plan for our nation?

Fifty years from now will the current policy proposals and prescriptions being advocated and argued about give us a cleaner, healthier, safer, more peaceful, equitable and prosperous nation and world?

This is the debate that the Democratic Party needs to be engaged in. The questions we must answer are where do we go from here and how do we get there?

– CODA-

We are trying to say the world is changing and Democrats need to be engaged in a bigger endeavor than an autopsy of the 2016 presidential campaign or simply developing a plan to win back the White House. What we are trying to get people to focus on is why? What is the party’s vision for our nation? What is the strategy to achieve it? What are the policy and political tactics needed to get us from here to there? The party’s past and broader history must inform the present but they alone are not enough/sufficient to chart the future. They, along with instincts, values and courage must provide foresight to guide us in building a better, more inclusive and equitable America.

♦ Robinson and Adams are members of the faculty of the Political Science Department at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.

 

Working class voters are not just rural voters – opinion

Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq
Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq

Democrats in DC need to remember that working class voters are not just white rural voters. Working America is multi-racial and lives in urban centers and suburbs as well as in rural America.

All Americans want a good paying job that will lift them out of poverty into the middle class and position them for continued upward economic mobility. All Americans want an opportunity to do better. We all want to live in safe, clean and healthy communities. We want a better life for our children and grandchildren.

Clinton not only lost white rural voters who voted for Obama; turnout was down in urban cities in the Midwest and if the exit polls are to be believed, Hispanics and women voted for Trump in greater numbers than expected.

As Democrats prepare to move forward from the Clinton era, they should look back to the Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson as the blueprint for moving forward. The Obama coalition is the general election version of the primary coalition built by Jesse in 1984 and 1988.

Time changes political circumstances but the Rainbow Coalition is essentially the general election coalition that elected Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Jesse does not get much credit, but he did reach out to rural white voters and so-called Reagan Democrats.

Time changes political circumstances but the Rainbow Coalition is essentially the general election coalition that elected Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Jesse does not get much credit, but he did reach out to rural white voters and so-called Reagan Democrats.

Democrats would be wise to remember that, going forward, all elections are always about “the economy stupid” and how to make it work for all working Americans (and those aspiring to secure a job) as technology and innovation are driving change.

Middle America is more than a geographic place-“fly over country”-or an economic class-“the middle class”-it is a state of mind built on hope for the future and an expectation of competence in a government committed to standing up for the best interest of the people of America.

♦ Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. is a former Democratic candidate for Congress and General Counsel of the Texas Democratic Party who has served as an At-Large Member of the Houston City Council as well as a Houston Community College Trustee. Robinson is also an Associate Professor who teaches at a School of Public Affairs and has taught at two Texas law schools. Contact >>

 

 

Developing a New Black Agenda – A Comprehensive Insight

By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. & Dr. Michael O. Adams

Criminal Justice Reform is an important issue on An Accountability Agenda for the next president when it comes to the African American community.

Congressman James E. Clyburn’s Plan to fight poverty (10-20-30) should be on the agenda, but it is just a starting point. There also needs to be a wealth building and accumulation policy agenda focused on lifting African Americans into the middle class and sustaining them there while ensuring they have real access to economic and entrepreneurial opportunities and upward economic mobility.

Economic growth alone won’t end income inequality. Inequality is a result of both slow economic (distorted) growth and existing public policy decisions. Equal pay for equal work is both a gender and racial issue. Women get paid less than men and African Americans get paid less than whites in far too many instances. This does not even take into consideration the times when race is used to deny employment opportunities.

Fixing Social Security is a major issue, but doing so won’t be enough to address the growing “retirement insecurity” facing aging African American retirees. The attacks on public pension plans disproportionately impact African Americans who over the decades have become a large segment of the public sector employment pool from teachers to local, state and federal government employees. Like many Americans, most of their individual savings were wiped out during the Great Recession and they have little personal savings beyond their pension benefits to sustain them during their retirement years.

The advancement, evolution and expanding deployment of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is a development that has both positive and potentially negative – racial bias- consequences for African Americans. Involvement and oversight in this area must be a priority for not only the next President, but also for African American elected officials at the local, state and federal levels of government.

The Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs has produced a free digital reader on Artificial Intelligence and Racial and Gender Bias. A copy of the Reader can be obtained by emailing a request to Robinson_cg@tsu.edu.

Finally, for the next President, 2020 will be all about re-election, but for African Americans and other people of color and low income urban Americans, it will be the next constitutionally mandated national decennial census and the kick off to the next round of redistricting.

Political power begins with the official census count and urban cities and community based organizations and leaders need to begin preparing now for the 2020 Census count and the redistricting that will follow.

To protect someone’s voting right, the first thing that needs to happen is that they need to be counted during the Census. Census data is what will be used to draw new political districts at the city, county, state and congressional levels.

Not only is the Census count the foundation upon which political maps are drawn, it is also the numerical data that will be used to distribute federal funding – billions of dollars – for a decade.

The Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs is developing a major civic engagement project focused on helping urban cities begin preparing for the 2020 Census.

If you are interested in participating in our Let’s Count – People of Color and Low Income Urban Americans – Project, please send an email to us at robinson_cg@tsu.edu.

This is the 21st Century and African Americans must not be afraid to have an agenda like the Hispanic and LGBTQ communities. We must be willing to speak up and out for our agenda.

As Adam Clayton Powell advocated, we must not be afraid of “Audacious Power”.

President Obama is leaving the White House and for those who didn’t want to speak out too loudly for the Black Community for fear of embarrassing the first Black President, that issue is off the table as of noon, January 20, 2017.

Generic policy prescriptions have not been enough to fix the challenges facing African Americans whether they live in urban, suburban or rural America.

Now is the time to develop A Specific Policy Agenda to address the challenges facing Black America as a new President is about to be sworn in.

 Robinson and Adams are members of the faculty of the Political Science Department at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas.

 

As Texas Democrats, we need to turn our attention to the 2018 – Hon. Carroll G. Robinson

Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq
By Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq

Now that the 2016 presidential election cycle is over, and Donald J. Trump Is our new President-Elect, Texas Democrats need to turn our attention to the 2018 mid-term statewide elections. Wendy Davis, Congressman Henry Cuellar, and one of the Castro brothers should run for statewide office (Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and Controller) and an African American should run for United States Senator.

The Democratic candidate for Senator in 2018 should run on the message “Dr. No Has Got to Go”.

Nothing

What has Ted Cruz done for everyday, hardworking Texans since he was elected to the United States Senate other than vote no on everything, help shut down the federal government and attack President Obama and propose never confirming a new Supreme Court Justice to replace former Justice Scalia? Nothing.

  • What has Ted Cruz done to help Texas teachers, our children and their schools? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help Texas doctors, nurses, health care workers and our hospitals? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help reduce congestion on Texas highways and air pollution in our state? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help improve transportation and infrastructure funding in our state? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help fight climate change, increase the use and development of clean and renewable energy technology and reduce our nation’s dependency on foreign oil and fossil fuels? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help homeowners and the housing industry in our state? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help make life better for women, children, single parents and families in our state? Nothing.
  • What has Ted Cruz done to help reduce and eventually eliminate income inequality in our state and across the nation? Nothing.

Public Safety

What has Ted Cruz done to improve gun safety to help better protect our children in school and all of us in our workplaces and homes? Nothing.

The Second Amendment was never intended to help protect criminals and illegal gun owners.

Legal gun ownership is a constitutionally protected right but the government is also responsible for helping to protect us and ensure public safety.

Taxes on the sale of bullets should be increased and that new revenue be used to help cities prevent gun related crimes.

Ted Cruz has done nothing to help protect a woman’s right to choose, end childhood hunger in our state, end the school to prison pipeline or reform our criminal justice system. Nothing.

Our state needs a Senator who will focus on:

  • helping to create good paying jobs,
  • increasing the minimum wage,
  • growing the Texas economy,
  • expanding access to opportunity and shared prosperity, and
  • working with local law enforcement agencies and community leaders to  help keep our neighborhoods safe.

Public safety must not become a divisive issue. We all have a right to be safe in our homes and businesses and so too do our children when they are out and about.

Trade

Trade must not also become a pejorative. Trade is a cornerstone of the Texas economy. It is an essential ingredient in the Texas growth strategy for rice farmers, ranchers and the overall agriculture economy of rural Texas. So too is comprehensive immigration reform.

Texas is a port state dependent on export and import trade through the ports of Corpus Christi, Galveston, Freeport and Houston as well as through our international airports in Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. So too is our trucking industry, railroads. and energy industry dependent on global trade

Military

Fair and Free trade matters in Texas and is both an economic and national security issue. We have a strong military that must be modernized to protect our people at home and abroad and to help protect our economic interest around the world.

The foundation of our nation’s military might is our economic strength, and that strength is built on fair and free global trade. A system built on the sacrifice of the Greatness Generation who won World War II and is maintained to this day by diplomats and our men and women in uniform.

Through their sacrifices our veterans have earned the right to be cared for and the Veterans Administration must be fully funded and modernized to do so.

Budget

Texas needs a Senator who will make caring for our veterans their number one budget priority along with middle class tax relief, simplification of the federal tax code, elimination of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), corporate tax reform to stimulate economic growth, raising the payroll tax cap to strengthen and save Social Security and implementing a plan to reduce our nation’s long term debt including sending a federal Balance Budget Amendment, a No Budget No Pay Amendment and Congressional Term Limits Amendment to the states for ratification.

Congress should legalize, regulate and tax marijuana and use that new revenue to help reduce the national debt and invest in the effort to help find a cure for cancer.

Texas needs a Senator who will support a regular budget process in Congress and hearings for all Supreme Court nominees.

The Lone Star State

We need a Senator who understands the importance of our cities and universities to economic growth in our state and equal access to those opportunities for all Texans in our diverse and growing state.

Texas is one state, The Lone Star state; urban, rural and suburban. We are a people committed to Freedom, Opportunity and Prosperity.

We believe in helping our neighbors and helping those who need a helping hand to get back up after having been knocked down by the hardships of life or a natural disaster.

Forward Together

The Alamo is not just a symbol of our state, it is a reminder of the selfless sacrifice once again needed to help bring our nation together to help move us Forward Together.

Our state-and our nation-need a Senator from Texas who will work to help bring us together and not just vote no.

Texas, we deserve a Senator who will be focused on helping us (our children, families and businesses) and not on running for President in 2020.

Texas must be the priority for our new Senator.

 

Hon. Carroll G. Robinson, Esq. is a former Democratic candidate for Congress and General Counsel of the Texas Democratic Party who has served as an At-Large Member of the Houston City Council as well as a Houston Community College Trustee. Robinson is also an Associate Professor who teaches at a School of Public Affairs and has taught at two Texas law schools.

Houston oil firm seeks bankruptcy after slump kills $5B spending spree

  |  Bloomberg
Energy XXI launched a joint venture in 2012 with ExxonMobil to explore for oil and gas in shallow waters on the Gulf of Mexico shelf.
Energy XXI launched a joint venture in 2012 with ExxonMobil to explore for oil and gas in shallow waters on the Gulf of Mexico shelf.

Energy XXI Ltd. filed for bankruptcy protection today after spending $5 billion on acquisitions in the years leading up to the crude slump.

The oil and gas explorer sought Chapter 11 protection in Houston, listing $1.8 billion in assets and $3.6 billion in debt and saying it has reached a restructuring agreement with noteholders.

“Energy XXI will eliminate more than $2.8 billion in debt from its balance sheet, substantially deleverage its capital structure and position the company for long-term success,” the company said in a statement.

Energy XXI bills itself as the largest publicly traded independent producer on the Gulf of Mexico shelf. Since its initial public offering more than 10 years ago, the Houston-based company bought MitEnergy, picked up $1.01 billion of properties from Exxon Mobil Corp. and spent $2.3 billion on EPL Oil & Gas, according to its website.

As recently as three years ago, Chief Executive Officer John Schiller was planning to expand as far afield as Southeast Asia, where he said the geology is similar to the Gulf’s.

With oil hovering around $30 a barrel, Energy XXI wound up buying back more than $1.7 billion in debt over seven months to trim its interest expense. In a February regulatory filing, the company said it doubted it could meet financial commitments over the coming year and continue operating. Crude’s recovery to about $40 since then hasn’t been enough.

Schiller, a protege of wildcatter James “Jim Bob” Moffett, had also steered the company into costly exploration projects with Moffett’s Freeport-McMoRan Inc. several miles beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Energy XXI said Schiller will continue as CEO.

The company, which plans to operate as normal during the restructuring, has about $180 million in cash and said it expects to pay suppliers and vendors in full. It asked the court for a freeze on stock transfers in order to preserve tax benefits. Energy XXI has $1 billion in “net operating losses” which help it save on federal and state taxes, according to court papers.

Oil began its slide in mid-2014 when crude was at about $100 a barrel. A glut has driven dozens of energy explorers into Chapter 11, including Magnum Hunter Resources Corp., Samson Resources Corp. and Sabine Oil & Gas Corp. Rig operators such as Paragon Offshore Plc and Hercules Offshore Inc. also declared bankruptcy as demand for their services dropped.

About 35 percent of exploration and production companies worldwide — some 175 firms — are at risk of bankruptcy this year, according to a Deloitte LLP study published in February. Together, these companies have around $150 billion in debt on their balance sheets, according to the report.

Money manager Franklin Resources Inc. was the biggest owner of the company’s second-lien bonds as of Feb. 29, with a 32.4 percent holding.

An Energy XXI subsidiary that leases subsea pipelines off the Louisiana coast remained outside Chapter 11 case and those leases remain intact, according to CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust Inc., which owns the pipe network.

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