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April 27th, 2013:

Saturday video break: You Really Got Me

Apr 27th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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Song #22 on the Popdose Top 100 Covers list is “You Really Got Me”, originally by The Kinks and covered by Van Halen. Here’s the original:

Man, I love these old black and white videos – you can tell this one was dubbed from a VHS tape. And I have no idea what that was after the song, but it was easily freakier than most of what you would have seen on MTV in the 80s. Speaking of which, here’s Van Halen:

Ah, David Lee Roth. Why did you ever leave? I love me some Kinks, but I have to agree that VH owns this song. Here’s Eddie Van Halen playing “Eruption”, if you must hear that before you hear “You Really Got Me”.

And for those of us who remember the 90s:

The sad Ken doll at the end slays me every time. Whoever came up with this idea was a genius.

Tweet My Jobs Houston

Apr 27th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
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On Friday, Mayor Parker delivered the State of the City 2013. Her address was heavy on accomplishments from the past year – there are a lot of them, and there is an election coming up – but there were also announcements of new things to come. One is Tweet My Jobs Houston, and I’ll refer you to the press release for the details.

Mayor Annise Parker announced the launch of a new citywide online jobs platform to help Houstonians find work during her State of the City address. “Tweet My Jobs, Houston” uses innovative technology to combine the popularity of social media and the convenience of a smart phone application. The free service already has more than 150,000 Houston job postings from entry level to senior level corporate positions.

“Houston is the biggest economic success story in America, but the best can always get better,” said Mayor Parker. “This free and user-friendly online tool is the new way to find a job and hire in Houston. Job seekers will have instant and direct access to thousands of jobs via Facebook, Twitter, email or their mobile phone. Starting today, you can walk down the street and view on your smart phone all the jobs available in your immediate proximity. Likewise, this will greatly simplify the hiring process, providing any employer, regardless of size, with the same fast and free access to the best and brightest recruits available. This is truly a game-changer for Houston.”

Tweet My Jobs, Houston is available at www.houston.tweetmyjobs.com or in the application store for your mobile device. Just push a button to find jobs or to post a job listing to every corner of the digital landscape. The unique integration with Twitter and Facebook allows job seekers to receive job notifications via text message, email or through social media. It’s also possible to see if Facebook friends are connected with the hiring company.

The online platform will allow the city to track the number of residents pursuing job opportunities, the type of positions being sought, the level of position and the industries in which job seekers want to work. It will also be able to show the number of jobs employers are posting over time as well as the type, industry and location of available opportunities.

“TweetMyJobs has launched in other cities throughout the U.S. and we have seen firsthand what our mobile platform can do to bolster job growth and economic development,” said Robin D. Richards, Chairman and CEO of TweetMyJobs. “We are excited to bring this unique tool to the 4th largest city in America and we commend Mayor Parker for her proactive approach and desire to adopt the latest recruitment technology available to support her initiatives for job creation in Houston.”

Tweet My Jobs, Houston is being funded through a $300,000 grant from the Houston Housing Finance Corporation. It will be administered by the City’s Office of Business Opportunity (OBO). “The Office of Business Opportunity, through its Houston Business Solutions Center, provides a suite of services to help small and medium businesses get started, sustain and grow,” said OBO Director Carlecia Wright. “Tweet My Jobs, Houston will expand the network of candidates available for hiring, while reducing recruitment costs. This platform is directly aligned with the Mayor’s priority to create and sustain jobs, right here in Houston.”

Mayor Parker’s State of the City speech also included an announcement about a business plan competition to engage individuals seeking to start a new business utilizing resources available at the Houston Public Library and OBO. Participants will be provided with the resources and mentoring to research, develop and present their business plans. They will receive more than $1,000 in in-kind services. There will be three cash prizes ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 for the top finalists.

See here and here for more about Tweet My Jobs., and here for more about the business plan competition. I confess that I’m not terribly up to date on job-hunting methodology, and I tend to do my networking in person. Needless to say, there are limits to that, and one can never be sure when job hunting will need to move up the priority list, so having tools like this available and customized for your area is a very good thing, especially with the inclusion of openings from smaller businesses. Texas Leftist and Nancy Sims, who was at the State of the City address, have more.

Weekend legislative threefer

Apr 27th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

That sound you heard on Friday was Rick Perry stamping his feet if he doesn’t get his way.

Corndogs make bad news go down easier

I can eat these all summer if I have to

Gov. Rick Perry is warning state legislators that it could be a long, hot summer in Austin if they don’t pass his top priorities: funding water and transportation projects and cutting business taxes.

With a month left in the regular session, Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle said Friday that the governor is prepared to bring lawmakers back in special session if they don’t act on his signature issues.

“The governor laid out his priorities in January to ensure a strong economy for the next 50 years, including instituting fiscally sound budget principles, significant tax cuts and making sure Texas has the necessary roads and water infrastructure to support our growing state,” she said. “His priorities haven’t changed.”

Castle said the Legislature still has plenty of time to act before the clock runs out on the 83rd Texas Legislature next month. But she said Perry won’t stand for incomplete work on his top items.

“He’s been very clear that he won’t sign the budget until he signs significant tax relief,” she said. “And if they don’t address all of these priorities by the end of the session, the governor is willing to keep them here as long as it takes to get it done.”

Whatever. Perry is very likely to get the first two items on his wish list regardless of any threats. His ridiculous tax cut, I hope not. I note that story came out the same day as this one about legislative Republicans pushing back against Perry this session. Not a coincidence, I daresay, but we’ll see whether that attitude survives Perry’s meetup with the GOP caucus.

Meanwhile, the House approved a supplemental budget that included more money for public education.

Debate over a routine budget bill in the Texas House became unusually topical Friday as lawmakers touched on a fertilizer plant explosion in West, the murder of two Kaufman County prosecutors and the Travis County district attorney’s drunken driving arrest.

Lawmakers ultimately voted 129-9 in favor of House Bill 1025, which would add $874.9 million to the state’s current two-year budget. The bill includes $500 million more for public schools and more than $170 million in payments to state and local agencies to cover costs related to wildfires in 2011.

Lawmakers filed 20 amendments to the bill ahead of Friday. Nearly all of them were eventually withdrawn or rejected by the House. Members agreed to an amendment by state Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-College Station, that allows the governor’s office to “prioritize” the use of $2 million for recovery efforts after this month’s disaster in West. Kacal’s district includes the town of West.

One of the amendments that was subsequently withdrawn came from Rep. Phil King, who is trying to force Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg to resign. He attempted to use the process to move the Public Integrity Unit from Lehmberg’s office to that of the Attorney General, but did not succeed. I wouldn’t put it past him to try again later, however. In any event, the best thing to come out of this debate was the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the slash-and-burn crowd.

Finally, the Texas Association of Business has endorsed the Zerwas plan for Medicaid “expansion”.

“If we can take the money on our terms and conditions then it is something we ought to do,” said Bill Hammond, president of the group, whose board voted in January to oppose expanding Medicaid as called for under the federal Affordable Care Act. The basis of Zerwas’ plan is to negotiate a deal that allows the state to use federal Medicaid expansion dollars to subsidize private coverage, which Hammond said is a workable solution. “We encourage them to march to Washington to try to cut a deal,” he said.

House Bill 3791, authored by Zerwas, R-Simonton, has four parts: It outlines what the state’s request for a federal block grant to reform the current Medicaid program could look like; identifies Medicaid reforms that Texas could implement already, such as cost-sharing requirements and co-payments; sets up a separate program to potentially draw down federal financing to help individuals at or below 133 percent of the poverty level find private market coverage; and sets up an oversight committee for both programs.

“This is not an expansion of Medicaid — this is the creation of a new program that leverages our private sector,” Zerwas told the House Appropriations Committee, which voted 15 to 9 on Tuesday to move the legislation out of committee and continue debate on the House floor.

Like I said, I’m lukewarm on the idea, but it is the best we could get at this time. Lord, we need a new government in this state.

Senate examines pensions

Apr 27th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
2 comments

This sort of thing always makes me nervous.

Legislative proposals to shore up Texas’ two largest public pension funds could require teachers and state employees to work years longer than they must today to get full retirement benefits.

For example, a teacher who started in the classroom at age 23 may now take full retirement at age 52; that would increase to age 62 under House and Senate bills that are set for committee votes Monday.

Workers nearing retirement, such as those 50 or older, would not be subject to the new rules. But the changes would apply to about half of the active school employees, including everyone from cafeteria workers to superintendents, and about 64 percent of state employees.

Such major changes are necessary to protect the pension funds for the long term, given rumblings that taxpayers can no longer afford them, said Senate State Affairs Committee Chairman Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock.

Under Texas’ pension plans, the state and active members contribute a portion of pay to the funds, the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the Employees Retirement System of Texas. That money is invested over time and guarantees a monthly check to a retiree until death.

“There is real hostility toward pensions. Even though we’ve done a better job in Texas, other states haven’t,” Duncan said, and that is fueling a national effort to convert public pensions to 401(k)-type retirement plans in which the employee bears all the risk of saving enough money for retirement.

New accounting rules could soon make the pensions’ funding gaps look a lot bigger, which, in turn, would expose the pensions to the political attacks that so far haven’t gotten traction in Texas.

“We can survive this if we make fundamental changes,” said Duncan, who has been an ally of public employees and carries a lot of weight on pension issues in the Capitol. “You just can’t throw money at it. You’ve got to make fundamental changes.”

But people who would be affected by those changes say the state is reneging on its promise to public servants.

“There is no excuse for defaulting on the framework of expectations that we have been working under for all these years,” said Hart Murphy, a high school social studies teacher in Austin.

Sen. Duncan’s bill is SB13. It has changed since that story was written. The TCTA has an update:

The TRS bills imposing a minimum age of 62 for full retirement on about half of current school employees passed out of committee Monday. SB 1458 passed the Senate State Affairs Committee on a vote of 6-3, and HB 1884 passed out of House Pensions on a 5-2 vote.

Both bills continue to include these major provisions:

  • a new minimum age of 62 for full retirement benefits for those not meeting the grandfather provision
  • a grandfather provision that exempts employees who, as of Aug. 31, 2014, are at least age 50, or meet a Rule of 70, or have at least 25 years of experience
  • a requirement that the employee meet the Rule of 80/age 62 criteria in order to be eligible for levels 2 or 3 of TRS-Care health insurance (A retiree under age 62 would be eligible only for the catastrophic coverage of level 1.)
  • an increase in active member contributions to TRS to match an increased state contribution
  • a benefit increase of 3 percent for retirees who retired prior to Sept. 1, 1994, capped at $100 per month

The bills were both amended to reduce the penalty for retiring under age 62 from 5 percent per year to 2 percent. This change would apply to employees who have at least five years in the system as of Aug. 31, 2014; anyone with fewer years, and future hires, would still be subject to the 5 percent reduction.

So, for example, a person not included in the grandfather provision, but who has at least five years of service credit by Aug. 31, 2014, who met the Rule of 80 but was only age 57 at retirement, would have had their benefit reduced by 25 percent (five years times 5 percent) under the previous version; under the new version, the penalty would be 10 percent (five years times 2 percent).

The minimum age of 62 is favored by some because of the large positive actuarial impact it has on the TRS pension fund. TCTA and other groups have met extensively with the bill authors (committee chairs Robert Duncan and Bill Callegari) and other legislators, and we can report that these lawmakers are working with members of the budget conference committee to try to get a higher state TRS contribution, which would help further improve the bill (such as extending the grandfather and/or providing an increase to more retirees).

At the very least, the state can kick in more to TRS. If the employees are being asked to sacrifice, the state can give up something as well, to minimize the impact. It’s only fair. The state made a promise and it needs to do everything it can to keep that promise.

Who’s afraid of Battleground Texas?

Apr 27th, 2013
by Charles Kuffner.
1 comment

The Republican Party of Texas for one, if you believe their fundraising appeals.

In a heated fundraising letter sent this week to donors statewide, the Texas GOP calls the new Democratic voter-mobilization effort “a clear and present threat to you and your family.”

“They’re coming to take away your guns,” the letter signed by GOP state chairman Steve Munisteri says. “They’re coming to confiscate more of your paycheck. They’re coming to hijack your rights and freedoms.”

[…]

The GOP letter urges Republicans to give anywhere from $15 to $5,000 so the party can “immediately undertake our own effort to identify thousands of Texas conservatives.”

The letter warns that the former Obama operatives “have become masters of the slimy ‘dark arts’ of campaigning: creating massive databases; collecting information on every voter and non-voter; and then using that information to do whatever it takes to drive these voters away from Republican candidates and principles.”

Not to be outdone, the Battleground Texas folks are now using the Munisteri letter as their own fundraising tool. “I’ve been around Texas politics for a long time, but I have never seen desperation like this,” said Christina Gomez, digital director for Battleground Texas, in a statement that features an image of the GOP letter and asks Democrats to chip in to help.

Politics sure is easier with a boogieman, isn’t it? I know, this doesn’t mean they’re actually afraid of Battleground Texas, but it pays to make the seething masses believe there’s something to fear out there. It would be strange if they didn’t do something like this.

And speaking of boogiemen, here’s Greg Abbott taking things to the logical extreme.

Abbott also said a group working to make Democrats more competitive in Texas represented a “far more dangerous” threat than anything uttered by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The comments came during a lunchtime speech to the McLennan County Republican Club that featured frequent criticisms of President Barack Obama’s efforts on gun control, health care reform and environmental regulation.

[…]

Abbott also weighed in on Battleground Texas, a group formed by veterans of Obama’s presidential campaigns hoping to make Democrats more competitive in Texas, where the party hasn’t won a statewide election in nearly two decades.

“One thing that requires ongoing vigilance is the reality that the state of Texas is coming under a new 
assault, an assault far more dangerous than what the leader of North Korea threatened when he said he was going to add Austin, Texas, as one of the recipients of his nuclear weapons,” Abbott said. “The threat that we’re getting is the threat from the Obama administration and his political machine.”

Battleground Texas realizes Republicans can’t win a presidential election without Texas’ 38 electoral votes, which makes the state “the last line of defense” in protecting the country’s future, he said.

In an interview after the speech, Abbott said he made the comparison to North Korea partly because he doesn’t think the country is a serious threat to the U.S. He also wanted to stress the idea that “complacency kills” in politics, he said.

“Republicans who are complacent are kidding themselves if they think Battleground Texas is not a threat,” he said.

Yes, I’m sure that’s what you meant, Greg. Hey, you fearmonger with the bad guys you have, not the bad guys you wish you had, am I right? Now it’s on us to give them all something to be afraid of.