Monday, August 08, 2005
Austin Pity Limits
Despite an unclear exigency, Sunday's online Statesman proffered reader suggestions on homelessness. Besides the suggestions from Jim Willard, the Statesman readers' recommendations are missing two key elements of homeless rehabilitation: accountability for the homeless person and the will of the homeless person.
A few years ago I took in a man in his early 60's from my church who was in need of housing. He had bounced around between several different living arrangements and seemed to be down on his luck. As an act of grace, I took in "Gene" with the understanding that he would actively look for work while the church benevolence fund would help him get by until he had procured employment.
Unfortunately, "Gene" decided he would rather sit around the house all day, not look for work, surf gay pornography websites, and attempt to use various forms of manipulation and stalling to extend his charity. The first month he was short on the rent and bills, after that he paid nothing for rent, utilities, or food. When I finally made him meet with our pastor, "Gene" decided it would be a good idea to slander me and attempt to distort the facts to paint me as the villain. Of course, my pastor and I both knew the truth and "Gene" was soon out of my house and out of the church. (Which, by the way, is a faithful application of II Thessalonians 3:6-15 and I Corinthians 5). With no job and a bad attitude, "Gene" is on his way to living under a bridge.
I suspect the majority of other homeless people are like "Gene". "Homeless" is probably a misnomer, because they likely have a place they could stay, but they are such a pain in the butt that they are not wanted there. Or they do not want to live by the rules of the house. Certainly, there are cases of mental illness or substance abuse that require treatment. But even in these cases, the individual has to want to change.
The enlightened do-gooderism evident in most of the Statesman passages entirely misses this key point and illustrate why "progressive" thinking on this issue has been such a failure. What is needed is a demand from homeless care providers that the recipients consistently uphold productive attitudes and behaviors. If the behaviors and attitudes do not change, the recipient is cut off from benefits. That will help influence the recipient's will in a positive direction.
To learn more about someone taking the right approach to ministering to the homeless, check out Mission Possible's New York Avenue Christian Center.
Tina Benkiser Agrees With Me
Last Tuesday, Tina Benkiser, Chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas, paid a visit to the Austin Townhall Conservatives meeting. I’ve seen Ms. Benkiser speak in other venues and have always been impressed. Holding forth on topics as varied as minority (or “non-traditional Republican voters”) outreach, voter fraud, county parties, and how the Texas legislature has a Republican majority, but not a conservative majority, Ms. Benkiser was effervescent, energetic, well-informed, and clear spoken.
She mentioned that the 2006 elections are going to be tough, as the Republicans will need to mend a lot of fences because of the session. The issue, of course, is the unpleasant property tax/school finance issue.
I mentioned that I was frustrated at how the issue has been framed only in terms of revenue and not spending and asked if there was any hope that the issue could be reframed in time to prevent any new taxes. She said that she totally agreed with my frustration and pointed out that, in 2003, the leadership and legislature did a great job of holding the line on taxation and reducing spending. However, that has not happened now because the teachers unions and public school administrators are extremely well organized. What is needed, she opined, was for Republican activists to get more engaged in the process to help bring about a happier result.
Certainly, citizen activism should always play a part in key issue of the day. However, grassroots organizations and think tanks, like the Americans for Prosperity and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, have been very engaged in education spending, property tax relief, taxpayer funded lobbying, and the like over the last couple years. Furthermore, I have a life outside of blogging and politics. Right now, I’m working nearly 60 hours a week at my modest, state bureaucrat job. I have to cut my lawn, service my car, be involved with my church, try to run around Town Lake two or three times a week, occasionally have a social life, etc. (of course, married people with kids, a key Republican demographic, are even busier). So, I vote for politicians to do most of the heavy lifting for me.
In other words, the Republicans in Austin need to get a spine and stand up to the Mafioso mentality of the teachers unions and public school administrators. They are the ones responsible for driving up inflation-adjusted per-student spending by 20% in the 1990’s and by 300% since 1970. Public education spending accounted for over 2/3’s of my property tax bill this year. If ever there was a candidate for regime change, the Texas public education bureaucracy is it.
Furthermore, the freshman class of 2002, who came into office when the legislature changed hands, has now had 5 kisses at the pig to get school finance done, and it hasn’t happened. Education spending continues to spiral upwards and my property taxes are still going up.
So, as a Republican primary voter, I will be looking for candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, State Representative, and State Senator who have a track record of fighting back well entrenched opponents and will bull-doggedly frame the debate in terms of spending first. The Texas Federation of Teachers and the Texas Association of School Administrators are not tea and crumpets professional societies. They are brass knuckled political operators and must be stood up to by resolute men and women. Going around bragging about how much Republicans are increasing education spending, as the Legislative Republican Caucus did last spring, is nothing but appeasement. The legislature needs more conservatives, of course, but also people who know how to fight hard and ruthlessly wage political warfare.
Texas Republicans, and the leadership triumvirate of Perry/Dewhurst/Craddick, are at a critical inflection point. If they cannot properly solve the school finance/property tax issue, holding together a governing majority will be tenuous at best. I am not saying the Democrats will be running things again, but that the Republicans will descend into such fierce in-fighting over how to solve the problem, that the ambient acrimony will cloud consensus on other issues. The only mitigating factor thus far is that the economy is pretty good now and most voters have jobs that pay well enough to keep ahead of inflation and property tax increases. But eventually, the economy will hit another downturn and property taxes will be more painful than ever. Lord help the politicians in office when that day comes.
To forestall this fate, Texas Republicans must summon up some moxie and consistently ask these questions about school finance:
- “Where is the money going?”
- “Why are we spending it?”
- “What are we getting for it?”
Postscript: For more background, read more on this topic in my previous post, Ho Hum….Another School Finance Session.
8/09/05 update: I forgot to include a link to another previous post on this topic, Special Obsession.
