Colleyville water, minimum wage, no energy subsidies, give Trump a chance, Cowboys university

Colleyville water

The newly elected Colleyville City Council members have fulfilled their campaign promise of restructuring our high water rates.

The new members promised to reduce our water rate, and residents voted based on the campaign rhetoric.

The “new water rate” will increase a water bill for residents who conserve water, and residents who use excessive amounts of water will now see a decrease in their bill.

Water is an essential natural resource upon which all life depends; conservation should be encouraged, not penalized.

I will gladly pay the increase.

Thank you Richard Newton, Bobby Lindamood, Tammy Nakamura and Chris Putnam for a job well done!

Minimum wage

I must respond to the Sunday op-ed (“Who believes a Texas minimum wage hike would be free?”), by economist Vance Ginn and research associate Elliott Raia, which was critical of efforts to raise the minimum wage.

The minimum wage in Texas is $7.25 an hour. I would feel more kindly toward their position if Ginn and Raia took a pledge to reduce their salaries to minimum wage for six months, so they can personally experience the crushing poverty many of our fellow citizens, the working poor, endure.

Just so the authors can budget accordingly, a full-time minimum-wage job pays $1,160 monthly. Actual take-home is less after taxes.

Maybe the authors would have a change of heart after experiencing for themselves what they are promoting for others.

No energy subsidies

Trump administration EPA director candidate Kathleen Hartnett White’s echo-chamber excuse to end all subsidies for renewable energy should have been a bit more well-thought-out.

Her one-size-fits-all policy of cutting energy subsidies must include the struggling coal plants she once helped push through during Gov. Rick Perry’s period of coal-mania.

Unprofitable coal plant owners demanding massive tax breaks represents just another indirect energy subsidy and should be flatly denied.

White’s history with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality clearly shows her sitting in the lap of the fossil fuel industry, a stance she will be expected to resume if she is appointed to the EPA’s highest post.

So if the EPA claims to want to level the playing field for all energy sources, there can be no more picking winners and losers. To do otherwise would simply show her clear support for polluters is as strong as ever.

Give Trump a chance

Regardless what Donald Trump does, the reports are negative.

Give him a chance.

Cowboys university

Why is it that a public university is giving nearly $8 milllion to the Dallas Cowboys just to have the letters “UNT” associated with them?

You know that billionaire Jerry Jones and the many millionaires on the Cowboys certainly don’t need the money. They should be giving that kind of money to public colleges so the colleges don’t have to keep raising tuition so high.

This story was originally published December 5, 2016 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Colleyville water, minimum wage, no energy subsidies, give Trump a chance, Cowboys university."