Marathon parking; Trump family travel; school vouchers; tax abatements

Marathon parking

Thousands of people attended the Cowtown Marathon only to find that many streets abutting Montgomery Street were lined with hundreds of new no parking signs.

Many of us were forced to park eight to 10 blocks from the starting gate. Not all of us have $10 to spend on parking in the Will Rogers complex.

I can't imagine the inconvenience residents face with these no parking signs on their streets. The no parking is 24 hours, around the clock, each day of the week.

I watched as cars were being ticketed and towed. How much did it cost to have law enforcement ticketing cars?

Why would the city encumber the public street access for people who might need free parking?

What about the residents on these streets who have multiple guests over for a visit? No place to park cars on the street for get-togethers.

I find this to be great overreach by our city. The signs need to come down immediately.

Trump family travel

While Ronald Reagan was president, Ron Reagan Jr. didn’t use the Secret Service when he traveled.

Donald Trump has been in office a little more than four weeks, and Eric Trump has already run up a jaw-dropping $88,000 Secret Service hotel bill on a business trip to Uruguay.

Both Trump brothers made a recent business trip to Dubai and have an upcoming Vancouver business trip, and again we are paying their bills.

How much more will these business trips cost U.S. taxpayers? And for the next four, maybe eight years?

This isn’t a conflict of interests?

School vouchers

Republican lawmakers say that school vouchers are all about giving low-income families the same “choice” to attend private schools as wealthy families.

Even with a voucher for $9,500 (average per pupil expenditure in Texas), what low-income family has the extra cash on hand to supplement that voucher with the additional thousands of dollars it would take to fund private school?

In Fort Worth, private schools can run up to $23,000 per year, per child.

Even as a middle class wage earner in possession of a voucher, I could not afford to send my two children to private school without incurring massive debt.

It strikes me that rather than creating equal opportunities for all children, Republicans want to scam the taxpayers of Texas.

Meanwhile, middle and lower income families will lose out.

Our children will remain in public schools with budgets stripped by vouchers.

Tax abatements

I cringe every time I hear some politician boasting about his efforts to bring Company X to the Metroplex with X jobs and only X years of tax abatements. These taxes are sorely needed to relieve some of the pressure on our already stressed infrastructure (roads, schools, hospitals, etc.).

He may give himself plaudits for his efforts, but I give him a big thumbs down.

This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Marathon parking; Trump family travel; school vouchers; tax abatements."