Milking The Taxpayer Yet Again

Regarding "Pre-K Tax Won't Make Ballot" (Saturday Front Page), the article describes how the 14th Court of Appeals rejected the HCSRC (Harris County School Readiness Corp.) lawsuit to force County Judge Ed Emmett to put the tax before voters this fall.

 

The article quotes Judge Emmett as objecting to the strange manner in which HCSRC attempted to force this initiative onto the voter ballot, and documents that this private corporation inflated the petition with tens of thousands of unverifiable signatures.  What is even stranger, though, is that neither Judge Emmett nor the numerous prior articles about this case ever drew attention to the impropriety of their actions, much less mentioned that the major beneficiary of this very vague proposal would have been: HCSRC.

 

Perhaps Judge Emmett was obliged to restrain his comments given his position as the county official challenging whether the initiative would be allowed on the ballot.  I don't think our news organizations - Chronicle included - were required to be so discrete.  Voters were entitled to know that the HRSRC was promoting a $20 million yearly tax that was going to line its pockets before they decided to sign the petition.

 

Here's hoping that if HRSRC tries again, that the Chronicle will shine a big old spotlight on them, and ask the tough questions.

 

Pete Smith, Cypress