This Saturday at exactly 7:30 PM I was confronted with a moral dilemma as the University of Georgia Bulldawgs lined up to play the University of Texas Longhorns in Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas in their first confrontation in the Southeast Conference.
I was skewered on the horns of a dilemma.
The Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, a truly great governor, has signed into law something called the Virtual Currency Bill which began life as House Bill 4474 as sponsored by Representative Tan Parker a huge supporter and proponent of blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.
The bill was considered by the Texas House of Representatives’ Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services Committee which revised the bill after extensive hearings and public input into a Committee Substitute Bill which they passed with bipartisan support in the middle of April.
We had a blizzard this week. It was gigantic and it was threatening. We were snowed in.
We had massive drifts of snow triggering harsh reactions.
Today, it is 60F +/- and winter is over for the year.
But, it was Hell on wheels whilst it lasted.
But, hey, what Hell do I really snow anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car — brrrrrr!
Texans voted for a constitutional ban against imposing a state income tax in an election held in November 2019. The situation until then had been murky on the issue of a personal income tax relying upon something called the “Bob Bullock Amendment” which allowed the Legislature to set a personal income tax, but only if voters approved it via a statewide referendum and if the new revenue was used exclusively for school property tax cuts and education programs.
Which leads us to the question — how does Texas fund itself?
Long ago, I opined that the United States was facing 50 individual fights as it relates to COVID19.
Now, I opine there will be a like number of “re-openings.” They will be guided by the facts. Let me use a couple of examples.
These numbers are for the time period 2-1-2010 to 5-1-2020. This is three months. These are CDC numbers comparing New York City versus the State of Texas.
Texas has no personal income tax (one of only seven States to have this provision) and it is likely to stay that way based upon the results of Proposition Four on the recent Texas ballot.
Proposition Four, which erects an almost impossible hurdle to the enactment of a state income tax, was adopted by a 74% to 26% margin. [We have had a lot of Californians move to Texas, but 26% in favor of an income tax?] It is worth noting that a total of $3,000 was spent to support the passage of Prop 4.
What is really interesting is to see the opposition to Prop 4: The Austin American Statesman (the local mast of the Texas Communist Party), the Austin Chronicle (the mouthpiece of the Austin Socialist Party, founded in 1981, a year after I moved to ATX, by Louis Black one of the founders of SXSW), the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the Dallas Morning News, the Eagle, the Houston Chronicle, the Longview News-Journal, the San Antonio Express-News, and the Waco Tribute-Herald.
The actual vote was 1,467,994 in favor of Prop 4 and 504,848 against — this in a state with 16MM registered voters shows how tenuous the electorate’s grasp is on things.
March is the greatest month for bluebonnets in the Texas Hill Country. March is the greatest month of the year.
65F today in the ATX for SXSW. 81% humidity, huh?
So, March is my favorite month for the following reasons:
First, we have the end-of-season college basketball matchups — the Carolina Tarheels completing a sweep of the hated Dukies. Hook ’em, Heels!
[OK, I’m a Heels fan, but if they are out, I am a Duke fan. Still, I love when the Heels obliterate Darth Vader Duke.]
“Zion Williamson, I am your father.” If you don’t know who Zion Williamson is, then you are forgiven.
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