Haha, what do gigantic bloodthirsty oil companies love more than gazillions of dollars in tax breaks? Gazillions of dollars in tax breaks that children must pay for, with their lunch money dimes and schoolbooks and sad faces. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (which sounds about as real as a Texas Commission on Banning Jesus) is studying the possibility of forcing ailing Texas schools to return tens of millions of dollars in property taxes to their friendly neighborhood oil refineries, who claim they are owed all this money as a tax refund on emissions-reducing equipment they were forced to buy. Someone has to pay for these public health upgrades, and it's sure not going to be a bunch of billion-dollar oil companies. THIS IS AMERICA FOR GOD'S SAKE.
The AP reports:
Three commissioners appointed by Gov. Rick Perry may grant some of the nation's largest refineries a tax refund of more than $135 million — money Texas' cash-strapped schools and other local governments have been counting on to help pay teachers and provide other public services.
The property tax refund would mean more pain for some communities after a year in which state lawmakers grappled with a $27 billion shortfall and slashed spending on public schools by more than $4 billion. Nearly half the refund would be taken from public schools, and those in cities where the refineries are based would be hurt most.
Blah blah and the oil company spearheading this insanity, Valero Energy, also donated $147,895 to Rick Perry, that is how these stories go, who even needs children because you cannot burn them up and make them into oil, what good are kids. Oil companies are America's Future, and that is the truth. [ AP ]
get better DZ. i have been fighting a stomach ailment myself all this week and not at all sure i am up to standards.
(i feel like eb farnum when i say things like that)
There is a reason we Texans named Pasadena, Texas as Stinkadena and that's because of the lack of air pollution controls. Rick Perry has been fighting with EPA Region 6 because he believes TCEQ and its flex permits offer equivalent environmental protection. Now TCEQ will take money earmarked for education to help Vallero, Exxon Mobil, and Conoco-Phillips pay for the BACT (best available control technology) that they already paid for in other states out of their own profits.
That's Rick Perry. I got nothing else to offer. I hate the bastard and many of us in Texas are tired of his BS. When the teatards talk about Rick, do a google search of Texas Republicans who support him. Answer: It's only a short list of PACs he sucks on for their money tit.
Your not seeing Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Ted Poe, John Coryn or any other elected State leadership lining up to support Rick. Rick is a gaping asshole and they know it.