The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 34, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 21, 2008 Page: 3 of 36
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THE CANADIAN RECORD
THURSDAY 21 AUGUST 2DDB
State Capital
Highl ghts
By Ei Sterling
TEKAS PRESS ASSOWTION
AUSTIN—In 2006, Texas lawmakers rolled back school
tax rates for maintenance and operations by one-third
over the next two years in an initiative that was to pro-
vide $7 billion in annual property tax relief. A study re-
leased Aug. 14 by Texas Taxpayer and Research Asso-
ciation shows how Texas taxpayers actually did get $7
billion in property tax relief.
The study, Property Tax Relief: The $7 Billion Real-
ty, by the non-profit non-partisan association's research
arm, concludes that "The average Texan's property tax
bill may not be lower today than it was two years ago,
but it is unmistakably much, much lower than it would
have been."
The study points out that relief was made possible
by a swap that included "a complete restructuring (and
ncrease) of the state's business tax, an ncrease in the
state's cigarette tax, and a commitment of surplus funds
n the State Treasury sufficient to provide an overall net
tax cut of roughly $2.5 billion a year." The eight-page re-
port can be accessed at www.ttara.org.
rXDOT signals consoLidatinn plan
The Texas Department of Transportation says it
is considering the creation of four regional centers to
house support functions presently located in 25 dis-
tricts across Texas.
"The consolidation of support functions could cre-
ate a more efficient working environment and gener-
ate a cost savings estimated at $35 million," said Tx-
DOT executive director Amadeo Saenz.
Sites for the regional centers would be Fort Worth,
Houston, San Antonio and Lubbock. Each would sup-
port the district design, construction and maintenance
operations, with districts aligned into the support cen-
ters based on regional proximity.
Saenz said restructur ing would not result in a re-
duction of services at the district level. "TxDOT would
not cut services to the public. Our goal is to provide
services in a way that is smarter and less expensive,"
he said. "Our local offices would continue to operate,
concentrating on our core business functions of con-
struction, design and maintenance."
DPS promotes online renewal
The Texas DPS reminds Texas residents they can
renew their driver's license "without leaving the com-
fort of your computer" by going to the Internet site
www.TexasOnline.com. Driver's license and ID card
holders are required by law to renew their license and
ID card every six years. State law also requires that
they change the address on their license or ID card
within 30 days of moving to another residence. The
DPS offers eligible individuals the option of renew-
ng their license or ID card over the Internet as long
as they are 18 years of age, within one year of the li-
cense or ID card expiring and did not renew online,
by mail or telephone at their last renewal. The online
change of address service fee is $11, but if renewed at
the same time, the total charge is $25.
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TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
HOTTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST
Award Winner
—2007
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Mc Cain matches Bush rhetoric
By Jim Cullen in The Progressiwe Populist
JDHN MCCAIN SHOWED WHY heshould notbe-
come president on August 11 when he urged
NATO to begin discussions on "the deploy-
ment of an nternational peacekeeping force
to South Ossetia," apparently to confront Rus-
sian military forces who were routing the out-
gunned Georgian troops there. McCain also
said NATO should reconsider its previous de-
cision and put Georgia on the path to becom-
ing a member. (Barack Obama offered a more
measured criticism of Russia's intervention.)
Gregory Djerejian, a New York-based
lawyer with experience in the former Soviet
Union and the United Nations, in Belgravi
aDispatch.com (August 11), called McCain's
statement "incredibly poor reasoning by Mc-
Cain, jaw-dropping even by the standards of
the mammoth policy neptitude we've become
accustomed to during the reign of Bush 43
and his motley crew of national security mis-
creants."
George Kennan, best known as the "father
of containment" of the Soviet Union in the late
1940s, wrote in 1997 that the Clinton adminis-
tration's move to bring NATO to the borders
of Russia was a terrible mistake. He wrote
that "expanding NATO would be the most
fateful error of American policy in the entire
post-cold war era. Such a decision may be ex-
pected to inflame the nationalistic, ant West-
ern and militaristic tendencies in Russian
opinion; to have an adverse effect on the de-
velopment of Russian democracy; to restore
the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West
relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy
n directions decidedly not to our liking."
Georgia President Mikheil Saakashvili
came to power in 2004, after leading mass
protests against a fraudulent election with a
Moscow-backed candidate. Saakashvil is a
democrat and str ident critic of the Kremlin,
which had been protecting separatists in the
Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abk-
hazia. But Saakashvili's embrace of the West
and pursuit of NATO membership stirred
Russian suspicions about American inten-
tions in the Kremlin's old empire. President
Bush visited Tbilisi, Georgia's capital, in 2005
and called it a "beacon of liberty." He added,
"The path of freedom you have chosen is not
easy, but you will not travel it alone. ... The
American people will stand with you."
Saakashvil: accepted US help in overhaul-
ng its army, re-equipping it with Israeli and
American weapons. He volunteered 2,000
troops to participate in the occupation of Iraq.
And, believing Bush's rhetoric, he baited the
Russians until the bear attacked, only to find
that the best he could hope for was that we
would fly his 2,000 troops home.
William Kristol, surely one of the most
discredited miscreants n D.C., asked in the
New York Times (August 11), "Will Russia
Get Away With It?"
Yes, Russia will. NATO is occupied in Af-
ghanistan. The balance of the US military is
bogged down in Iraq, in a war Kristol pre-
dicted would be quick and easy. Georgia is
screwed, unless diplomats can talk the Rus-
sians i nto letting go. Paraphrasing the old line
about Mexico, Georgia is "so far from God, so
close to Russia."
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Brown, Laurie Ezzell. The Canadian Record (Canadian, Tex.), Vol. 118, No. 34, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 21, 2008, newspaper, August 21, 2008; Canadian, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth252718/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hemphill County Library.