The Bexar County Commissioners Court may think $5 million isn’t worth fighting over, but the debt highlights broader concerns about transparency and accountability.
The first is risk allocation.
Spurs Sports & Entertainment is a sophisticated party and should bear the risk of unforeseen circumstances, not taxpayers. The Toyota Field agreement rightly put the risk on SS&E.
The draft term sheet for the new Spurs arena, however, contains unacceptable risk-shifting provisions, putting risk on taxpayers. These need to be tightened.
With $800 million in public subsidies for the new arena, and additional billions in development commitments, independent fiscal oversight is essential to protect against cost and risk shifting to the public.
The city and county should create and empower an independent watchdog before the debt and mistrust grow.
Texas vests significant power in the office of lieutenant governor. It sets the legislative agenda and decides which bills make it through to the governor. The most important bill is the state’s biennial budget, which in fiscal 2026-27 is $333 billion.
As co-chair of the Legislative Budget Board and as presiding officer of the Texas Senate, the lieutenant governor creates the initial budget proposals, controls the budget negotiations and approves the final budget.
Therefore, in an election year, it is important to know about the various candidates’ campaign contributions.
For the upcoming runoff election for the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, I analyzed the candidates’ campaign finance reports for this year and discovered that Texas Rep. Vikki Goodwin received 10,597 contributions totaling about $527,546, 99% of which came from individuals. Union leader Marcos Velez received 159 contributions totaling about $$484,059, the majority of which came from PACs and other organizations. In particular, nearly $400,000 was contributed by the Relentless PAC as a pass-through from the Texas Majority PAC — George Soros.
That difference in contribution sources really bothers me, but please draw your own conclusions.
Marion Anderson was a famous American singer, artist and civil rights pioneer.
She once said: “Leadership should be born out of the understanding of the needs of those who would be affected by it.” She died in 1993.
What would she say today about President Donald Trump and his administration who seem to care only for themselves?
I think she would encourage us to vote for candidates who care about all Americans.
Let’s care about everyone on this beautiful planet.