Abbott lacks vision
Re: “Abbott officially joins race — Property tax relief plan at center of governor’s reelection bid,” Nov. 10 news story.
Except for the prematureness of Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign announcement, it came as no surprise that he is seeking a fourth term as governor. What is surprising is that his focus lacks vision, imagination and innovation.
Additional tax relief to owners of real property whose assets have increased in value on an ascending scale pales in the face of the need of government assistance to children and adults — including those who work full time — in order to make ends meet.
As the campaign gets underway, I would hope that the governor will tell us on a per capita basis the dollar amount spent on each apprehension, detention and removal or prosecution of individuals found to be living in Texas without lawful residency. I suggest that the amount will be shown to be quite astounding.
Opinion
William F. Sanderson Jr., Dallas/Lake Highlands
Education and pixie dust
We can do better than Gov. Greg Abbott’s proposal to end property taxes to fund education by eliminating all taxes entirely. Here’s how the plan would work: Everyone in Texas should identify their favorite tree, whether it be a live oak, hickory, pecan, mesquite or even a crape myrtle and proceed to cut off a small branch about one to two feet long.
Then, at the time designated for Abbott’s inauguration for a fourth term as governor, we all go out to our front porches and waive our branches using our best technique gleaned from watching Harry Potter movies.
Voila! Magic pixie dust will instantly descend upon Texas and fund great education for our kids, streets free of crime, quality health care for all and the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans will play each other in the Superbowl.
Donald Vincent, Plano
Dallas thinks small, slow
Re: “Now’s the time to move City Hall — It’s not a debate about sentiment or architecture; it’s about economics,” by Albert C. Black Jr., Nov. 7 Opinion.
This Opinion piece begins, “Dallas has always prided itself on thinking big and moving fast.” Now we’ve opened a Pandora’s Box about tearing down the I.M. Pei-designed Dallas City Hall for a possible sports arena and entertainment district. We’ll likely have to live with the feeling that Dallas seems to humiliate itself by thinking small and moving clumsily.
The writer goes on to note this is not a debate about architecture or sentiment, but states it’s about economics and then follows, “it’s about stewardship.” Well, it is about architecture plus economics plus stewardship, that together is our vision of who we are as a community. Stewardship is the duty to protect those things we value, such as City Hall.
Dallas City Hall represents our vision for the future — be it in 1978 and well into the next century. Maybe past city leaders should answer for their neglect by allowing such deferred maintenance with City Hall. Nevertheless, City Hall is a civic asset worth protecting.
Sports facilities and entertainment districts are today’s shopping malls of yesterday — relics we once thought were important. Tearing down City Hall would be a sad trade-off just for another sports and entertainment venue.
Robert Prejean, Dallas/Oak Lawn
Hire architect to fix City Hall
Dallas once had leaders that built Dallas-Fort Worth International airport, Dallas City Hall, the Arts District and much more. Now, the people in charge let the convention center fall apart. They let City Hall fall apart. They let the library fall apart, and now they’re complaining it’s too expensive to fix and the property is too valuable for a City Hall?
With the hiring of a top-class architect, City Hall could be repaired and remodeled in such a way that solves its functional problems and provides the taxpaying citizens with a City Hall that we could be proud of.
What’s the image of a city without a notable city hall?
Mike Blankenship, Richardson
Democrats won’t fight
About 80% of voters wanted to continue the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies; 60% of Republicans. The country blamed the president for the shutdown.
Democrats just won a resounding election victory with a common theme of fighting back against Republicans. Failing to extend the ACA subsidies would triple health care premiums for millions of Americans. But then, eight Democrats, reportedly at the behest of Chuck Schumer, folded. They voted for a continuing resolution, making the longest shutdown in U.S. history a complete waste of time.
Democratic voters, please line up for your annual “fell for it again” award. The Democratic Party is not now, never has been, and never will be a working-class party. It is ontologically incapable of exerting a left wing agenda.
They didn’t fight to stop funding a genocide, they didn’t fight to extend subsidies for health care.
Mountain or pebble, Democrats will not fight, much less die, on any hill. What on earth makes you think they will fight for you?
Thomas Urech, Richardson
Credit where it’s due
Re: “Neighbors are hungry,” by Bukekile Dube, Nov. 9 Letters.
Those who demanded that Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz end the shutdown should give them credit for voting with the bipartisan supermajority to fully restore SNAP funding throughout the 2026 fiscal year. Opposition to this measure was led by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders, who held the entire federal government hostage to excessive Obamacare subsidies.
Ken Ashby, Dallas