The Minimum Wage Should Not Be Raised

On Friday August 8th, Jennifer Avilez wrote an article for her blog entitled Minimum Wage & Inflation. In her article she argues that Texas residents earning the minimum wage should receive a raise because the cost of living is too high. In addition to raising the minimum wage, she also argues that inflation should be controlled. By increasing the minimum wage and controlling inflation, Jennifer believes that low wage earners would have more spending power and be more able to better themselves. Jennifer does realize that increasing the minimum wage could result in price increases for goods and services, and that this would result in no net gain for minimum wage earners. Her solution to this problem is simple. Jennifer argues that businesses should not pass the increased cost of labor to consumers. Jennifer’s position on the minimum wage is understandable given the fact that she identifies politically as Next Generation Left. However, I have to respectfully disagree with her.

The threat of cost push inflation is only one problem with raising the minimum wage. In his article How Minimum Wage Works on Howstuffworks.com, Dave Ross states that a fixed minimum wage hurts the low wage earners it claims to protect. According to this reasoning, the minimum wage is an artificial value for a worker imposed by the government. The real value of any worker should be decided in the open market. Ross uses the example of a young untrained machinist. The factory owner knows that the young untrained machinist will not be as productive as an experienced machinist, so the factory owner will pay the young untrained machinist a lower hourly wage. If the factory owner is forced to pay the young untrained machinist an artificially high minimum wage, he may choose to not hire the young worker. The end result is that the young worker is unemployed instead of gaining experience. Competition in the free market is the best way to ensure a brighter future for all workers.

Austin Should Say No to Project Connect

The official web site of the City of Austin places the current population of Travis County at 1.13 million with a growth rate of close to 3% a year. The Travis County population projection for the year 2045 is predicted to be 2.32 million. These figures mean that the traffic problems in Travis County will only get worse as time goes on unless solutions are implemented now. Project Connect is the newest solution being proposed for our current and future traffic problems. Project Connect proposes to use a mix of bus, urban rail and regional rail to accomplish the goal of reducing the number of cars on Austin streets and highways. The urban rail part of the solution would be the first to be implemented with a 9.5 mile line connecting East Riverside Drive and the Austin Community College Highland campus. This line is projected to handle between 16,000 and 20,000 passengers a day with future expansions to other parts of Austin. The proposed cost of the project is around $1.4 billion with half of the funding coming through City of Austin bonds and the other half from federal matching funds.

However, there are those opposed to Project Connect including Austin Rail Now. They argue that Project Connect has disregarded the decades of work and millions of dollars already spent identifying the Lamar-Guadalupe corridor as the best location for urban rail in Austin. Furthermore, the supporters of Austin Rail Now want voters to know that a vote for Project Connect would include the installation of dedicated bus lanes on the Lamar-Guadalupe corridor which would block future urban rail in that area. Austin Rail Now supporters believe the urban rail starter line should serve the high ridership Lamar-Guadalupe corridor and the West campus side of the University of Texas. In their opinion, the low ridership location of Project Connect would waste tax payer money and erode local support for future transportation improvements. Finally, Austin Rail Now argues that real estate developers who stand to profit are the people that will benefit the most if Project Connect is approved. I agree with Austin Rail Now’s opposition to Project Connect. The average citizen will see no relief from traffic congestion, but they will be stuck with paying back the bonds issued to fund Project Connect. If Austin wants to continue to grow and attract businesses, the traffic congestion problem has to be addressed, but any bond money must be spent wisely.

Marijuana Legalization

On Thursday July 24th, Ivy Nwogu posted an article on her Who Runs Texas blog entitled Legalize Marijuana Already. In her article Ms. Nwogu argues that the State of Texas should legalize marijuana or at least decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults 21 and older. To defend her position, Ms. Nwogu cites a statistic stating that a majority of Texas voters support the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. She also points out the fact that cigarettes are legal yet they have very negative health consequences when compared to marijuana. Furthermore, Ms. Nwogu argues that the State of Texas could save money by not sending people to jail for the possession of small amounts of marijuana, and, if marijuana were to become legal, the state could create a new source of revenue by taxing marijuana. Finally, she states that Texas could begin by legalizing medical marijuana for the terminally ill.

Ms. Nwogu makes a very good case for legalizing marijuana, and I could not agree with her more. The hypocrisy of marijuana being illegal while alcohol and cigarettes remain legal should be recognized and addressed. Much of Ms. Nwogu’s arguments for marijuana legalization are taken from a medical perspective which is understandable considering her public health occupation. However, in addition to all of Ms. Nwogu’s arguments, another compelling reason exists for marijuana legalization. If marijuana were to become legal in all 50 states, the illegal smuggling and sale of marijuana which is controlled in no small part by the violent Mexican drug cartels would disappear. Anything that can be done to reduce the power of the cartels should be done.

Texas Should Use the Rainy Day Fund to Increase Funding for Education

In an article for the Texas Tribune by Aman Batheja entitled Comptroller: Texas Budget Surplus Bigger Than Expected, Mr. Batheja wrote that the State of Texas Rainy Day Fund is conservatively projected by the state comptroller to have a surplus of $8 billion by the fall of 2015. This surplus even takes into account transferring two billion dollars from the Rainy Day Fund to a state water infrastructure bank and, pending voter approval this November, an additional diversion of $1.3 billion away from the Rainy Day Fund to the state highway fund. Earlier this year the web site Politifact.com consulted the Texas State Demographer Lloyd Potter regarding how fast the state was growing. Mr. Potter replied that the state was growing at a rate of 1000 residents per day for the time period of June 2012 through June 2013. That equates to over 365,000 additional residents a year. This rapid population growth will need to be supported by investments in the state’s infrastructure. However, with the next legislative session looming early next year, how will law makers choose to spend some of the projected surplus?

Some will argue for more spending on infrastructure. Others will argue for tax relief, and these are both worthy issues. However, I would argue that Texas lawmakers should invest more in education. Last legislative session, Texas lawmakers restored approximately $3.4 billion of the $5.4 billion in cuts they made to public education in 2011. The math in this situation is simple. After the $3.4 billion restoration last session, public schools in Texas are still operating with 2 billion fewer dollars when compared to funding levels prior to 2011. This fact results in fewer teachers. To compound the problem, the population growth mentioned above means more students in public schools. Tax cuts and infrastructure improvements will attract businesses to Texas, but an educated labor force is just as necessary.

Five Things Obama Must Do to Fix the Border Crisis

On June 20, 2014 John Cornyn posted a commentary in the opinion section of the Texas Insider entitled Five Things Obama Must Do to Fix the Border Crisis. John Cornyn’s credibility stems from the fact that he is the senior United States Senator for Texas. His intended audience is all Texans as the issue at the heart of his commentary affects all Texas citizens. Senator Cornyn begins his article by stating that tens of thousands of unaccompanied children mostly from Central American countries including Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador are crossing the border from Mexico into the United States illegally. A significant number of these unaccompanied children are crossing the border into Texas creating a humanitarian crisis. The journey for these unaccompanied children from Mexico into Texas through the Rio Grande Valley is known to be very perilous due to the violence inflicted on migrants by the drug cartels. Senator Cornyn also states that many experts believe that sixty percent of female migrants are victims of sexual assault. Furthermore, Senator Cornyn believes that this humanitarian crisis is the direct result of President Obama’s immigration policies. In short, he feels that the recent wave of unaccompanied children entering illegally is being driven by their parent’s belief that they will not be deported because of President Obama’s immigration policies. To back up this claim Senator Cornyn cites some immigration numbers for the past few years along with some predictions for the future. In fiscal year 2011 over 6,500 unaccompanied alien children were caught at the border between Mexico and the United States. After President Obama signaled a change to immigration policy during a 2012 speech in the Rose Garden, the number of unaccompanied alien children caught grew to 25,000 in 2013. Predictions for the number of unaccompanied alien children caught in 2014 and 2015 are 90,000 and 142,000 respectively. To alleviate the crisis, Senator Cornyn suggests the following five actions that President Obama must undertake: 1. Publically state that current immigration policies will not apply to new children arriving at the border. 2. Publically discourage Central Americans from sending their children on the very dangerous journey to the United States. 3. Provide Texas and all other border states with the resources necessary to deal with the crisis. 4. Start enforcing ALL United States immigration policy. 5. Press Mexico to better police its border with Guatemala. Personally, I agree with Senator Cornyn. I feel badly for the foreign children caught in the middle of this crisis. However, they must enter this country legally if they want to become citizens. United States immigration policy is drastically in need of reform. Immigration policies that provide incentives for foreign nationals to enter illegally are wrong. These policies do a disservice to the foreign nationals who would come here and the United States tax payer.

Improving foster care must be priority

On July 18, 2014 Ashley Harris wrote an article for the San Antonio Express News entitled Improving Foster Care Must be a Priority. Ms. Harris is a child welfare policy associate for Texans Care for Children. She was also a caseworker for Child Protective Services. Both positions lend greatly to her credibility. Her intended audience is all Texans, but, more specifically, I feel as if she is making an appeal directly to the Texas Legislature to increase funding for Child Protective Services This article is of particular importance to me due to recent life changing events in my family. My father and stepmother just started fostering three two and a half year old triplets by the names of Aiden, Kason and Leah. Ms. Harris begins her article with the story of the tragic drowning deaths of two Texas foster children in Lake Georgetown earlier this month. She then wonders whether the deaths could have been prevented if the state of Texas had more rigorous standards for the screening and training of foster parents. Ultimately, however, she states that the most effective way to improve the safety of foster children is to increase funding for Child Protective Services caseworkers. High caseloads mean that caseworkers do not get to spend as much time with each foster family. This can cause caseworkers to miss the signs of physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Ms. Harris defends her claim by stating that last year the average caseload for a Texas foster care caseworker was 32 children while best practices dictate no more than seventeen children per caseworker. Conversely, lower caseloads would allow caseworkers to spend more time with each foster family resulting in better care for the foster children. Before my father and stepmother volunteered to be foster parents, I never gave the foster care system much thought. However, after reading about the drowning deaths of the two foster children and helping my parents raise three foster children, I agree with Ms. Harris that Child Protective Services funding should be increased. Fortunately, she ends her article by stating that the Texas Legislature has recently made funding for Child Protective Services a priority.

As Teacher Pay Lags, Attrition and Class Size Grow

On Friday July 11, Morgan Smith wrote an article for the Texas Tribune entitled As Teacher Pay Lags, Attrition and Class Size Grow. The article is quite interesting because it describes the current and future challenges in primary and secondary education facing Texas. The article also describes the good things Texas is doing in public education, but it warns that these achievements may be lost in the coming years if teacher pay lags too far behind the average pay for teachers in other states. Some of the current and future challenges in public education mentioned in the article include the fact that Texas has a "...growing population of economically disadvantaged and English-language learning students..." (Smith). The article then states that even with these challenges and lower per-student spending than most states, Texas still has higher than average educational performance. However, Morgan Smith points out the fact that the average teacher in Texas makes $8,000 less than the national average and the fact that Texas ranks 35th in teacher pay nationally. These facts should be a concern to all citizens of Texas. With a population that continues to grow, funding for public education has to increase from current levels. If funding does not at least keep pace with population growth, class sizes will have to increase due to a lack of teachers. Larger class sizes could then lead to lower performance outcomes for students. Lower performance outcomes could result in students who are not ready for college or the workforce. Texas must make funding for public education a priority. Works Cited Smith, Morgan. "As Teacher Pay Lags, Attrition and Class Size Grow." The Texas Tribune 11 July 2014