Fighting inequity - Chron.com
Martin was trying to get District E its fair share of the five-year budget and, as he put it, "foster conversation about policy and process. His district, which includes Kingwood and Clear Lake, was slated to receive only 3 percent of the $8. 7 billion CIP budget - that's half of what any other district receives. In contrast, Councilwoman Ellen Cohen 's District C, which covers the Heights, Montrose and Meyerland, received more than 20 percent of the budget. Different districts have different needs, and the densifying District C has some of the busiest streets and oldest infrastructure. As Cohen pointed out, city workers actually found wooden pipes beneath the streets in that part of town. Worst-first is usually a good idea, but it doesn't explain why a Kingwood Drive project, which was rated as the second-worst street in the city, was originally dropped from the CIP. As Martin argued around the horseshoe, Houston needs to have a conversation moving forward about how we distribute taxpayer dollars. All across Houston, tax increment reinvestment zones take money that should be going to citywide needs and spend those funds with minimal oversight and even less public input. Plenty of that money goes to support worthwhile projects, but those projects only exist within the boundaries of the districts. Source: www.chron.com
