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Texas Jeff

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  1. Is this the Iowa plan description? https://cdn.unite529.com/jcdn/files/IAD/pdfs/programDescription.pdf If it is, they do have some low risk options. We are in the Utah plan and they allow you to change your investments, but the number of changes per year is limited to two per year I think - can't remember. I would say know your risk tolerance and your goals for the investment. What would happen if the stock market tanked a month before your kids checked into the dorm? Would you just pull money from another fund or would it change your kids plans for college? Will you be able to sleep at night watching the plan go up and down with the market knowing that you have to pull from it every few months or will it bother you? If the fund is not enough to cover a degree, what is the plan to cover the rest?
  2. I went to the UTSA game, my first in-person game since I left a game after halftime last year because I could no longer take the noise level. I had a great time. Really fun. The artificial noise level was way down and when the crowd was supposed to make noise, they did. Humans did, not speakers. The drone show was cool. The smoke is not my thing. Night games rule. That is all...
  3. For the record I was totally down for gondolas:
  4. A little bond history, numbers are not inflation adjusted: We need bonds, I am not against them, but it is generally true that Austin voters have supported bond elections during the last twenty years: Austin ISD has a package every 4-5 years and almost all have passed and they are badly needed: 2022 - 2.44 billion - passed 2017 - 1.050 billion - passed 2013 - 489.7 million - passed, another 403 million failed. I think there were 2 props passed, 2 failed. All were close votes. 2008 - 343.7 million - passed 2004 - 519.5 million - passed City of Austin likes a two year cycle and they mostly pass: 2022 bond - $350 million - passed 2020 bond - $460 million - passed 2020 Project Connect - 20% city tax increase dedicated to fund the Austin Transit Partnership, aka Project Connect, $300 million of which was to be spent on anti-displacement measures. Total cost was projected to be 7.1 billion with the federal government paying half. 2018 bond - $925 million - passed 2016 bond - $720 million - passed 2014 bond - $600 million - failed - this was the rail project connecting Riverside, going up through the east side of downtown and campus, and going on to ACC Highland Mall. The 2014 bond is almost the same route as Project Connect, but Project Connect originally had one line as a north/south line going up South Congress, through the downtown tunnel, and then up Lamar, and a separate line following the Riverside path and going to the Airport. 2013 bond - $65 million - passed 2012 bond - $306.6 million - passed 2010 bond - $90 million - passed 2006 bond - $567.4 million - passed Travis County - other than the courthouse their bonds have passed - some of the years here are off by one because they are fiscal years: 2023 bond - $509 million - passed 2018 bond - $184 million - passed 2016 bond - $287 million - failed - this was to build a new downtown courthouse. It just failed 49/51. They built a new downtown courthouse anyway without voter approval, but it is closer to campus than the original location. 2012 bond - $214 million - passed 2006 bond - $124.3 - passed 2002 bond - $127.5 - passed ACC 2022 bond - $770 million - passed 2014 bond - $385 million - passed Cap Metro 2004 - Red Line vote - passed - proposed 60 million with a 30 million federal match, cost as of 2010 was $105 million with no match. 2000 - 52 mile system (14 mile starter system) to be funded by sales tax and federal funds - 1.9 billion - failed. It passed in Austin but narrowly failed in the larger Cap Metro service area, which IMHO led to the 2014 and 2020 election being City of Austin votes designed to pass, and thus the need for the Austin Transit Partnership as a bridge between the city and Cap Metro. I may have missed a few but those are the ones I could find.
  5. According to MaxPreps, the last regular season loss looks like 2019 at LT. They also lost at Cypress Ranch in 2018. The last regular season loss at home was probably vs Liberty, NV in 2016. They lost a district game to Bowie in 2014. It’s hard to imagine them ever losing a district game to anyone other than LT.
  6. Mueller (the airport) opened in 1930. My first day in town in 1983 the headline was "Austin to build new airport". In Manor. Didn't happen. Sixteen years and one giant gift of a blank slate Air Force base later, ABIA opened in 1999. Who thought that Austin might grow? Why plan for expansion? What is the point of that? DFW and ATL got it right the first time. ATL has a direct connection to Marta and signs directing people to Uber/Lyft. DFW has DART but it took a while. Austin says "shhhhhhh, if you are a horrible person who really needs unsafe non-fingerprinted ride-share, it is a half mile out in the garage but don't tell anyone."
  7. Texas - 55 UTSA - 6 Longhorn Band - 125
  8. This was at a weak moment of the debate for Harris. Harris was given a question asking about why some of her positions have changed from previous positions. Harris said she would reply to all of the points in the question but she only replied to some of them. I thought she gave a good answer tying her positions back to her values and examples of her work, but Trump had an opening to focus the discussion on Harris's changing positions. Instead, he said this: FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: She went out -- she went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people, that burned down Minneapolis, she went out and raised money to get them out of jail. She did things that nobody would ever think of. Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this. She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania. If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one. Just to finish one thing, so important in my opinion, so, I got the oil business going like nobody has ever done before. They took, when they took over, they got rid of it, started getting rid of it, and the prices were going up the roof. They immediately let these guys go to where they were. I would have been five times, four times, five times higher because you're talking about 3 1/2 years ago. They got it up to where I was because they had no choice. Because the prices of energy were quadrupling and doubling. You saw what happened to gasoline. So, they said let's go back to Trump. But if she won the election, the day after that election, they'll go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead, fossil fuel will be dead. We'll go back to windmills and we'll go back to solar, where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out. You ever see a solar plant? By the way, I'm a big fan of solar. But they take 400, 500 acres of desert soil-- The last portion on energy policy is an amazing word salad.
  9. These were the two fact checks I heard, both of which were insane to have to fact check them: LINSEY DAVIS: There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it's born. DAVID MUIR: I just want to clarify here, you bring up Springfield, Ohio. And ABC News did reach out to the city manager there. He told us there have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community. Trump's response to the second one is hilarious: FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The people on television say my dog was taken and used for food.
  10. Somehow Trump spoke for more than five minutes more than Harris, which also happened in the Biden/Trump debate. Biden's words were so painful in the first debate it just felt like he was talking forever. In this one I wanted the mic to get back to Harris so that she could continue to slam him. Just when I thought Harris was maybe running out of gas Trump decided to try to convince us that immigrants will eat our pets. Harris needs to take the win, no more debates and just GOTV from here on out. I have never seen someone so prepared for a debate.
  11. Next up ... Polaris Dawn and the first ever commercial spacewalk ... with luck they launch at 3:38 AM.
  12. well it certainly wasn't a W
  13. Yes they took a travel band, which is maybe 60 folks or so.
  14. Starting from this, written during a time when we were a frontier nation without radios, telephones or the most powerful military in the history of the world: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. We have made it to this, just in 2024 and this is just a sampling from this year: At least four people were killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting at Apalachee High School. A 14 year old male suspect was taken into custody. A 20 year old man opened fire on former President of the United States Donald Trump during a rally from a nearby rooftop, killing an audience member and wounding Trump and two other audience members. The shooter was killed by Secret Service personnel. A 42-year-old man from another county randomly shot nine people including two children at the Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad before driving to his home and shooting himself. Gunfire erupted during a parade at Kansas City Union Station to celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs winning Super Bowl LVIII. At least one person was killed and more than twenty others were injured. Three male suspects were detained, two of whom are juveniles and one of whom was shot. A 17-year-old male opened fire at Perry High School, killing one student and injuring seven others, including a school administrator, before committing suicide. The principal of the school, who was wounded during the incident, died from his wounds ten days later on January 14. And on and on and on. Militias everywhere it seems. Well regulated. It's all about securing our free state. Thoughts and prayers. Now is not the time.
  15. ... a well-regulated militia ...
  16. It would be interesting to know how many APD officers actually live in Austin. If you police a town you don’t call home and wouldn’t consider living in yourself, I believe you see policing as a paycheck. Austin is expensive to live in and I understand why officers may seek a home elsewhere, but it creates a disconnect that doesn’t help our city.
  17. Or they can vote at the LBJ school on campus, which is a ten minute walk east of the Union, or at the Travis County Civil Court, which is six blocks south of the Union. All are open 7-7 Mon-Sat and 12-6 on Sun during early voting. The Union location is open until 10pm on the last two days of early voting. If you want to hang out with frustrated coeds, get in line at the Union an hour before they close on Election Day.
  18. I got a jury duty notice for that courthouse which opened way back in 2023. The instructions to prospective jurors included a suggestion to park in the UT system garage. Why the hell did Travis County build a brand new family law court building without enough parking for prospective jurors? I get that there is a parking shortage around the main courthouse because it's pre-WWII but this was a brand new building.
  19. Well I get that the change might do that, but I would wait and see what they set up. It's reasonable to believe that the folks in charge might be trying to pull a fast one. However, in deep blue Travis County, it's hard to imagine that they would wish to suppress the student vote. Everyone could make voting faster by printing a sample ballot ahead of time, marking it up, and just entering your choices when you get to the booth. UT students have ample opportunity to early vote with no lines for two weeks. Lines form on election days because students are slackers who wait until the last possible minute to do something. Now, if Travis County decided to take away early voting from the UT campus I would agree that shenanigans were afoot.
  20. Yeah, it’s moving all the way to the Union next door. Squirrels could figure it out.
  21. Project Connect plans to close Guadalupe north of MLK, so maybe more of a how the heck do you go north thing…
  22. That’s just the Diet Mountain Dew talking…
  23. I would think that most people would just not sell at all and wait for a better time.
  24. This will be a tough year for Austin ISD. IMHO they have a top notch superintendent and the people implementing the bond that I have met have been fantastic. Hopefully they are up to it. In November, Austin voters will be asked to raise AISD taxes. The new tax will raise about $170 million. About $40 million will stay in the school district. The other $130 million will go to the state. Of the $170 million, about $17 million will go to teacher raises. It's a difficult decision and I think it's reasonable to vote either way on this. At the same time, the district will be considering cuts. They have a goal of cutting about $78 million over two years to get to a balanced budget. Last year they gave staff raises without new revenue to support the raises, which created a deficit budget. They were using savings to cover this deficit, but the savings fund is now down to the lowest amount they must keep. They have to get back to a balanced budget. They are going to start working through cuts this fall, which may include school closures and cutting programs. Trustees don't get elected to cut stuff, and many on the current board were elected on the heels of the last effort to close underutilized schools. The community is going to pressure the trustees to cut someone else's program or school. All of this is occurring with the school district under a state monitor for special education issues, which has the board under state guardrails for how they can behave.
  25. He and the lege control it. The state sets a value of wealth per child for each district. It can be anything they want it to be. School property tax on wealth above that value is "recaptured", i.e. sent to the state. School districts have some other options other than doing this, things like merging with another poorer district, but most choose to write a check. Lower the wealth per child or lower property tax rates and "recapture" goes down, meaning the amount sent to the state from the local property tax payer. The state sets the amount of money a school receives per child. It can be anything they want it to be. If the school district does not raise enough money to cover that amount, the state covers the rest. In theory this comes from the "recapture" fund, but in reality the state just cuts them a check. Raise the amount of money a school receives per child and school funding goes up. Lower it and it goes down. Keep it it same during times of high inflation (and that is what we are doing now) and school funding goes down ... inflation eats it away. Right now, these amounts are set such that the state is collecting more money than they are distributing, so the excess recapture money goes to the general fund. This general fund can be used for whatever the state wants. The lege can pass legislation to change this but they need the governor also pass it, and he's not doing that. He wants private vouchers to funnel public tax money into private schools. In 2016, some school districts sued the state saying that this was bullshit. They won. It was appealed to the Texas State Supreme Court. The court said no. The court said that things were screwed up, but everyone was at the wrong venue. The said everyone needed to work through this in the lege, don't take this to the courts. And eight years later the lege and the governor are draining public education through inflation and inaction while building up the general fund for whatever.
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