And, that leads to my header.
Can't Loopy Lupe have more generosity and yet pay her property taxes on time? Even more, why doesn't she have a foundation or something to help with this?
As Tilove notes, the late payments aren't a one-time thing. They've been ongoing for years.
And, as I will say in an upcoming piece about decently-paid public school teachers living beyond their means, if you can't budget, you may have problems. I mean, Valdez was making $139,000 a year as sheriff, as I note here, and when the property tax issue first broke, her spox had a crappy explanation. It was also a wrong explanation. As Tilove notes, most the properties Valdez owns have had no real appreciation to speak of, therefore their property taxes have been entirely predictable. It's something he could have easily pointed out himself, but maybe he's still hungover from a Beto Kool-Aid drunk.
Again, why not start a small foundation, sheriff? If your rents are truly and consistently below market, you could surely claim tax deductions. You could do that for a foundation, if you set one up, rather than yourself individually. You could grow your properties, including that community garden you dream of.
The story is good indeed about Valdez's care for poor and near-poor people, as Brains rightly notes. But it also continues to demonstrate her organizational faults.
I've met her before, more than once, when I lived in the Metromess. Found her to be personable and engaging. I also had a friend who was arrested, then forgotten about in Lew Sterrett for 48 hours or so. Personable is great, but disorganized continues to go on and on. It's not just my arrested and forgotten friend. I had four years professionally to see Valdez in operation professionally. Click the tag. In the four years before I left Dallas County, I never saw serious development in her organizational skills. Haven't in the nine-plus years since.
Again, setting up a nonprofit corporation shouldn't be that hard. Yes, it would have some "fanfare"involved, but that too might help Valdez's goals, whether or not it helped her personally on her finances that much.
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Updates: First, per my two polls at top right, I'll eat my hat if Valdez does better than White did in 2010. And, to segue to my second point, if that DOES happen, it will be because Beto was the rising tide lifting all boats in the Doink party, not her.
Second and speaking of, is she not trying to coattail on him more? (Maybe she is and he's brushing her off.) I can accept Brains' angle that voting for her, and pushing others to do so, might help downballot races. I still don't think it will help as much as he thinks it will help.
Third, a rhetorical question to Brains, per our exchange of comments. If Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner somehow got the Doink's gubernatorial nod in 2022, and Tilove or somebody else found out that he was making some modest below-market rents to a few black residents in the relevant black wards of Houston, would you vote for him rather than undervote, letting that news trump everything else you know about him?
Fourth, on the missing gun? Whoever's fault it ultimately was for being lost, Valdez admitted she didn't follow protocol for turning it in. Disorganization.
Sidebar: I just Googled, but haven't come across any post-debate polling on the race, which would partially reflect just how well Valdez did. Her Rainy Day Fund comment was good.
2 comments:
Sure "one" can. As I clearly stated, I had several reasons I could have -- like you -- taken a pass. One of them did not turn out to be losing her pistol, unless you want to count whether the person(s) who conducted their first audit of the DCSO were people who were hired while she was sheriff (and they probably were).
You had a lot of fun with that, as I recall. But the gun wasn't lost after all, so there's that.
Valdez had a false start at the opening of the campaign season. At a debate with Andrew Caucasian, she flubbed the marijuana policy question.
But she kicked Cripple's ass in their debate last Friday, which shows she's grown into the kind of candidate that represents well. No, she won't win. But she ought to help the ticket and not hurt it, which is the best the Donks can hope for.
You go on with your cheesy nicknames, though.
First, I updated the post about the lost gun after learning it appeared to not be her fault. And, yes, I'm leaving the appeared there. And, yes, I'll also count that this all included plenty of people she hired at DCSO.
Second, though I didn't watch it, from what I've seen of the debate, yes, she did better; I wouldn't necessary say she kicked ass. Multiple Texas media notes Strangeabbott had no flubs. At the Snooze, Gromer Jeffers said she could have swung harder on the sanctuary cities issue.
Third, you seem to be having plenty of your own fun with cheesy nicknames.
Fourth, she may help the ticket. By how much remains to be seen. And, whether it's her fault or Hinojosa's more, the fact that she wasn't at debate level of sharpness nine months ago is an issue.
Fifth, I'll stand by what I've said about personally and professionally observing four years of fairly high disorganization levels, while noting that in the years after that before her campaign announcement, I've seen... "moderate progress" but no more.
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