Texas is planning to make a huge public investment in space

"Further investment will cement Texas as the preeminent location for innovation."

See full article...

 

[Celery Man]

So what you're saying is that people who SHOULD have known all about being ready for a Nor’Easter failed.

Also, I do not hump flags.

Your state sure does. I’ve never seen a place so insecure as to who and where they were that they needed to fly their country’s flags, everywhere, all the time, as big as they can make them. Hundreds and hundreds of miles from any other country. Like, did y’all forget you were in America? Do you need that much of a constant reminder?

 

[floyd42]

Texas has a historic budget surplus this year due to oil prices, inflation, and other factors driving economic growth.

But, but what about "Thanks Biden" and how this was all his fault?

Don't tell me this was just a bunch of wealthy people profiting more than they usually do!?!

 

[ranthog]

3 minutes, 46 seconds to be exact. Just a handful of seconds really to having to endure a 19th century lifestyle for the several weeks or months it would have taken to repair everything.

It would have been a humanitarian disaster that would make Katrina look like a minor incident. The challenge of providing heat in a state where none of the infrastructure is functioning would have probably been impossible.

Heck, evacuating people would be a nightmare, but probably necessary to preserve life.

For as bad as things were in Texas, that was the good ending. And they've pretty much done nothing to fix the problem except raise prices in the long run on consumers.

 

[msawzall]

Your state sure does. I’ve never seen a place so insecure as to who and where they were that they needed to fly their country’s flags, everywhere, all the time, as big as they can make them. Hundreds and hundreds of miles from any other country. Like, did y’all forget you were in America? Do you need that much of a constant reminder?

The flag folks need their flags for a positive display. When your actions are cruel and go against everything you say you stand for, you need a cover.

 

[raschumacher]

The power grid was about 4 minutes from collapse, not a half hour. They got through more than half the grace period to bring grid frequencies back into spec before every generator in the state would start tripping off the grid. They came really fucking close to it, if they had a few more plants trip off or if one of the utilities was delayed in load shedding ERCOT may have become the first interconnect to ever do a black start.

On top of that, they found out a bunch of the black start generators in the state were not actually functional because of the storm.

Thanks, I'd forgotten that little gem. "Monthly testing? Say whut now?" Yeesh.

 

[thrillgore]

First in space, last at literally everything else.

 

[raschumacher]

Kicker is, some administrations learn from their mistakes. Texas seems to flaunt them.

Republican theme song: Dare To Be Stupid

 

[lurknomore]

Funny that, a budget surplus in CA is a Clear Proof The Evil Dems Are Stealing The People's Money Like Vampires And Should Reduce Taxes And Shrink Government.
A budget surplus in Texas is an opportunity to give a $350M budget to ... a new commission ?

 

[Celery Man]

Hey kids! If you can make it to adulthood without being horrifically murdered in a mass shooting, Texas has a burgeoning space industry you can join! Because there are No AR-15s In Space™.

Yet.

Wait. Maybe we shouldn’t let Texas do this…

 

[Celery Man]

Funny that, a budget surplus in CA is a Clear Proof The Evil Dems Are Stealing The People's Money Like Vampires And Should Reduce Taxes And Shrink Government.
A budget surplus in Texas is an opportunity to give a $350M budget to ... a new commission ?

Not to mention CA and those dirty liberal blue states subsidize those red states who hate us so much.

Red states are (with almost no exceptions) pariahs that take in more federal funds than they give back. Even though they hate that durn Big Federal Guv’mint, they’ll suckle at the teat all day if it means they can get their hair done and own libs on Twitter.

And who provides those funds? The libs.

But yeah, we totally suck.

 

[dollyllama]

Maybe fix Corpus Cristi's water situation first? The city sold its water to Exxon and desperately needs a desalination plant to make up for the loss--except the environment will suffer even further.

 

[dollyllama]

Texas is where barons go to trash the environment and abuse people for profit.

 

[aerogems]

Texas and innovation are not words you typically associate with one another, unless it's somehow related to the contest with Florida for the dubious Dumbest State in the Union title.

Still, as I'm a fan of space exploration, I'm for this in a very general sense. I just hope that NASA and the like can stick riders into contracts that prohibits a lot of the culture war bullshit. Like, no discriminating against LGBTQ+ people, no racial discrimination, women getting paid the same as men, insurance plans can't ban coverge for abortions or gender affirming care... basically, if a policy makes you wonder if you somehow traveled back in time to 1953, it's out.

 

[aerogems]

I'd prefer a "dump" over some place like San Francisco with people deficating on the streets and crime gangs mounting organized mass broad daylight robberies. Oh and rents that aren't through the roof.

How to say you've never been to a large city without actually saying it.

 

[Celery Man]

I'd prefer a "dump" over some place like San Francisco with people deficating on the streets and crime gangs mounting organized mass broad daylight robberies. Oh and rents that aren't through the roof.

So you'd prefer mass shootings then? Or exploding chemical plants? Or an isolated power grid that was a half hour from completely failing during the second "once in a century" storm in ten years?

 

[Celery Man]

I'd prefer a "dump" over some place like San Francisco with people deficating on the streets and crime gangs mounting organized mass broad daylight robberies. Oh and rents that aren't through the roof.

When was the last time you were in San Francisco?

 

[PintOStout]

When there is an actual sale, the value of the property is automatically updated to that sale price. If a property isn't sold for years, then the assessed value of the property will be changed based upon the more recent sale of properties around it.

So yes, it's what the county assessor thinks the value is worth. But each property owner also has the ability to appeal any increase in property value/tax, once every few years.

Anyhow, point being, it's all pretty public information.

Does Texas have the rich collection of property exemptions and adjustments Florida has that are geared towards reducing the tax burden on long term residents/special classes (old people, vets...one of the recent elections tried to add one for first responders)? Also have the Save Our Homes Limitation (basically caps ongoing value assessments to 3% or CPI ...which ever is lower) and there is a Portability Transfer device to port your SOH reduced assessment from old Florida house to new Florida house.

Essentially you only get full assessment and tax burden when you buy your first house in Florida (congrats to all you people who moved to Florida at end of pandemic!). Local governments tend to really dislike it when the state adds these exemptions as it usually forces counties to take the extra heat for raising tax rates in some other fashion.

 

[jason8957]

Lmfao. Like you flag humpers know anything about a Nor’Easter. Two storms aren’t always the same.

Also, did their Senator fly off to Cancun right before the storm? And did they later blame their teenage daughters (like a big honest man would) for why they were in Cancun while their constituents dealt with the storm?

To be fair, Senator Cruz actually represents the NRA, not Texas.

 

[panton41]

Not to mention CA and those dirty liberal blue states subsidize those red states who hate us so much.

Red states are (with almost no exceptions) pariahs that take in more federal funds than they give back. Even though they hate that durn Big Federal Guv’mint, they’ll suckle at the teat all day if it means they can get their hair done and own libs on Twitter.

And who provides those funds? The libs.

But yeah, we totally suck.

To be fair, Texas is one of the few Red states that pay in more than they take out.

 

[gijames1225]

Came for all the people mad at Texas for being conservative and was not disappointed.

Stay real Arsians.

 

[Magog14]

Good luck attracting top talent with your abortion bounty hunter laws in effect. Wallow in poverty, Texas.

 

[Crash Bandicoor]

I'd prefer a "dump" over some place like San Francisco with people deficating on the streets and crime gangs mounting organized mass broad daylight robberies. Oh and rents that aren't through the roof.

“Texans turn into big babies if you criticize their state” Thanks for proving my point enjoy looking out your window to a meh landscape, traffic, and the tent cities under your overpasses.

 

[Magog14]

So a more serious talk. As a corporation I can't see why anyone would willingly invest capital in Florida, when you have a government that is willing to pass legislation to punish companies at the whim of a governor. While Texas hasn't started down this road it is certainly a risk with politicians like Abbot.

It is hard to leave once you're there, but are people really going to want to invest significant long term capital in a place where the government might try to personally punish your company.

Would incentives like these be worth the risk that operating in these states have to your workers and capital investments?

I hate DeSantis with a passion but Disney shouldn't have and doesn't need to be their own autonomous zone. Corporations already run the government through lobbying they don't need to literally be the governing body of a region.

 

[Poum]

Yeah, I get that it's possible to multitask, and you can legislate a bunch of things at once. But having gone without power for 84 hours this winter, and having had to boil water for a week the year before, and having had to do both the year before that, it's a little galling to me that Abbott is happy to ask for more money to support corporate interests while leaving the broader constituency to suffer. And I say that as a lover of all things space.

Holy hell. 84 hours!? The hell is wrong with Texas infrastructure.

As a California resident, we most certainly do have our own outages. In general it lasts a couple hours. The longest one in recent mind, lasted all of one night when I was reading Jurassic Park by candle light.

 

[aerogems]

When was the last time you were in San Francisco?

You can go to Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, or any other large city in Texas and find homeless people shitting on the streets and all the other things the OP was parroting from conservative talk radio. It's hardly unique to San Francisco. Any city of sufficient size is going to have these problems because people like the OP would rather pretend those people don't exist so they have an extra $5/year in their pocket, to paying that in taxes to help these people.

 

[aerogems]

To be fair, Senator Cruz actually represents the NRA, not Texas.

Also to be fair, he didn't flee the country when Texas was hit with another freak cold snap, so he managed to rise to the occasion and meet one basic requirement for being a decent human being. Only like several hundred more to go.

 

[Celery Man]

You can go to Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, or any other large city in Texas and find homeless people shitting on the streets and all the other things the OP was parroting from conservative talk radio. It's hardly unique to San Francisco. Any city of sufficient size is going to have these problems because people like the OP would rather pretend those people don't exist so they have an extra $5/year in their pocket, to paying that in taxes to help these people.

I also like their use of the phrase “crime gangs”. As opposed to… ?

 

[aerogems]

I also like their use of the phrase “crime gangs”. As opposed to… ?

Gangs of little old ladies who knit?

 

[danielravennest]

In Florida at this point I think disagreeing with the governor is enough to get your business targeted. I doubt this is limited to supporting LGBTQ folk.

Then Trump better watch out for his three Florida properties.

 

[danielravennest]

Stay strong. Remember that California was a conservative Republican stronghold, until it wasn't.

Conservatives and liberals are not distributed according to state lines. They are mostly distributed according to urban vs rural areas. Rural areas have more land relative to people, so on an area-based map they seem dominant. But urban is where most of the people are:

 

[MosquitoBait]

.

 

[MosquitoBait]

I found on the internet an earlier draft of Abbot's speech which clarifies what the commission will spend that $350 million dollars on.

"The commissioners will be appointed by me and will be spending the money in ways that will kick back millions of dollars into my existing and future campaigns, not to mention make my friends and associates incredibly wealthy which in turn will increase my own personal wealth."

/s

Get rid of the /s. It suggests what you said was not the truth.

 

[ranthog]

I hate DeSantis with a passion but Disney shouldn't have and doesn't need to be their own autonomous zone. Corporations already run the government through lobbying they don't need to literally be the governing body of a region.

Yes, but why you're doing something matters. DeSantis isn't doing this because he doesn't think Disney should have its own autonomous zone. DeSantis is doing this to punish Disney for standing up for LGBTQ people, in part because its own employees pushed it to.

On top of that, it looks like DeSantis isn't giving control and the tax base to the local government, which is what would a good government reform would do. They're taking it over at the state level. Where DeSantis can really fuck with Disney.

So please don't equate taking revenge using the power of the state against a political enemy is the same as good government reform. This act was only intended to not only intimidate and silence Disney, but also silence all other opposition in the state.

 

[ranthog]

You can go to Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, or any other large city in Texas and find homeless people shitting on the streets and all the other things the OP was parroting from conservative talk radio. It's hardly unique to San Francisco. Any city of sufficient size is going to have these problems because people like the OP would rather pretend those people don't exist so they have an extra $5/year in their pocket, to paying that in taxes to help these people.

Rural areas also have this, but the population is just less dense.

 

[lurknomore]

Yes, but why you're doing something matters. DeSantis isn't doing this because he doesn't think Disney should have its own autonomous zone. DeSantis is doing this to punish Disney for standing up for LGBTQ people, in part because its own employees pushed it to.

On top of that, it looks like DeSantis isn't giving control and the tax base to the local government, which is what would a good government reform would do. They're taking it over at the state level. Where DeSantis can really fuck with Disney.

Standard fascist dictator-wannabe playbook : dissenters have to be crushed to show power.
See Trump for more examples...

 

[ranthog]

Standard fascist dictator-wannabe playbook : dissenters have to be crushed to show power.
See Trump for more examples...

I can't believe people are equating political revenge with government reform.

 

[lukipedia]

Holy hell. 84 hours!? The hell is wrong with Texas infrastructure.

As a California resident, we most certainly do have our own outages. In general it lasts a couple hours. The longest one in recent mind, lasted all of one night when I was reading Jurassic Park by candle light.

Yeah. This ice storm was different than the big snow storm in 2021: this one was much more localized, as the outages were caused by trees bringing down power lines. 2021 was a much more systemic failure of the grid. Both are issues that have been brewing for decades, and both were known issues that, for varying reasons—NIMBYism, politics, etc.—were not addressed.

 

[jkestner]

FBISD is short on money because the local voters held an election and voted down proposed new bonds.

That had nothing to do with the state government.

Sure it did. Yes, Fort Bend is the wealthiest county in Texas. But the state provides about 40% of public school funding, and mandates “recapture” to fund poorer districts from richer ones’ property taxes. Many districts do turn to bonds, in addition to the property tax (which the state caps), as the bonds are not subject to recapture.

Even rich districts are underfunded, but unlike Fort Bend, Austin ISD passed its bonds while dropping property taxes. Rural counties are hurt even more by the constant state-level attacks on the public school budget, so hopefully they get the legislature to back off on school vouchers this year (call your rep if you’re in Texas).

 

[doombrimor]

Holy hell. 84 hours!? The hell is wrong with Texas infrastructure.

As a California resident, we most certainly do have our own outages. In general it lasts a couple hours. The longest one in recent mind, lasted all of one night when I was reading Jurassic Park by candle light.

That was actually only 3 weeks ago. Massive ice storm caused a lot of iced over tree branches falling on power lines. I only lost power for a bit less than 3 days, but lost internet for almost 2 weeks. After the grid collapse of 2021, I started disaster prepping (food, water, power etc). What was galling was that my Powerwall install had taken over a year, and at last had its final inspection scheduled on the day of ice storm. Of course it was cancelled because the road iced over, so I never even got to use it for its intended purpose.

I grew up here, left for the east coast for a while after school, but then came back. I'm still here, but I'm just... tired. The more the state moves one direction, the more those currently in power tries to hold on via any means necessary. Then there is always the small but non-zero chance of violence breaking out. It feels like something has to give. So I'm looking at moving to other states, while keeping the option of other countries open (which admittedly have their own problems). I would love to stay for the fight, but unfortunately I think it's going to get worse before it gets better.