Tag: City of Paris

 

In 2017, the Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce urged development of the flood plain swamp ground areas at Lake Crook as a state and/or national Wetlands and Wildlife Area. This, we said, would drastically reduce the costs of a new sewer treatment plant, now and in the future, and be a visitor’s and educational draw for Paris.

We even published a survey of new treatment facilities of varying sizes and their costs in cities across Texas, and a few in other states.

Using the development of a Wetland project, projections showed a greatly reduced overall cost for a new plant, the cost coming in at a low of $30 million to a high of $35 million.

We warned, based on what other cities were doing, that the process being engaged in by the City of Paris for a treatment plant, with its estimated cost of $40 to $70-million, would likely end in an exorbitant cost, as bids were not being solicited.

Neither the City of Paris, nor its taxpayers, listened or seemed interested.

The city, the PEDC and the Lamar County Chamber reportedly claimed the Paris Chamber didn’t know what it was talking about –

So, here in 2023, Paris is facing a new sewer treatment plant cost of $100-million-or more. (with the highest 2017 cost under-estimated by $30-million?)

The result for simply not looking at all possible options is that a newly-born baby in Paris will owe another estimated $4,000 dollars of the costs of this one item – as will every man, woman, and child inside the city limits – in addition to the $2600 each already owe in fees and taxes to cover the annual city budget.

While its true that worlds of knowledge exist that we personally know little-to-nothing about, we do know that wasteful spending and higher taxes is no way to run a railroad.

Or a city.

Those in charge of our local community and economic development shouldn’t be talking about anyone not knowing what to do when Paris has lost population for over a quarter of a century.

For decades, not a city council has looked after the taxpayer’s actual interest.

For instance, for over over 25-years Paris has known a new plant was needed. A period of time when city council after city council increased water, sewer and trash pickup fees; money which has generally disappeared into the general budget – and to pay for costly studies. How much of such funds were set aside to meet the future costs?

How were bids requested? Where? When?

City leaders have again contracted for another $300,000-plus study of the problem, which is more waste of money.

It’s worse than gambling: A Paris is always beaten by a flush . . .

return to The Paris Texas Chamber

city utility rates are assessed by local monopolies          

 

Our local utility rates for energy, gas, AT&T, Suddenlink/Optimum/Altice (whatever the TV cable company is) are local monopolies and each pays a Franchise Fee to the City of Paris to operate here.  Usually, the franchise fee is based on a percentages of the rates the company charges consumers.

Of course, the City of Paris has a local monopoly on water and sewer utilities, and trash pickup (at least, until it’s privatized). And just as with the city’s utilities, council members have the responsibility to approve or disapprove every rate increase requested by these Franchisees. 

(Over the years that the Paris Chamber of Commerce has existed never, to our knowledge, has there ever been a request for a rate decrease.)

This means that every time a rate goes up, so does the income to the city from the franchise fee.  It is a hidden tax sort of thing.

This doesn’t get a lot of publicity.  Perhaps, because local media receives “advertising revenue” from these local monopolies and those who benefit from what the monopolies do or don’t do.  The news then gets colored by local government representatives, who report to the media what they’re doing (or not doing), until you don’t know what or who to believe. 

These factors mean that what you read and hear about local rates – or even how things may work locally – will not usually be found in columns about the need for open public information and full public disclosure. It is how Freedom of the Commercial Business Press works today. 

Anyway, we brag about our “low cost of living” when compared with other Texas’ cities. 

Yeah.  Chicka-boom-boom! 

Our “low cost of living” is because we have hundreds – thousands – of buildings older than oak, and they sell c-h-e-a-p! 

Look at the houses, neighborhood after neighborhood, block after block, and you understand why housing costs are so low.  You will also understand why retirees aren’t flocking to Paris like English Sparrows looking for a nesting site.

What you will not understand is why we brag about it.

While there is a reason for our low housing costs, there are no reasons why our city utility rates and costs should be among the highest in Texas.  (Along with our tax rates, with the sales tax requiring $8.25 cents on every $100 we spend.) 

We should be striving to hold down franchise fees, which include utilities:  Electricity, gas, cable, as well as City of Paris water, sewer, and trash pickup.

Every time the City allows a utility rate increase the less fortunate are penalized; requiring more of the widow’s mite. 

Of course, Paris is not alone in doing this.  It is the way politics generally works.  The least powerful individuals among us are the ones who most feel every increase in utility rates, gas prices, and taxes that dig deeper and deeper into their income. 

Cities, like Paris, raise city utility rates – not because it is the right thing to do – but because their citizens all need or must have what the utility monopolies are selling. And they are far easier to approve than an increase in property taxes.  Plus, people tend to blame the utility company when they get the bill, not the ones who approved the rate increases.

If Paris ever gets really serious about being the kind of city you want to live in, we’ll stop rubber-stamping every request for another rate increase. As we lose population, we should be reducing or – at least – holding the line on spending.

In the meantime, other companies would likely be happy to offer a lower rate for the same or similar utilities, if we invited them.  It might, at least, improve service.

Is there a law that says we can’t at least get bids?    

                

return to    Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce

The Nation’s Largest Employer has over 22-Million employees –

Elected and appointed local, district, regional, state and national office-holders, can, IF all 22-million wish, express concepts and ideas and take actions that support and approve and help create laws on issues and things that they hate or love.

The following is the result of word games. For instance, civil servants are not the same as government employees, an example being that military employees are not considered as government employees, which distorts – (no, lies about) – federal employment.

(grey)  Local government employees
(yellow)  State government employees
(Blue)  Federal government employees
(The blip up in hiring at the Federal level every 10 years is for the United States census)

But do these officials have the right – moral or legal – to do or say things that do NOT reflect the same promises and commitments they expressed to the voters who elected them and pay for the positions they occupy?

IF they do or are doing so, shouldn’t voters be able to remove them from office? They lied to get the position they hold; thereby, violating their Oath of Office.

A baseline fact is that they were not employed to act as social directors, guiding the community citizens thru the throes of progressive socialism, which they see as progress thru the fog of an unique version of history or just an inability to see cause and effect.

Voters have allowed every level of government to create too many platforms to serve government’s cause . . . 

Today, according to the U. S. Department of Labor, manufacturing employment is down to about 16-million workers. This is a loss of over 2-million jobs in this category since 2000, while government jobs increased over 6-million in the same time period – making it the nation’s largest employer. 

But in addition to the city, state and national government employees there are millions of other elected and appointed office holders  Seldom ever considered, examples are such as those employed in special taxing districts (the Visitor’s group and the PEDC, Lamar County Water District, etc., and a multitude of other tax districts); plus, staffs of numerous government-funded research centers, foundations, think tanks, and various other organizations; plus millions of school and college administrators, teachers and instructors.

Its likely that most employees in the list do not view themselves as office holders but, basically (as with any government office or office holder), they occupy offices that work to inform, educate, direct, promote, publicize, and affect and / or effect public issues, events, and/or a public cause or purpose.

Examining recent decades of voting records, it seems most Paris and Lamar County citizens will vote for or appoint any idiot who claims to love America and wave the flag while promising a “free” government handout or to “make our children safe.” But the same voters will remove their hats (if wearing one) and place a hand over their heart when that flag comes by and, when the national anthem is sung, they’ll join in (at least, on the words they can remember).

Whether the voters are yellow-dog Democrats with standards that haven’t made the change to those of their new “woke” party or an old time Republican who still treasures his or her “I Like Ike” button, they’re not stupid. They just have a real low threshold for electing or appointing self-promoters who cannot or will not walk their talk.

Or, maybe, we only hear what we want to hear and read what we want to read and see what we want to see.

That, however, only proves that we’re semi-members of the human race, which also seems to be a worldwide tendency, except in those totalitarian countries where there is no choice on what to see or read or hear.

Neither Paris, nor Lamar County, is an enclave of socialist thought, regardless of certain characteristics we sometimes demonstrate or read in the paper.

That’s where the fun and the cussing starts. 

But there’s nothing funny about the growing socialist mess Paris and the nation are in––

 

                     return to  Paris Texas Chamber of Commerce