Ross Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 A great deal of rain runs off the roof and onto impervious areas like the driveway and various walkways that route the flow directly into the street. Two thirds of the water that comes off our roof does that. We catch some in a rain barrel, but we don't have a way to get the rest of the water onto the yard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DistribAire P.E. Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 I'm getting quite nervous seeing over and over how corrupt this city is and wonder if i ever want to become a homeowner in this city.+1after the corruption of the process to annex kingwood and watching my property taxes double every 3-4 years and this on top of it I am moving to a different part of town that is not CoH this summer. hopefully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 The way the Mayor handled this one in the vote was very underhanded and wrong.Ch2 news had a great editorial today regarding the Mayor's supposedly dedicated fund. Turns out in this yrs budget 50 million of this money is being used to pay salaries and benefits of nearly 500 public works employees which is what she said WOULD NOT HAPPEN when asked prior to the vote.. The Mayor's repeated statements about the dedicated fund will definitely come back to haunt her. Hopefully Ch2 will continue to push the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marksmu Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Ch2 news had a great editorial today regarding the Mayor's supposedly dedicated fund. Turns out in this yrs budget 50 million of this money is being used to pay salaries and benefits of nearly 500 public works employees which is what she said WOULD NOT HAPPEN when asked prior to the vote.. The Mayor's repeated statements about the dedicated fund will definitely come back to haunt her. Hopefully Ch2 will continue to push the issue.Shocking - a Democrat saying one thing and doing another...Truly shocking. (Democrat could be replaced with "politician" but its not as entertaining) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsb320 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Ch2 news had a great editorial today regarding the Mayor's supposedly dedicated fund. Turns out in this yrs budget 50 million of this money is being used to pay salaries and benefits of nearly 500 public works employees which is what she said WOULD NOT HAPPEN when asked prior to the vote.. The Mayor's repeated statements about the dedicated fund will definitely come back to haunt her. Hopefully Ch2 will continue to push the issue.I saw that yesterday. These funds were to be dedicated to drainage projects, or at least that's what I thought I was voting for. Um, now that I think about it, I got flyers in the mail that very directly stated that these funds could not be diverted. This really pisses me off, if true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicman Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I'm Annise Parker and I approve this message Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houblu Posted March 8, 2012 Author Share Posted March 8, 2012 I saw that yesterday. These funds were to be dedicated to drainage projects, or at least that's what I thought I was voting for. Um, now that I think about it, I got flyers in the mail that very directly stated that these funds could not be diverted. This really pisses me off, if true.Please see my original post.I think it was naive to believe that the new tax would be used for the promised purpose.However you can be damn sure that the engineering company that was the front to push this, will get their money. Or the owner(s) will get his/her/their money out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houblu Posted May 1, 2013 Author Share Posted May 1, 2013 As I watched the water rise last Saturday, on my street and on the teevee,I was glad to see the improved drainage measures (paid for by the drainage tax, now in effect around 2 years IIRC) kicking in to improve our drainage! Maybe I just didn't notice, but has there been even a single PR event about some high-viz drainage improvement construction, orchestrated by mayor or council? Are we supposed to be aware of wide-ranging improvemnts paid for by that drainage tax? Where's the cash really going? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trymahjong Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 from Councilman Costello enewsletter   Controller and Finance Director announce additional revenue at yesterday's Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee Houston is experiencing good times. As a result of a booming economy, the city's property values have increased 9% over last year. Thanks to the charter amendment establishing the ReBuild Houston Program, this means more money, $11.1 million more, for street and drainage infrastructure projects. This is in addition to the $11 million already budgeted for projects in Fiscal Year 2014. So, revenues from just this one source of ReBuild Houston funding have essentially doubled. The ReBuild Houston program is made up of four funding sources: monthly drainage utility fees; developer impact fees; third-party funds (Metro, TxDOT, grants, etc...); and a portion of your property taxes. For each $100 valuation of your property, 11.8 cents is transferred to the ReBuild Houston Program. This money is used first to pay down the city's $1.7 billion of street and drainage debt. After the debt payment is made, excess ad valorem revenue goes directly to street and drainage projects. The city is no longer borrowing to pay for these projects. We've cut up the credit card! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houblu Posted July 11, 2014 Author Share Posted July 11, 2014 from today's Swamplot: http://swamplot.com/city-council-votes-to-drain-houstons-drainage-fund/2014-07-10/ I have fond memories of how it all started, with employees of an "engineering" company handing out leaflets to drum up support for this in Montrose. Then the clunky website, which did not work, but which was supposed to explain it all to you. And the mumbo jumbo about impervious surfaces blah blah.Raise your hand if you were naive enough to have ever believed that this tax money would not be diverted to whatever the city felt like spending it on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houblu Posted June 10, 2015 Author Share Posted June 10, 2015 in light of recent flooding.........http://swamplot.com/city-council-votes-to-drain-houstons-drainage-fund/2014-07-10/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houblu Posted June 14, 2015 Author Share Posted June 14, 2015 Supreme Court deals a blow to ReBuild HoustonJun 14th, 2015 by Charles Kuffner.  http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=67780 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Interesting that you would link to that particular site. Mr. Kuffner poses some great questions to opponents of the drainage tax (such as houblu): If it goes down, then what if anything replaces it? I feel like I spent a lot of time back in 2010 asking Renew Houston opponents what they would do to provide more funds for flooding and drainage improvements, and I never got anything resembling a coherent answer. So I’ll ask again, with an eye especially at the Mayoral candidates. If not ReBuild Houston, then what? How do you provide more funds to do more street repairs and flood abatement? Remember, we live in a revenue cap world, so simply proposing a property tax increase (not that anyone would, I suppose) is insufficient. If you don’t propose some kind of supplemental revenue stream, then as far as I’m concerned you’re not serious about wanting to do street improvements and flood mitigation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houblu Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 http://www.chron.com/news/politics/houston/article/Judge-rules-city-obscured-cost-of-drainage-fee-6598615.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdog08 Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 What a shame. A booming city that needs funds for infrastructure with a looming pension crisis. I suppose conservatives can claim this a victory,I claim it as a defeat unless conservatives can put some sanity into the unavoidable pension issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylejack Posted October 31, 2015 Share Posted October 31, 2015 The fee is still valid, what was struck down was the lockbox for road improvements. That's what voters voted on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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