Where is Real Reporting?
by Ron West
The
spreading of ideas, information, or rumor for the purpose of helping or
injuring an institution, a cause, or a person, and
Ideas,
facts, or allegations spread deliberately to further one's cause or to damage
an opposing cause; also a
public action having such an effect.
On Sunday, December 12, 2004, Mr. Kirsh penned what can only be described as a propaganda article that screams that the Bedford Library will be closed if the roll back is successful. His words are essentially those of the establishment that benefits directly from the tax increase. The only apparent purpose of the article seems to be to try to scare the citizens into voting against the roll back. It is amazing to me to see this type of reporting allowed by the only newspaper in town but then who can refute the power of the press.
Lets look
at the
The article today, is the second of two articles Mr. Kirsh has penned since the roll back effort was initiated. The first article featured a city employee who stood to gain personally by the tax increase but who lived outside the city.
If Mr.
Kirsh and the Star Telegram were interested in truth in reporting they might
have done more research before publishing such propaganda.
I do not understand why Mr. Kirsh seems to always want to paint anyone who opposes actions of the local governments in Bedford and NRH as the bad guys but he seems to do so with the blessing of the powers that be at the Star Telegram. Mr. Kirsh seems to always want to promote higher taxes and higher spending by an ever growing government at any level. If his columns were published as editorial opinion, they would still be promoting his ideas and convictions but would be correctly labeled.
My own bet is that the roll back will be successful and that if the local council decides to actually close the library, the same group will be successful at a recall to elect officials that are responsible. Hopefully, if Mr. Kirsh decides to pen further articles on the roll back, it will be when the election is over and the people have spoken.
The question of “Where is Real Reporting” is even more evident by the followings emails that I sent to Ms. Lois Norder (who is over so called watchdog reporting for Northeast Tarrant County) and Mr. Larry Lutz, ( llutz@star-telegram.com ) which suggests further evidence that the Star Telegram may have its own agenda for the Northeastern portion of our county:
September
4, 2004
Dear Ms. Norder,
If I remember correctly, you live in our fair city of
As you are probably well aware, there are a small group of us fighting back at
city hall to try to open government and to receive fair treatment. While
we are winning some battles, the power of the city is being brought to bear to
try to end our efforts. City elected officials limit our comments to two
minutes then spend 30 minutes trying to publicly discredit any thing we
say. They often totally misrepresent factual information.
The latest battle over the Tax Freeze has seen the city:
1. Insert electioneering material in all water
bills.
2. Use
the City Newsletter to insert a 4 page political statement slanted against the
freeze and including blatant misrepresentations.
3. Call for a public forum under their influence
and control after being notified that the citizens group was planning
a forum. (All old council
members were invited and declined prior to their announcement of their forum.)
4. Try to discredit current investigations into
TIF#2 which we believe was illegally formed by publishing misleading
information in the current
newsletter.
The most blatant lie being perpetrated regarding the Tax Freeze starts with a
claim that the first year cost of the freeze is
$605,000. This number is the result of taking the current senior
disabled exemption of $36,000 and multiplying it by the
3013 senior & disabled households. This result is then divided by 100
(to calculate per $100 valuation) and then multiplied
by $.57 which is the current tax rate per $100 value. (The actual
calculation yields $618,267 which was apparently adjusted
a little to make it harder to figure out where the number came from.) The
actual first year loss in tax revenues (cost) is $0
This "cost" is the current senior exemption and would continue in
place regardless of the freeze passing or not. The lie is
further enhanced by using this number and "growing" it into over
$1,030,000 per year after year 5. These figures were
used by Karen Bostic in her initial presentation to the Council regarding the
options relating to the freeze in June of this
year. The bottom line is that the City is grossly overstating the
"loss of increased taxes on the seniors and disabled" in order
to frighten voters and city employees.
This type of deception is further typified by the lies being published in the
same newsletter regarding TIF#2 - The following is a
quote from the Newsletter followed by the actual calculations that prove the
city's numbers false:
Lies in the NRH Newsletter
“Since the taxes paid
on the base property value go into the City's General Fund, over $2.3 million
in property taxes paid by residents and business owners within the TIF help pay
for general this City services such as Fire and Police protection.”
Proof of TIF Lie:
Original value of
TIF = $40,000,000
NRH Tax Rate $.57 per $100
value.
Total
Possible Taxes Collected Per Year
Not
accounting for deductions or exemptions --- $228,000
City News Letter claimed
property taxes on original value of $2,300,000 – Overstating them by nearly 10
times.
Valuation Increase -
$80,900,000
NRH Tax Rate $.57 per $100
Value
Total
Possible Property Taxes Collected Per Year
Not
including any exemptions or deductions -- $461,100
City claims generation of
$1,900,000 in taxes
Note – all revenue from
increases in valuation go into the TIF#2 Fund and are not available for normal
city services. Only tax revenues that existed in 1999 when
the TIF was created go to pay for city services. (Note: since the
original valuation had raw land as part of it, technically a very, very small
percentage of each new residents tax bill does replace the taxes that were
originally paid by the owner of the raw land. This might represent as
high as 2 to 3% of their total tax bill and they could thereby claim they were
paying for city services with this small portion of their taxes. In
reality, those tax revenues existed to the city prior to the building of
Hometown NRH so they are actually contributing nothing new to the general
fund.)
When I recently approached our city attorney, Mr. George Staples, and ask the
simple question - "Who enforces the City Charter?" He
answered by
telling me "I am not going to answer that, if you want to know, hire an
attorney!"
As a citizen in this city, I believe that we deserve actual and factual
information - not lies, deception and disregard. It is my hope that you
will use the
watchdog powers of the press to bring more light to bear on our city
government. Only by actual investigation will this city reveal truth.
Mr. John Kirsh, who covers the city, may be intimidated by the current
leadership and perhaps even threatened. We truly need your help
and respectfully request that you assign someone on your staff to look into
these and other problems in our city.
I would be happy to meet with anyone you designate to provide initial places to
look for the facts. I can also provide the names of other citizens who
share these concerns should you rather work with others.
Sincerely,
Ron C. West
817-938-1383
December 4th, 2004
Dear Mr. Lutz,
Back in September - after the
Freeze election in NRH, I contacted you regarding coverage of what many
believed to be illegal electioneering by NRH. There will now be a formal
complaint filed with the Texas Ethics Commission regarding this activity
accompanied by extensive documentation of the problem. While John Kirsh
covered my dastardly failure to file a report for my personal expenditures in
support of the freeze, there has been no mention in your paper of the much more
significant activities by city officials when such expenditures probably reach
into the thousands of dollars and are blatantly illegal.
We are also fighting the city on the current sign ordinance that is being used
to extort funds - we believe illegally - from businesses in our city. In
like manner, the city is essentially blackmailing new businesses by denying
Certificates of Occupancy without the new business destroying or removing what
the consider to be objectionable pole signs. (There is no ordinance to
support this withholding of the certificate.) They are demanding a $500
fee to appeal to a board that does not exist.
A couple of weeks ago, reporter John Kirsh wrote about a "decision"
made by the NRH City Council in closed session based on a quote from Mayor
Oscar Trevino. He did not report on the bigger issue of the fact that
such decisions are illegal and forbidden under the Open Meetings Law.
There are potentially both civil and criminal penalties for the above
activities if proven. But is seems as if
there is no enforcement by any governmental agency against runaway illegal
activity by elected officials.
I guess, I am just wondering why the Star Telegram does not think these issues
warrant coverage? Our city officials believe they are above the law and
without public notice, they are getting by with being above the law.
Regards,
Ron West
817-938-1383
P.S.: My own comments are available at: http://www.nrhonline.com
Ms. Norder never acknowledged or responded to the September
email and Mr. Lutz did not reply to the email or ever acknowledge receiving
it.
The Star Telegram does have
competent staff to look into issues of concern for all of