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Steroid sure is a problem in Sports, but when it cost Texas more than a million dollars and only two high school athlete got caught last spring, Wow, what a HUGE waste of taxpayer money! As the brother of a high school athlete, I certainly do not want kids taking steroids but it seems like statistically we don’t have a problem. Why not have a “turn in” program where teachers, parents or concerned persons could request a particular athlete be tested if there was a particular concern instead of wasting more millions on testing innocent kids? I’ve read the UIL rules on testing and about the appeals process and kids would be scared to take Flintstones vitamins! If the manufacturer doesn’t clean his equipment before making them, some “banned substance” could be in them that could cause a kid to test positive. They then would have a mandatory 30 day suspension. This suspension DOES NOT start immediately after the positive test but the day that their sport begins! So if a student has a false positive test, he’s basically out for the season! Career hopes and dreams and scholarship chances could be ruined, through no fault of the kid, the parents or the school! Perhaps Dewhurst should create a scholarship fund using his own money for the athletes who may be caught in this trap… Spend taxpayer money elsewhere!!!
This program simply isn’t worth the money. The return on the investment, at least after the first round of tests, doesn’t justify continuing to test for steroids on such a massive level. Texas has more than 750,000 high school students playing sports, and random testing of just 10 percent of them would cost millions of dollars. Surely the state can find better uses for that money. Steroids stay in the system long enough that students couldn’t just refrain from taking them a day or two and it not show up in the test. This was a ridiculous waste of time, effort and money. Dewhurst didn’t care about the school kids — he merely wanted to look “tough” for some future run for office. If he wants to impress, he should direct this $3 million to classrooms.
Rails in Austin, we will be seeing computer rail service between Leander and downtown Austin. Good Idea? Umm I don’t think so. Computer rail has been a long time coming to central Texas, and there are many questions about riding the trains. The authors of this plan figured that it's better to have a very poor rail configuration than none at all. Me: I'd rather hold out and do things right, once. I believe this line is a great disservice to the city, the region, and to the long-term prospect of light rail. Shame. Well, at least the seven people who work at the convention center and live in Leander will get something out of it. A toast to them! There are two points I think which should be mention, first: if rail is such a hot idea just charge customers, the ones who benefit, THE REAL COST OF A TICKET. It’s simply unfair to load the impact of a subsidized fare on the backs of taxpayers. Second: If you would be willing to construct a special, stand alone highway, with its own bridges and underpasses, paint two gold lines down the middle of it, allow ONLY buses to use it, even on Sundays when traffic is light, IT WOULD BE LAUGHED OUT OF TOWN. The only thing that would make rail transport different than this bus alternative is the incredible high cost for the rail cars and the fact that said inflexible cars could not branch out and drop off riders at their real destinations. 105 million dollars! The rail will run 4 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the afternoon only! No nights or weekends. Hey, let's ride the rail to Leander hat a fun. It’s a sad day thing taxpayers. This is a classic waste of tax dollars and government. mismanagement. So I strongly believe this is not a good plan and I will never ride a train in Austin.
Texas jobs: We're in the midst of an economic downturn. People are losing jobs and homes. The credit market is tight. And there is a great deal of uncertainty. This stimulus project will create 269,000 jobs in Texas. Many of those jobs will be in construction and road building. This package will benefit people who don't have any jobs right now or even for those who can't get enough out of one job. it is estimated that 5,000 people would be put to work in road construction once the stimulus money kicks in.
I am still not sure if it really is a good idea or not, Rick Perry have not sign this package yet, doesn't mean he will not reject the package , but I am still thinking how much would this effect our economy in Texas, sure people will get jobs, but do we really need more toll roads. I am sure with that money we are getting from National Government, we could use in some other good way than making a toll roads, which by the way we have to pay to drive when the work is finish. I don't think this bill is good enough for our economy, It will create jobs for sure, but that would not last forever, we need to create some thing which stands for long.
