PRESS RELEASE -- MAY 12, 2004 -- HOUSTON, TEXAS
The Harris County Green Party will announce its solidarity with municipal employees and its opposition to Prop 1 at a press conference at 1:00pm, Thursday, May 13 at the Carpenters Union Hall, 2600 Hamilton at McGowan.
“If the Mayor didn’t intend to reduce pensions for vested employees he wouldn’t need Prop 1. A pension plan that can be reduced whenever a mayor declares a shortfall in the city budget is no pension plan at all, it’s a license to beg”, said George Rieter, member of the steering committee of the Harris County Green Party.
The party is also strongly critical of the Mayor’s misleading political advertisements that overstate the projected shortfall and attempt to scare people into turning on the city workers with the prospect of raising taxes and cutting city services. “He’s pretending there are no alternatives, but he sold himself to the city as a can-do businessman, ‘It doesn’t take much of a businessman to balance the budget with benefits promised to his workers”, said Earl Gerhard, Co-chair of the Harris County Green Party.
The party suggests that if the Mayor wants to renegotiate contracts, he should look first to those who have received tax benefits from TIFFS and sweetheart deals like the lease of the new stadium and the Summit. Or, raise revenue thru the sale of municipal bonds for this purpose, as recently authorized by the state legislature.
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