So What Is A TIRZ, Anyway??

Here at The Political Chicken, more often than not, I'm focused on fiscal issues, and of course, government overreach.  So, I'd like to bring your attention to something that actually falls under both of those categories;  a little thing called, Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone or TIRZ for short.  As defined by Wikipedia, a TIRZ is a political subdivision of a municipality or county in the state of Texas created to implement tax increment financing. They may be initiated by the city or county or by petition of owners whose total holdings in the zone consist of a majority of the appraised property value.

So why should you care?  Because the people that work on TIRZ are unelected and aren't held accountable by the tax payers!  And as we speak, there's an effort underway to put Bus Lanes on Post Oak.  The Uptown TIRZ has allocated $204 million for the project, oh, and did I mention they've blown through $43 million just to PLAN the project???  Yeah, nothing to see here.

The idea is to add managed METRO bus lanes to the CENTER lanes up and down Post Oak, which would actually cause a bigger traffic flow problem.  Considering that METRO rider numbers have not risen in quite sometime, that makes one wonder why the Uptown TIRZ would find this project necessary in the first place

They've also decided they need to add bigger sidewalks and more foliage.  They won't stay under the projected budget.  I can almost guarantee it.

There is a group of folks that have gathered and formed The Uptown Houston PAC in an effort to oppose the construction in the Uptown/Galleria area.  They've got a website called SaveUptown.com.  Go there and look for yourself to see if you'd like to  sign their petition to oppose the project.

The last thing we need in the City of Houston is more unelected bureaucrats who are unaccountable to the taxpayers spending more of our money on wasteful projects.  I mean, what could possibly go wrong??