Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Well, what we need is more common sense.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Breaking down the world's nonsense about.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
How American common sense.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
All right, I'm going to I mean, I'm here all
day today, I'm here Wednesday, Tuesday, I'm here Wednesday, here,
Thursday off. Starting on Friday, I'll be on vacation. Uh
so I'm not gonna be here for Thanksgiving. So I
got to get all my Christmas slash Thanksgiving stuff, especially
Thanksgiving stuff. We got to talk about that before I go.
And today's topic is turkey. We're talking turkey because turkey
(00:54):
is a at least open the show. Turkey, I believe
to be sort of a polarizing thing. Turkey is one
of those things you either like it or you don't.
There are a fair amount of people who are ambivalent
about it. Yeah it's okay, but you know, not my
favorite thing to eat. But it's Thanksgiving, so I know,
we got to eat some. And then there's people like
(01:17):
me who go, oh, man, I cannot wait for the
Thanksgiving turkey now the rest of the year. I mean,
I do like turkey, depending on how it's prepared and
how it's seasoned and how moist it is. And as
it turns out, everybody and their brother has a secret
as far as how they prepare it. And we'll get
into that in just a second. But there are those
(01:39):
who are doing alternatives because they just don't like turkey.
That's why I think that Elizabeth is one of those.
My wife, Eliza, she really doesn't care that much about turkey,
really doesn't care much for it at all, and I'm
not sure why she just doesn't. I think she just
(02:01):
thinks it's kind of bland, which is kind of funny
coming from somebody who generally doesn't like things to have
spice or much seasoning. So you would think she'd be
a perfect candidate for turkey, because turkey's pretty plain. Now,
where we go get barbecue, they have turkey, And now
that I think about, I han't really tried their turkey.
I should try that. I know there are people who
(02:22):
like to smoke turkeys. There are people like to deep
fry turkeys. We'll get into all that in just a second.
But as far as an alternative to turkey goes, you
know ham. I know people prepare ham. We used to.
When I was a kid growing up, we always had
turkey every Thanksgiving, and we had turkey for Christmas as well,
(02:44):
which I thought was kind of soon to kind of
repeat that, and then we always had ham for Easter.
That was kind of the family tradition. I know there
are a lot of people have ham for Christmas, which
is perfectly fine, makes more sense to me than rather
than repeating the whole turkey thing all over again, or actually,
at our house we'd like to. I mean, if we're
going to spurge and make something like a prime rib
(03:07):
or a beef tenderloin, that's when we're more likely to
do it. Okay, So turkey ideas, that was kind of
our question of the day today. We're running, we're talking
about turkey ideas, and as I'm talking about turkey ideas,
I can actually it's working again. I can actually smell
(03:28):
the turkey cooking. Are you able to do that? Have
you ever been able to do that? Where you talk
about something and you're kind of imagining it in your
mind and before you know it, you swear you can
smell it cooking. And oh, as I'm talking about this,
I'm messing this. I'm starting to salivate. My mouth is
(03:49):
actually getting watery just just thinking about the idea of
cooking that turkey. And I remember my mom was always
and I think anybody who's ever prepared the big Thanksgiving
dinner can appreciate, you know, all the work that goes
into it for a very little time actually eating it.
(04:09):
I mean, my mom would probably spend a day and
a half or two full days actually preparing Thanksgiving. She'd
make things that she could make ahead of time and
just have it ready to go into the oven, because
when we were kids growing up, we only had one
oven in the house, so it was always a juggling thing.
You know about what's going in and what's coming out,
and you know when that's going to be done, and
how long that needs to cook. To try to get
(04:31):
it all done at the same time, she was an
expert at that. She juggled that stuff like nobody's business.
But she'd do all that hard work for two days
and then basically twenty fifteen twenty minutes after you sat down, Okay,
that's enough turkey. I'm done, and that was it. And
(04:52):
that was always kind of frustrating, I think for her
to spend all that time preparing that meal just to
have us sit down for fifteen you're twenty minutes and
be done. You know. The only the only way it
lasts a longer than that was first of all, we
had a thirty minute rule at our house. Once we
sat down, you know, you could tell, you could tell
the old lady was putting in on her internal timer.
(05:13):
All right, nobody moves for thirty minutes. I don't care
what time you stop eating. You're not moving because I'm
not going to sit here cook it for two days
to have you hop up after fifteen minutes and go
do something else. So anyway, turkey was the topic today,
and again I'm not here for Thanksgiving, so I just
kind of, you know, set the idea up that we
could talk about, you know, different ways to prepare turkey.
That's what I got, or alternatives to turkey, and I
(05:35):
got almost exclusively different ways to make it. Everybody has
their own favorite way of making a really good turkey.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Jimmy, you have to spatchcock the turkey and put it
on a smoker.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
It's the only way to do it.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
It's best, hands down, best way ever. Jerry Payne out
here in Cyprus, Texas, we like to cook our turkeys
in the ground. Pretty delicious way to do it, or
to give it a try.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Hang on, how do you cook a turkey in the ground?
What exactly does that mean? Is that like digging a hole?
He is it like you would prepare a whole hog,
like a Hawaiian luau kind of thing, where you have
a hole in the ground. He puts some rocks down
there and charcoal and you get a fire going, and
(06:21):
then you put the turkey in there, and then what
you cover it up was something to keep the heat in.
I've never heard of doing a turkey that way. You know,
it works really well for pork, maybe it would work
well for turkey. And what the other guy's talking about,
what do you call it? Splash something or other. I
think what he's talking about is like basically, you know,
(06:42):
taking out the spine of the turkey and then flattening
it out so it can lay flat on the grill
and then you know, smoking a turkey. I know Eric
from our newsroom is going to smoke a turkey this year.
He's also going to have a something else as a
backup in case that doesn't work. And you know, the
first time you try something, it is really a good
idea to have a backup, just in case the whole
(07:04):
thing completely falls apart.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Oh, smoked turkey or you know, brisket, that's the alternative.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
It's either turkey or briskit.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Hey, Jimmy, my dad has always deep fried our turkey
and personally I like to have myself, although the oven
is actually a lot more heart healthy. But actually recently
in the last couple of years, I have noticed over
at HV they have pre prepared turkeys as well. I
mean season two your liking. I think there's a couple
of variants of spices as well. But that is really
(07:40):
good if you're on the go, Like if you're going
somewhere on the road to see a family for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Skip from Webster Best way to make Thanksgiving Turkey fried
and peanut. A will inject it with Cajun butter, rub
it down with Tony sacharays, make sure it's good.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
In the thawed or kaboom, and you're going to the hospital.
That's what That's what I'm worried about. That I think
that's why I've never deep fried the turkey. I'm worried
about the kaboom. Yeah, going to the hospital of burning
down the house not high on my list of things
to do in Thanksgiving. That's why you know, people always,
you know, fry them out in out the driveway, somewhere
(08:17):
away from the house or the backyard, away from the house,
somewhere where if anything goes kaboom, nothing bad can result
from that. That that that's that That would be my
biggest fear of doing it that way. Here's a couple more.
Regardless of how you've cooked your turkey, you've got to
brin it first.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
If you'll brine it properly, it'll be voiced.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
Hey, Jimmy, it's Jason from San Antonio. So for about
twenty years now, I've deep fried my turkeys. But I
use an Emerald Legassi res injection recipe and the main
ingredient is Guinness stout beer.
Speaker 9 (08:59):
It's one rick on the side. I like to take
my turkey and get some dollars of garlic rudder, nice
and cold and put them between the skin and the
meat on the breasts and you're pretty much guaranteed it
is gonna come out nice and juicy. Just season it
(09:20):
to how.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You like it.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Isn't that amazing how many different ideas that there are
for cooking a turkey. I agree with the brinding thing.
We started brinding our turkeys a few years ago. That
made a big difference as far as the moisture goes.
But you know, Cajun style turkey, Yeah, I'm kind of
curious about that. You know, somebody told me that Popeyes
has a really good Cajun turkey. It's really really good.
(09:42):
I never tried it again. I'm gonna have to branch
out here and try something new. Hey, quick little break,
We'll be back with you all just a moment. Jimmy
Barrett sew here a name of nine fifty KPRC. I
(10:08):
want to start with a little update on the story
that you just don't hear anybody talking about. But thankfully
there are at least a few reporters out there. None
of the liberal media is interested in following up on this,
but certainly some are. Miranda Divine you know her, right,
(10:28):
She's on Fox White frequently. She also is a columnist
for The New York Post, and she has been following
the story out of Butler, Pennsylvania. When's the last time
you heard about the kid who was killed after attempting
to assassinate President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, Very very little. Well,
(10:48):
Miranda Divine has done some investigative work on this and
has found that there was quite a social media footprint
for this kid. As it turns out, he had all
kinds of crazy little things going on in his world,
many of which are a little bit at least reminiscent
of the Charlie Kirk assassin. You almost all these people
(11:11):
are coming from a kind of a strange alternative background.
Here is Miranda Divine with what she learned about the Butler,
Pennsylvania assassin.
Speaker 10 (11:20):
Well, they've told us that there was actually a very
large digital footprint left behind by twenty year old Thomas Crooks,
who was Donald Trump's would be assassin last year in Butler, Pennsylvania.
It's quite a different story to the one that Christopher
Ray and his deputy Paula Bank told Congress just in
(11:41):
a couple of weeks after that assassination attempt, and we
were sort of led to believe that Thomas Crooks was
really a ghost, that there was no motive that could
be ascertained from his online accounts, and yet a source
has provided us with a law a lot of information
from seventeen different online accounts that Thomas Crooks had, and
(12:06):
they range from Google Play to that site you referenced
before called deviant Art, which is probably the biggest or
one of the biggest hubs online for this sexual fetish
called furries, where people dress up or fantasize about animal characters,
(12:27):
cartoon characters that are sort of humanized, and so it's
very bizarre. But we also saw that with Charlie Kirk's
killer alleged killer Tyler Robinson, who was also involved in
this bizarre furry culture. So there's not a lot that
my source discovered on those lines, but there was a
(12:47):
little bit the fact that this guy, Thomas Crooks was
interested in this furry site, spent a lot of time there,
had various images that he liked and reposted, and also
gave his pronouns as they them. But I think the
more important part is what the comments his online comments
(13:09):
from he was very young, I mean fifteen, sixteen seventeen
show us about how he became increasingly violent and sort
of radicalized against Democrats. He was pro Trump, and then
in January of twenty twenty, he flipped one hundred and
eighty degrees. Something happened to make him become rapidly anti Trump,
(13:32):
and again his rhetoric took more and more of a
violent turn. He started brushing up against There was a
neo Nazi by the name fake name, probably William Teppers,
who started encouraging crooks in more and more violent resuric
And then suddenly something happened in August of twenty twenty
(13:53):
and he just disappeared online, very unusual. And then of
course in July of twenty twenty four, he fired off
eight shots from a rooftop at Donald Trump at that
rally in Butler, killing Corey Comparatory who was sitting behind
Donald Trump, and badly injuring two other rally goers and
hitting Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
In the ear.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
Only, you know, by a miracle, did Donald Trump not
get killed that day.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
You know, clearly he was radicalized by somebody, whether there
was the neo Nazi that he was supposedly was talking
to or this furry culture. I mean, that's that's the
thing that that I think the the the Charlie Kirk
and the Donald Trump attenthe assassination and the Charlie Kirk assassination.
(14:43):
Maybe having common is that you've got this weird fringe
group of outcasts and outsiders involved in some way, shape
or form. The furry culture is just it's just just
a weird thing. And there there are furries. Go to
any high school you'll see a furry or two. You know,
(15:04):
there's a I remember the school by high school that
my wife used to work at that they had for
a young lady, yep, dressed, she wore little cat ears,
she had a cattail and she wouldn't talk to you.
She just yeah, yeah, she she wouldn't talk to you. You
have to communicate with her, tell her something and she
(15:25):
would acknowledge you. Now, we're the and we put up
with that in our schools. Yes we do. Do we
put litter pans in the bathrooms for them, No, we
don't go that far. But it's just it's just weird.
There's weird culture, weird people out there. Hey, guests from
our morning show, this might be a good segue here.
(15:47):
One of our guests this morning, Nicole Parker. Nicole Parker,
you may have heard that name before. She does a
lot of guest commentary if you will, for Fox News.
She's sort of the She worked for the FBI for
long time and her story is very interesting one. She's
written a book and the book is is about the
(16:10):
FBI and how part of the FBI is you know,
straight and arrow and you know, done by the book
and is really into the law enforcement stuff. And then
there's the politics that have also ruined the FBI. Here's
my chat from early and by the way, she's in
the Woodland signing books tonight. Details at the end of
the interview here, But here I am talking to Nicole
Parker about her brand new book about the FBI. Where
(16:33):
does the politics begin at the FBI?
Speaker 7 (16:37):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Houston
is my hometown and I'm happy to be here today
and to join y'all. You know, I joined the FBI
as a special agent back in twenty ten, and I
came as a result of previously witnessing the nine to
eleven terrorist attacks in New York City. At the time,
I was working at Merrill Lynch and I heard the
(16:59):
first plane into the North tower. I saw the second
plane crash into the South tower, and there was a
monumental moment in my life as I was trying to
evacuate from my building when I was in the elevator.
I write about it in my book, and it was
this epiphany and it was like literally God speaking peace
to me in a very tumultuous moment. And I felt
(17:20):
my heart, Nicole, if you get out of here alive,
you will one day go back and serve your country,
and you will stand as a witness of God. And
I never forgot that promise I'd made to myself in
that vow on that elevator. So fast forward, I continue
working on Wall Street. You know, I went and worked
at a hedge fund in Beverly Hills, but I still
wasn't really fulfilling what I thought was my higher purpose.
(17:42):
I apply to the FBI. I get in in the book.
I detailed application process, going through Quantico. Things that you
never hear about that really know, one that the FBI
speaks about, but people tend to find quite fascinating. I
get to FBI Miami. I'm working white collar crime. You
know what I referred to as FBI one, people that
came to the agents to uphold the constitution, protect the
(18:02):
American people, and do the right thing. I didn't even
know that politics was a thing at the FBI. But
I'll tell you that on July fifth of twenty sixteen,
loud and clear, James Comy came out in front of
the American people in that press conference and in essence
read an indictment stating why Hillary Clinton was guilty and
there was probable cause that she had committed a crime.
(18:23):
But yet at the end of the statement, he basically says,
no reasonable prosecutor, which are Hillary Clinton? I remember that, Well, yeah,
that was a defining moment for us at the FBI.
That's when I first really discovered FBI two. ATBI two
are the people that are in the agency that came
in there. They abused their law enforcement power to push
their own political and social agendas. And with time I
(18:48):
started seeing FBI two more and more and more. Now
keep in mind, I'm down in Miami. I'm working violent
crime at the time, putting away human traffickers, murderers, you know,
the most heinous crimes you can imagine. I worked at
Parkland School shooting, heart wrenching tragedy, while simultaneously people in Washington,
d C. And our Washington Field office are committing political
(19:11):
corruption and again causing major issues. But let me make
this clear. It wasn't just at the top. People think, oh,
it was just up in DC, and I talk about
in my book, FBI two actually started at the top,
but it literally trickled down into all of the field offices.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
You know, it's funny. My Sicilian in laws have a
saying the fish rots from the head down, and this
sounds like that's exactly what you're describing. How far down
did that go? Do the FBI?
Speaker 7 (19:37):
It's worse for I can tell you that there's support
staff and FBI Miami that were making Again read the book,
it was I was flabbergasted by some of the things
that I was hearing. Keep in mind, at the rate
of our A Lago that was an FBI Miami's area
of jurisdiction, because you know, Palm Beach is in FBI Miami,
which is where mar A Lago is located. Some of
(19:57):
the statements I was hearing and passing, I'm just I
couldn't believe it. But as the book progresses, you know,
they're honorable agents trying to do the right thing, hold
the line, have integrity, be fair. I was trying to
save children, working human trafficking. My best friend in the
FBI was shot and killed in the line of duty
executing a warrant for a child predator. There was no
(20:18):
swap protection for her. And this is in the Biden administration,
while simultaneously the FBI is liberally sending resources for January
sixth non violent misdemeanor offenders.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Nicole, I'm if at the end of the show here,
but I want to ask you before we let you go,
where are you going to be in the Woodlands tonight?
Where can move on to the sun of your book.
Speaker 7 (20:37):
I will be at the Barnes and Noble in the
Woodlands Mall starting at six pm until closed. I would
love for y'all to come out and visit. And I
think it's a great read. There's a lot of heart
in this book.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, stop buying. See her and if there's any questions
I didn't get to that you're interested in, like maybe
she has some thoughts on the prosecution or James call
me in this judge that seems to think the government's
overstep its bounds. I bet she has some thoughts on
that she'll share with you. Again. She's in the Woodland
snight' signing her brand new book, Quick Little break Back
with more in a moment, Jimmy Bart Show. Here a
name of nine fifty KHRC. All right, couple couple of
(21:27):
local stories. The first one I want to do, though,
is one that I didn't get to this morning. And
this is going to make some parents mad my opinion
on this, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it
anyway because we can't necessarily one hundred percent always agree
on everything. Redistricting in Fort Bend County, well, redistricting happens
(21:50):
all the time. I'm talking about I'm not talking about Congress.
I'm talking about school boundaries. People have a habit of
buying a home because it's you're kids are going to
go to a certain school, and that school gets end
up getting overcrowded and they change the lines and your
kid's going to have to go to a different school.
And now you're angry because you thought buying that house
(22:12):
meant that you were guaranteed your child was going to
go to that school. Here is the reports, but some
parent feedback, by the way, on how upset they are
in Fort ben County. This is courtesy of our television
partner KPRC two.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I spoke to two parents whose kids attend Quail Valley
Middle School and are on track to go to Elkins
High School. But those parents tell me they're concerned that
the new redistricting plans could push them out. I just
can't stay quiet. Parents Teresa Noyola and san Juanita Franco
are fighting to keep their kids in their current zoned schools.
How important is good education for your kids as parents?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Extremely, extremely important.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Both parents have kids who are seventh graders at Quail
Valley Middle School and are set to go to Elkins
High School in two years. That's unless for Bendya Steed
draws new maps zoning them out.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
The data is clear moving a tiny pocket of students
won't fix the problem, but it will create academic and
emotional sebbacks. Transparency is not simply posting information on a
website at the last minute.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
Although rezoning plans were not presented during Monday night's board meeting,
dozens of parents spoke out against them, many holding signs
that read, quote Keith Elkins in Quail Valley.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
I moved here five years ago and I literally went
and did my homework.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
San Juanita tells me her child was attending a charter
school in Dallas, So when I moved here and put
them into a public school setting, I wanted to make
sure they were going to have the best education there.
What are both of your messages to the school district.
Don't only think of us as numbers, Think of us
as you know, families and the future of our case. Yeah,
(23:48):
the future of their kids of course their number one priority.
The district says it will be presenting the possible new
maps in January.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
You know, every mom in particular, you know it's that
these are with the exceptional one. They're all women. Moms
are the ones who get the most upset at the
idea that their child might have to go to a
different school. This is where this is where my popularity
is going to go downhill with some parents. And it's okay,
I get it, I understand it. Listen, I'm a parent.
(24:21):
We went through the same thing in our town as
far as overcrowded schools and changing you know what kids
went where. I can tell you that the kids all
survived it. The parents always make a much bigger deal
out of it than needs to be made. Parents always
think I bought this house because I want these schools
(24:45):
and now you're changing it. You can't do that to me.
And the fact of the matter is, yes they can,
Yes they can. Would you rather have your child going?
I know you want you you want somebody else's child
to be moved, not yours. I get that, But somebody's
gonna have to move because some of these some of
these schools get terribly overcrowded, especially the way things are
growing here in Texas. Would you rather have your child
(25:09):
in a classroom with twenty five kids or you want
them to stay in the classroom with thirty eight kids
that are not getting enough individualized attention because the school's overcrowded,
there's no place to put them on. I know you
want the other kids to move down to your kids.
Unfortunately that's not exactly the way it generally works out.
And the other part of it is there is no
(25:29):
guarantee that school assignment that you thought you were getting
when you bought that house, that is not guaranteed to
last forever. And if you really want to argue with somebody,
if you really want to hold somebody responsible for it,
instead of talking or blaming the schools, what you need
(25:51):
to do is blame the people that are proving these
sub you know, these these these new developments that are
going in. Who are saying yes too. I'll give a
great example, and I can completely understand why parents where
I live. I live in the Klein Clinoak school system.
Clinoak High School, I think is the high school for
(26:14):
our kids. I don't have any kids at home anymore,
so I don't have to worry about such things. But
there's a elementary school right down the street, and this
elementary school is gotten very very crowded because they have
allowed apartments to be built right next to these neighborhoods,
(26:34):
very nice neighborhoods, I might add, in a very nice
elementary school. But now they're plopping in all of these apartments,
and you've got lots of young parents with young children
who are moving into these apartments because they want their
kids to go to that particular school. So what happens
(26:55):
when that school gets so overcrowded that some of the
kids that are in the neighborhoods around this school have
to be moved somewhere else, those those people are gonna
be rightfully upset. It's the way. It's the zoning regulations
or lack thereof, it's always saying yes to whatever project
(27:19):
some contractor wants to build. You'll put in five hundred
apartments that will overcrowd the schools. Well, that's not our problem,
you know, and the school system's end been going, well,
now what do we do. We're gonna have to build
a new school or we're gonna have to move things
around because the school population is out of whack. The
real problem is saying yes to allowing more construction in
(27:42):
an area where the school is already crowded. There is
no choice that you can do after that. You have
to change the school boundaries to make it work. And so,
while I understand why parents are upset, I think you're
upset at the wrong people. Being upset with the schools
about school boundary is not the answer. Being upset with
(28:03):
whoever is responsible for saying yes rubber stamping the construction
of apartments and new subdivisions and other things that are
crowding the schools. That's where your argument is. Those are
the meanings you need to go to. You need to
go to the commissioner's court meetings. You need to you
need to, you know, let them know that you're over
crowding our schools and we don't appreciate it. You need
(28:24):
to stop saying yes to every project that comes along.
I don't know if they'll make any difference, but at
least you're being arguing in front of the right people.
All right, quick little break back with more in a moment.
Jimmy Vertchow here a name of nine fifty KPRC. Have
(28:56):
you heard a thirty one atlas? Does that ring a
bell with any of you? Does that sound familiar at all?
Thirty one dash Atlas? It does to me. And the
reason why it does is because this is that so
called comet that's going past the sun where we actually
have some people who seem to think there's a possibility
(29:19):
that that might actually be actually a UFO alien spaceship
about the size of Manhattan. Perhaps time will tell, because
it's supposed to pass the Sun and get closer. The
closest point to Earth would be around to some of
the nineteenth right before Christmas. So I guess we'll wait
and see. We'll wait and see what happens if it
turns out it's something other than the comet that they
(29:41):
claim it is, all right, I also guess I hand
the Shama share this with you really quickly. James Quintaro
takes his Public Policy Foundation. Governor happened running for reelection
on the idea that he's going to do something about
eliminating property taxes. So I talked to James Quintaro, he's
sort of the property tax expert about ways that that
could be done, where we could get the slowly but
(30:02):
surely phase out property taxes on your home. How hard
of a task is it to fund public schools without
doing it with property taxes?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Well, good morning, and great question, Jimmy. You know, it's
no surprise that the dinosaur media can't think outside the
box when it comes to property taxes. But the fact
of the matter is it is entirely achievable to eliminate
the school district maintenance and operations tax. Now that was
a mouthful, but what the maintenance and operations tax, or
(30:33):
the M and O tax means or pays for, is
just day to day supplies and salaries, right, and that
comes to about thirty five billion dollars a year. So
if the legislature wanted to, it could easily pass a
constitutional amendment dedicating some portion of future surplus to buying
(30:56):
down that M and O rate over time until it
reaches zero. Now that's not some fantastical idea, because we've
already been doing it, except we've been doing it via
statutory change. So since twenty nineteen, we've effectively cut in
half the maximum m ANDO tax rate from about a
(31:18):
dollar seventeen to somewhere in the low sixties today. So
what the governor is proposing to do is to put
this in the constitution and make sure that we continue
to make progress on this until we reach zero, and
then we hold it there in perpetuity.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
All right, Well, that takes here that portion of what
you're paying property taxes, but obviously you pay a lot
more than that. You pay most of us paying mud
tax and other types of property taxes. Is the governor
also proposing reducing and or eliminating those?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
One of the great frustrations that the legislature today is
the fact that state lawmakers continue to devote billions upon
billions of dollars toward tax and yet nobody seems to
feel it. And that's because other cities, counties, and special
districts have stepped into the breach and they've taken chunks
(32:12):
out of people's tax relief, and they've done so through
rate hikes and bond elections and certificates of obligation and
other means. And so what one of the other parts
of the Governor's plan calls for the implementation of a
local spending limit. We need to put some reasonable spending
(32:33):
limits in place to make sure that cities and counties
in particular are not eroding the value of tax relief
as it comes down from the legislature.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Also, I would think, you know, a big part of
what goes into even if you're lucky enough to not
have a local tax rate hike, if your assessment goes up,
and in recent years assessments have all gone through the roof.
If your assessment goes up, you pay a higher tax.
Is they're also part of the Governor's plan that would
put a limit on how much more your your home
(33:04):
could be assessed on any given year from year to give.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, that's a great question. So right now we have
about Texans enjoy a ten percent homestead cap, which means
your taxable value can't grow by more than ten percent
if you're a homesteaded What the Governor's Plan calls for
is extending that that cap to other types of property
(33:28):
like commercial, multifamily and industrial and really extending this sort
of protection to everybody. Now, in the ideal policy world,
something like this wouldn't even be necessary because your taxing
units would adjust their rates down to compensate for value growth.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Because one thing that.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Local officials, local officials love to blame value growth without
ever fully recognizing that they have the ability to bring
those rates down just choose not to. And so what
this what the governor's plan, this part of the governor's
plan would force them to do, is actually make those
sorts of adjustments where they're taking hard votes on rate hikes,
(34:12):
and so that's you know, that's another part of this,
this whole concept.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
All right, James Quintero now doing a good job I
think of explaining that stuff. People get. It's complicated, especially
here at Texas. You know, we got the school tax.
You know, you got mud tax, and some if you
live in an area that you have a mud district,
that all that kind of stuff that goes in there.
And he's absolutely right. I think the thing that bothers
(34:40):
most of us about it is that it feels like
we keep hearing about this big tax cut we're getting
and then it doesn't feel like we've got a big
tax cut. Now, I will say this, my property taxes,
at least on my homestead at home are down probably
two to three thousand dollars over their peak. So they
have come down. I mean, they're still relatively hefty, but
(35:02):
at least now they're not crazy. But that's only because
our home values have managed to stabilize. I don't think
the value of our home certainly. In fact, I would
guess right now, based on the real estate market, that
the value of our home, our homestead home is probably
less than what it was a certainly at the market
(35:25):
peak twenty twenty, right before or right after COVID, you know,
when the when the values got up there. In fact,
I'm quite sure that the home is going down in
value since then, which of course also means that if
you want to take the time generally hire somebody to
do it, to fight on their home valuation, you probably
(35:45):
stand a pretty good chance of winning that case. All right,
we'll leave it at that for the day. Thank you
for listening. I do appreciate it. I hope to see
you tomorrow morning, bright and early, five am over on
news Radio seven forty ktrh. We'd back here at four
on AM nine fifty k PRC
Speaker 2 (36:02):
The back
Well, what we need is more common sense.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Breaking down the world's nonsense about.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
How American common sense.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Will see us through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com. Now here's Jimmy Barrett.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
All right, I'm going to I mean, I'm here all
day today, I'm here Wednesday, Tuesday, I'm here Wednesday, here,
Thursday off. Starting on Friday, I'll be on vacation. Uh
so I'm not gonna be here for Thanksgiving. So I
got to get all my Christmas slash Thanksgiving stuff, especially
Thanksgiving stuff. We got to talk about that before I go.
And today's topic is turkey. We're talking turkey because turkey
(00:54):
is a at least open the show. Turkey, I believe
to be sort of a polarizing thing. Turkey is one
of those things you either like it or you don't.
There are a fair amount of people who are ambivalent
about it. Yeah it's okay, but you know, not my
favorite thing to eat. But it's Thanksgiving, so I know,
we got to eat some. And then there's people like
(01:17):
me who go, oh, man, I cannot wait for the
Thanksgiving turkey now the rest of the year. I mean,
I do like turkey, depending on how it's prepared and
how it's seasoned and how moist it is. And as
it turns out, everybody and their brother has a secret
as far as how they prepare it. And we'll get
into that in just a second. But there are those
(01:39):
who are doing alternatives because they just don't like turkey.
That's why I think that Elizabeth is one of those.
My wife, Eliza, she really doesn't care that much about turkey,
really doesn't care much for it at all, and I'm
not sure why she just doesn't. I think she just
(02:01):
thinks it's kind of bland, which is kind of funny
coming from somebody who generally doesn't like things to have
spice or much seasoning. So you would think she'd be
a perfect candidate for turkey, because turkey's pretty plain. Now,
where we go get barbecue, they have turkey, And now
that I think about, I han't really tried their turkey.
I should try that. I know there are people who
(02:22):
like to smoke turkeys. There are people like to deep
fry turkeys. We'll get into all that in just a second.
But as far as an alternative to turkey goes, you
know ham. I know people prepare ham. We used to.
When I was a kid growing up, we always had
turkey every Thanksgiving, and we had turkey for Christmas as well,
(02:44):
which I thought was kind of soon to kind of
repeat that, and then we always had ham for Easter.
That was kind of the family tradition. I know there
are a lot of people have ham for Christmas, which
is perfectly fine, makes more sense to me than rather
than repeating the whole turkey thing all over again, or actually,
at our house we'd like to. I mean, if we're
going to spurge and make something like a prime rib
(03:07):
or a beef tenderloin, that's when we're more likely to
do it. Okay, So turkey ideas, that was kind of
our question of the day today. We're running, we're talking
about turkey ideas, and as I'm talking about turkey ideas,
I can actually it's working again. I can actually smell
(03:28):
the turkey cooking. Are you able to do that? Have
you ever been able to do that? Where you talk
about something and you're kind of imagining it in your
mind and before you know it, you swear you can
smell it cooking. And oh, as I'm talking about this,
I'm messing this. I'm starting to salivate. My mouth is
(03:49):
actually getting watery just just thinking about the idea of
cooking that turkey. And I remember my mom was always
and I think anybody who's ever prepared the big Thanksgiving
dinner can appreciate, you know, all the work that goes
into it for a very little time actually eating it.
(04:09):
I mean, my mom would probably spend a day and
a half or two full days actually preparing Thanksgiving. She'd
make things that she could make ahead of time and
just have it ready to go into the oven, because
when we were kids growing up, we only had one
oven in the house, so it was always a juggling thing.
You know about what's going in and what's coming out,
and you know when that's going to be done, and
how long that needs to cook. To try to get
(04:31):
it all done at the same time, she was an
expert at that. She juggled that stuff like nobody's business.
But she'd do all that hard work for two days
and then basically twenty fifteen twenty minutes after you sat down, Okay,
that's enough turkey. I'm done, and that was it. And
(04:52):
that was always kind of frustrating, I think for her
to spend all that time preparing that meal just to
have us sit down for fifteen you're twenty minutes and
be done. You know. The only the only way it
lasts a longer than that was first of all, we
had a thirty minute rule at our house. Once we
sat down, you know, you could tell, you could tell
the old lady was putting in on her internal timer.
(05:13):
All right, nobody moves for thirty minutes. I don't care
what time you stop eating. You're not moving because I'm
not going to sit here cook it for two days
to have you hop up after fifteen minutes and go
do something else. So anyway, turkey was the topic today,
and again I'm not here for Thanksgiving, so I just
kind of, you know, set the idea up that we
could talk about, you know, different ways to prepare turkey.
That's what I got, or alternatives to turkey, and I
(05:35):
got almost exclusively different ways to make it. Everybody has
their own favorite way of making a really good turkey.
Speaker 5 (05:42):
Jimmy, you have to spatchcock the turkey and put it
on a smoker.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
It's the only way to do it.
Speaker 6 (05:49):
It's best, hands down, best way ever. Jerry Payne out
here in Cyprus, Texas, we like to cook our turkeys
in the ground. Pretty delicious way to do it, or
to give it a try.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Hang on, how do you cook a turkey in the ground?
What exactly does that mean? Is that like digging a hole?
He is it like you would prepare a whole hog,
like a Hawaiian luau kind of thing, where you have
a hole in the ground. He puts some rocks down
there and charcoal and you get a fire going, and
(06:21):
then you put the turkey in there, and then what
you cover it up was something to keep the heat in.
I've never heard of doing a turkey that way. You know,
it works really well for pork, maybe it would work
well for turkey. And what the other guy's talking about,
what do you call it? Splash something or other. I
think what he's talking about is like basically, you know,
(06:42):
taking out the spine of the turkey and then flattening
it out so it can lay flat on the grill
and then you know, smoking a turkey. I know Eric
from our newsroom is going to smoke a turkey this year.
He's also going to have a something else as a
backup in case that doesn't work. And you know, the
first time you try something, it is really a good
idea to have a backup, just in case the whole
(07:04):
thing completely falls apart.
Speaker 7 (07:06):
Oh, smoked turkey or you know, brisket, that's the alternative.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
It's either turkey or briskit.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
Hey, Jimmy, my dad has always deep fried our turkey
and personally I like to have myself, although the oven
is actually a lot more heart healthy. But actually recently
in the last couple of years, I have noticed over
at HV they have pre prepared turkeys as well. I
mean season two your liking. I think there's a couple
of variants of spices as well. But that is really
(07:40):
good if you're on the go, Like if you're going
somewhere on the road to see a family for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Skip from Webster Best way to make Thanksgiving Turkey fried
and peanut. A will inject it with Cajun butter, rub
it down with Tony sacharays, make sure it's good.
Speaker 4 (07:56):
In the thawed or kaboom, and you're going to the hospital.
That's what That's what I'm worried about. That I think
that's why I've never deep fried the turkey. I'm worried
about the kaboom. Yeah, going to the hospital of burning
down the house not high on my list of things
to do in Thanksgiving. That's why you know, people always,
you know, fry them out in out the driveway, somewhere
(08:17):
away from the house or the backyard, away from the house,
somewhere where if anything goes kaboom, nothing bad can result
from that. That that that's that That would be my
biggest fear of doing it that way. Here's a couple more.
Regardless of how you've cooked your turkey, you've got to
brin it first.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
If you'll brine it properly, it'll be voiced.
Speaker 8 (08:39):
Hey, Jimmy, it's Jason from San Antonio. So for about
twenty years now, I've deep fried my turkeys. But I
use an Emerald Legassi res injection recipe and the main
ingredient is Guinness stout beer.
Speaker 9 (08:59):
It's one rick on the side. I like to take
my turkey and get some dollars of garlic rudder, nice
and cold and put them between the skin and the
meat on the breasts and you're pretty much guaranteed it
is gonna come out nice and juicy. Just season it
(09:20):
to how.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
You like it.
Speaker 4 (09:21):
Isn't that amazing how many different ideas that there are
for cooking a turkey. I agree with the brinding thing.
We started brinding our turkeys a few years ago. That
made a big difference as far as the moisture goes.
But you know, Cajun style turkey, Yeah, I'm kind of
curious about that. You know, somebody told me that Popeyes
has a really good Cajun turkey. It's really really good.
(09:42):
I never tried it again. I'm gonna have to branch
out here and try something new. Hey, quick little break,
We'll be back with you all just a moment. Jimmy
Barrett sew here a name of nine fifty KPRC. I
(10:08):
want to start with a little update on the story
that you just don't hear anybody talking about. But thankfully
there are at least a few reporters out there. None
of the liberal media is interested in following up on this,
but certainly some are. Miranda Divine you know her, right,
(10:28):
She's on Fox White frequently. She also is a columnist
for The New York Post, and she has been following
the story out of Butler, Pennsylvania. When's the last time
you heard about the kid who was killed after attempting
to assassinate President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, Very very little. Well,
(10:48):
Miranda Divine has done some investigative work on this and
has found that there was quite a social media footprint
for this kid. As it turns out, he had all
kinds of crazy little things going on in his world,
many of which are a little bit at least reminiscent
of the Charlie Kirk assassin. You almost all these people
(11:11):
are coming from a kind of a strange alternative background.
Here is Miranda Divine with what she learned about the Butler,
Pennsylvania assassin.
Speaker 10 (11:20):
Well, they've told us that there was actually a very
large digital footprint left behind by twenty year old Thomas Crooks,
who was Donald Trump's would be assassin last year in Butler, Pennsylvania.
It's quite a different story to the one that Christopher
Ray and his deputy Paula Bank told Congress just in
(11:41):
a couple of weeks after that assassination attempt, and we
were sort of led to believe that Thomas Crooks was
really a ghost, that there was no motive that could
be ascertained from his online accounts, and yet a source
has provided us with a law a lot of information
from seventeen different online accounts that Thomas Crooks had, and
(12:06):
they range from Google Play to that site you referenced
before called deviant Art, which is probably the biggest or
one of the biggest hubs online for this sexual fetish
called furries, where people dress up or fantasize about animal characters,
(12:27):
cartoon characters that are sort of humanized, and so it's
very bizarre. But we also saw that with Charlie Kirk's
killer alleged killer Tyler Robinson, who was also involved in
this bizarre furry culture. So there's not a lot that
my source discovered on those lines, but there was a
(12:47):
little bit the fact that this guy, Thomas Crooks was
interested in this furry site, spent a lot of time there,
had various images that he liked and reposted, and also
gave his pronouns as they them. But I think the
more important part is what the comments his online comments
(13:09):
from he was very young, I mean fifteen, sixteen seventeen
show us about how he became increasingly violent and sort
of radicalized against Democrats. He was pro Trump, and then
in January of twenty twenty, he flipped one hundred and
eighty degrees. Something happened to make him become rapidly anti Trump,
(13:32):
and again his rhetoric took more and more of a
violent turn. He started brushing up against There was a
neo Nazi by the name fake name, probably William Teppers,
who started encouraging crooks in more and more violent resuric
And then suddenly something happened in August of twenty twenty
(13:53):
and he just disappeared online, very unusual. And then of
course in July of twenty twenty four, he fired off
eight shots from a rooftop at Donald Trump at that
rally in Butler, killing Corey Comparatory who was sitting behind
Donald Trump, and badly injuring two other rally goers and
hitting Donald Trump.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
In the ear.
Speaker 10 (14:16):
Only, you know, by a miracle, did Donald Trump not
get killed that day.
Speaker 4 (14:20):
You know, clearly he was radicalized by somebody, whether there
was the neo Nazi that he was supposedly was talking
to or this furry culture. I mean, that's that's the
thing that that I think the the the Charlie Kirk
and the Donald Trump attenthe assassination and the Charlie Kirk assassination.
(14:43):
Maybe having common is that you've got this weird fringe
group of outcasts and outsiders involved in some way, shape
or form. The furry culture is just it's just just
a weird thing. And there there are furries. Go to
any high school you'll see a furry or two. You know,
(15:04):
there's a I remember the school by high school that
my wife used to work at that they had for
a young lady, yep, dressed, she wore little cat ears,
she had a cattail and she wouldn't talk to you.
She just yeah, yeah, she she wouldn't talk to you. You
have to communicate with her, tell her something and she
(15:25):
would acknowledge you. Now, we're the and we put up
with that in our schools. Yes we do. Do we
put litter pans in the bathrooms for them, No, we
don't go that far. But it's just it's just weird.
There's weird culture, weird people out there. Hey, guests from
our morning show, this might be a good segue here.
(15:47):
One of our guests this morning, Nicole Parker. Nicole Parker,
you may have heard that name before. She does a
lot of guest commentary if you will, for Fox News.
She's sort of the She worked for the FBI for
long time and her story is very interesting one. She's
written a book and the book is is about the
(16:10):
FBI and how part of the FBI is you know,
straight and arrow and you know, done by the book
and is really into the law enforcement stuff. And then
there's the politics that have also ruined the FBI. Here's
my chat from early and by the way, she's in
the Woodland signing books tonight. Details at the end of
the interview here, But here I am talking to Nicole
Parker about her brand new book about the FBI. Where
(16:33):
does the politics begin at the FBI?
Speaker 7 (16:37):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Houston
is my hometown and I'm happy to be here today
and to join y'all. You know, I joined the FBI
as a special agent back in twenty ten, and I
came as a result of previously witnessing the nine to
eleven terrorist attacks in New York City. At the time,
I was working at Merrill Lynch and I heard the
(16:59):
first plane into the North tower. I saw the second
plane crash into the South tower, and there was a
monumental moment in my life as I was trying to
evacuate from my building when I was in the elevator.
I write about it in my book, and it was
this epiphany and it was like literally God speaking peace
to me in a very tumultuous moment. And I felt
(17:20):
my heart, Nicole, if you get out of here alive,
you will one day go back and serve your country,
and you will stand as a witness of God. And
I never forgot that promise I'd made to myself in
that vow on that elevator. So fast forward, I continue
working on Wall Street. You know, I went and worked
at a hedge fund in Beverly Hills, but I still
wasn't really fulfilling what I thought was my higher purpose.
(17:42):
I apply to the FBI. I get in in the book.
I detailed application process, going through Quantico. Things that you
never hear about that really know, one that the FBI
speaks about, but people tend to find quite fascinating. I
get to FBI Miami. I'm working white collar crime. You
know what I referred to as FBI one, people that
came to the agents to uphold the constitution, protect the
(18:02):
American people, and do the right thing. I didn't even
know that politics was a thing at the FBI. But
I'll tell you that on July fifth of twenty sixteen,
loud and clear, James Comy came out in front of
the American people in that press conference and in essence
read an indictment stating why Hillary Clinton was guilty and
there was probable cause that she had committed a crime.
(18:23):
But yet at the end of the statement, he basically says,
no reasonable prosecutor, which are Hillary Clinton? I remember that, Well, yeah,
that was a defining moment for us at the FBI.
That's when I first really discovered FBI two. ATBI two
are the people that are in the agency that came
in there. They abused their law enforcement power to push
their own political and social agendas. And with time I
(18:48):
started seeing FBI two more and more and more. Now
keep in mind, I'm down in Miami. I'm working violent
crime at the time, putting away human traffickers, murderers, you know,
the most heinous crimes you can imagine. I worked at
Parkland School shooting, heart wrenching tragedy, while simultaneously people in Washington,
d C. And our Washington Field office are committing political
(19:11):
corruption and again causing major issues. But let me make
this clear. It wasn't just at the top. People think, oh,
it was just up in DC, and I talk about
in my book, FBI two actually started at the top,
but it literally trickled down into all of the field offices.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
You know, it's funny. My Sicilian in laws have a
saying the fish rots from the head down, and this
sounds like that's exactly what you're describing. How far down
did that go? Do the FBI?
Speaker 7 (19:37):
It's worse for I can tell you that there's support
staff and FBI Miami that were making Again read the book,
it was I was flabbergasted by some of the things
that I was hearing. Keep in mind, at the rate
of our A Lago that was an FBI Miami's area
of jurisdiction, because you know, Palm Beach is in FBI Miami,
which is where mar A Lago is located. Some of
(19:57):
the statements I was hearing and passing, I'm just I
couldn't believe it. But as the book progresses, you know,
they're honorable agents trying to do the right thing, hold
the line, have integrity, be fair. I was trying to
save children, working human trafficking. My best friend in the
FBI was shot and killed in the line of duty
executing a warrant for a child predator. There was no
(20:18):
swap protection for her. And this is in the Biden administration,
while simultaneously the FBI is liberally sending resources for January
sixth non violent misdemeanor offenders.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Nicole, I'm if at the end of the show here,
but I want to ask you before we let you go,
where are you going to be in the Woodlands tonight?
Where can move on to the sun of your book.
Speaker 7 (20:37):
I will be at the Barnes and Noble in the
Woodlands Mall starting at six pm until closed. I would
love for y'all to come out and visit. And I
think it's a great read. There's a lot of heart
in this book.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
Yeah, stop buying. See her and if there's any questions
I didn't get to that you're interested in, like maybe
she has some thoughts on the prosecution or James call
me in this judge that seems to think the government's
overstep its bounds. I bet she has some thoughts on
that she'll share with you. Again. She's in the Woodland
snight' signing her brand new book, Quick Little break Back
with more in a moment, Jimmy Bart Show. Here a
name of nine fifty KHRC. All right, couple couple of
(21:27):
local stories. The first one I want to do, though,
is one that I didn't get to this morning. And
this is going to make some parents mad my opinion
on this, but I'm gonna go ahead and do it
anyway because we can't necessarily one hundred percent always agree
on everything. Redistricting in Fort Bend County, well, redistricting happens
(21:50):
all the time. I'm talking about I'm not talking about Congress.
I'm talking about school boundaries. People have a habit of
buying a home because it's you're kids are going to
go to a certain school, and that school gets end
up getting overcrowded and they change the lines and your
kid's going to have to go to a different school.
And now you're angry because you thought buying that house
(22:12):
meant that you were guaranteed your child was going to
go to that school. Here is the reports, but some
parent feedback, by the way, on how upset they are
in Fort ben County. This is courtesy of our television
partner KPRC two.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
I spoke to two parents whose kids attend Quail Valley
Middle School and are on track to go to Elkins
High School. But those parents tell me they're concerned that
the new redistricting plans could push them out. I just
can't stay quiet. Parents Teresa Noyola and san Juanita Franco
are fighting to keep their kids in their current zoned schools.
How important is good education for your kids as parents?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
Extremely, extremely important.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Both parents have kids who are seventh graders at Quail
Valley Middle School and are set to go to Elkins
High School in two years. That's unless for Bendya Steed
draws new maps zoning them out.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
The data is clear moving a tiny pocket of students
won't fix the problem, but it will create academic and
emotional sebbacks. Transparency is not simply posting information on a
website at the last minute.
Speaker 6 (23:12):
Although rezoning plans were not presented during Monday night's board meeting,
dozens of parents spoke out against them, many holding signs
that read, quote Keith Elkins in Quail Valley.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
I moved here five years ago and I literally went
and did my homework.
Speaker 6 (23:25):
San Juanita tells me her child was attending a charter
school in Dallas, So when I moved here and put
them into a public school setting, I wanted to make
sure they were going to have the best education there.
What are both of your messages to the school district.
Don't only think of us as numbers, Think of us
as you know, families and the future of our case. Yeah,
(23:48):
the future of their kids of course their number one priority.
The district says it will be presenting the possible new
maps in January.
Speaker 4 (23:57):
You know, every mom in particular, you know it's that
these are with the exceptional one. They're all women. Moms
are the ones who get the most upset at the
idea that their child might have to go to a
different school. This is where this is where my popularity
is going to go downhill with some parents. And it's okay,
I get it, I understand it. Listen, I'm a parent.
(24:21):
We went through the same thing in our town as
far as overcrowded schools and changing you know what kids
went where. I can tell you that the kids all
survived it. The parents always make a much bigger deal
out of it than needs to be made. Parents always
think I bought this house because I want these schools
(24:45):
and now you're changing it. You can't do that to me.
And the fact of the matter is, yes they can,
Yes they can. Would you rather have your child going?
I know you want you you want somebody else's child
to be moved, not yours. I get that, But somebody's
gonna have to move because some of these some of
these schools get terribly overcrowded, especially the way things are
growing here in Texas. Would you rather have your child
(25:09):
in a classroom with twenty five kids or you want
them to stay in the classroom with thirty eight kids
that are not getting enough individualized attention because the school's overcrowded,
there's no place to put them on. I know you
want the other kids to move down to your kids.
Unfortunately that's not exactly the way it generally works out.
And the other part of it is there is no
(25:29):
guarantee that school assignment that you thought you were getting
when you bought that house, that is not guaranteed to
last forever. And if you really want to argue with somebody,
if you really want to hold somebody responsible for it,
instead of talking or blaming the schools, what you need
(25:51):
to do is blame the people that are proving these
sub you know, these these these new developments that are
going in. Who are saying yes too. I'll give a
great example, and I can completely understand why parents where
I live. I live in the Klein Clinoak school system.
Clinoak High School, I think is the high school for
(26:14):
our kids. I don't have any kids at home anymore,
so I don't have to worry about such things. But
there's a elementary school right down the street, and this
elementary school is gotten very very crowded because they have
allowed apartments to be built right next to these neighborhoods,
(26:34):
very nice neighborhoods, I might add, in a very nice
elementary school. But now they're plopping in all of these apartments,
and you've got lots of young parents with young children
who are moving into these apartments because they want their
kids to go to that particular school. So what happens
(26:55):
when that school gets so overcrowded that some of the
kids that are in the neighborhoods around this school have
to be moved somewhere else, those those people are gonna
be rightfully upset. It's the way. It's the zoning regulations
or lack thereof, it's always saying yes to whatever project
(27:19):
some contractor wants to build. You'll put in five hundred
apartments that will overcrowd the schools. Well, that's not our problem,
you know, and the school system's end been going, well,
now what do we do. We're gonna have to build
a new school or we're gonna have to move things
around because the school population is out of whack. The
real problem is saying yes to allowing more construction in
(27:42):
an area where the school is already crowded. There is
no choice that you can do after that. You have
to change the school boundaries to make it work. And so,
while I understand why parents are upset, I think you're
upset at the wrong people. Being upset with the schools
about school boundary is not the answer. Being upset with
(28:03):
whoever is responsible for saying yes rubber stamping the construction
of apartments and new subdivisions and other things that are
crowding the schools. That's where your argument is. Those are
the meanings you need to go to. You need to
go to the commissioner's court meetings. You need to you
need to, you know, let them know that you're over
crowding our schools and we don't appreciate it. You need
(28:24):
to stop saying yes to every project that comes along.
I don't know if they'll make any difference, but at
least you're being arguing in front of the right people.
All right, quick little break back with more in a moment.
Jimmy Vertchow here a name of nine fifty KPRC. Have
(28:56):
you heard a thirty one atlas? Does that ring a
bell with any of you? Does that sound familiar at all?
Thirty one dash Atlas? It does to me. And the
reason why it does is because this is that so
called comet that's going past the sun where we actually
have some people who seem to think there's a possibility
(29:19):
that that might actually be actually a UFO alien spaceship
about the size of Manhattan. Perhaps time will tell, because
it's supposed to pass the Sun and get closer. The
closest point to Earth would be around to some of
the nineteenth right before Christmas. So I guess we'll wait
and see. We'll wait and see what happens if it
turns out it's something other than the comet that they
(29:41):
claim it is, all right, I also guess I hand
the Shama share this with you really quickly. James Quintaro
takes his Public Policy Foundation. Governor happened running for reelection
on the idea that he's going to do something about
eliminating property taxes. So I talked to James Quintaro, he's
sort of the property tax expert about ways that that
could be done, where we could get the slowly but
(30:02):
surely phase out property taxes on your home. How hard
of a task is it to fund public schools without
doing it with property taxes?
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Well, good morning, and great question, Jimmy. You know, it's
no surprise that the dinosaur media can't think outside the
box when it comes to property taxes. But the fact
of the matter is it is entirely achievable to eliminate
the school district maintenance and operations tax. Now that was
a mouthful, but what the maintenance and operations tax, or
(30:33):
the M and O tax means or pays for, is
just day to day supplies and salaries, right, and that
comes to about thirty five billion dollars a year. So
if the legislature wanted to, it could easily pass a
constitutional amendment dedicating some portion of future surplus to buying
(30:56):
down that M and O rate over time until it
reaches zero. Now that's not some fantastical idea, because we've
already been doing it, except we've been doing it via
statutory change. So since twenty nineteen, we've effectively cut in
half the maximum m ANDO tax rate from about a
(31:18):
dollar seventeen to somewhere in the low sixties today. So
what the governor is proposing to do is to put
this in the constitution and make sure that we continue
to make progress on this until we reach zero, and
then we hold it there in perpetuity.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
All right, Well, that takes here that portion of what
you're paying property taxes, but obviously you pay a lot
more than that. You pay most of us paying mud
tax and other types of property taxes. Is the governor
also proposing reducing and or eliminating those?
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
One of the great frustrations that the legislature today is
the fact that state lawmakers continue to devote billions upon
billions of dollars toward tax and yet nobody seems to
feel it. And that's because other cities, counties, and special
districts have stepped into the breach and they've taken chunks
(32:12):
out of people's tax relief, and they've done so through
rate hikes and bond elections and certificates of obligation and
other means. And so what one of the other parts
of the Governor's plan calls for the implementation of a
local spending limit. We need to put some reasonable spending
(32:33):
limits in place to make sure that cities and counties
in particular are not eroding the value of tax relief
as it comes down from the legislature.
Speaker 4 (32:43):
Also, I would think, you know, a big part of
what goes into even if you're lucky enough to not
have a local tax rate hike, if your assessment goes up,
and in recent years assessments have all gone through the roof.
If your assessment goes up, you pay a higher tax.
Is they're also part of the Governor's plan that would
put a limit on how much more your your home
(33:04):
could be assessed on any given year from year to give.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Yeah, that's a great question. So right now we have
about Texans enjoy a ten percent homestead cap, which means
your taxable value can't grow by more than ten percent
if you're a homesteaded What the Governor's Plan calls for
is extending that that cap to other types of property
(33:28):
like commercial, multifamily and industrial and really extending this sort
of protection to everybody. Now, in the ideal policy world,
something like this wouldn't even be necessary because your taxing
units would adjust their rates down to compensate for value growth.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
Because one thing that.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Local officials, local officials love to blame value growth without
ever fully recognizing that they have the ability to bring
those rates down just choose not to. And so what
this what the governor's plan, this part of the governor's
plan would force them to do, is actually make those
sorts of adjustments where they're taking hard votes on rate hikes,
(34:12):
and so that's you know, that's another part of this,
this whole concept.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
All right, James Quintero now doing a good job I
think of explaining that stuff. People get. It's complicated, especially
here at Texas. You know, we got the school tax.
You know, you got mud tax, and some if you
live in an area that you have a mud district,
that all that kind of stuff that goes in there.
And he's absolutely right. I think the thing that bothers
(34:40):
most of us about it is that it feels like
we keep hearing about this big tax cut we're getting
and then it doesn't feel like we've got a big
tax cut. Now, I will say this, my property taxes,
at least on my homestead at home are down probably
two to three thousand dollars over their peak. So they
have come down. I mean, they're still relatively hefty, but
(35:02):
at least now they're not crazy. But that's only because
our home values have managed to stabilize. I don't think
the value of our home certainly. In fact, I would
guess right now, based on the real estate market, that
the value of our home, our homestead home is probably
less than what it was a certainly at the market
(35:25):
peak twenty twenty, right before or right after COVID, you know,
when the when the values got up there. In fact,
I'm quite sure that the home is going down in
value since then, which of course also means that if
you want to take the time generally hire somebody to
do it, to fight on their home valuation, you probably
(35:45):
stand a pretty good chance of winning that case. All right,
we'll leave it at that for the day. Thank you
for listening. I do appreciate it. I hope to see
you tomorrow morning, bright and early, five am over on
news Radio seven forty ktrh. We'd back here at four
on AM nine fifty k PRC
Speaker 2 (36:02):
The back
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