So Rick Perry stole his campaign logo from Popeyes? pic.twitter.com/tLA0UyopEi— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) June 4, 2015
Houston mayoral hopefuls swapped plans to shore up the city's finances at a forum Thursday, pledging everything from pension reform to scrapping the city's crime lab.
The event drew little in the way of political fireworks, with the rival candidates largely sticking to their own talking points at the University of Houston student center. More than 200 people were in attendance.
City Councilman Steve Costello, who chairs the city's budget and fiscal affairs committee, focused almost exclusively on taming the city's pension costs, calling it a "looming crisis" and promising to achieve reform. "So here's what happens if we don't get pension reform," Costello said. "We won't be able to do things like after school programs we won't be able to do summer jobs, we won't be able to district service accounts. These are this issues that we have."
Former congressman and City Councilman Chris Bell acknowledged the city's current pension costs are not "sustainable" but he pushed for a broader approach.
Bell called the city's revenue cap, which limits the property taxes the city can collect, a "bad policy." He said he would support considering an exception to the cap for public safety spending, a change that would need voter approval.
"I happen to feel that it's disingenuous though to try to lead voters to believe that as the next mayor you can simply cram a solution down the throats of the Houston firefighters," Bell said.
State Rep. Sylvester Turner, too, said he would support a possible carve-out for public safety spending under the city's revenue cap.
"For a growing city the revenue cap works against our interests," Turner said.
Turner authored a bill during this year's legislative session aimed at lowering Houston's pension payments by $77 million over three years, but it never made it to the House floor. The effort drew praise from some corners but critics called it a short-term solution.
Turner said the budget conversation needs to be broader than just pension reform.
"You have to bring everything to the table," Turner said. "Be very careful when you're talking about pensions.
Former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia touted his management and budget experience, saying he thinks the city needs to "match up our core services to our available revenue stream." On the pension front, Garcia also said he would work to restore "desperately needed local control."
Former mayor of Kemah Bill King said the city's budget woes are "not a revenue problem."
He said he would push for more cost-saving partnerships with the county, particularly merging the city's independent crime lab with the county's lab.
"I cannot for the life of me figure out why the city is still in the crime lab business," King said. "I think we've pretty thoroughly demonstrated this is not one of the city's core competencies."
Businessman Marty McVey largely skirted the pension and revenue cap issues, instead focusing on expanding the city's property tax base.
"I think the reality is this: we cannot cut our way to prosperity," McVey said. "We have to look for ways to increase our tax base, we have to go out and recruit new businesses."
"I don't need anybody crapping all over what I do for a living," the founder of $9.2 billion hedge fund firm Omega Advisors said.
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"[She] hangs out with all these people in Martha's Vineyard and in the Hamptons and then the very first thing she has to say is to criticize hedge funds," he said.
Twenty minutes into the first gathering of all seven candidates for Houston mayor on the same stage, former congressman Chris Bell noted an audience member stifling a yawn.
"It could be a lot worse. This could be a Republican presidential debate," he said, where as many as 20 candidates are expected on stage in a few months.
While much of the evening was taken up with policy wonk questions about a cap on the Houston Hotel Occupancy Tax (aka the HOT tax), which funds arts projects around the city, the best — and most humanizing question — came from an audience member, who asked, "Who is your favorite artist and why?" You could almost see the wheels turning in each candidate's head as he scrambled to come up with an unscripted answer.
First up was former Kemah mayor Bill King, who lamely listed Van Gogh, whom he first learned about from his history teacher many years ago. Businessman Marty McVey picked the 13th century poet Rumi for the "great solace" his work provides, which drew the applause of one audience member.
State Rep. Sylvester Turner was the first to turn the discussion to Houston artists — John Biggers and Michelle Barnes are among his favorites, and the other candidates quickly followed his lead, with Bell listing Lamar Briggs, Houston City Council member Stephen Costello mentioning Mark Foyle, muralist Ashley Wren and Justin Garcia, and former sheriff Adrian Garcia picking his daughter along with Project Row Houses founder Rick Lowe.
Attorney Ben Hall had the most unconventional answer — he's mad about Surrealists M.C. Esher and Salvatore (sic) Dali. "Read into that what you may," he said cryptically.
His case, Obergefell v. Hodges, rests on two questions. One is whether the Constitution requires a state where same-sex marriage is not legal to recognize a marriage licensed in a state where it is legal. The other question is whether the Constitution requires states to license marriages between two people of the same sex — in other words, whether same-sex marriage should be legal nationwide.
SCOTUSblog’s Kevin Russell says if the court rules in favor of the legality of same-sex marriages on both of the questions that Obergefell v. Hodges asks, the implications could extend far beyond marriage.“This could be a decision that says that it is generally unconstitutional to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in every sphere,” says Russell. “And if the Supreme Court holds that, then this will be a huge case. It'll be the ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ for sexual orientation. It will mean that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, at least by states and by the federal government, is unconstitutional across the board.”Obergefell’s case, however, also poses an unlikely danger to proponents of same-sex marriage. Currently, 37 states and Washington, D.C., have legalized same-sex marriage. However, in 21 of those states, it is only legal because courts ruled state bans unconstitutional. If the Supreme Court rules against him, and additionally goes so far as to say that the Constitution does not protect marriage at all, those rulings could be in jeopardy.Experts say that outcome is largely unexpected, but they concede that this scenario could be a major setback for gay couples. Same-sex couples who are now legally married in 21 states could suddenly lose their legal status. As Russell says, “It would be a huge mess.”That fear is not lost on Obergefell, who says he “absolutely” shares that concern. “I think there would be a certain level of pandemonium in the country. I mean, how could there not be, because suddenly, again, you're creating this second class of citizens.”
