West Texas Winds are Blowing Hard

It's time to clean out the dirt and return government to the people - Elect Col John Miller in 2008

August 15th - Letter to Wolforth Voters

August 12, 2008 - Pratt on Texas broadcasts from WesTex Document Inc and slams County Commissioner Bill McCay for raising property taxes yet again! (recording is "Courtesy of Pratt on Texas - www.prattontexas.com)

July 8, 2008 - Stop the Arrogance now!

Revenues raised from County property taxes in 1998 were $23,195,926.  In 2007, revenues rose to $48,808.070 under the current conservative republican leadership. Meanwhile expenditures of those revenues rose from $40,406,036 in 1998 to $94,902,826 in 2007.  Is that good stewardship by the current County Commissioners and Judge?  Is that representative of how Republican Conservatives operate?  If so, my friends, let me show you how a Conservative Democrat does things come November 4^th!

Why is the County in the business of funding community centers in Wolforth, Slaton, New Deal, Idalou and other parts of Lubbock County? Why are they keeping around $2 million in funds for County Parks when there are no parks, just community centers being built by the Precinct Commissioners? Why can’t these community’s governments tax their own citizens for community centers rather than all of the property owners in the Precinct that never use the town’s community center because they don’t live in that town? Wouldn’t it be better to turn these centers over to those towns to maintain rather than having the County spend the money maintaining them? Or is this just another way for Commissioners to garner votes in their Precincts?

Folks, numbers don’t lie:  in 1998 the County operated with $816,250 in expenditures over income and by 2007 they were operating $20,451,007 over income. That balance sheet would put me out of business if my company operated in that manner.  We cannot tolerate our government operating in this manner?  Why do we vote straight ticket “R” in Lubbock County and pay absolutely no attention to what is being done to us in return?  Stop the arrogance November 4^th.

March 15, 2008 - Lieutenant Colonel Miller is officially placed on the retired list for the Army of the United States after serving 39 years, 9 months and 20 days in defense of our country!

FOX34 Interview on the dog registration issue. Mr. Miller outlines solutions while Commissioner McCay says it will create more problems. Why can't politicians use the tools that are readily availabe to them? If we need more animal control officers, lets appoint them! The elected Constables can be appointed.

February 25, 2008 - Sensitive Security Information (SSI) Certified. Mr. Miller participated in training and examination to earn Certification in Sensitive Security Information.

DIPLOMATE status in Homeland Security Awarded. LTC John E. Miller, M.B.A., CHS-V, USAR-Retired has been awarded Diplomate status by the American Board for Certification in Homeland Security based on his extensive participation in homeland security efforts.

NO HUNTING LICENCE REQUIRED. Solution to dangerous dogs. Circulation the petition for an election to register all dogs in Lubbock County.

December 3rd, 2007 Press Announcement  

We need a serious change next year. We need real leadership and people that will work for Lubbock County. Here we go again with half-truths - McCay said the pay raise was for all elected county employees and was no more and no less than the raise all salaried county employees received. The problem is this was the third year in a row that McCay voted himself a pay raise/cost of living and this time it was a 5.36% raise and he is only on his third year in office - that is $3840 in three years! Meanwhile the truth is that those other employees got a 2.86% raise/cost of living and were eligible to receive another 2.5% merit raise if it was awarded. Too bad they didn't do that for the Commissioner's and let the voters decide on the merit portion. McCay told the press that it was the toughest vote he had made on the court. In my opinion, a no vote would have been the easiest decision. I will not, repeat NOT, take a penny more than the job pays the first day in office till my last day in office. Then my decisions for the county employees will be based on their need and not my own - LTC John E. Miller, USAR-Ret.

December 3rd Announcement Speech

Here is a letter I sent to Judge Head when the Precinct #3 Commissioner told me he would submit a Resolution to "opt out" on a tax relief for a special interest group. While I did not give testimony, the court did decide to "opt out" for at least one year. Commissioner McCay voiced his opinion that he supported Senator Ducan who worked on the special interest tax relief bill in question. I gave Mr. McCay a copy of my article for his information. The legislation requires all of our taxing entities to hold a public hearing and vote to "opt out" of the abatement for the warehousing industry, otherwise the loss of the tax funds will occur to the taxing entity folks. That means they give up the funds or make them up by passing it along to homeowners and other business owners. Not sure if the ISD's, City of Lubbock and others have done so or not.

December 5, 2007

TO:  Mr. Tom Head, Lubbock County Judge

I understand that the Commissioner’s Court will address H.B. 621, Section 11.253(b)(i) of Sub Chapter B, Chapter 11 of the Texas Tax Code on Monday, December 10th. I will be there to listen and perhaps give testimony.

As a businessman and advocate of a fair tax system I would encourage you to vote in favor of taxing these “goods-in-transit” and not grant an exemption. This time, voting for a tax is actually good for the majority of the people and it isn’t a new tax, but a current one. Those that testified for the legislation were all members of the Texas Warehousing  & Brokers Association, including Wlkerson Storage of Lubbock. The lone vote against this legislation was the Center for Public Policy Priorities.

Businesses do not need to exempt property tax on goods-in-transit (limited to 175 days). As an MBA, I learned that the timing of getting raw materials for production is critical. At the same time, keeping a large on-hand inventory is expensive. The key was to have shipments of raw materials for production arrive “just-in-time.” But then the problem of property taxes on keeping a good inventory on-hand arose. So a system of having the raw materials arrive and be stored in a commercial warehouse (goods-in-transit) rather than your own was created. Good for empty warehouse owners, creating a little tax advantage for a business needing the raw materials.

The Texas legislation permitting the exemption also exempts goods acquired in Texas and this little known fact makes half of the Texas warehousing industry’s argument null – for they said they needed this legislation to be competitive to similar businesses in neighboring states. Well, any business owner in Texas is going to want the stuff in Texas. I do business in New Mexico and I would hate to have the quarterly paperwork headaches and paperwork associated with keeping inventory in Clovis that I need here. The costs would be more for me and the chance of getting my raw materials late would be enhanced and counter-productive to my goals.

The real bottom line is this: for Lubbock County to give this exemption stops the flow of a certain amount of property revenue into the County budget at a time that you have been increasing the property tax rate for all of us. This loss of funds would have to be made up and the only way to do that would be to spread the tax to the home owners and businesses in the county like mine and we label that as a REGRESSIVE TAX vote. I would hate to think that you raised the tax rate this year by 8% in preparation of giving this tax break to a very selective group of business owners at the expense of homeowners.