Dallas Area Rapid Transit is $5 BILLION in Debt...Ellis County Still Wants DART?

I was rummaging through some of the non-updated KenChambers.net Web site (former Midlothian councilman) when I came across this quote from Dr. Hank Miller, a city councilman in Midlothian currently:
Neither Duff nor I believe we need mass transit in Midlothian, but that is exactly what Duff’s opponent wants for our town.  At least that is what he said during the 'Meet the Candidates Night' this week.  How much more of a financial burden would that add to each taxpayer in Midlothian?
Mass transit is a great idea. In Paris. But this is Texas, especially with all of the highways and open space we have. Regionally, you cannot master plan or centrally plan economies, let alone mass transit networks. The D.C. Metro system works. A DART light-rail system does not. Glenn Heights is the only Ellis County city to have DART service. It might be pretty popular, who knows, but holding $5 billion in debt on its books makes light-rail in Ellis County a pipe dream.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit Debt
$5,331,079,854
Source: eco2.wordpress.com/2010/06/13/bond-debt-ennis-isd-surpasses-midlothian-isd-in-debt/
Where am I getting that debt figure? The usual place I always do: Texas Bond Review Board and my yearly calculations and compilations of local government debt. Click here: 2009/2010 Fiscal Year Local Government Debt Database

Oklahoma's NAFTA Super Corridor...Yet the 'TTC is Dead' -- Ya Right!

Thanks to a new friend on Facebook from Oklahoma for this: scribd.com/doc/32853274/In-Oklahoma-the-North-American-Super-Corridor-Lives-2010#source:facebook

It's unfortunate there are those in Oklahoma with more ways to tell the truth than those in Texas. What is it with this arrangement? Texas has the better college team (UT), yet OU has the hardcore active, in the know Republicans with the Legislature to back them up! Why don't we just annex Oklahoma?

Glenn Heights | Trans-TX Corridor Loop 9 Drives City Property: $108k to $649k

Flashback: remember the article The Ellis County Press and I did -- plus the two YouTube videos on ECP-TV.com -- on the piece of vacant, road-less land in Lindell Estates off of Uhl Road that a Realtor submitted a letter to the Ellis Central Appraisal District and requested a sky-rocketed increase in appraised value? Well, my friend Kelly Chance, whose mom owned the vacant, road-less land in Lindell Estates, got her appraised value lowered and the taxes lowered considerably after that article was published (huge front page photo of the property, etc.)




Now comes the really interesting part: then, I wasn't in on this Loop 9 sinister plot to artifically drive up appraisals in land and properties that will one day be home to traffic, on-and-off ramps, etc. for this Trans-Texas Corridor sister project. (the TTC didn't die, no matter how many times Gov. Rick Perry's glossed statements say it did)
I didn't know at the time of the Kelly Chance/ECP article that these appraisals were going through the roof on speculation that LOOP 9 WOULD ONE DAY WIPE LINDELL ESTATES AND OTHER PROPERTIES OFF THE MAP.

But now I know...how do I know?

Because the city of Glenn Heights, Texas, ladies and gentlemen, has a city hall and other property with a market value of $108,000, according to ECAD.

That same property had $600,000 in improvements for a total appraised value of: $649,000!






So, you tell me, Glenn Heights...who the HELL do you think you are going to fool with this crap?

Loop 9 is coming, and I have purposely been quiet for the past few months on the subject due to some "behind-the-scenes" things I'm working on...this being one of those things.

Glenn Heights recently had a mayoral candidate, Dorothy Loney, mention Loop 9 and taking advantage of that toll road (the language on her posters and campaign literature was very broad) in some way...I don't blame the city for wanting to take advantage of economic development opportunities, but the artificial inflation of property values in cities and those "in the know" is now very, very evident...Loney got destroyed in the election May 8, by the way, drawing only 61 votes. But, there are still others on the GH City Council who may or may not know about the extent that their city is preparing for Loop 9.

Over in Cedar Hill, we see the same thing with the future mayor, Cory Spillman, who now has property very, very close to where Loop 9 is going to pass through...I'm sure that was a total coincidence to move to South Joe Wilson Road. Yeah, pure coincidence.

Those that are in the know on this toll road are driving up the appraisals on purpose to benefit --- and I plan to expose that....starting with today's Glenn Heights report.