Public Finance

NASA Budget Cuts Could Hit Johnson Space Center (First No Shuttle, Now This?)

In recent years, NASA has been hit pretty hard, and another hit may be coming. We're a long ways off from the days when JFK told the nation that the United States would put a man on the moon, and in recent years, what with the Great Recession, space exploration seems to have taken a backseat. Hell, ... More >>

Five Do's & Don'ts For Tax Day 2013, Including Watching Lots Of Sitcoms

Another April, another (goddamn) Tax Day. The annual rite of paying taxes has been buffed up to a science by the media -- on no other day will you hear the team "Uncle Sam" used so often -- and all the people who have somehow forgotten this day was coming will be reminded ad nauseam. Still, ther ... More >>

Cynthia Nevels: Financial Consultant Hosting Free Workshop

Did you know it's Houston Money Week? Don't feel bad -- we didn't either, mostly because we don't have any money. But we think it might be worth it for any budding entrepreneurs and small business owners to check out financial expert Cynthia Nevels's workshop on financial independence this Sunday, A ... More >>

Comptroller: Pearl Bar Owes More Than $40K in Taxes

According to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts' office, Pearl Bar owes more than $40,000 in mixed-beverage and franchise taxes, and agents confiscated some cash as part of a "limited seizure" operation at the Washington Avenue bar this past Saturday evening. A lien has also been filed against ... More >>

The Top Ten Most Corrupt Tax Breaks

Did you know Apple Inc. was Irish? Did you know the mortgage interest deduction can be applied to yachts? Big million dollar yachts? Or that even though the five biggest oil companies made a collective $137 billion in revenue last year, they also got $20 billion in tax breaks? A year ago Citize ... More >>

Texas AG: Don't Fall For the Utility Payment Scam

The Texas Attorney General's Office is warning folks about yet another identity theft wave that's been separating people from their money: the so-called utility bill payment scam. The AG's Office writes that "using in-person solicitations, social media, fliers, phone calls and text messages, scamme ... More >>

Comment of the Day: The Glory That Is The Texas GOP Platform

We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

Tax Day: The 5 Best Things About It

Tomorrow is deadline day for filing your federal income taxes. Normally, that's a terrible thing. No one except Warren Buffett is eager to pay taxes. And it's worse for us members of the hoi polloi, for while we're handing over a big chunk of our wages, we do it knowing some one-percenter member of ... More >>

TCEQ Says No to Millions of Dollars in Tax Breaks for Valero

​Area school districts and cities had to be breathing a big sigh of relief today as news came out that the executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said "no" to handing out large tax breaks to Valero that would have made things even worse for cash-strapped government ... More >>

Protest Your Drainage Fee Via the World's Most Boring How-To Video

The city has announced the procedures it will use to hear protests over assessed drainage fees, and they look like they're about as much fun as protesting your property tax assessment. Worse, they involve watching the above, five and a half minutes of instruction on how to use the "You think you ca ... More >>

Sherwood Oaks Eyesore: Owners Aren't Talking

Welcome to Sherwood Oaks​We were intrigued by reporter Emily Akin's story on a long-vacant Sherwood Oaks strip mall that residents say is an unwelcome hangout for vandals and crackheads -- intrigued mostly because her story stated that "it's unclear who owns the property since the owner on rec ... More >>

UH Student Senate Supports Gays In The "Family Values Centers" Budget Fight

Coogs embrace the unchaste​The student senate at the University of Houston has decided that even if some Aggies are wailing about "unchaste" gay sex, UH students oppose the bill mandating "Family Values" Centers on any Texas campuses that have gay resource groups. (Maybe the Coogs just don't ... More >>

Actually, HISD Already Did Spend General Funds on Apollo 20

Previous statements are inoperative​Friends of Hair Balls have been besieging us in the last couple of days, insisting that Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier misspoke when he testified before a Senate Committee on Education that the district has never used general funds to finance Apollo ... More >>

Mario Gallegos Goes Off on Terry Grier at Senate Education Hearing

Mario & Terry: Can two grown men share a city without driving each other crazy?​Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier went all the way to Austin to testify before the Texas Senate Committee on Education, only to be ripped apart by Sen. Mario Gallegos, who continues to not like much of anythi ... More >>

Higher Taxes, Fewer Teachers: HISD Readies Itself for a Tough Sell

Margaret DowningTerry Grier and the board face tough financial decisions​Higher taxes, a sweeping change in bus times, a cut in the number of police officers in the schools and an end to special school adjustments that for the noted T.H. Rogers elementary and middle school alone would mean a l ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Justin Bieber, Political Sage

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Curtis Doss: Tax Collector Pleads Guilty To Misusing Public Funds, Keeps Job

No, it was the OTHER elected position I misapplied funds in​Curtis Doss is the Tax Collector of Burleson County. Curtis Doss pleaded guilty last week to misapplying public funds. Curtis Doss will not be losing his job as Tax Collector of Burleson County. Why? The wily Doss misused public fu ... More >>

DWI: Getting Away With It Is Getting Tougher In Harris County

Blood tests for drunk drivers will be the norm now that Harris County got a fat chunk of federal cash. ​Drinking and driving is serious business in Harris County, and to prove it, the District Attorney's office held a press conference this morning to promote some changes they've made. "A lot of dr ... More >>

Machete's Potential Tax Incentives Rile Conservatives

Texas tax breaks for THIS? Tea Party unite!​Machete, the bloody, gory, spoofy film by Robert Rodriguez, has become the latest mini-scandal de jour for conservatives.Why? Because it might get tax breaks from Texas, and it portrays a race war that favors immigrants over right-wing politicians like t ... More >>

Rick Perry & Bill White: Midnight Is Nigh In The Great (And Silly) Deadline For Debates

Debates over debates are so fun​The finger-pointing continued Wednesday as the great gubernatorial debate over who's at fault for not having a gubernatorial debate came to Houston.Republican Governor Rick Perry has given Democrat candidate Bill White until midnight tonight to release tax returns f ... More >>

Houston And Texas Letting Money For Low-Income Housing Go To Waste

The feds gave Houston money to clean up foreclosed houses, but the money isn't being spent. ​According to a new report from a low income housing group, the City of Houston may have to repay millions of dollars in federal funds that were meant to clean up neighborhoods hit hardest by foreclosed hom ... More >>

Bill White Releases Tax Forms; Perry Still Won't Debate

Accountants, revel in the data​Former Houston Mayor Bill White, after months of getting pounded by Governor Rick Perry on the subject, has released his income tax forms for the time he headed the city.Click here to see the data in all its glory. Bottom line: He makes a lot more money than yo ... More >>

Train Wreck

How Metro and its president Frank Wilson got so far off track.

City Budget Includes Getting More Bucks From Metro

​In the mayor's proposed budget, released earlier this week, Metro is on the hook for almost twice as much money than it had to pay the city in previous years.The money comes from an agreement that gives the city a portion of Metro's sales tax revenues, and the city used the money for building and ... More >>

Valero's Tax Ploy: Is It Really Doomsday For Schools And Cities?

Are cities and school districts panicking?​Until the day comes when people jump for joy over paying taxes, they will look under every nook and cranny for loopholes that let them save as much as they can. It works the same way for businesses, and you generally never hear about it. But in the past f ... More >>

Hard To Believe, But Texas Is Fouling Up The Process Of Distributing Food-Stamp Relief

​It's taking longer for people to get their food stamps these days, and that's because so many people are trying to get food stamps. (INSTEAD OF GETTING A FREAKING JOB, as KTRH listeners are no doubt saying after reading that sentence.)Two civil-rights groups have sued the Texas Health & Human ... More >>

Texas, Unfortunately, Leads The Country In Hungry Kids

More than anywhere else the country, children in Texas don't know where they'll get their next meal.That's according to a recent study by Feeding America, the nation's food-bank network, which analyzed stats on "household food insecurity" published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. According to ... More >>

Down Payment Blues: Musicians With Tax Trouble

Finished that tax return yet? Not to worry: you've still got a few hours until midnight, and the post offices are open late. Over the years, these musicians have gotten in hot water with their countries' internal-revenue collectors as well... Bono Forever a proponent of all things charitable, ... More >>

Movies Houstonians Love: Kingdom of Heaven

Web exclusive!

People Rich Enough To Own Boats Find It Easy To Evade Taxes

Galveston County is getting screwed out of about $33,000 in property taxes from a League City marina. The county knows about it, but doesn't seem to care. On the Wharf Marina web site, it says plain as day (if you don't take into account spelling and grammatical errors) that wet slip owners "must pa ... More >>

Taqueria Arandas Offers Tax Fraud On The Side (Allegedly)

Taqueria Arandas Offers Tax Fraud On The Side (Allegedly)

Dead Voucher Walking

Holiday Spirit

A real-life Christmas move in Kemah

Political Identity Crisis

Ronald Green's the only black Democrat left on the city ballot. Or is he?

City Blames Metro for Cash Crunch

A transit official says delayed payouts are Houston's problem

Keeping On Task

The DPS will oversee state drug forces troubled by a track record of abuses

More District D Footprints

Airing out Darryl Carter's dirty laundry, with the help of Womack's campaign

Best Gadfly

Dan Hart

Officials Probe Refund Collector

Dallas CPA failed to use required disclaimers in collecting a quarter-million dollars

The Vulture Factor

Officials ought to do more to protect the elderly from tax schemes

Food Stamp Fracas

A lawsuit questions whether welfare fraud is committed - by the state

More Payne for the IRS

Prolonged agency abuses bring a Houston attorney $1.5 million

Striking Out

Reid Ryan embarked on a new career as a team owner facing one big obstacle: voter approval of a new stadium. Then he called in a campaigner with the perfect pitch: a father named Nolan.

Bush Dole

The Guv readies surplus handouts in a legislative lovefest

Attacking the Taxman

James Farmer and Cliff Williams do their best to irk the IRS

Midtown Jamboree

Why let a few conflicts of interest get in the way of a grand redevelopment scheme?

Cash from CACHH

As arts funding shrinks, the downtown powers rush to make sure they get theirs

The Rule of Men, Not Law

Who gave Lanier & Co. permission to loot Metro? They did.

Hard Habit to Break

M.D. Anderson just can't say no to research funding from the tobacco industry