Feb. 10 Round Rock City Council Meeting

I decided to start attending Round Rock City Council meetings to better understand what’s going on in my new hometown. I moved here in July, and this is my first city council meeting. I will be reporting what happens at the meetings with an emphasis on issues that impact libertarians and our struggle to create a more free and prosperous society.

The agenda begins with citizen communication. Round Rock residents can speak for 3 minutes on any topic as long as they are not specifically criticizing a specific employee or city council member. There were multiple speakers on two topics. A spokesman from the Round Rock Veterans of Foreign Wars addressed the council. Councilman George White is the commander of the local VFW, but it was Jimmy Hill, a local member, who addressed the council. He wanted to commemorate the loss of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor because (in his words) “the key historical event that led America from a continental power to becoming a true worldwide empire.” Most conservatives spend a lot of time trying to deny that America is an empire and no longer a republic, so the honesty from the pro-military empire folks was refreshing.

The manager of Flix Brewhouse and another citizen spoke in favor of giving an economic incentive to Flix Brewhouse. Later in the agenda we found out that they are opening a restaurant/bar style movie theater similar to Alamo Drafthouse. It will be located at Hester’s Crossing. If Flix opens and hires the equivalent of 85 full-time employees, the city will give them $12,000 in 2011, $6,000 in 2012, and $3,000 for 2013. It is estimated that Flix will generate $120,000 annually in new tax revenue for the city, so the incentive of $21,000 over three years is really just a tax rebate. It seems laughable that a business with over a million dollars in annual projected revenue would move to Round Rock over a paltry $21,000 incentive. As a Libertarian, I should be upset about the economic incentive, it is effectively taking tax money away from other Round Rock businesses and residents to favor another private business. It’s a very small amount of money in our city’s annual budget of $131 million, but it sets a very bad precedent for the future. Showering favors on certain businesses at the expense of others is not a business-friendly environment.

The City Council, and especially Councilman Joe Clifford should be congratulated for resisting the temptation to raise our franchise fees paid to Atmos Energy. Some Texas cities have been demanding that Atmos pay their cities taxes (a franchise fee) that includes the tax money they collect. For example, Atmos collects $5 for every $100 in gas they sell and this fee is given to the city. Some cities actually wanted to collect a fee on that $5. In essence, a fee on a fee (a tax on a tax). Our Round Rock City Council rejected an offer from Atmos Energy to collect this fee. Good for them!

I was shocked a little by the last item on the agenda. Round Rock will pay $1.1 million to Microsoft for licensing fees over the next 6 years for computers the city uses. It seems to me that an open source system, or some other option might reduce this significant amount. With all the software people in Round Rock, you would think we could find a better, cheaper way to handle this.

That’s it for my first city council meeting. Maybe after I get the hang of it, I will feel comfortable speaking in favor of a more free and prosperous city.