USAF Vet - Pharmacy, Data Analyst, NetOps, Budget & Planning, Former IR, Former Tech/Gaming Press 1990 Comdex LV - Industry, 2000 E3 LA & 2000 CES LV
Joined August 2008
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HipOldGuy retweeted
Imagine winning a seat on the city council in a district falling apart from (totally fixable) disorder, and then just never showing up to vote
That's Austin City Councilwoman Natasha Harper-Madison, who lives two miles from city hall, and just cannot be bothered to show up
HipOldGuy retweeted
If you want to prove something you can go to SocialSecurity.GOV and follow my directions (cool graphic by copilot) *Yes, I made $1086 in 1981.
🤖 Made with AI
HipOldGuy retweeted
$1.5 billion spent on homelessness in the last six years.
Austin's general fund budget for fiscal year 2026 is $1.58 billion.
Let that sink in.
Austin is pouring *your* tax dollars into perpetual services that haven't solved the problems of homelessness in any meaningful way.
HipOldGuy retweeted
Source: The Wall Street Journal share.google/NaOO3xsKQTEwxBv…
HipOldGuy retweeted
Austin councilman Zo Qadri’s constituents have never been less safe.
Here are the number of offenses in his district in 2025:
Assault with Injury – 658
Assault by Contact – 296
Assault with Injury (Family/Dating Violence) – 237
Aggravated Assault – 131
Assault by Threat – 116
Assault on Public Servant – 41
Assault by Contact (Family/Dating Violence) – 29
Assault on Peace Officer – 25
Assault by Contact (Sexual Nature) – 18
Assault by Threat (Family/Dating Violence) – 12
Aggravated Assault (Family/Dating Violence) – 15
Assault of Pregnant Woman (Family/Dating Violence) – 7
Aggravated Assault on Public Servant – 2
Aggravated Assault with Motor Vehicle – 1
Sexual Assault – 89
Indecent Assault – 28
Sexual Assault with Object – 11
Sexual Assault of a Child – 3
Sexual Assault of a Child with Object – 3
Aggravated Sexual Assault – 4
Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child – 4
Aggravated Sexual Assault with Object – 1
Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child (Super Aggravated) – 1
Sexual Coercion – 3
Voyeurism – 4
Sexting / Transmission of Sexual Images – 2
Robbery by Assault – 54
Aggravated Robbery (Deadly Weapon) – 32
Robbery by Threat – 15
Aggravated Robbery by Assault – 5
Murder – 8
Capital Murder – 1
Terroristic Threat – 127
Terroristic Threat (Mass Casualty) – 4
Terroristic Threat (Family/Dating Violence) – 4
Deadly Conduct – 8
Deadly Conduct (Family/Dating Violence) – 1
Display / Use of Firearm or Deadly Weapon – 32
Bomb Threat – 3
Injury to Elderly Person – 21
Injury to Child – 11
Injury to Disabled Individual – 6
Injury to Elderly (Family/Dating Violence) – 7
Injury to Child (Family/Dating Violence) – 1
Injury to Disabled (Family/Dating Violence) – 1
Family Disturbance – 506
Family Disturbance (Parental) – 25
Continuous Violence Against the Family – 3
Violation of Protective Order (Family Violence / Sexual Crime / Trafficking) – 35
Harassment – 446
Harassment of a Public Servant – 15
Kidnapping – 1
Intoxication Assault (Crash-Related) – 2
Felony DWI – 18
Failure to Register as Sex Offender – 153
HipOldGuy retweeted
Interesting note from the utility commission meeting , Austin energy has been running ~$40m deficits the past couple years and will need rate increases to keep up
This is while it transfers ~100m to the city general fund each year….
Feels like we should stop the transfers
HipOldGuy retweeted
Austin audit: $279M spent on consultant contracts with unclear results kxan.com/news/local/austin/a…
HipOldGuy retweeted
3 essentials for PC users in the 90s...
1) Know how to create a boot disk
2) Fiddle endlessly with autoexec.bat and config.sys
3) ...and of course, DEFRAG!
HipOldGuy retweeted
hah - it is a family grift! The ED, Chief Programs Officer and the COO are all related, and the father of the ED was a contractor. I can't figure out where the rest of the compensation is going but they don't look to have many employees (more related family members on the books?); none of this looks honest or a good use of tax dollars. @AustinJustice @KirkPWatson
HipOldGuy retweeted
This is one of the most wild art purchases I've ever seen the city of Austin do
There is a new maintenance facility going up in Northeast Austin to maintain the city's fleet of garbage collection trucks
The city plans to spend $1.8 million on an art piece for the building
HipOldGuy retweeted
NEW: Dutch Parliament Member Michel Hoogeveen explains how the 36% unrealized capital gains tax, just passed by the House of Representatives, will work.
Here is a more detailed example:
Step 1. Starting position
You own 500 shares.
Value on Jan 1, 2028: €50,000
Value on Jan 1, 2029: €100,000
So the paper gain is:
€100,000 − €50,000 = €50,000 unrealized profit
You did not sell. But for tax purposes, that €50,000 is treated as income.
Step 2. Apply exemption
You are married, so you get a €3,600 exemption.
€50,000 − €3,600 = €46,400 taxable amount
Tax rate: 36%
€46,400 × 36% = €16,704 tax bill
That bill is due in May, even though you never sold anything.
Step 3. Market falls before you pay
Now suppose by May the shares drop in value.
New total value: €60,000
So your portfolio is no longer worth €100,000. It’s worth €60,000.
But the tax bill is still €16,704, because it was calculated based on the January 1 valuation.
Step 4. You must sell shares to pay tax
To raise €16,704, you sell part of your shares.
After paying the tax, you’re left with:
€60,000 − €16,704 = €43,296
Originally you had 500 shares.
Now you have 360 shares left.
You were forced to sell 140 shares.
140 ÷ 500 = 28% of your shares gone.
Step 5. What happened economically?
Before the correction:
Paper gain was €50,000.
After the correction:
Portfolio is worth €60,000.
Original cost basis was €50,000.
Real gain is only €10,000.
But you paid €16,704 in tax.
So instead of being up €10,000, you are now:
€43,296 − €50,000 = €6,704 below your original starting value.
You turned a €10,000 real gain into a €6,704 net loss.
And you lost 28% of your shares permanently.
HipOldGuy retweeted
At yesterday's #atxcouncil meeting, @cmkristalaine touts getting the city to give a Korean company incentives of $1000 per employee they hire. It is not contingent on hiring local employees. They are just subsidizing a foreign company to bring H-1B holders to Texas.
HipOldGuy retweeted
Austin extracts more tax revenue for homelessness every year - and gets worse results.
85% of the city's social services funding comes directly from local taxpayers, making Austin an outlier among peer cities that spread these costs across counties, hospital districts, and federal programs.
Other cities have pushed mental health care, addiction treatment, and supportive services to the health systems built to deliver them. Austin keeps everything inside City Hall - a choice the city's own benchmarking data flags as duplicative of systems its peers have deliberately moved away from.
The result is predictable. The city funds beds and permanent housing while leaving the root drivers - repeat criminal behavior, untreated mental illness, chronic addiction - largely untouched. The system grows more expensive and less effective each cycle.
When you fund housing and flood nonprofits with cash while leaving the actual causes untouched, you’re not fighting homelessness. You’re paying to create more of it.
HipOldGuy retweeted
For comparison, the Mayor of New York City is paid a salary of $259k, and the Governor of California makes $246k per year. Tell me the City of Austin pay scale isn’t way too high. @austintexasgov
HipOldGuy retweeted
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HipOldGuy retweeted
As you may have heard, there's a petition circulating for an independent audit of the City of Austin. This Austin Audit (officially the Independent Affordability and Efficiency Initiative) is different from any audit done before in several key ways:
• It's fully independent, conducted by an external contractor hired competitively by the City Auditor (not City Council or management).
• It's comprehensive and citywide in scope, covering all city funds, departments, utilities, enterprises (including Project Connect), staffing levels, performance metrics, vendors, capital assets, revenues, expenditures, and affordability impacts on residents.
• It's recurring and mandatory, required at least every 5 years, and within one year before any future tax rate election.
• It's embedded in the City Charter, making it a permanent part of the city's governing "constitution" and ensuring future generations benefit from a more responsible, transparent government.
• It pays for itself. The firm must commit, via contract, to identifying cost savings that exceed the audit's own expense.
It will completely transform how the City of Austin runs, for generations, but it needs your support to make it to the ballot.
Download, sign, and mail in the petition today tinyurl.com/atxauditpetition
Deadline February 1st.
HipOldGuy retweeted
$700 million in City of Austin projects recommended in 2026 bond election??!!
The city claims this is within their debt capacity. But,
The Watson Council does not factor in Taxpayer Affordability in their Spending Limits, Audit, or Debt Capacity. THAT tells you all you need to know when you vote.