Texas Senator Eltife - Totally opposed to trz

Where do you stand on the TRZ Toll 49 extension through Lindale and pushing it up faster. I'm totally opposed to it and I'll tell you why. I don't like Tax Increment Financing. What you're doing is collecting tax on a specific area. I don't like it, I didn't like it when I was mayor of Tyler. I didn't want to do it for the TJC Center. I opposed it every step of the way because you're taking away the right of future elected officials to spend that money in the budget. So what you've got is if you pass that today in your Commissioners Court any of that new revenue is stuck over here and the Commissioners Court don't get to budget. What is we have a severe downturn? We need that money for Public Safety. We don't have control of it. We lost control of it. You don't give up your growth. You don't tax increment areas - you don't do it. Before you know it you've got a divided County. A little pot here, a little pot there, pot there. I don't like it. Q My concern was that NETRMA are not an elected entity and you've got tax money that will be given to them. And I thought we were trying to form our Country several hundred years ago trying to fight against something like that A You're right and another thing it does - it perpetuates this borrowing money to build these roads. What they want to do and they're going to bond the rest of that. It lets the State off the hook to properly fund something. The STATE IS OBLIGATED TO PROPERLY FUND THIS STUFF! The more we squeeze money out of fees and tolls and debt we're not going to live up to our obligations. That was what that was about. I was totally opposed to it and I told Judge Baker and Jeff Warr I was opposed to it.