WHO should get YOUR taxes? Schools or refineries?
"With Texas schools already facing cuts of more than $5 billion over the next two years, we cannot afford to allow political maneuvering to bleed even more resources from our children's classrooms," state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, said last week. "Favors to political cronies should never be allowed, particularly where they trump the interests of Texas' schoolchildren."
Read the article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. YOUR children will thank you.
"We understand what is at stake for the school districts and our children's education," Valero Chairman and CEO Bill Klesse said in September. "Our children's education is extremely important, but it is also important to have a fair property appraisal. Even after our exemption is granted, Valero will remain one of the largest taxpayers -- if not the largest taxpayer -- in all the areas where we have refineries."
Valero's exemption request was initially rejected by the commission's staff, which reported that hydrotreaters don't reduce pollution at the refinery, but rather when consumers use fuel from refineries.
"The environmental benefit of these projects occurs when the consumer uses the low sulfur content fuels," commission staffer Ronald Hatlett wrote in 2007. "These projects do not provide an environmental benefit at the site."
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