Sarah Brown: Let us help you not to lose your moneyAnother uniform election passed this past weekend. Like much of everything else in life, almost everything has changed but all remains the same.
in gambling dens and bookie joints.
Gambler: This doll has captured my attention.
Brown: Let us give you strength to stop drinking.
Gambler: She has lost me.
SB: Welcome to the Save-A-Soul Mission.
Other than the normal obligation I feel to vote, particularly in local elections, there wasn't much incentive. They mayor's race was not going to be close; none of the city council candidates inspired me. One could have, but his literature boasted of a family of four while the photograph only showed three of them.
I get e-mail alerts from the county election office that I could follow while watching the Red Wings take control of the Western Conference Finals.
Like most municipal elections, turnout was lousy. In my county, it was 7.16%.
And Melissa still won't take my dares. I tried to get her to ask an election clerk where we need to caucus for Obama.
Frisco, in addition to electing school board and other municipal officers, voted down a proposal to extend serving hours until 2 a.m.
Despite the fast growth of the past five years, Frisco still seeks to maintain it's Smalltown, U.S.A. image. I'm glad the ISD will build enough high schools to maintain all of them at a 4A classification with the UIL. All things being equal and based on current construction, our kid will never have to travel more than two miles to attend school until he goes off to college.
This vote, straight out of 1919, however, pitted economics against personal morality. The economics-first camp expressed concern that tourism, a substantial and still growing industry in Frisco, will suffer at the hands of a defeated proposal. Their line of reasoning is that out of town convention-goers will not choose Frisco hotels if they aren't allowed to drink past midnight. The morality-first camp countered that streets will soon be filled with drunken teenagers swerving down the streets when they should be safely tucked in their beds and that the only new business Frisco will attract will be strip clubs and prostitutes.
I may not know a lot, but I do know that tourism increases the collection of local sales taxes. Sales taxes counterbalance property taxes. An increase in the former typically effects a flatline in the latter. If it comes down to spending your money or mine, guess which one I'm choosing first.
The 2000 Collin County census counted less than 800,000 persons and the county is still under home-rule law. Because it is under that population threshold, individual cities are allowed to set restaurant's serving hours. Anything above that threshold, which Collin is expected to be after the next census, and state law takes over. The only glitch is that Frisco lies in two counties and will probably result in half closing early and half staying open for two more hours.
In the end, the point is moot.
I can't even remember the last time I've see the clock read 2 a.m. I just hate people telling me what I can and what I cannot do, even though it would otherwise have no effect on the behavior I would otherwise choose for myself.
