“National Guard promises home for animals” “The National Guard will send a team of inspectors to Galveston on Friday to determine whether mold, lead or asbestos were present in the building at levels harmful to animals or people… The inspection could take a week, public affairs Chief Gonda Moncada said.” How many tax dollars is that going to cost us?
“If the environmental review turns up nothing harmful, the humane society can stay in the building until the new shelter at 76th Street and Interstate 45 is finished…” How many MORE tax dollars? Seriously, is the City of Galveston still paying rent and does it even cover the costs of the ongoing damages being done and/or are they just racking up more damages that state or federal tax dollars will have to pay for repairs?
“If the air quality in the building is unsafe, the Texas National Guard will build a temporary shelter…” WTF??? Now that is just plain OUTRAGEOUS.
Let’s recap here a bit. We’ve got an NPO, the Galveston Island Humane Society (GIHS), who owns these animals and is responsible for their care, housing them in a federally owned building, having been moved in by the City of Galveston without the owner’s consent. We’ve got the City of Galveston which rented this building but has reneged on its obligations under the lease. Essentially, we have the City of Galveston and GIHS mooching tax dollars for use of this building and NOW they’re going to mooch money to build a new temporary shelter if the building they shouldn’t be in at all and have been in for 18 months in breach of the City’s lease. Again, WTF???
“ ‘We are working with city and federal officials to bring this matter to a conclusion everybody can live with,’ she [Gonda Moncada, public affairs chief for the Texas National Guard] wrote in an e-mail to the city.” NO YOU AREN’T. “GIHS is a 501c3 non-profit organization.” If people want to give them their money to support whatever this NPO is up to which I suspect includes supporting the seizures of other people’s animals, that is entirely up to them but YOU are giving them support from TAXES from all of US and I for one damned sure don’t approve!
Not one of the mainstream media has TOUCHED on the concept that this debacle may be sucking up tax dollars and here’s what I want to know… Are these dollars coming out of the defense budget? Are these dollars that should be going to equip our soldiers abroad? Is some soldier going without body armor because GIHS is getting these benefits instead of being held accountable for taking care of the pets they took in?
I think Governor Perry needs to hear our disapproval of the continuing waste of our tax dollars to support private organizations like GIHS, especially when its done in this end run method around the rules and takes dollars from us that we might need to tend our own pets AND may well be taking funds from our soldier’s needs.
- Rick Perry
- Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428, Austin, Texas 78711
Phone: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849 - Or on-line: http://governor.state.tx.us/contact/
It’s really no wonder that we are oozing red ink from the federal coffers! Let's at least make sure it doesn't spread to the Texas tax revenues and that our Governor Perry knows we still believe in personal responsibility and that is for NPOs like GIHS too!