Chad’s Morning Brief: Lubbock City Council Deals With Budget Issues, President Obama’s Base Losing Confidence, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of September 12, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.
Confidence Lost
President Obama is losing his base according to the Washington Post.
Now, the 36-year-old mother of three young children in Valencia, Calif., is among the majority of Americans who have lost confidence in Obama’s leadership and the job he is doing as president.
“He’s been faced with a lot of challenges, and he’s lost his way,” Cole said in an interview. She worries that Obama lacks the resolve needed at a time when things at home and abroad are looking scarier.
On the other side of the country, Karlene Richardson, 44, once counted herself a “very strong supporter” of the president. But now she feels much the same as Cole does.
“Honestly, I just feel that what I bought into is not what I’m getting,” said Richardson, an author and motivational speaker who teaches health-care administration at a community college in Queens. “I’m starting to wonder whether the world takes us seriously.”
Both Cole and Richardson were surveyed in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll and represent one of its most striking findings: the degree to which the president’s approval has slipped among key parts of the Obama coalition — the women, youth and Latino voters most responsible for putting him into office.
Women surveyed said they disapprove of Obama by a 50 percent to 44 percent margin — nearing an all-time low in the poll. It’s almost the reverse of the 55 percent to 44 percent breakdown for Obama among female voters in 2012, according to exit polls.
His approval rating among women has slipped four percentage points from a year ago and 16 points since his second inaugural in January 2013, when his approval was 60 percent among the group.
Among younger voting-age Americans, Obama’s approval rating stood at 43 percent. That marked an 11-point drop since June among those 18 to 29 years old. Voters younger than 30 supported Obama by 60 percent to 37 percent in 2012.
Meanwhile, support for Obama among Hispanics stood at 57 percent, which is down markedly from the first half of 2013, when approval among Latinos soared to about 75 percent.
Obama’s support remains solid among African Americans, with 87 percent approving of his job performance. That is a modest erosion from the 93 percent of black voters who supported his reelection.
Of all of those groups, women are traditionally most likely to be swing voters — and the two parties have fought fiercely for their loyalties, with the Democrats coming out ahead in recent election cycles. At slightly over half the electorate, they are not a monolith, of course. Single women tend to vote more solidly Democratic; married women, more Republican. There are also ethnic differences in their electoral behavior.
But there is fresh and growing evidence that many women’s faith in Obama has turned to misgivings — possibly making it more difficult for his party to retain their support in this year’s midterms and beyond.
More and more people, except for African-Americans, are starting to lose confidence in Obama. It's about damn time. Now I wonder why it's only African-Americans that are backing Obama by such large numbers. Anyone have a guess?
City Council
The Lubbock City Council had a long meeting last night. Among the topics discussed and debated? LP&L raises, annexation of land, and the biggest issue of the night, the budget.
After much debate and back and forth from council members, the City Council passed a budget with a tax increase. Though according to the AJ, the tax increase wasn't as much as was originally proposed.
After hours of debate and multiple failed attempts to pass the budget, Councilman Jeff Griffith made a motion to make cuts and ultimately lower the proposed tax rate from 52.74 cents to 52.24 cents per $100 property valuation.
That move was just enough to pass the budget, though some councilmembers still voted against. The new rate is a 5.01 percent increase of the 2013 rate of 50.44 cents per $100 property valuation.
The increase amounts to about $23 more for a house valued at $100,000.
“I have to applaud our newest councilmember,” Mayor Glen Robertson said. “He went and he found enough cuts to make a half cent difference and get us to a point where we could get that fourth vote and move forward on a budget.”
Though the mayor has publicly advocated for the near-2.3 cent previously proposed tax increase, he voted in favor of the change. Still, he said he is concerned routine maintenance continues to be debt funded.
The new budget includes all of the changes proposed during the first reading, including additional funds to give raises to police officers left out of the city’s recent compensation study, the continuance of two Citibus routes that were originally set to be cut and the addition of a new Health Department employee.
Adding to those changes, the council voted on Thursday to cut the funds designated for renovations of the municipal building to $300,000 and require the money be used only for repairs.
Lubbock Power & Light’s budget also changed. The council voted to remove the 2.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment for all employees. Now, only those positions slated for pay increases based on the recent compensation study will see raises.
Last month, the Electric Utility Board voted to take the across-the-board raises off the table in favor of just asking the council for enough funds for pay increases for trades workers.
Speaking of LP&L and increases, expect your bills to up soon. According to EverythingLubbock.com, the council approved a base rate increase.
Late Thursday, the Lubbock City Council voted to approve the base rate increase for LP&L.
It's a 5.75% base rate increase that will go into effect on October 1st. That's the same time that LP&L switches from summer rates to winter rates.
According to LP&L officials, for the average customer using 1,000 kWh, it would be an additional $1.66 in the non-summer months, and $2.24 in the summer months.
"We have a long list of capital programs that we have to tackle to make sure that our infrastructure is up to date and ready for what we need to do in 201," Matt Rose, an LP&L spokesman said.
He also said 100% of the money from this rate increase would go toward those improvements, listing off three specifics: updating the line to the Medical District, improvements to the Milwaukee corridor, and a reliability loop around Lubbock that Rose said needs to be in place by 2019.
Other Top Stories:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.
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