About Tim Mahoney
I was trained as a journalist in the 1970’s (won some awards writing for the Texas Observer), went to the LBJ School of Public Affairs (UT-Austin) in the 1980’s, then to Law School. I have been a practicing attorney since 1992. I have become increasingly appalled at what passes for public policy every two years at the Texas Legislature and in between by our Statewide elected officials. If we can’t find a new way of relating to each other, I’m not sure that we can survive this kind of behavior in the future. * If we reach out to our fellow citizens in a collaborative manner in every region of the State, we should begin to see that access to voting is something that builds civic engagement. This past Texas Legislative session was the result of a disproportionate number of relatively strange people that thought that it was appropriate to have congressional, senate and house districts continue to be formed to promote a really strange political culture based on distrust, division and emotional turmoil.
We should not continue to react to that political mentality with anger. It is unattractive, and weakens us. We should find common cause in asking every candidate, whether Democratic, Republican or otherwise, if they support the Texas Legislature re-drawing our political districts in a compact fashion, as a criteria that could be utilized for a Redistricting Commission every 1- years. We should not have to endure a process that is basically designed to recognize a change in population, not a change in our political health. * As a former Community College Trustee, I understand that education is the secret ingredient for a healthier economy and citizens. Educational access on a free market basis has to stop. The debt burden of younger and older students is too much to bear. If we had educational opportunities build into our integrated life-choice options (as I’m sure future Comptroller studies would show), we could have a better educational system, more accessible to more Texans, at a more affordable cost.* As a former Chair of the Austin Urban Forestry Board, and an active member of the Environmental Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party for the last few decades, and a graduate of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, I understand more than most that environmental successes are based on building solid policy processes that allow for a sustained growth of practical involvement of citizens. The Comptroller’s office has the power to guide the growth of such engaged citizens through interactive on-going studies of the Texas budget to ensure that what is promised, is being delivered. The current challenge is that we are so deep in misrepresentations that we almost do not know where to turn. The first step in building a rational approach to Texas politics has to be finding common cause rather than finding what divides us.
John Cordova
John and Tim went to Jesuit High School together, and have kept up with each other over the years. John was Tim’s Treasurer in his 2018 Comptroller as well.