County Seeks $1.2 Million Help from the Governor for Capital Murder Cases

Thanks (I think) to Judge Floyd for applying for the grant to help with trial expenses. I say "I think" because this is still taxpayer money, but hopefully if received the grant will give Tom Green County residents a reprieve from higher tax rates. Just curious, would Judge Floyd have applied for the grant if concerned citizens had not showed up at the County budget hearings? I don't recall the possibility of grant money being discussed in the two hearings I attended.
And, concerning county employees being given time off for supporting the United Way, this is another example of confusing government with the private sector. If an employer wants to give his employee paid time away from work that is his prerogative, as he is spending his own money. When the county or city or school district does this, it is spending its employer's (i.e. taxpayers) money. Last I checked supporting the United Way is not a function of government.

Lyle - Do you think county employees are some highly paid group that have cushy jobs? I'll stipulate not every county employee works hard every minute of the day, but lots of them do. Lots of them have more work than they can do in a day, every day! And a large percentage of them are paid a wage that is below the poverty level. It's easy to develop an opinion when you only read about things! One of the only good things about county government work for the majority of county employees - I will exclude elected officials and a few higher paid administrators - is the benefits they get. So if they are awarded four or eight hours of paid leave over a 2,000 hour work year to encourage support of something as valuable to Tom Green County as the United Way is, I find it very narrow minded to criticize the practice! If you took the total value of the paid leave that is awarded to the handful of employees that participate and distributed it among every taxpayer in the county, I'm not positive it would cost you a quarter! If you don't think supporting the United Way is worth that, you don't know how much value is going back to the county through the organizations efforts! You're probably right about the grant money, though...

Pevine, you are 100% correct. Most of the county employees that are single parents are on financial aid because they don't make enough to be able to support their children. County doesn't pay what the public sector has and never will, most people won't work for the county because of the money. As for the United Way, I think it's great because by doing what the Commissioners Court does helps bring more money into the Concho Valley United Way that helps people right here in this community.