02/08/2006
Raveneaux Country Club is the Site of the 2006 Spring Swing
The highly acclaimed Raveneaux Country Club will be full on Monday, April 24, as the Cy-Fair Chamber gathers for its annual Spring Swing Golf Tournament.
“It is a pleasure to offer our golfers an opportunity to play on one of the best golf courses in Northwest Houston,” Chamber President Darcy Mingoia said. “We are looking forward to a great afternoon of golf, networking and fund-raising,” she added.
As is customary in all Cy-Fair Chamber events, a portion of the proceeds will benefit area nonprofits. The Spring Swing beneficiaries are Bear Creek, Cypress and Northwest Assistance Ministries.
“We believe in supporting our area ministries year-round and know that summertime can be a particularly trying time with fewer donations. We are committed to having these Spring Swing proceeds donated when the money is most needed,” Mingoia explained.
Registration, putting contest, will begin at 9:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. The tournament will begin with a scramble-shotgun start at 11:30 a.m. and auction will get underway at 5:30 p.m.
A wide variety of sponsorship opportunities ranging from $800 to $7,500 are available. To become a sponsor or to reserve your spot call Sherri Padalino at the Chamber Office at 281-955-1100.
In addition, the Auction Committee is looking for all types of donations including sports memorabilia, golf packages and entertainment packages including sports events, restaurants, hotels and airplane tickets. To make a donation to the auction call Jennifer Ellis at the Chamber Office at 281-955-1100.
The following sponsors to date are Albrecht & Associates Inc., AmegyBank of Texas, Caldwell Watson Real Estate Group, Carl’s Bar-B-Q, Circle D Transmissions, Comfort Suites, Cotton Restoration, Cy-Fair College/NHMCCD, Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union, Earl Campa, Executive Inn & Suites, Fox & Bubela Inc., Hawes Hill Calderon LLP, Houston Community Newspapers/1960 Sun, Jersey Meadow Golf Course, Maid Brigade, Mancuso-Harley Davidson/Buell, Motel 6, NewQuest Properties, Oceaneering International Inc., PBK Architects Inc., Riata Ranch Cypress Northwest Associates, LTD, Sam Houston Race Park, Securitas Inc. and Signs Now.
02/02/2006
U.S. 290 plans are advancing, TxDOT engineer tells Chamber committee
To those who travel U.S. 290 to or from work on a daily basis, the thought that it could be seven or more years before they see major highway improvements in the corridor can’t be a happy one.
Nevertheless, the words “better late than never” is an adage motorists can cling to as they navigate the rush hour bumper-to-bumper traffic along the Northwest Freeway.
The interest in improvements in the corridor was reflected in the attendance at the Feb. 3 meeting of the Transportation Committee of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce, as nearly 50 business people packed the Chamber’s board room to hear about the latest updates on U.S. 290 plans from redesign project engineer Roger Gonzalez of the Texas Department of Transportation.
Gonzalez noted that the redesign and expansion of 290 will span approximately 40 miles from the Interstate 610 Loop/I-10 to FM 2920. The overall project also includes a toll road that will replace the existing Hempstead Road .
He noted that the freeway would be widened to 10 lanes (and 12 in some places) between the Loop and Beltway 8. One additional lane will be added in each direction from Beltway 8 to Fairfield , and one lane will be added from Fairfield to 2920, Gonzalez said.
The Hempstead toll road, which will replace the 290 High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane, will include a direct connector ramp from the Loop and will stretch to Beltway 8. The toll road project will also include the construction of access roads and will require the acquisition of 75 to 100 feet of right of way along the corridor.
The bad news for commuters is that construction is not scheduled to begin until 2011, when the Hempstead toll road project will get underway; work on 290 will begin two years later.
TxDOT doesn’t plan to ignore traffic problems in the interim. A number of relatively low-cost, high impact smaller construction projects will take place such as converting road shoulders to lanes and adding access ramps and turn lanes on feeder roads, Gonzalez said. He added that almost all of those projects are between the Loop and Beltway 8.
Another key component of TxDOT’s plan is the inclusion of some type of mass transit system in the Hempstead corridor. However, it has not yet been determined whether that will be light rail, commuter rail or buses.
The Chamber, through its 290 Passenger Rail Coalition, has been meeting on a monthly basis with stakeholders to form an advocacy group to help create a commuter rail service that would run from College Station to Houston. Chamber President Darcy Mingoia said that because it has not been decided what type of mass transit system would be used in the Hempstead Corridor, the committee will strengthen its efforts to bring commuter rail to the corridor, where a lightly used Union Pacific railroad track already exists.
Next steps
Gonzalez said schematics for the 290 project are 80 percent complete, and he expects they will be sent to Austin for approval sometime this spring. The environmental impact statement is being drafted, with a final draft slated to be ready by October. A final environmental impact statement should be ready by spring 2007, with public hearings to follow.
The total cost of the project is $1.5 billion, and Gonzalez admits that funding could pose a challenge.
“To get that kind of money is not easy,” he said.
As the project gets closer to finalization, businesses and residents will learn more about the impacts of the project, especially in terms of right-of-way acquisition. Hempstead Road is lined with industrial and retail businesses.
“We have to balance the needs of the community with the impact, congestion and environmental impacts,” Gonzalez said.
The Chamber expects to have engineering drawings of the project available for public viewing for several weeks. For information, call the Chamber at 281-955-1100.
The Transportation Committee meets on the first Thursday of each month at 8 a.m. at the Chamber office, 11050 FM 1960 West, Suite 100 . All interested members of the public are invited to participate.
02/02/2006
State legislator reports on gross receipts tax
A business tax on gross receipts is the latest idea about how to solve the school funding crisis in Texas, State Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale (R-Houston) told the Governmental Affairs committee of the Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce on Feb. 3.
A number of legislators have addressed the committee after the 2005 Legislature failed to produce an acceptable school finance bill, and all of the legislators have focused their discussions on the school finance issue.
A special legislative session will be called this spring to tackle school finance again because the Texas Supreme Court gave the Legislature until June 1 to fix the problem, declaring the existing property tax structure as unconstitutional because it is, in effect, a statewide income tax.
Van Arsdale said the Legislature’s mandate is to change the school funding tax structure so that there is no longer a statewide property tax. The governor’s tax-reform commission, headed by Democrat John Sharp, recently proposed a gross receipts tax, which would take the place of a payroll tax and would be less burdensome on businesses, Van Arsdale said.
“I think appointing John Sharp was a great idea and something I wish would have been done a long time ago,” he said. “John Sharp is a fiscal conservative who knows how to get things done in Austin . All the work he has done, as far as I can tell, has been outstanding.”
The gross receipts tax is likely to be viewed by businesses as more equitable than the franchise tax, which only about 15 percent of businesses in the state now pay, Van Arsdale said. The tax rate would be 1 percent or less, would offer certain exemptions, and would only be paid by corporations and partnerships, not sole proprietorships, he added.
“The purpose of proposing the gross receipts tax is so that no one sector is penalized,” Van Arsdale said. “The first thing that happens when you change the tax structure is that businesses hire a lawyer and try to get around it. We don’t want to be doing this again. We want to do something that will fix this problem. Something has to be done, because there’s too much reliance on property taxes.”
Passing a bill will be made more complicated by the fact that this is an election year for House representatives, state senators and the office of the governor, and that Gov. Rick Perry and state comptroller Carole Strayhorn, who is running against Perry as an independent, have bickered in the past over the state budget.
Although legislators could address a number of reforms during the special session, the prevailing sentiment is to pass the most essential parts of school finance reform and leave the rest for the 2007 regular session, Van Arsdale said.
Van Arsdale also addressed questions from the committee regarding highway construction needs. He said transportation funding shortages that could reach $20 billion have led to the creation of regional mobility organizations, and he noted that going forward, most new highway projects would be toll roads.
Chamber president Darcy Mingoia said that taxes can’t continue to be lowered if services and facilities are to be expanded or properly maintained.
“We as a state have to face the fact that we can’t maintain the same service level and keep lowering taxes,” she said. “There is a cost for what we want, and I think sometimes as a state we’re not willing to accept that cost.”
The Governmental Affairs committee meets on the first Thursday of each month at 9:15 a.m. at the Chamber office, 11050 FM 1960 West, Suite 100 . All interested members of the public are invited to participate. For more information, call 281-955-1100 or visit the Chamber’s Web site, cyfairchamber.com.
Archived News
01/05/2006 Chamber Transportation Committee sets priorities for 2006
01/05/2006 State Legislator proposes ideas for reducing School Property Taxes