Opinion

Going after 'easy dollar pickings' is wrong

A car drives past a water main break on the corner of Oasis Dr. and Stillbrooke Dr. Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Houston. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) A car drives past a water main break on the corner of Oasis Dr. and Stillbrooke Dr. Monday, Jan. 2, 2012, in Houston. ( Johnny Hanson / Houston Chronicle ) Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff Photo: Johnny Hanson, Staff Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Going after 'easy dollar pickings' is wrong 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

How can our community thank companies that hire tens of thousands of Houstonians, providing them with good-paying jobs? How can our community thank companies that contribute millions of dollars to charitable and civic causes across Greater Houston? How can our community thank companies that drive our economy?

Well, if you're the city of Houston, Metro Transit Authority or Harris County, you sue them for what one lawyer calls, "easy dollar pickings."

That at least, is the intent of the lawsuit filed earlier this month by Harris County against BP, Halliburton, Transocean and other entities involved in the Deepwater Horizon accident four years ago. It's also the intent of similar lawsuits filed last year by the city and by Metro.

I voted against this litigation when it came before City Council for consideration, and I oppose it still today. It's simply the wrong thing to do.

Certainly, the Deepwater Horizon accident was a terrible tragedy, but it is not as though these companies are not being held accountable. They've stepped up by spending billions of dollars to address the problems caused by the spill. They've taken proactive steps to make sure what happened never happens again. They've also been taken to task by the U.S. Department of Justice, and the issues stemming from the spill are the subject of an ongoing trial before a New Orleans federal judge.

No, these local lawsuits are not about making sure the companies responsible for Deepwater Horizon are held accountable. They are about cashing in and that's why they should be dropped.

Even if you disagree with that, the very theory behind these lawsuits is a stretch. It will be incredibly difficult to prove a loss of hotel and property tax revenue from an oil spill that occurred hundreds of miles from our shores. Further, we must remember a much more significant downturn in hotel or other area taxes came at that time not due to this disaster, but rather as a result of the general economic downturn ongoing then.

Moreover, continuing to press these questionable cases will erode great relationships we have with great corporate citizens and their employees. If you truly believe the spill caused regional economic harm from which we are still struggling to recover, why would you impose further harm on the very companies that are a major part of our regional economy?

Visit any large public event in Houston and you are likely to see one or all of these companies represented as sponsors. Pore over the books of numerous local charities and you'll see checks from the companies and their employees.

Eat at a restaurant or shop at a hardware store anywhere in town, and you may very well bump into one of their tens of thousands of employees who earn paychecks that they then cycle back into our economy every day. When our local governments sue these companies, we're doing nothing short of penalizing this activity.

Why not allow those companies to invest the millions of dollars they'll be forced to spend in legal defense instead by growing their operations here and creating new jobs here?

By pressing forward with this litigation, irrespective of the outcome, all of us in Houston will lose. I am confident that when these companies are looking at locations in which to grow, Houston and Harris County will now be further down their list.

I sincerely hope the city, county and Metro reconsider and take the long view of our relationship with our corporate citizens, instead of making a short-sighted grab for "easy dollar pickings."

Christie is At-Large 5 member of the Houston City Council.