We will be doing a DEEP dive on the Lampasas Economic Development Corporation for the next few posts. I have been reviewing ALL of their 501(c)(3) tax filings since inception in 2000. Nearly TWENTY years of shenanigans and obscene money wasting.
Lets start with how much money the LEDC have skimmed off of productive citizens. Their main source of “revenue” is sales tax. Since their formation in the year 2000 through Sept 2018 (the last Form 990 available online) they have skimmed $3,796,974 for this ridiculous slush fund.
Seeing as how the amount of sales tax skimmed has increased every single year for the last 17 years (except 2009), I think it is safe to assume it increased for the 2018/2019 tax year as well. Which means we can safely tack another $300,000 onto that total.
**UPDATED 6/9/21** – Income for 2019 filing was $313,229
Yes, the LEDC is now skimming about OVER $300,000 PER YEAR in sales tax revenue to run their little slush fund.
Let’s call it a nice even FOUR POINT ONE MILLION DOLLARS skimmed.
They purchased their ‘Business Park’ land on Oct 1, 2003 according to the records….for $909,835. They carried it on their books at that exact price until it was marked down on their 2013 tax filings to $817,978 (Schedule D Part VI).
The sudden change fits my other info: that the LEDC paid Herbst Real Estate to do an appraisal in 2012. So it makes sense this new value shows up in the filing date ending Sept 2013.
Only a group of clowns like this could buy land for $909,835 and have it worth 10% LESS ten years later. Did they think to have it appraised BEFORE they bought it? I’d love to know who sold these chumps the land.
The most disturbing and disgusting part about the $4.1 million being skimmed over the last 19 years is that their controls are nonexistent. Their tax filings SPECIFICALLY ask “Does the organization have any ‘conflict of interest’ policy?” – and the LEDC answers NO every year [Part VI section B, 12a].
That means that officers, directors, trustees and key employees are NOT required to disclose interests that could give rise to conflicts.
They also answered NO to “does the organization have and written document retention and destruction policy”.
Pathetic.
Know what else? They immediately spent $43,429 on ‘engineering and surveying’ in 2004 – right after buying the property [Schedule A – part VII]. Wonder who got THAT chunk of cash. Remember, that is 2004 dollars…which is equivalent to $59,000 in today’s dollars.
Kind of makes you wonder why, after $59,000 of surveying, they had to hand Pope Eckermann $168,740 AGAIN between 2014 and 2016. How many times can you engineer/survey the same piece of land??
Look at the other GOBS of money flushed down the toilet: $24,000 on ‘admin and overhead’, $23,408 on ‘miscellaneous’, $20,900 on ‘other services’, $34,240 on ‘professional services’. WTF???? $146,913 vaporized in the blink of an eye! [$200,000 in today’s dollars]
Then let’s get into the LEGAL fees they have wasted…..they blew over FIFTY-ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS in 2003 and 2004 alone ($69,000 in today’s dollars!). I’m assuming related to the purchase of the land? What else could it be? Who knows but that is an insane amount of legal fees.
[More coming soon as this is a huge amount of work to dig all these out of the archives]