The Dispatch published a giant puff-piece (which I will pick apart in my next post) on the LEDC “business park” and their current attempt to grab federal tax dollars they are NOT (in my opinion) entitled to. It is a welfare queen move and a complete scumbag move. It is no different than scumbag liberal politicians in California or Chicago begging for federal taxes to balance their budgets. Budgets that were ruined FAR before Wuhan Flu came onto the scene.
According to the Dispatch articls:
Projects that respond to “ECONOMIC INJURY as a result of coronavirus”
Funny – it sure doesn’t seem like the City has suffered any “economic injury” to me. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are sitting on a pile of money, according to City Manager Finley DeGraffenreid (who is paid $140,000 per year + roughly $30,000 in benefits):
Things are so good, in fact, Finley recommends giving the entire City workforce an across-the-board 3% raise IN ADDITION to another $40,000 in “salary adjustments” [see page 13 under “recommendations”].
Finley himself even got a $10,000 raise back in mid-May – right as the “pandemic” was supposedly raging and roughly 40 million Americans were being thrown out of work.
Furthermore, the City’s sales tax receipts have also shot upward – the complete OPPOSITE of the rest of the state of Texas.
For the month of March, the entire state of Texas sales tax revenue was DOWN approximately 5% but the City of Lampasas sales tax receipts were UP 11%!!!
For the month of April (the lock down month), Texas sales tax receipts were DOWN 12% BUT LAMPASAS SAW A NINE PERCENT INCREASE! Yes – a 9% increase year-over-year.
For the month of May (the partial re-opening month) the state of Texas as a whole saw sales tax receipts DOWN either 2.6% or 6.5% depending on which source you believe. But City of Lampasas tax receipts were UP AN ASTOUNDING 26%!!!
Yes, you read that correctly. UP TWENTY-SIX PERCENT!!!
** NEW INFO ** – For the Month of June, the state of Texas as a whole saw a 3.6% increase in sales tax receipts year-over-year – but Lampasas saw another MASSIVE JUMP AGAIN of 24%.
All these facts didn’t stop City council from lying through their teeth like scumbag welfare queens with their “Resolution Authorizing Application” for this grant – which will be made through Langford Community Management Services. You can find the entire resolution in the City council packets HERE on Page 44.
It partially reads:
“WHEREAS the ‘Applicant’ has determined that the economic activity generated from this project will positively impact the City economy, overall, which has been adversely affected by the COVID19 disaster;
City council then UNANIMOUSLY voted to approve this resolution. You can hear it HERE at the 25 minute mark.
No discussion. No questions. No comments. ALL SEVEN GOLDFISH agreed to this lie and think NOTHING of using that lie to grab federal tax dollars from innocent taxpayers in Kansas, Florida and every other state. Taxpayers who are now being forced to hand over their hard-earned money to fund the frantic fuck-up (pardon my French) that is the LEDC Business Park.
Just The Goldfish being goldfish, I guess. They have already forgotten (as Goldfish are wont to do) the 26% boom in sales tax, the $1.7 million budget surplus AND the boom in residential construction as Big City clowns rush to small towns like Lampasas to escape failed libtard policies, crime and mask police.
Furthermore, the ‘business park’ is hardly a project that “RESPONDS to economic injury’. How could it be a “response to Coronavirus injury” when it has been in existence for OVER A DECADE and Covid just appeared 7 months ago? It can’t be. So that’s yet another lie.
I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me that LYING to grab money from the government might be construed as fraud. Right Jo-Christy Brown? Not much different than disability fraud or welfare fraud, it seems to me.
I promised you all I would do everything I could to stop this theft. Remember?
Well, I will be sending ALL of this information to whomever reviews these grants at the federal level. Along with my opinion that this is outright fraud – since the City and the LEDC cannot (with a straight face) claim that the City of Lampasas was impacted negatively AT ALL by the Wuhan Flu.
Every one of you who nonchalantly voted for this lie is now officially a welfare queen and political scumbag. You are no better than a worm-like Chicago or Baltimore political parasite. It’s absolutely disgusting.