Fake Mexican and real parasite Robert Francis O’Rourke is visiting Harker Heights tomorrow – you know what THAT means!
Comrade Clayton Tucker (admitted socialist and Chairman of the Lampasas Democrats) is busy, busy, busy today! He’s trimming his chin pubes, cleaning out his man purse, polishing up the Baby Seal Mobile…..
…picking out his very best fake cowboy hat and practicing his selfie poses so he can get yet another picture with Beta Male O’Rourke.
Little guy with a purse LOVES the big fist!
He figures that if he takes enough pictures with enough useless, scumbag, parasitic politicians that something will rub off on him and he’ll achieve these lofty political heights as well. Unfortunately, that is unlikely when you are 5’7 and need shoulder pads in your clothes.
Beto and Beta male – together again!
I’ve got $100 that says we will see a new Beto/Beta photo together within the next 96 hours. Any takers??
In summary, the LEDC is completely useless and has wasted millions of dollars (approximately $333,000 per year skimmed from sales taxes) on “growth” that would have happened anyways. Much of this was wasted on a “business park” that STILL sits empty after 17 years of wheel spinning.
The entire group that makes up the LEDC is an incestuous group overseen by some members of the LEDC board itself (TJ Monroe now and Misti Talbert before her). The LEDC has no written rules about financial conflicts of interest AND his no written rules on document destruction or retention. All of this means it is a fairly simple matter to feather peoples’ nests and waste piles of money without fear of repercussions.
Furthermore, the make-work Nerf job of “Economic Development Director” is another waste of over $105,000 per year. Every business that opened in the last 5 years would have opened anyways and the City would have an extra $500,000 in the coffers.
That roughly $450,000 would be better off kept in the hands of the people who earned it instead of being forcibly extracted for the LEDC to play with.
The crowing of “sales tax receipts are up” is not one of good news if the majority of that is from higher prices (inflation). I know for a FACT a hell of a lot of people drive from Cove to Lampasas to save 15 cents on gas. Gas is up 50% in the last year. That ALONE probably accounts for a pretty big chunk. It doesn’t show growth – it shows citizens are turning over more money than ever to the government.
Further costs that were ignored in the article:
Over $250,000 in gifts from City council to developers.
$120,000 to Halff Associates for a “comprehensive plan”.
Over $130,000 in CASH handed out to businesses at LEDC discretion with no strings attached.
Another $25,000 or so handed out (no strings attached – at LEDC discretion) for “Life Safety Grants” intended to defray costs CAUSED by City ordinances and regulations.
We also leaned that the number of new businesses is lower than currently being crowed about, if you take an honest accounting and list those that also CLOSED during the same period. Nearly all of them would have opened with or without the LEDC wasting tax dollars.
There is ONE thing the LEDC and the City could have done to create jobs – and that was to accept the offer made by Ajinomoto back in 2016. Instead, they said NO. That tells you everything you need to know right there. They had a chance to not only create jobs for FREE, but to actually get handed $300,000 in the process.
They don’t care about jobs. They care about protecting and expanding their little incestuous bureaucratic fiefdom. Simple as that. If they cared about jobs, they would have taken that deal in 2016.
Finally, we come to the last metric the LEDC brags about to show they are worth the $400,000 per year they skim from the taxpayers: new businesses.
From the Dispatch puff piece: “City Secretary Becky Sims noted 42 new businesses were established in Lampasas between 2018 and 2021. Twenty-four of those were established between 2020 and 2021“
Wow! Sounds impressive! I love new businesses too. I’m not some old curmudgeon who only wants a bunch of fast-food chains here and hates change. I loved it when Lampasas Beer Market opened. Loved it when Cherry on Top opened. Those are private citizens risking their own ass to bring the town something different.
But is that “42 new businesses” accurate? Well, kinda but not really. I got my hands on the list. You can download the list yourself:
The funniest part of this list is that I don’t see “Wool & Vine” on there. LOL. Nor should it be. A hobby lemonade stand that is only open a few days a week and employs nobody doesn’t really count in my book. Maybe the City secretly feels the same.
Then we get to the huge chains: Whataburger, Dominos Pizza, Golden Chik, Burger King, Cefco, etc. Are they nice to have and do they employ people? Yup. Did they come here because we have a “Lampasas Economic Development Corp” and Mandy Walsh to make it happen? Nope. Those companies know exactly when to stick a store into a town based on demographics, traffic patterns, median income, etc. It has ZERO to do with the LEDC or Mandy Walsh and her clipboard.
Many “new businesses” on the list were simply taking the place of something that closed. Mandy and the LEDC like to crow about the NEW business, but never mention all the ones that close: Mamma Jeans, Toupsies, Rutlands, Chinese Buffet, etc, etc.
So if Toupsies closes but Bill’s opens in its place, is that a “new business”? Bella Italia replacing whatever was there before that (I forget)? Moonie’s replacing Gillens? Technically it is a “new” business – but another business closed before it. Net business creation is zero in that case.
Bottom line: new businesses are great – as long as Mandy and the LEDC aren’t subsidizing them with free stuff. All that does is (once again) “fill the pool” by pumping water from the deep end into the shallow end.
Actually, it’s even worse than that. Mandy Walsh takes over 100,000 cups of water out of that pool for herself (salary, retirement benefits, health insurance benefits, travel, conferences, etc) – and the LEDC takes over 300,000 cups of water out too. Just like the feds, they take your money, put some in their pockets, and then decide how to dole out the rest – all the while posturing as heroes and do-gooders with YOUR money!
It would seriously be more efficient to skim those $450,000 tax dollars every year, put every business name in a hat, pull twenty names out randomly and hand them each $22,000. That’s how ridiculous the current system is.
Disband the LEDC. Eliminate the “Economic Director” position. Let people keep their money and let businesses sink or swim in the free market.
According to the Dispatch article: “In addition, residential development has substantially increased in the past three years with five new residential subdivisions underway, along with numerous infill residential developments throughout the city.”
Again, the article fails to mention any COSTS from these developments – and they are fairly large.
Two of those five developments are Stone Valley and Brodie Estates. In both cases, City council voted to hand out tax dollars (or forfeit fees to City coffers) to subsidize these developments.
Stone Valley saw six-figure help in the form of reimbursements and for waiving electrical hookup fees to each of the 67 houses. The waived electrical hookup fees ALONE cost the City $72,000. TJ Monroe and Chuck Williamson even voted in favor of WAIVING all of the building permit fees for developer Deorald Finney! This is the same City that just AGAIN raised electrical rates on the entire town, after promising in February 2021 that the electric fund was healthy.
Brodie Estates developer S2M2 hired FORMER council member Chris Harrison to lobby for money for a drainage pond in THEIR development. Mayor Misti Talbert and council ended up handing them $185,000 from the taxpayers.
Those two developments ALONE were the recipients of roughly THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS in subsidies. Yet Finley, Mandy and the LEDC proudly point to “all the new subdivisions” as evidence they are doing a fine job at “growing” the economy. Once again, these dolts are pumping water from the deep end to the shallow end of the pool.
But there are MORE costs to these developments!
Turns out, there are now water pressure problems in the “upper pressure plane” – which is a fancy way of saying “near the spot that they just dumped five dozen new houses”. The cost just to study the problem and find a solution will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. If more pumps and bigger lines are needed (almost a certainty), expect a lot more money going out the door.
Maybe instead of GIVING these developers hundreds of thousands of dollars to build more houses, they should CHARGE these developers a decent-sized “impact fee” (perhaps $2,500 per house – or 1% of Deorald’s selling price?) for all of these costs that will now be piling up for the rest of us.
We covered a few Lampasas growth basics in Part I. Now let’s dive into the article a bit.
According to The Dispatch: “Mandy Love Walsh…said in an email that sales tax is one sign of economic growth. The City is at a 21% year-to-date increase in sales tax“
I hope this isn’t the number that Mandy and the LEDC hang their hats on as “proof” they are an indispensable group of geniuses we should thank for all new businesses in town. You know what else makes sales tax collections shoot up? Inflation.
If the cost of everything goes up 10% in a year, you are going to collect 10% more sales tax, ceteris paribus. If you sold a million gallons of gas in both years but the price doubled – well, your sales taxes are going to increase quite a bit. This has nothing to do with “growth”.
Many other cities around us are ALSO seeing huge double-digit sales-tax receipt increases (Goldthwaite, San Saba, etc) – and Mandy Walsh doesn’t work in any of those towns. Gee – how did they manage it??
The increase could further be explained by having a moron in the White House printing money out of thin air and handing it out to everyone – which is what we have seen over the last year or more. This is also not “growth” and the bill will come due eventually – as is already happening with supply chain issues, labor shortages and more inflation.
Ergo, the fact that sales tax receipts are up 21% over last year does NOT prove that we grew 21% and it certainly doesn’t prove that any growth was due to the LEDC or Mandy Walsh. All it means is a lot of dummies are smartening up and moving from shitty lib states and big cities and infesting small rural towns – and that the cost of everything is skyrocketing.
The Federal Reserve has printed and the federal government has spent TRILLIONS in fiat currency over the last 18 months. It is an experiment in money printing that is unmatched in all of human history. It is an artificial sugar high and not true organic growth. Lampasas is just another boat being lifted by this tide. It has nothing to do with the LEDC or Mandy Walsh.
The Dispatch ran a big old puff piece today about the LEDC and what a wonderful job they are doing. The title of the article is “The Cost of Growth“. Naturally, it fails to mention a single cost of this “growth” and only mentions the perceived benefits.
It is typical of government drones at every level (federal, state and local) to only look at the “benefits” and ignore the costs of their “good deeds”. They do it all the time. We also see the same tendency with Covid policies, global warming policies and many others. The notion that government drones can create “economic growth” is ludicrous.
A typical overpaid government bureaucrat like LEDC Director Mandy Walsh or City Manager Finley deGraffenried would look at a half-empty swimming pool that needed filling and decide to pump water from the deep end into the shallow end and then pat themselves on the back for a job well done. The rest of us should know better.
The economic development wizards convene
Luckily for my readers, I actually DO have a detailed list of all the costs and will be taking this article apart piece by piece over the next few days.
First a few “growth” facts! Lampasas has grown 7% over the last 20 years, according to census numbers. That is 0.37% per year. Not exactly a torrid pace.
Over the last ten years, Lampasas has grown 9.1% – or less than 1% per year.
During those last 20 years, the LEDC has skimmed over $4.4 MILLION DOLLARS in sales tax funds from the taxpayer – much of that was wasted. You can read some of the details here: OUTRAGEOUS Tidbits From LEDC Non-Profit Filings.
In addition to that $4.4 million, there has been a LOT of other money thrown at “growth” as well. Over the last 4.5 years, LEDC Director Mandy Walsh’s salary, health insurance benefits, retirement benefits, training seminars, and travel to conferences where they sit around making up buzzwords and singing karaoke has cost the taxpayer nearly $500,000.
Waste Connections hands money to the same people choosing which garbage hauler to hire for the City.
Yes – that’s half a mil (and counting) to have Mandy hold the august title of “Economic Development Director” – WELL over $100,000 per year. To a lot of small businesses, $100,000 is a ton of money that could definitely help. Instead it is siphoned off from productive society and then set on fire paying a woman to run around and act like she is “directing economic growth”. It would be a funny joke if it didn’t involve six figures of taxpayers money being set ablaze every year.
Mandy’s LEDC also has another cash giveaway scheme called “Life Safety Grants”. This involves the LEDC paying businesses to help them cover the costs for the intrusive regulations and codes they face from….wait for it….the SAME City government that Mandy works for!
Brilliant! Mandy has handed out over $25,000 for this as well – including $20,000 to a single business. In case this is confusing, here is how it works:
Let’s say an entrepreneur wants to start a business in town. He notices there are a lot of empty buildings sitting around. He offers to buy one from the owner. But he finds out that it will cost him $60,000 to “bring it up to code” and install whatever wildly overpriced sprinkler system or firewall or whatnot that the City of Lampasas demands he install.
In a fair and free market, the buyer of that building and the seller of the building need to come to an agreement on how to proceed. Either the seller lowers his price to make up for the fact that his property is not up to code and never will be OR he refuses to budge and lets his property sit there as an eyesore (*cough**Lucky Ranch**cough*) while he makes property tax payments on it for the rest of his life. End of story.
But NOW, we have Mandy inserting herself into the equation. She tells the entrepreneur “Hey, don’t worry buddy – here is $20,000 in tax dollars stolen from other taxpayers! We will help you with a “Life Safety Grant” so you can meet all the onerous demands of the guy who sits in the office right next to mine over at City Hall!”. Mandy and the LEDC get to look like heroes who are “growing the economy”, the property owner gets bailed out a little bit instead of selling at a market-clearing price and Mandy gets paid over $100,000 to play this role of hero.
Like I said – they are pumping water from the deep end of the pool into the shallow end and congratulating themselves for filling up the pool. It would be like the owner of HEB taking all the money out of his cash registers at 3pm and walking out into the parking lot, handing it all out to bums, and then letting them go inside to buy groceries! Look at how much business we generated!
Of course, in the real world, you go bankrupt doing that. Luckily for the LEDC, they don’t live in the real world. They have a magic money tree called “the taxpayer” they can continually soak while pretending the help them.
Quite the scam. We’ll dive even deeper in the next part.
We had a five-alarm emergency today in the Tucker household! The Internet apparently went down for a little bit and Clayton Tucker couldn’t Google himself or “like” any Bernie Sanders tweets during this timeframe.
He was NOT happy:
This is what you do when you are an entitled and spoiled child. You stomp your feet and start a petition over the supposedly shitty rural Lampasas Internet. He probably starts a petition when the lightbulb in his room burns out too.
Just kidding – we all know he yells downstairs to Mom to have her fix it.
I got news for you, Comrade Clayton: the Internet was “down” from the day I was born all the way up until I was about 28 years old. And THEN, we had five years of dial-up dogshit that took 4 hours to download some decent porn, but we were GRATEFUL we even had that! I even figured out how to register to vote in 1988 WITHOUT the Internet.
Amazing, I know.
Only it wasn’t Lampasas at fault for this horrific and life-threatening incident. It was Google.
Oops. But Clayton Tucker doesn’t let trifles like facts get in the way of his caterwauling. OR his fundraising! After you sign the petition, you are directed to donate money to the Lampasas County Socialists Democrats.
Several people signed, but I don’t think they were truly onboard with Clayton Tucker’s Internet improvement mission. I think some of these might be fake?
I guess some of the suggestions spilled over to the other initiatives Tucker is spearheading. Like getting Lampasas a “bark park” and “fixing” the grid:
Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t you just pack up all your shit and move to Austin? I hear they have TONS of “bark parks” and the Internet is blazing fast there. You can watch Ilhan Omar C-SPAN videos in HD 4k resolution all day long. I’ll even PAY for your entire move!
All you gotta do now is convince old mom and dad to buy a condo there so you can keep living the life of a sponge!
It’s tough to shop for a socialist weasel like Lampasas County Chairman Clayton Tucker. But I think I found something that will look nice on his tree. Or rather, his parents’ tree – since he still lives in the upstairs room at mom and dad’s house at 208 S. Western Street here in Lampasas:
I know Clayton Tucker (an avowed socialist and lover of foreign traitors) is partial to Ramadan and other Muslim nonsense….
……but the least he can do is walk downstairs from his parents’ upstairs bedroom where he lives and put an ornament on the tree. Right comrade??
There actually was a very long list of potential Christmas presents I could have gotten for Comrade Clayton. Things he needs badly:
A job
A history book about the dangers of socialism and communism
Quite the couple! Both have NEVER had a real job in the private sector, despite being alive for a combined 70 years! Adorable.
I love how impressed Comrade Clayton is that she went from refugee to CONGRESSWOMAN. Like that is the pinnacle of human achievement. I’m here to tell you that 90% of congressmen/women are certified retards. If Maxine Waters has an IQ over 87, I’ll eat a bowl of my own shit.
But that’s Clayton Tucker for you. It’s not impressive to come over as a refugee and become an electrical engineer or chemist or brain surgeon. But weaseling your way to congress and then working non-stop to kill the Constitution and institute a socialist hellhole is something he truly admires and can get behind.
Far from being admired as an inspiration, Omar should be despised as a traitor to America. She escaped to America from a third-world shithole and instead of kissing the ground and counting her blessings, she instead refuses to assimilate and is doing everything in her power to change America into a third-world dump like her homeland.
Some balls on this chick. She wins the lottery by escaping from Somalia to America but instead of thanking anyone, she instead shits on America as a racist country and then demands Congress change their 181-year ban on headware just for her. Can you imaging moving to, say, Japan and making similar ridiculous demands as an American? They’d (rightfully) laugh in your face and tell you to shut your mouth.
Anyone born in a foreign country should be banned from EVER holding national office. If that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, then feel free to stay in Somalia or Haiti or whatever dump of a country you are trying to immigrate from. You wanna come here and work hard and be an AMERICAN who loves and reveres the Constitution? I welcome you with open arms. Otherwise – fuck right off.
What an embarrassment for every single self-proclaimed Democrat in Lampasas county. The chairman of your party is an avowed socialist and has publicly fawned over scum like Bernie Sanders and Ilhan Omar, among others.
That means the chairman of your party in an un-American scumbag – and by the transitive property, that makes YOU an un-American scumbag.
