Oddly, in addition to the $72,000 in ‘free’ hookups, Finney was ALSO handed $33,324 in tax dollars “for drainage improvements his contractor will make on Westridge Place…” [see page 10 in Lampasas Dispatch].
So lemme get this straight. The City hands Deorald $33,324 to “improve drainage on Westridge”. NOW there are drainage issues on Fairview – which is literally less than two blocks over.
Gee. I wonder if the two are related! Zac Morris was the only council member to even question this massive expense for a STUDY. The other braindead council members like Williamson, Monroe and Kuehne just whipped out their rubber stamps and wrote the checks.
Do you think the City had any clawback provisions in that “agreement” with Finney when they handed him over $100,000 in taxpayer dollars?? Maybe a clause that says “if you sell these things for a ridiculous windfall profit, you give us our $100,000 back”?
Hell no. Finney is going to see a roughly $2.5 million windfall from this deal. This is typical when idiot politicians like TJ Monroe, Chuck Williamson and Misti Talbert get involved in handing out subsidies: any profits are privatized and go into the pockets of developers. Any losses are eaten by the taxpayers.
That’s why they live in mansions while Talbert and Monroe have trouble adding 2+2 together.
Once again, we see proof the Talbert administration (along with TJ Monroe, and Chuck Williamson) was a colossal failure and waster of tax dollars.
Misti is gone as mayor, but don’t let out any sighs of relief. She is now running the LEDC….into the ground, as it looks from my point of view.
Finney got even more than that after standing in front of Talbert and Monroe with his silk hat in hand:
“I REALLY need this free shit! I’m building a new mansion! With CORBELS!”
That wasn’t enough. Finney wanted MORE! He wanted ALL the building permit fees waived! The balls on this jabroni, eh?
TJ Monroe and Chuck “The Vampire” Williamson were totally cool with that and voted to give him EVERYTHING. Luckily, they lost that vote 5-2. Eventually they gave Finney everything he wanted EXCEPT the waived permit fees – that was just a bridge too far.
THIS year, it’s even worse! He apparently decided the market would bear another 25% increase up to a quarter million dollars!
Hey man, SOMEBODY has to pay for the mansions with corbels and trips to Hawaii!!
Finney would just like to say “Aloha” (which means “thanks suckers!) to all of you fools out there who involuntarily contributed to his family trip to Hawaii!!
Great job, City council! Of course, the two biggest morons (Monroe and Williamson, who I think actually share one brain) who voted to give away even MORE stuff to Finney STILL sit on council – and are currently the MAYOR and the MAYOR PRO TEM!
He’s the guy who actually had the nerve to ask City council to waive pretty much every building fee they charge (loss of about $31,000 to City coffers) AND to provide free electrical hookups to each house – at a cost to the City of $72,000. Oh, and to hand over another $53,000 or so for other drainage/street stuff (3/29/19 front page).
City council nitwits TJ Monroe and Chuck Williamson voted to give him every single break he asked for (don’t forget that Chuck is up for re-election very soon!). They lost that vote 2-5.
Luckily, cooler heads prevailed and they only gave him everything he wantedMINUS waiving all building permits [5-2 vote – see Dispatch from 3/29/19 front page article]. Monroe and Williamson voted against the reduced package since they wanted to hand MORE free stuff to Finney.
I recall Mike White’s common-sense statement back in the 3/29/19 edition of the Dispatch (page 11): “If I’m building a house, I don’t get a fee waived”.
Bravo, sir. Monroe and Williamson don’t see it that way, apparently.
As early as July 17th, 2018 (page 10), Talbert was fine with handing out the $72,000 in candy. Her logic? The city would be willing to consider “doing the electric [infrastructure] at our cost because [it is] an enterprise for us; we do sell electric service.”
No shit? Then why does the City have a hookup fee at all for anybody?? Everyone else buys electric service too!
When Deorald was arguing for all the sweetheart deals, he said the houses would sell for between $150k and $180k (1/4/19 page 10):
“Finney estimated home prices would range from $150,000-$180,000”.
Hmmm. Weird, because one of them is currently listed at over $200,000 right now. Link here.
That $200k is THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS MORE per house than the mid-point estimate he gave to the City. Multiply that by 67 houses and you are looking at over $2.3 million extra windfall dollars in Deorald’s pocket. Good thing the City handed him all that free shit. If they hadn’t done that, he may have been forced to live in a puny 5,000 square foot hovel….instead of the opulent mansion he is currently bragging about on Facebook:
Poor guy. Barely scraping by selling those Stone Valley houses. Without that $72,000 fee waiver from Misti and The Gang, he might have to live in a house WITHOUT corbels! The horror.
I sure hope City council gets invited over for the mansionwarming party! Or maybe get invited on a trip to Hawaii or something. Anything to show his thanks for City council being such suckers with City money.
$72,000 buys some nice trips to Hawaii, doesn’t it??
Here is a video of developers grabbing City of Lampasas tax dollars over the last few years. If you look closely, you can see Deorald and “Greasy” Chris Harrison in there!
Between March 16 and March 23, page views of online listings for homes in rural areas increased 115% compared to the same period in 2019, according to Redfin analyst Tim Ellis. Page views of homes in small towns were up 88%.
In 2016, residential construction in Lampasas spiked to 47 new homes from 21 in 2015. From 2012 to 2015, the city added 15.75 homes each year, on average, and from 2016 to 2019 it added an average of 40.25 annually. By May 31 this year, the city had added 17 new houses. If that pace continues through Dec. 31, the city would gain 41 new houses this calendar year. Property values have risen with new construction. From 2012 to 2015, the value of single family houses on lots approximately 2 acres and smaller increased an average of 2% annually. From 2016 to 2019, they grew 4.3% each year, on average.
Well. Sounds like people are flocking to Central Texas from EVERYWHERE…. which anyone with a brain knew was happening for YEARS now. It is CERTAINLY not the type of environment where the City should be handing out HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF TAX DOLLARSUBSIDIES to ‘encourage growth’, does it?
Yet that’s EXACTLY what the morons on City council did. Repeatedly.
Great job, City council! What will you do for your next trick? Maybe give a $200,000 subsidy to Wal-Mart? I hear they are really struggling over there!
I did some ranting last year about City council waiving electrical hookup fees for rich developer Deorald Finney – which cost the City approximately $72,000 in lost fees [5/21/19 page 10]. City council (most of whom are reliant on the taxpayer for their OWN salaries and only one of whom has an inkling of the real business world) was in such a huge rush to “promote development” that they just gave away the farm for no reason at all.
Proof they did the wrong thing comes today in the latest Dispatch (5/28/20 page 7) – where we learn that while everyone else was forced to stay in their homes like scared rabbits this spring – and many business were wrecked and jobs lost – Stone Valley was just chugging right along on their construction.
In fact, according to the article: “Danielle Sheppard, a Lampasas resident who works for Coldwell Banker: ‘We are definitely in a seller’s market.‘ The supply of available homes has had a hard time keeping up with the demand for housing as more people flock to Central Texas.”
How nice! Deorald will have no problem selling his houses for TOP DOLLAR…and he gets an extra $72k to boot, thanks to the dummies on City council!
Of course, Deorald is not only helped by City council handing him free shit, he’s also helped by the morons at the Federal Reserve who have pegged rates at zero (yet again) in order to screw savers and encourage reckless borrowing. I guess it pays to have the largest lobbying group in Washington DC.
