Last February we heard former mayor Talbert heap praise on city manager deGraffenreid for his deft handling of the winter storm and the electrical cost spikes. We were told the electrical fund was in awesome shape and we should all kiss Finley’s bean bag in thanks for this.
We found out months later that this was all a lie and, in fact, the electrical fund was in bad shape – thus rates would need to be hiked on all the peasants on November 1st, 2021.
Oddly, at the EXACT SAME TIME the City was hiking rates to shore up the fund, they were handing out even MORE free electrical hookups to developers so those developers could save about $1,600 on houses they will likely sell for over $200,000.
On November 8th, the City signed an agreement to waive $19,716 worth of electrical hookups for the Hidden Oaks subdivision you see going in on Old Naruna road. There will be 12 houses in there.
This isn’t the first time the City has handed out free electrical stuff to developers. Recall that Deorald Finney got the same deal – which cost the City $72,000 in lost revenue.
Hillside Acres got $37,254 in “incentives” for free electrical hookups.
Now Hidden Oaks will cost the City $19,716 in lost revenue.
Funny that the City has to subsidize growth with hundreds of thousands in tax dollars at the very same time Talbert is hysterically pointing south and telling us “they’re coming! They’re coming!”.
No shit they are coming. They’re coming no matter what. You should be EXTRACTING your pound of flesh NOW with impact fees on developers – not handing them free shit, you morons.
Because not far down the road lies millions in costs (see photo below) to ‘improve water pressure’ and ‘accommodate growth’ and all the other very costly measures needed to handle a massive influx of Austin retards:
The “upper pressure plane” issue started about the time they plunked 67 new homes up there. Talbert would have you believe that the tiny increase in property taxes they get from those 67 houses will somehow offset the millions in future water/wastewater expenses. Which makes her an imbecile of biblical proportions.