Less than 6 years ago, the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club (LEDC) made projections of costs all the way out to the 2019/2020 year (which happens to be NOW). As is ALWAYS the case, they were completely wrong. Just like they were wrong in 2014 and 2015 about an imminent influx into the corpse repository ‘business’ park.
The point of this exercise is to ONCE AGAIN prove you cannot believe ANY of the asinine promises of the LEDC OR the City government. EVERYTHING ends up costing far more and producing far less benefit than promised. That is the very nature of government – be it federal, state or even little ol’ Lampassy.
Finley is the poster boy for this kind of stuff.
Below is a photo of cost projections posted in the July 2014 LEDC minutes (see page 6).
Now, see a photo of the APPROVED recent budgets – the REALITY 5.5 years later (page 152):
Let’s look at more proof that government and (quasi-governmental groups of economic illiterates) ALWAYS grows faster and spends more than projected.
SALARY: projected $47,530 ACTUAL $71,448 (plus $28,462 in benefits – page 82) 110% higher
PHONE: projected $720 ACTUAL $1,176 (63% higher)
TRAVEL/TRAINING: projected $5,000 ACTUAL $7,500 (50% higher)
ENGINEERING: projected $5,000 ACTUAL $10,000 (100% higher)
PROMOTION/ADVERT: projected $5,000 ACTUAL $7,500 (50% higher)
BUSINESS EXPENSE: projected $1,000 ACTUAL $5,000 (400% higher)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES: projected $9,000 ACTUAL $7,000 – this may look good as it is $2,000 LOWER than projected. However, if you look at the 2017/2018 year ACTUAL, it was $39,393 versus $9,000 projected!!! OVER FOUR TIMES HIGHER.
The category of “professional services” (which I covered HERE) probably enrages me the most. It is a category which should not exist. Was it legal expense? Engineering? Advertising? No – because those are listed separately. So what ‘professional service’ cost $39,393 yet cannot be listed specifically and requires this vague horseshit catch-all term? Those types of vague categories where tens of thousands go POOF always stink to high heaven.
Perhaps you think I’m unfair to immediately suspect graft? Lest you have forgotten: 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].
I think these two photos say it all – they encapsulate what a giant failure the LEDC is and how their ridiculous pipe dreams always fail to come to fruition:
