Several years ago, former Lampasas City council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison went to his former chums on City council to beg for $185,000 for his new employer (S2M2) and their Brodie Estates development.
Council initially turned down S2M2, but then S2M2 made the wise move to hire former City council member “Greasy” Chris Harrison to go and do the begging instead. After Harrison was hired and went begging for a second time, former mayor Misti Talbert changed her tune quickly and handed over $185,000 to her former City council chum.
The city’s economic incentive package for this development requires S2M2 to complete the Brodie Estates subdivision within four years.
Considering the housing market is taking a giant shit right now and the Fed seems determined (correctly) to push the price of money (interest rates) back up to a more ‘normal’ level, it would seem that S2M2 might get caught with their dicks in a sling. Believe me, I would love nothing more than to see a scumbag developer go bankrupt. Especially one who scammed the taxpayers out of $185,000.
I guess the question is this: if we get to December 2023 and those houses are not complete (which I give an 80% chance of happening), does S2M2 give that $185,000 BACK to the taxpayer? And if not, what was the point of the agreement in the first place?
Like the civic center, the Tree Police idea is apparently one of those turds that just refuse to stay buried. It has come up AGAIN at the last two City council meetings.
I previously went into what hypocrites some of the Goldfish are for even dreaming up this idea: they hand out “free” stuff (Stone Valley development electrical hookups: $70,000) and gobs of taxpayer money (S2M2 and former Council member: $150,000) to developers then get their panties in a bunch when the developers go out and cut down trees – which is kind of necessary when putting in roads, houses, ponds, etc.
The trees that used to be here don’t count, as they were ripped out by a developer whom City Council blessed with $70,000 in ‘free’ electrical hookups, as well as tens of thousands of other gifts to ‘promote growth’!
The very next meeting after I pointed out the hypocrisy on these pages, Delena Toups (who is the mastermind of this idea) made sure to throw in that she is only talking about COMMERCIAL development and not RESIDENTIAL. Clearly she reads here regularly. It’s unfortunate she didn’t learn anything from the wisdom on these pages.
I guess that makes it ok then, eh? Ripping down, say, fifty trees for residential development is ok but ripping down two trees for commercial development is BAD BAD BAD! Makes total sense if you are a Goldfish, I suppose. Out here in the real world, however, a tree is a tree.
These trees don’t count either! City council handed their FORMER fellow council member ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison’s developer buddy S2M2 $150,000 to help pay for bulldozers.
[I guess her head is REALLY gonna explode once Pope Eckermann or a future tenant (LOL!) gets into the corpse repository ‘business park’ and has to start removing trees to build all the big buildings to house all those ‘high tech jobs’ Mandy Walsh dreams of at night.]
Sorry, I just cannot type that with a straight face.
So already they are backpedaling so as to not look completely ridiculous by previously subsidizing (with tax dollars) the very behavior they are now upset about.
But it gets worse.
Enter Sandy Tompkins at the last City council meeting on Feb 10th. Yet another person with zero respect for (or understanding of) property rights or economic incentives.
First she informs us she was a school teacher for 33 years. Not sure what that has to do with the price of tea in China. Just one of my pet peeves: I don’t care how many years anybody taught grade school. Doesn’t make you any smarter than anyone else. Oftentimes quite the opposite, in my vast experience.
Then she tells us a kind of sob story about how a lady who sold some property to developers (on Central Texas Expressway) didn’t want to sell it because she was afraid the developer would take out trees. Of course, she DID sell it and the trees WERE taken out – which is why she is telling this sad, sad story.
Um, sugar plum?? That’s what ‘selling’ means. You transfer all rights to that property and now have ZERO say in what subsequently gets done with it. If you love the trees so much, then feel free to choose them over the money. But she didn’t. She wanted the money. And the REASON the money was so good, is because they are going to develop it commercially. You would not have gotten anywhere NEAR the amount of cash you got if it was just sold so some tree-hugger who wanted to gaze at the trees all day long. You made a choice. Don’t cry about it now.
Sandy tells us she’s “a private property rights person”….but then she spends the next six and a half minutes proving otherwise by championing the tree police.
She continues blah, blah, blah for the next few minutes. Then her bright idea towards the end [51:38 mark] is “we need to let developers know that we care about trees in this community”, but then immediately admits “I don’t know how you put teeth into this and still have private property rights”.
BINGO!! EXACTLY. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. It’s quite simple. That should be the end of discussion. Bye bye Tree Police.
But of course, it’s not. All the do-gooders love to hear the sound of their own voices and let everyone know how much they CARE. Much like the bleeding heart liberal lefties who whine about how we need more ‘free’ health care for everyone so the answer is to steal from one group and give to another. If they REALLY cared, they would go to medical school and become doctors and work for peanuts. But that’s HARD and requires WORK and SACRIFICE. Better to just boss everyone else around. But I digress….
Their answer to everything is more rules, more regulations, more enforcement. Kinda like the Tree Police.
So here is the Lampasshole Free Market Solution to this perceived problem – free of charge:
(1) People can do whatever they want with their property. Period.
(2) MOST people (I’d say 97%) value trees highly, or we wouldn’t be having this discussion. Therefore, it is in the DEVELOPER’S best interest to keep as many trees as possible since it INCREASES the value of the property (people’s desire for trees leads them to choose a property with many trees over a property with none – that preference shows up in market prices).
(3) STOP handing tax dollars to developers to subsidize their activities. You are distorting the free market. Some of these developments are extremely marginal and YOU DUMMIES handing them $150,000 in tax dollar subsidies might be just the push it takes to make them ‘profitable’. The ‘market clearing’ number of developments would be slightly lower without these distortions caused by YOU…and less trees are then destroyed.
You dummies still with me?
So far, the free market is taking care of incentives. But some people want MORE trees to replace the ones that HAD to be removed. I have an answer for that too:
Go plant some damn trees!! I wonder how many trees Delena Toups or Sandy Tompkins or any other Tree Police Cheerleaders have actually planted themselves in the last 10 years. Zero? Nobody is stopping you from planting a boatload of trees on the land you own. Go ahead and do it! Maybe offer to plant a tree or six on your neighbors property for free.
Ah, but that’s hard! It costs some money and takes some effort. How do I know this? Well, not to toot my own horn, but I have planted over 45 trees on my property since I bought it 8.5 years ago. That’s probably 45 more trees than all the Tree Police Cheerleaders have planted combined.
It cost me a chunk and was hard work to keep them watered in the summer those first few years. Digging holes, mulching, fertilizing, pruning, and running hoses all over the place….it kinda sucks. But, you see, I value trees also. I just don’t show that by puffing out my chest and standing at the microphone telling other people what to do with their property. Instead I think “hmmm….I like trees. I’ll plant some more on my land.”
I also built my house in such a spot as to not remove a single tree. Did I do this because Delana Toups or Sandy Tompkins and the Tree Police types demanded it? No. I acted on my own free will due to economic incentives. Imagine that!!
Unfortunately, instead of this terrible idea dying a quick death, the City council geniuses are thinking of taking it to a Town Hall meeting so the likes of Janet-Yoder-Kraeff-Crozier-Thunberg and other morons can cheer for it as well.
I can’t wait to see the abomination that results from all this pearl clutching. Should be something to behold.
The entire property looks like a tornado hit it – splintered oak tree remnants everywhere. They DID leave that one single tree standing in the back ground there…so there’s that.
This one below kinda looks like a future water detention pond to me…the one the City handed S2M2 $150,000 for, after their former Council member ‘Greasy’ Chris Harrison was hired to beg them for it. Note the massive amounts of roots and splintered wood – this likely indicates destroyed trees, by my estimation:
Don’t even get me started on Deorald Finney and Stone Valley. I don’t think he left more than a tree or two standing – remember, the City gave him over $70,000 in ‘free’ electrical hookups, plus a bunch of dough for other stuff:
Just another example of ‘Goldfish Economics’: subsidize certain behavior and then get confused when that behavior increases.
