Tag: welfare queens

It’s Deja Vu All Over Again

Lest you think the grand proclamations and the multi-million-dollar money grabs for the corpse repository ‘business park’ are a new thing and you are actually BELIEVING them, let me take you back exactly SIX YEARS to the day:

“Economic development officials have said utilities for the business park are essential to make the 165-acre area attractive to companies.” – July 22, 2014

That was when the LEDC and City council (with many of the SAME PEOPLE that hold those positions today) said we needed over ONE MILLION DOLLARS to bring water, sewer and electricity to the ‘business park’.

They got their huge chunk of money and put their pipes and wires into the park – then fed us some more b.s. about how awesome jobs were about to come pouring in! Let’s look at some failed predictions:

“An economic study in 2001, [Neal] Leavell said, concluded a business park was the main item Lampasas needed to attract development.” – Oct 23, 2015

“We look forward to working with you and working to fill this business park with good jobs,” she said [Carol Faulkenberry, Texas Dept Agriculture] – Oct 23, 2015

“Mrs. Monroe noted the Lampasas Economic Development Corp. is working with the business park south of town on U.S. Highway 183, and she said she hopes the site will attract good employers to Lampasas. [Council member TJ Monroe] – April 14, 2015

“Recent land clearing and development of a road at the business park, Mrs. Masonheimer added, have made the site more attractive to prospective businesses and U.S. 183 passersby.” – Oct 23, 2015

“Ms. Toups said she wants to continue to provide infrastructure to develop the business park — which she said Harrison spoke against publicly. Ms. Toups said through the Lampasas Economic Development Corp.’s hard work, “we are on the verge of seeing large corporations come in [to the business park].” – April 21, 2017

The final side-splitter from September 23, 2014:

“Of the LEDC’s loan from First State Bank Central Texas, $1.3 million is for the business park utilities. Another $465,000 is for refinancing of the LEDC’s debt on the business park land. The total $1.77 million loan is for 15 years at a fixed interest rate of 3.35 percent. Along with the infrastructure the LEDC will fund, Lampasas has $200,000 in the city’s upcoming fiscal year budget for electrical extensions to the business park.

“The LEDC’s new debt service payment will be about $150,000 a year, Mrs. Masonheimer said. The economic development corporation projects annual revenue of about $250,000, which will leave approximately $100,000 for operating costs after making loan payments. “

BAHAHAHAHA!!! Annual revenue of about $250,000? Good one. Here we are SIX YEARS LATER and about $350,000.00 in interest payments GONE (money vaporized)….and still no companies generating that $250,000 in revenue. No “high-paying jobs” in the park. There never will be. It is a pipe dream for morons.

Not only were they 100% wrong six years ago, NOW THEY WANT ANOTHER TWO MILLION DOLLARS!! Mandy Walsh and the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club are going to now go begging, hat in hand, to the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. They are taking advantage of (abusing, if you ask me) the new CARES act – which is SUPPOSED to be for Covid-related disasters.

Absolutely disgusting. Nothing but parasites looting other taxpayers in the US to pay for their failed ‘business park’ boondoggle. Every member of the LEDC AND City council AND Mandy Walsh are now officially welfare queens.

We Tracked the Last Time the Government Bailed Out the Economy ...

Lampasas Economic Development Corp Committed To Making Taxpayers All Over The U.S. Pay For Their Incompetence

Not content to just blow MANY MILLIONS of dollars of Lampasas city money on a 165-acre weed patch ‘business park’ over the last 17 years, the Lampasas Economic Dunces Club is now formally submitting a grant application (asking for free stuff from federal taxpayers) to the federal government. Which means that nurses from Georgia, bus drivers from Oklahoma and teachers from Michigan will now be funding the LEDC’s ‘business park’ boondoggle indirectly through their federal tax payments.

The bullshit they sold taxpayers 7 years and millions of dollars ago – a pipe dream ^^^
REALITY – a shitty weed patch where corpses are dumped on south Hwy-183

Langford Community Management Services will be charging the LEDC $7,500 to write up the grant. This money is to help pay for the nearly TWO MILLION DOLLAR “Phase I” (actually it’s Phase II but who’s counting) ‘improvement’ to the goat pasture they own.

I have covered this boondoggle of waste and (in my opinion) outright nest feathering  HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE

Recently, the same idiots who said we were all set five years ago, NOW say we need to plow ANOTHER $1.9 million into this fiasco to get it REALLY shovel-ready (even though it was supposedly shovel-ready before). They are even brazenly (and DISHONESTLY) calling this “Phase I” of the ‘business park’ improvements. I guess the ONE MILLION you blew back in 2015 was Phase Zero?

Mike White HIMSELF called the ‘business park’ “a goat pasture” and a “poor return on investment” which has been going on for DECADES [5/26/20 Council meeting at the 10:08 and 19:30 minute mark].

According to Mandy Walsh herself at the last meeting [go to 6:34 mark]

“We have discussed the EDA (Economic Development Administration) CARES ACT…with our grant writers at length for community management services. What that is, is Congress appropriated $1.5 billion to strengthen and assist communities recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. So the EDA is accepting applications for grants that support a wide variety of projects…um, including, ah, infrastructure…and economic development projects, so that’s what we’re going to be applying for, is the disaster funding through the EDA”

Yeah Mandy….the ‘business park’ is a disaster, all right. But it is a disaster of YOUR making, NOT because of the coronavirus.

So, Mandy and the LEDC are going to try and scam the feds out of a huge pile of money EVEN THOUGH THIS BUSINESS PARK FIASCO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CORONAVIRUS and has been a disaster for “DECADES”, by the admission of Mike White himself [5/26 council meeting].

This enrages me just as much as when I see scumbag politicians in Illinois/Chicago or New York tell the Federal government that they need to fork over $41.6 billion to their cities/states “because of Covid” and Uncle Sugar should just hand over a check.

I’m sorry, but no, your finances aren’t a train wreck because of Covid. They have been a train wreck for decades because of wasteful and idiotic spending by liberals. Chicago and New York made their beds by electing socialists and morons who ran their budgets into the ground….they should lay in those beds WITHOUT a bailout from the Feds – i.e., the rest of us.

Same goes for Mandy Walsh, the LEDC and our own City council…many of whom I would assume identify as “Republican” or “conservative”. YOU made this mess. YOU kept throwing good money after bad. YOU made this bed and now YOU should lie in it….not some poor tax paying sap who lives in Georgia or Arizona.

I can tell you this: if it’s the last thing I do, I am going to try and stop this theft of federal money you are using to cover up LEDC and City council incompetence. Get ready for a flood of Open Records Requests from me. Who is your “viable tenant” for the ‘business park’ that you are pinning your hopes on and bullshitting the Feds with on your grant application? I sure hope it isn’t Mike Cour and his Eco-Strong scam, because I already visited his OTHER company (Equicare at 15500 S-US 183) and took photos of the absolute JOKE ‘Eco-Strong” is. It is a weed patch with some crappy rubber mats piled up that have been there for quite a while, by the looks of it.

[Not to mention, Mike Cour and Equicare currently sit on approximately 200 acres ALREADY. He has ZERO need for the business park unless he himself is trying to scam some free stuff from the taxpaying chumps of Lampasas. Don’t worry…I’m all over him like a cheap suit, too]

I’ll be there at every turn calling you all out as welfare queens and parasites, which you most certainly are. This is brazen theft and, in my opinion, fraud. The money you are trying to scam out of Uncle Sugar has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with coronavirus and EVERYTHING to do with rampant incompetence and fiscal mismanagement on the part of the LEDC, City council and Mandy Walsh herself.

Mandy Walsh and LEDC Go Full Federal: Will Become Welfare Queens By Scamming Federal Government “Covid Money” For Their Business Park Boondoggle

For those of you who live under a rock, the Lampasas Economic Development Corp (LEDC) has been wasting millions on a “business park” for YEARS now, with nothing to show for it. They have owned the 165-acre weed patch for about 17 years and plowed about $1 million dollars just in “improvements” into it back in 2015 – promising that “high-paying jobs” would soon follow. That did not happen. The weed patch has sat there as a multi-million-dollar disaster for another five years since then.

[I have covered this ad nauseam HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE]

Recently, the same idiots who said we were all set five years ago, NOW say we need to plow ANOTHER $1.9 million into this fiasco to get it REALLY shovel-ready (even though it was supposedly shovel-ready before). They are even brazenly (and DISHONESTLY) calling this “Phase I” of the ‘business park’ improvements. I guess the ONE MILLION you blew back in 2015 was Phase Zero?

Who would be stupid enough to hand Mandy and the LEDC ANOTHER $1.9 million for this failed project? A project that City council member Mike White HIMSELF called “a goat pasture” and a “poor return on investment” which has been going on for DECADES [5/26/20 Council meeting at the 10:08 and 19:30 minute mark].

Why, the Federal Government would be stupid enough, of course! According to Mandy Walsh at the 6/22/20 City council meeting, they will be applying for grants [free money] from programs established FOR CORONAVIRUS RELIEF.

According to Mandy Walsh herself at the last meeting [go to 6:34 mark]

“We have discussed the EDA (Economic Development Administration) CARES ACT…with our grant writers at length for community management services. What that is, is Congress appropriated $1.5 billion to strengthen and assist communities recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. So the EDA is accepting applications for grants that support a wide variety of projects…um, including, ah, infrastructure…and economic development projects, so that’s what we’re going to be applying for, is the disaster funding through the EDA”

Yeah Mandy….the ‘business park’ is a disaster, all right. But it is a disaster of YOUR making, NOT because of the coronavirus.

So, Mandy and the LEDC are going to try and scam the feds out of a huge pile of money EVEN THOUGH THIS BUSINESS PARK FIASCO HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CORONAVIRUS and has been a disaster for “DECADES”, by the admission of Mike White himself [5/26 council meeting].

This enrages me just as much as when I see scumbag politicians in Illinois/Chicago or New York tell the Federal government that they need to fork over $41.6 billion to their cities/states “because of Covid” and Uncle Sugar should just hand over a check.

I’m sorry, but no, your finances aren’t a train wreck because of Covid. They have been a train wreck for decades because of wasteful and idiotic spending by liberals. Chicago and New York made their beds by electing socialists and morons who ran their budgets into the ground….they should lay in those beds WITHOUT a bailout from the Feds – i.e., the rest of us.

Same goes for Mandy Walsh, the LEDC and our own City council…many of whom I would assume identify as “Republican” or “conservative”. YOU made this mess. YOU kept throwing good money after bad. YOU made this bed and now YOU should lie in it….not some poor tax paying sap who lives in Georgia or Arizona.

I can tell you this: if it’s the last thing I do, I am going to try and stop this theft of federal money you are using to cover up LEDC and City council incompetence. Get ready for a flood of Open Records Requests from me. Who is your grant writer? What percentage of the dough are they getting? Who is your “viable tenant” for the ‘business park’ that you are pinning your hopes on and bullshitting the Feds with on your grant application? I sure hope it isn’t Mike Cour and his Eco-Strong scam, because I already visited his OTHER company (Equicare at 15500 S-US 183) and took photos of the absolute JOKE ‘Eco-Strong” is. It is a weed patch with some crappy rubber mats piled up that have been there for quite a while, by the looks of it.

[Not to mention, Mike Cour and Equicare currently sit on approximately 200 acres ALREADY. He has ZERO need for the business park unless he himself is trying to scam some free stuff from the taxpaying chumps of Lampasas. Don’t worry…I’m all over him like a cheap suit, too]

I’ll be there at every turn calling you all out as welfare queens and parasites, which you most certainly are. This is brazen theft and, in my opinion, fraud. The money you are trying to scam out of Uncle Sugar has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with coronavirus and EVERYTHING to do with rampant incompetence and fiscal mismanagement on the part of the LEDC, City council and Mandy Walsh herself.