An election is just one spoke/cog (often times a big one) in the political wheel of a county. And so it goes over the last 12-18 months, in our home of Montgomery County, TX.
June 13, 2015
By John Wertz, Montgomery County Tea Party Vetting Committee Chairman
Recent MoCo History – (a perspective)
WHEELS
In looking back, the last 15 years have been interesting to trusting taxpayers in Montgomery County, to say the least. And if you live in the master=planned community of The Woodlands, you probably know that it shoulders roughly 38% of the tax burden with only 20% of the population. It’s actually laughable (and seemingly a political stunt) if Bruce Tough’s appointment to the MCAD (MOCo Appraisal District) board is supposed to rectify something/anything up there regarding disproportionate taxes. As much as an insider that he is in The Woodlands, he’s still an outsider in Conroe! And speaking of good ole boys, while I keep hearing that the MCAD’s board (http://www.mcad-tx.org/html/board.html ) supposed to have NO influence over the Chief Appraiser (Mark Castleschouldt) that they in fact hire, well my reply is….really? Whenever someone is financially beholden to (an)other/s, there will be influence (whether explicit or implicit). It doesn’t take being a recruiter, having worked in an HR department of a major company as I have, to discern that. Good luck with that, Mr. Tough. One more empty “board” notch in your political cap.
While Tough’s “appointment” seems to be one of “well, we’ve got one of ours in there looking out for us now”, perhaps the problem is not only an unbalanced revenue issue, but more of a “spending” problem. Wow, where have we heard that before – at the state and federal level? They have nothing on Montgomery County.
The County population has risen from approximately 300 Thousand in 2000, to roughly 520 Thousand in 2014 (1.7 times). And yet, our countys’ operating expenses and our taxes have practically doubled that 70% growth rate during that same time frame. In fact, the G&A(General & Administrative) Expenses have quadrupled during that era, too. What happened to the economies of scale an entity like Montgomery County is supposed to realize as it grows? It’s how fiefdoms are built, right? And it’s likely that this last road bond election is indicative of the wanton waste this county has endured since 2000. If there’s no money in the coffers to fund capital projects, much less M&O, then perhaps Doyal & commissioners need to look inward. Seems to me that a good place to start would be: G&A $26Million; Public Facilites $64Million; Health & Welfare $24M (wait, Health & Welfare in the county??); Culture and Recreation $9Million, and Conservation $1.1 Million. That’s nearly $100 Million per year that I know we can find some significant cost savings in, if programs were either reduced or cut all-together. Wonder if they’ve even looked, outside of slashing whistleblower and their personal headache, Mark Bosma, from the payroll?
It’s been a gravy train over the years for the likes of the iron triangle (politicians like Craig Doyal, Riley, Meador and their surrogates – you know who they are – if not, they’re listed as donors below). We know that they spent at least $1.04 million the last couple of years, ever since Noack defeated Kenny Speight. Here’s what that “coalition” raised and spent.
INVESTMENT (by Movers & Shakers and the Wallets)
*Information is gleaned from Campaing Finance Reports of:
Kenny Speight
Craig Doyal
Charlie Riley
Fake Tea Party – (does not include 2015, because they didn’t feel they had to report!!).
Nelda’s PAC
Folks, they aren’t going to fold from the results of this last election. We suspect that while they’re in disarray (Wallets – engineers/construction want to move now, with all the other big projects having been wrapped up but the Movers & Shakers want to hold off, taking one more swing at getting M&O and their pet projects in). Doyal, Riley and perhaps Meador will likely double down, giving every excuse in the book to wait next year’s 2016 presidential election in November to hoodwink an unsuspecting, uneducated voter of the bond and perhaps try to put the Woodlands Parkway Extention back on the ballot. That is, unless they rightly perceive that in doing so could be their Waterloo, as they’ve been skating on thin ice since their run-offs. Perhaps it’s Clark who comes around, with his rumored wage-garnishment (tax levy) from his nearly $200K in IRS liens. He can ill-afford to be one-and-done. Maybe some mutual friends can help show him the way, in case he doesn’t get it.
OK – who are the Movers & Shakers, that help make up the cash contribution amount of $739K above? Here are 11 entities who’ve given just over $230K.
WALLETS
And just who are the wallets? 85 companies of Engineers, Construction, Developers and even Lawyers (Blairs) that have given between $5K and $10K.
They’re ironically led by Jennie Taraborelli of PTP Transportation, who’re the folks setting the tolls on the new 242 flyover. Weird huh? Fox meet henhouse? You may also recognize some other well know names/entities from the top 13 too.
(Note of the two above referenced charts: Subtotals of individuals have been combined w/family members, LPs’, LLC’s and PAC’s, where known).
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
And what did all of those contributions get them? ……. failure in the bond election, not only in the county overall, but in Doyal’s and Riley’s own precinct!!!
We heard the “investors” weren’t too happy about all of that. As a matter of fact, this thing blew up in front of them – over one $22 million developer project! It was actually more than that which constituted problems in the bond countywide, but we’ll let the media keep believing it was just one, so they’ll continue to motivate the heart of The Woodlands (that might be impacted by the Woodlands Parkway Extention) to come back out a vote against it again, if it’s left in the next bond. My guess is that they’re scheming (err planning) to leave it in there and yank a bunch of money away from Noack’s Woodlands’ constituency (as they threatened to do) as punishment to them for voting so solidly against it. All in the spirit of “coming together”. Remember, Nelda’s PAC had over a $35,000 balance left and no telling how much Duane’s Fake Tea Party has been racking up since then. I am surprised we didn’t see their “poll gals” out manning the election sites last go around. Them being MIA certainly didn’t affect presidential election turnout numbers though, for practically just a bond, MISD and NCISD school bonds notwithstanding.
BTW, have you ever wondered where they find all of these crony-capitalist friends? Well, funny you should ask….it’s generally at the Chambers of Commerce in the area, typically no friend to grassroots nor consequently “free” markets. And, they actually have a “Farm Team” called Leadership Montgomery County (LMC). While benignly portrayed as a work-shop for the local Chambers here, it’s thought that crony-candidates are identified in their “process“. . Here’s a screen shot right off the site. I’m sure you’ll recognize some of the cast of characters (poster-children for crony-capitalism) pictured below.
Hmmm, looks like Woodtrace is back in the game with the Conroe Courier. (Was surprised to NOT see them advertising during the election). Would really like to know how much they’ve spent, both leading up to when the court was voting to put the bond on the ballot, as they were all over the Courier/Villager/Potpourri daily. http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/courier/opinion/lessons-learned-from-road-bond-failure/article_d74326bd-0e2d-509b-bd10-27dd2a6d04f3.html
And finally, speaking of add space in case you’re also wondering, here’s what the candidates spent on their friends in the media before and during the election, going back to Kenny Speight. I’m sure it had no influence on their coverage of those candidates, when their grassroots opposition spent virtually nil with the media.
Cozy Relationship (between the MoCo Power Players and the Media? We report, you decide).
Source of above chart – Campaign Finance Reports from aforementioned candidates.
And there you have it. Get ready for round II (two), unless we can convince/outflank/or shame them at commissioners’ court, Letters-to-the-Editor(Courier,Villager/Potpourri/Impact News (online) into taking action now.
Have a great weekend!
John Wertz
MCTP Vetting Committee Chair
What happened to the links in this article?