#atxcouncil: Flannigan claims to be "fiscally responsible"

"The truthful lip shall be established forever,
But a lying tongue is but for a moment."
Proverbs 12:19

NGL, we literally LOL'd when we read this:

Council Member Jimmy Flannigan likes to refer to himself as the “fiscally responsible progressive” on the Council dais, pushing for ambitious action supported by the operational discipline needed to make sure money isn’t wasted.

Is this a joke?!?

Off the top of our head, Flannigan:

• Supported burdening employers with the cost of a new municipal entitlement.

• Supported a massive tax giveaway to "major league" soccer.

• Supported more tax hikes than we can count.

Furthermore, while we haven't been following council particularly closely of late, there's nothing about their current homelessness policies that's remotely fiscally responsible.  Council's current homelessness policies create other, bigger, problems than their fiscal impact.  But, in addition to the other problems, $8 million for a hotel is also fiscal lunacy.

In the rest of the article, Flannigan whines about the voter control property tax bill the lege passed earlier this year.  That's dumb.  Council has record setting revenues on an annual basis, and will continue to do so as long as the national economy remains strong.

Flannigan also claims, laughably:

wants the work done in advance to make sure the new system can remain funded to keep it operating at the level residents need.

“I’m laser-focused that whatever we do on transit, that it be financially and operationally sustainable, and we don’t befall the mistakes that cities in other parts of the country have made, where they do a big, shiny investment and then underfund operations or maintenance, or they set up a government structure that is incentivized to fail,” he said.

Flannigan's been on council for three years and hasn't lifted a finger to pursue governance reforms at CapMetro.

[Note: Had Flannigan proposed doing something along those lines three years ago, this website would have strongly supported such an effort.]

So, LOL.

Bottom Line: Flannigan certainly claimed to be fiscally responsible during his campaigns.  One could even argue that he was relatively so during his first year on council.  Since 2018, however, any such claims from Jimmy Flannigan are preposterous.