WillCo RINO who opposed #TXLEGE property tax reform caught PERSONALLY Profiting from Property Tax Foreclosures

"For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."
John 3:20

[Note: H/T to Empower Texans, we suggest you read their whole piece.]

There are few political hypocrites more loathsome than Williamson County "Republicans" who use a thin veneer of Austin-bashing to misdirect from their own crony capitalist misadventures; via KXAN:



You owe it to yourself to watch the full six minute report, but we'll excerpt the gist:

When Ken Tuck walked out to his Creek Ridge Lane mailbox last month, he didn’t know it, but he was walking right into some costly legal trouble.

He pulled an envelope from the box and the first thing he noticed was a law firm’s name in the top left corner: McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen, P.C. The letter made it clear what this was about.

"NOTICE OF INTENT TO FILE FORECLOSURE LAWSUIT" was written across the top. Williamson County, Round Rock, Round Rock Independent School District all wanted tax dollars Tuck owed them. The total 2016 tax bill was $2,312.58.

....

He also didn’t know his mayor was the man behind the tax collection efforts, which led to the letter he was holding. That is, until we told him about it.

....

In 2013, the Round Rock City Council gave MVBA the right to do whatever it takes—legally—to collect millions of dollars from Round Rock businesses and city taxpayers. Since then, the law firm has collected nearly $622,000 in past due library fines, court fines and property taxes, according to city and Williamson County records.

The MVBA website shows, Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan heads one of the most lucrative arms of the law firm—the one responsible for Williamson County and Round Rock tax collections.

The KXAN report goes on to detail three separate contracts Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan's law firm received related to collection activity for various governmental entities in Williamson county; the TL,DR version:

The city told KXAN it did not put any of the three contracts out for competitive bidding, citing a state law that allows professional service contracts to be handed out without a bid process. That means a competing law firm would have had no way to know the contracts the city gave MVBA were up for grabs.

The city provided invoicing to KXAN showing $520,947.68 paid to MVBA between 2013 and August 2017 for municipal court and library collections. Williamson County tax office records show another $101,031.37 paid to MVBA on property tax collections.

Round Rock has a total of $2.2 million in delinquent taxes as of this report. If MVBA collected all outstanding Round Rock delinquent taxes, the firm would pocket $335,485. MVBA could earn $1.8 million if it collected all outstanding WIlliamson County taxes today.

This could be a local story of political corruption in Williamson County, except for one recent tidbit.

In late June, well-respected local activist Jeremy Story announced his campaign for HD-52.  HD-52 includes Round Rock.  At the time, Story was launching a primary challenge to Larry Gonzales, though Gonzales' subsequent retirement has re-classified this as an open seat race.



And how, pray tell, did Round Rock Mayor Craig Morgan react to Jeremy's announcement?!?

In other words, it turns out that a local official who "doth protested too much" during the legislative debate over property taxes earlier this year was personally drawing income from property tax foreclosures.

Bottom Line:  We don't have time to lead it, but he deserves a recall campaign.

2016 Austin/Travis County November Candidate Endorsements

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

[Author's Note: For races where we don't offer endorsements, our longstanding rule of thumb in local elections is to take the Austin Chronicle's endorsements and  vote AGAINST whoever they endorse.]

Austin City Council:

District 6: Don Zimmerman (Far Northwest Austin)

In two years in office, despite being in the distinct minority, Don Zimmerman has successfully stopped a hostile annexation, fought multiple municipal level attacks on the first amendment, and delivered traffic congestion solutions for a fraction of what the city bureaucracy proposed.

He's also one of only two council members to have voted against the ride-sharing and short-term rental regulations that have caused so much discord; if the council majority had listened to Don Zimmerman, most of the unpleasantness of the past year could have been avoided.

Finally, Don Zimmerman gives a voice at city hall to those who have been abused by the city bureaucracy (and, let's not kid ourselves, Don Zimmerman is the only reason Marc Ott left town).

District 7: Natalie Gauldin (North Central Austin; Burnet Rd./Parmer Ln. corridors)

In a city that needs to build 150,000 units of new housing over the next decade, Natalie Gauldin is a tenacious advocate for new housing supply.  She has the slings and arrows to prove it.  Just last week, her political opponents launched an over the top smear website against her (Author's Note: Austin Transit Blog has a through rebuke of the allegations here.)

Natalie is also a vote to repeal the ridesharing and STR regulations; obviously, the incumbent voted for both.

On taxation, we've had more productive discussions with Natalie than we've ever had with the incumbent; we don't expect to agree with her on every single issue, but she's light years better than the incumbent.

Distict 10: Rob Walker (West Austin)

This is a last minute addition, and a bit of a longshot, but we met Rob Walker over the weekend and liked what we heard.

Rob is the only viable candidate in this race to oppose the Mayor's "corridor" bond and he supports repealing the ride-sharing regulations.

Rob remains a work in progress on housing issues, but there are no perfect candidates in this race and Rob Walker offers, by far, the best issue mix of any of them.

AGAINST: Prop 1 "Mobility Bond" (aka. Adler's "Corridor" Bond)

This thing costs far too much to deliver far too little.  The city transportation department simply isn't capable of pulling off this complex of a project in anything remotely resembling a competent or timely manner.  And the process by which the bond package was developed was terminally shady.

And that's before you get into the degree to which this package is, in reality, a corrupt "redevelopment" scheme.

Read our archive about this package here.

Austin ISD Trustees:

No endorsements.  They all look terrible.  See the note about the Austin Chronicle above.

Austin Community College Trustees:

Place 9: Jeremy Story

An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Jeremy Story has built successful enterprises in both the for and non-profit sectors.

We heard Jeremy outline his pro-student, pro-taxpayer agenda for ACC a couple weeks ago.  Suffice to say, an organization that currently sees only 4% of its students move on to four year colleges has considerable room for improvement.  He also supports streamlining the process by which student may obtain certifications in skilled trades.

On the pro-taxpayer side, Jeremy Story is the only candidate running for the ACC board (IN ANY PLACE) who supports a moratorium on tax hikes.  This is important because if there's a single member of the board raising heck during the budget process, that will attract the attention of the media.  Case in point: Don Zimmerman.

Other places: No endorsements, but....

We haven't done our own homework, but we've heard reasonably positive things about Douglas Gibbons in place 6 and Michael Lewis in place 4 from ACC sources.

Travis County Races:

District Attorney: Maura Phelan

Maura Phelan has over 20 years of criminal law experience, her opponent last practiced criminal law in the 1980's; Maura Phelan is the only candidate for District Attorney who has the basic qualifications for the office.

Beyond qualifications, Maura Phelan wants to reduce the backlog of mental health cases that keep vulnerable citizens in jail by default.  Currently, the Travis County DA only has one attorney overseeing 10,000 mental health cases.  This is abhorrent.

Finally, Maura Phelan will end the disgraceful criminalization of political differences which the Travis County DA's office has become notorious over the past few decades.

Sheriff: Joe Martinez

Joe Martinez is the only thing standing between us and a nightmarish outbreak of politicized identity politics in the Travis County Sheriff's office.

Similar to Maura Phelan, Martinez also wants to focus on mental health to keep these vulnerable citizens away from violent criminals.

Then, of course, there's that whole second amendment thing.





Commissioner's Court, Precinct 3: Gerald Daugherty

We supported his opponent in the primary, and some of our misgivings remain, but we have no doubt that Gerald will be light years better than whatever hack the D's are running against him.

And it doesn't hurt that he's produced the best campaign commercial of this entire election cycle.

State House of Representatives:

District 46 (East Austin/Manor/Pflugerville):  Gabriel Nila

Gabriel has been doing the Lord's work against dramatic odds in this longest of longshot districts.

He has been aided in this quest by running against a multi-decade incumbent who can't seem to stop tripping over her own corruption.  This past weekend, we learned about another sweetheart contract she had obtained for herself and her family from Austin ISD.  Now she says she wants to retire early next year which will enable her to milk the state's retirement system one last time.

The only way to halt this shenanigan (Sidenote: Besides abolishing state pensions for legislators) is to deny the incumbent another term by voting for Gabriel Nila this November.

Bottom Line: A lot of people who vote for president aren't going to vote in anything else on the ballot.  It's what political science types call 'undervoting.'  But down ballot races are where real political power is held and they are often EXTREMELY close.

Jeremy Story's pro-Student, pro-Taxpayer, agenda for Austin Community College...

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
1 Peter 5:8

[Author's Note: We didn't record the specific sources Jeremy cited for his factual claims in our notes.  That being said, they all came from various governmental entities.  That being said, you can contact the campaign for more specific information here.]

We finally had an opportunity to hear Jeremy Story speak last night.  He's running for the Austin Community College board of trustees, place 9.  He's running to promote better student outcomes and greater fiscal accountability for taxpayers.

ACC ranks near the bottom of community college systems in Texas in terms of positive student outcomes.  Positive outcomes are defined as completion of an associates degree, transferring to a four year college, or obtaining a trade certification.  We were astonished to learn that only 4% of ACC students transfer to a four year school.

Story wants to focus on core functions of students success.  He wants to increase the number of academic advisers to shepherd students through the bureaucracy, especially the first 15 hours.  Currently, there are 700 students for every adviser, so it shouldn't surprise us that there's a high dropout rate.  He also wants to increase the number of dual credit courses in local high schools.  He wants to streamline the online registration process, which we've heard described as a "nightmare" from various quarters over the years.  Finally, he wants to increase the focus on certification for skilled trades.  These are all things a community college should, by definition, be doing.

On the pro-taxpayer side, Jeremy Story is the only candidate running for any ACC trustee position who supports a moratorium on tax hikes.  Considering the gigantic tax hike ACC passed last month, this is important.  Considering that ACC recently ran a $9 million surplus, there's plenty of money available as long as the organization focuses on core responsibilities.

As an example of core responsibilities, he discussed a recent proposal to expand CapMetro service to the various campuses.  Whatever the merits of such an idea it is, at best, a long term solution.  To paraphrase Story: "It may or may not make sense to make it easier for a student in Austin to attend a class in Round Rock, but in the meantime why don't we make it possible for that same student to take that course online from their living room?!?"

Also, he's a YCTer from the UT chapter; to put it mildly, that speaks well of him.

Bottom Line: Anyone who gives the Austin Chronicle a conniption fit is off to a good start, but it was good to flesh out specifics.

Christian runs for Community College trustee seat; Austin Chronicle LOSES ITS EVERLOVING MIND!!!

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour."
1 Peter 5:8

This is great; from the Austin Chronicle two weeks ago:

Place 9 was a different matter. That seat wasn't scheduled for an election until 2018, but 22-year incumbent Allen Kaplan decided to step down with two years left on his term. Due to the timing of when the board formally accepted his departure, while there was still time to add the race to the Nov. 8 ballot, the filing deadline had to be extended to Aug. 25. 

.... 

Then the race got even more politically convoluted when a fourth name entered the race: Jeremy Story, president of evangelical advocacy group Campus Renewal, and a board member on the Executive Committee of America's National Prayer Committee. 

So Place 9 went from not being on the ballot this year, to a loaded ballot containing a seat-switching incumbent, a progressive activist, an established Williamson County official, and a crusader for religion on campus.

It gets better; Austin Chronicle last week:

After the normal introductions from the four candidates – businessman Jeremy Story, ACC student and staffer Julie Ann Nitsch, former Cedar Park Mayor Pro Tem Mitch Fuller, and current Place 6 holder Guadalupe "Lupe" Sosa – the audience questions began, and an icy chill descended. Former ACC AFT president Marshall Bennett told Story that he admired him for having the bravery to turn up, but that was where the compliments ended. Bennett rounded on Story for his leadership role at Campus Renewal, an evangelical group pledged to getting religion into higher education, and hammered him on issues such as his commitment to abstinence-only sex education.

We've never met or talked to Jeremy Story (though his name does sound vaguely familiar), but demonstrating a clear ability to get under the Austin Chronicle's skin is a good way to start any campaign.

This being higher ed, we'd need to hear a lot more about his positions on issues related to bureaucracy, property taxes, and tuition before we could support him...but we like what we've seen so far!

Bottom Line: The Austin Community College district includes all of Bastrop, Blanco, Caldwell, Hays and Travis counties and most of Williamson.  This race WILL go to a mid-December runoff.  Draw the logical conclusion after reading those two sentences.