ZAP! #61...July 17, 2011
Have you ever noticed how most politicians don’t mind spending other folks money...especially when it will benefit their personal needs?
The July 21, 2011, city council agenda has a genuine oddity that most tax payers are not aware of. The city is getting ready to commit some serious bucks all in the name of enhancing the Whale Rider’s (Harper-Brown) re-election efforts to the state legislature.
Item #8 on the council agenda is to hire Andy Taylor and Associates to lobby/consult/chit-chat with all the other Austin folks in an attempt to preserve District 105 exclusively for the Whale Rider. By the way, Taylor has an hourly rate of $450 per hour. Don’t let this rate scare you. You see, the General Fund (your tax dollars) has $242,000 available for this political scam.
If the Whale Rider is this concerned about her district, then why doesn’t she lean on all her political money pimps (Simon, Ellis, PACs) to foot her bills? Why should the citizens of Irving shell out their tax bucks to ensure that she can waltz back to Austin to find another donor to provide her with the free use of a Mercedes-Benz?
Of course, the party line will be: Irving needs to preserve our state representative district and not let the mean folks in Austin play with redistricting our city. Horse hockey! Even if Irving’s final redistricting looks like a slice of Swiss cheese, all the business and power brokers will still smooch elected-posteriors with each representative. This could be a genuine case of when more representation is better for Irving...should this occur.
Also, this will be the first significant test of the new mayor. Staff of the CCR will watch to see if she supports tax payers, or the north Irving money interest -- folks pushing agenda item #8 -- that also financed her campaign.
..........Mark Holbrook
