Episode 3567: Lubbock County’s Bowtie Bully tries deceiving public in tax rate presser | Texas workforce keeps growing – 9/20/2024

Pratt on Texas

The news of Texas covered today includes:

Our Lone Star story of the day: Lubbock County’s Bowtie Bully, Curtis Parrish, held a press conference in which he did little but offer deception to the people about what it means to adopt the No New Revenue Rate, meaning no tax increase for next year, by commissioners Rackler and Corley properly using a provision of the law to deny the Bowtie Bully’s planed $7.5 million spending increase and accompanying tax increase.

He made such incredibly ridiculous claims such as:

• Not raising taxes will destroy the county’s bond rating increasing costs in the future. Never mind that all bond payment spending is in the current budget and will be in the new budget with the No New Revenue Tax Rate.
• That not adopting his $7.5 million INCREASE in spending will cause them to “make the deepest, most massive cuts in the history of the county.” That my friends is an outright, undebatable lie. The budget with not tax increase will still be larger than that of the current year.
• That commissioners breaking a quorum, the only way they can prevent a big tax increase given the other three are voting for such, is the same as Democrats breaking the legislative quorum. Another baldfaced lie from the Bowtie Bully. It is against state law to break a legislative quorum but state law specifically allows for blocking a tax increase by two commissioners refusing to show up for the vote. It has been done in Lubbock County before, in Harris County, the state’s largest just a few years ago, and who knows where else in our 254 counties.
• Parrish claims that, somehow, not having a tax increase and increasing spending by $7.5 million this coming year will greatly harm the county for many years to come. Really? Not growing government beyond population, inflation, and economic growth will be a harm? That’s a D.C. Democrat idea.

Interestingly, after harping on non-existent “cuts,” Sheriff Rowe admitted that a budget with the No New Revenue Tax Rate would still be a big increase in spending over the current budget when he said that he was expecting 8 new deputies with the tax increase but will only get half that amount, 4, without the tax increase.
Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.

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