Dedicated Sales Tax Reauthorization Election

[admin]

Flower Mound voters can participate in a Dedicated Sales Tax Reauthorization Election on Nov. 8, that if approved, would extend the Street Maintenance sales tax for four years and the Crime and Fire Districts sales taxes for 10 years.

Mayor Melissa Northern, council members Al Filidoro, Steve Lyda and Mark Wise and planning and zoning commissioner Jeff Whittaker recently filed for a specific purpose action committee to make a push to get the renewal passed, called "Flower Mound Yes!."

[Pipeline]

Flower Mound voters can participate in a Dedicated Sales Tax Reauthorization Election on Nov. 8, that if approved, would extend the Street Maintenance sales tax for four years and the Crime and Fire Districts sales taxes for 10 years.

Mayor Melissa Northern, council members Al Filidoro, Steve Lyda and Mark Wise and planning and zoning commissioner Jeff Whittaker recently filed for a specific purpose action committee to make a push to get the renewal passed, called "Flower Mound Yes!."

According to missy northern's quotes in the link, the group should be called "Other towns are doing it so FM should, too". I don't spend dollars in FM. I spend on the fringe. The tax is only pennies, if I did. but it is the principle of over taxation.

[admin]

On a related note: The city of Lewisville is urging residents to approve a sales tax increase that would help fund a crime control district and fire district.

[JKTex]

It seems strange though, or maybe not, that 3 council members and an ex-wannbe council member are going to the trouble of forming this Specific PAC and are looking for cash from entities that may benefit from the taxes to cover their est. 5 figure budget to campaign for it.

Maybe it's just that it smells like we're diving head first into special interests having a part in influencing public revenue, facilitated by council members. I don't think there is any reason it wouldn't pass, it seems to make sense, or should I say, it made sense before the council members formed the PAC and went looking for cash to fund paying for them pushing it. Or maybe my foil hat is getting rusty from all the frack rain and chem trails....

[bcwebb]

JKTex is right. Strange indeed for a majority of council to form a PAC just as early voting has begun and when there is no vocal opposition for any of the measures. Political grandstanding or a reason to shake down companies who do business with the town?

As this plays out it will be critical to follow the money.

From their campaign filing report a fire equipment company in Houston gave the PAC $1,000. Same company had $500,000 in contracts awarded in 2010. An engineering company in Fort Worth also gave $1,000 after having received contracts of $76,000 in 2011 and $469,000 in 2010.

I'm sure the contracts were awarded fairly, but how would you feel as a business owner getting a personal letter from the Mayor Pro Tem asking for cash and referencing the Mayor and another Council member by both Name and Title?

The council members who formed this PAC exhibited extremely poor judgment and their actions have cast an ethical shadow across Town Hall and the entire community. Are we going to add "Pay to Play" to our Town's vocabulary in addition to the "Closed to Businesses" sign that has been erected at every entrance to Flower Mound

[admin]

Sales tax SPAC questioned

[JKTex]

"It cost us $4,000 to send out the literature, and we have only collected $3,075," Filidoro said. "So we'll be paying the rest out of our pockets. But that's because community leaders lead. What is everyone else doing?"

That statement sounds out of character, and pretty defensive for a multi-term Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem. If it's legit, explain why it's good for the town instead of making excuses and being defensive. The letter to the businesses that have contracts with the Town was clearly coming from the Mayor and 2 councilmen asking for money to fund this, regardless of Filidoro's salutation. I think the letter is public now so you can read it.

Filidoro said businesses had discussed this idea with the mayor a while back.

"We didn't approach the businesses. They approached us," Filidoro said. "A lot of this started happening at the Texas Municipal League [TML] Conference."

To be fair, I don't know the full context of what he's saying or what and how this "started happening" at the TML. But from that statement alone, it makes it more NOT ok in my mind. It's like saying that bribery is OK as long as the person paying the bribe, first asked if they could. These are companies that may, have or will directly benefit from the revenue generated by the reauthorized tax on the ballot. If it fails now because they stunk it up, it's on their heads. Thanks and good luck next spring.

This whole thing just seems blown way out of proportion, but by Filidoro and crew themselves for, 1) doing it like they did 2) their/his responses so far.

It's just got quite the foul odor.

[admin]

Looks like the Dedicated Sales Tax Reauthorization proposals will pass. See the unofficial results here.

[JKTex]

I'm not surprised all 3 passed, but I'm a little surprised all 3 passed by only about a 2 to 1 vote. I'm more surprised 1634 actually got out and voted on the re-authorization of the fire control and road repair prop's, and 1637 on the crime control prop. Could it be that the 3 that only voted on the crime prevention reauth. prop are politicians that voted against controlling crime because it threatens to slow their roll?

That's nearly 20% of the total voters in Denton County that voted on the Constitutional Amendments.

I know 2 people that went to vote that weren't planning on it (and didn't know about the Constitutional Amendments either) that went just to vote against all 3 tax re-authorization prop's because they felt there was something fishy that was being hidden by 3 council members after being "campaigned". I'd take a wild guess that without the controversy, less than half of that would have voted and all 3 would have passed by a greater landslide.

It's funny how casting doubt and mistrust is characterized as , "[But that's because] community leaders lead. What is everyone else doing?."

There's a reason you can't lead a horse to water....horses are smarter than that. We need people with more "horse sense".