carol@stormzero.com – Carol A. Spencer

And Then There’s the Fraud

All this talk about Fauci “Pleading the Fifth” more than 100 times is sickening. At 85 years old, he’ll likely avoid prosecution and jail time. But none of us can avoid the damage his fame-seeking did to our country. And, not one of us is immune from the damage.

I believe children in school at that time will bear the damages the longest. Those who passed away lost the most and their relatives grieve the most. Workers fired for non-masking may never financially recover. Businesses lost will never be back, hurting owners, employees and customers.

We’ve read about all these consequences as a result of the publication of his ego-maniacal diary entries. We’ve read articles about the impacts. But so far, not one of them that I’ve read has talked about the massive amount of FRAUD.

In April this year, we’d not yet heard Fauci take the Fifth 100+ times. But that month, the SBA issued News Release 26-47: SBA Sends 562,000 Suspected Fraudulent Loans to Treasury for Collections Totaling $22 Billion

WASHINGTON — Today, in coordination with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced that it has referred 562,000 suspected fraudulent loans to the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) for collection, marking the SBA’s largest referral package on record. The borrowers are tied to $22.2 billion in delinquent Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and COVID Economic Injury Disaster (EIDL) loans that were previously flagged for suspected fraud during the Biden Administration but never sent to Treasury for collection nor referred to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for investigation.

You know whose money they loan out, don’t you? That would be our tax payments: your money and mine.

Check out this website if you want to get even angrier: https://www.pandemicoversight.gov/ See the section entitled “Fighting Pandemic Fraud: Arrests and Indictments”: a Phoenix family here, a MA State Police Sgt there, a multi-national software firm, a German subsidiary, and on and on. The US Government estimates $22 billion (yes, that’s with a B) in fraud.

Tony Fauci should have to return his government salary paid during Covid, all those awards he sought and won including the costs of government time and assets for getting them, any funding he authorized for illegal gain-of-function research anywhere in the world, any sponsorship money, any money he was paid for appearances whether “in-kind” or monetary, and any other ill-gotten gains. He should have his pension reduced to pre-Covid levels. After all, many Americans have lower pensions due to being out of work during that time. Why should Tony be any different?

Not only was Covid a fraud perpetrated on the US and the world, but it was the foundation for billions in actual monetary fraud plus the subsequent costs of prosecuting and jailing those who committed that fraud.

Anthony Fauci, if he never goes to jail, should be hurt financially like the rest of us. Sadly, whatever he does pay, would only be the drop in a $22-billion dollar bucket.

Tax Abatements: Not an All-or-Nothing Levy

There are several problems with tax abatements. First, many elected officials aren’t really saavy about taxation impacts. Second, flat rate abatements put more money in the pockets of businesses no matter how successful they are. Third, it only takes a little logic to realize that if government doesn’t lower spending commensurate with the money they aren’t collecting, someone (read all other taxpayers) picks up the tab.

Taxation Impacts

I’ve written before about elected officials strutting around telling citizens how much revenue some development will generate. I’ve complained that these same elected officials never provide an estimate of the government services costs associated with that same development. Do we taxpayers ever get to see an income to expense report? Ask for one and you’ll get your answer.

I did one in Denville Township when I was in office. It wasn’t hard to calculate the cost of municipal services per capita. That included municipal expenditures and school expenses (Denville has 2 school systems: K-8 and a regional high school system). Using census data, it wasn’t hard to figure these numbers. It also wasn’t hard to find the total annual tax revenue. It was a line item in our budget, as was the annual collection rate (not everyone pays their taxes on time).

We also used a term which I’ve never heard in Texas: ratable. A “ratable” was a development that generated more in taxes than it cost in services. Isn’t that what they should be seeking? If they have no idea what a development will cost (police, fire, public works, administration, etc), how can they begin to think that just because it generates revenue, it’s a good thing for the government (taxpayers) bottom line?

Most of us balance budgets ourselves comparing income to expenses. It’s time governments be required to do so for every new development of a certain size. Without that, they can’t justify one dollar in abatement.

The Abatement Drain

Let’s use the abatement Bastrop County gave to the EdgeConneX data center as an example. It abates 75% of property taxes for 10 years. Why?

Data centers are basically racks and racks of computers. Is the EdgeConneX a carrier neutral data center (meaning multiple customers use the data center)? Or will it be a single customer data center (for example, serving only one business)?

In either case, why a 75% property tax abatement if the data center is, for example, 50% full? That makes no sense.

What does make sense is an abatement based on occupancy as a proxy for income. If a carrier neutral data center is only 20% full year one, then a 75% abatement makes sense that year. If that carrier neutral data center is 50% full in year two, then a 50% abatement makes sense that year. And, on and on. Consider this possibility:

0 to 20% rack occupancy: 75% abatement
21% to 40% rack occupancy: 60% abatement
41% to 60% rack occupancy: 40% abatement
60% to 80% rack occupancy: 20% abatement
Over 80% rack occupancy: no abatement

This makes far more sense than a flat 75% for 10 years. If only one customer is leasing data center rack space, the abatement could be 75%, 50%, 25%, 0%, dependent on functional rack space.

Lower Government Spending

A data center will require enhanced and potentially specialized public services like police and fire. Specialized equipment, chemicals, lighting, electrical connections, specialized fire fighting apparatus and more will be required.

Who will pay? Texas doesn’t have an off-site improvement law requiring developers to pay for off-site improvements needed as a result of their development. There is no law requiring impact fees. Impact fees cover things like additional schools or classrooms required as a result of housing developments.

Even if it did, because counties have no land use regulatory authority, it is likely that developments in unincorporated areas wouldn’t garner the benefits of either of these.

Again, who will pay? Logic says it should be the developer by paying the full freight of their property tax levy. But a 10-year abatement changes all that. Some improvements, like power infrastructure, water and sewer lines, need to be built within that 10-year abatement, which means other taxpayers (residential, commercial & industrial) will pay higher bills to cover those costs. A good example is the million dollar right turn lane paid by City of Bastrop taxpayers instead of the developer who caused it to be needed in the first place.

Solution

I submit that our elected officials stop giving away flat rate abatements. Personally, I’d like to see them stop all abatements. But, if they must because that’s the only way they can put some controls on a development as the county commissioners claim, they should tie an abatement to business success.

If a business makes more money, the tax abatement is reduced accordingly. Data centers fit this model perfectly and our county commissioners should start using common sense. Stop saddling current property taxpayers with a bill the business should be paying.

TX House Public Comment

The Texas House is going to discuss two topics at an Elections Committee hearing on August 3 at 11AM. Did you know you can submit comments up to and until they gavel the committee hearing adjourned?

The two topics are:
Technology in Elections: Study the growing role of new and rapidly evolving technologies in the election process and political communications.

Voter Registration: Study the state’s voter registration processes and
systems by conducting an inventory of the systems used by counties that
are offline and analyzing the impact of supporting multiple software
systems across the state. Recommend ways to streamline voter-roll
maintenance and improve efficiency.

Here are my submitted comments under Voter Registration:

Our county previously used a vendor that gave us years of voter history in an Excel format. It included the following fields for TEN years of voting: Election Code (date), Election Party Code (Rep, Dem), Election Vote Type (E, A, P). First, middle & last names were separate fields. It was simple to create 4 of 4, 3 of 4, 2 of 4 etc lists. It was easy to create Head of Household, targeted, election mailings. Then we were forced to use the SOS list. First and last names were one field. To split them in Excel is tedious and time consuming for thousands and thousands of voters. Voter history is worthless as it only shows the “date last voted”. Who cares? That could be 10/29/2020, 3/2/2024 or the like. ONE DATE. That does us no good at all in trying to determine voter history, which directly translates into who will actually vote in an election. It’s impossible to create a 4 of 4 or 3 of 4 list for any purpose: mailing, block walking…. any campaign or PAC needs. Vote History Reports out of the current state system are often incomplete or inaccurate and are limited to a single election. Incorporating vote history as described above into to the “Voter List” would be much more usable. I’ve written the SOS office about this. I’ve discussed this with Senator Schwertner and his office staff. I’ve provided copies of each spreadsheet in 11/2025: the sheet from our former county vendor and the one from the SOS. I’d be happy to provide that information to the committee. My background is 50 years in IT, 35+ years in the political world, including running 13 of my own races and serving 10 years in elected office. If everyone is required to use the SOS database, it needs to be designed by people who understand what those of us in the field do with the data. This needs to be fixed ASAP.

GOP Legislative Priorities – 1st Vote

Tuesday – June 9, 2026: The LP Committee members voted on what each thought should be the top 15 LPs put to the delegates when delegates vote. There were percentages associated with each, however the video did not show the results and the percentages were not announced so those watching knew what they were. Nor could YouTube watchers see the list of those items not included in the top 15.

Secure Texas Elections
Stop Islamification of Texas
Abolish Property Taxes
Ban Taxpayer Funded Lobbying
End Governmental Overreach
Border Enforcement
Medical Freedom
Protect Life
Secure the Electric Grid
Water Natural Resources
Protect Texas Kids
No Democrat Chairs
Eminent Domain
Gambling
2A, Second Amendment

After public comment this afternoon, there will be additional discussion about the details in each of these topics. Concerns mentioned by multiple members that were not included in the top 15: AI, Education Reform, Texas is not for Sale, State Budget and a couple of others.

I hope they consider the wording we put forth regarding “No Dem Chairs”. That was accomplished last session, so it needs to be broader than just chairs. Our verbiage was “No Democrats in Leadership Roles”.

GOP Convention & Priorities

Bastrop County Republicans held their convention in March, 2026. I was honored to have been selected to chair the “Legislative Priorities” committee. This is the first time Senate District (SD) and County Conventions have voted on Legislative Priorities (LPs).

Bastrop County LPs are sent up to the State Convention LP committee. They will review submissions from all SD & County Conventions and create a list for delegates to the State Convention to vote on. Convention starts June 8 with committee meetings. The full convention starts at 9AM on June 11. By Saturday evening, we’ll know which chair & vice chair candidates will lead us to victory in November. And, we’ll know the list of state-wide legislative priorities.

Here are the LPs from Bastrop County. These were unanimously approved after discussion with the entire delegation. The list, by title only, of priorities in order is below. To read the details on each item, please see the full report (PDF) sent to Texas GOP (also below).

Border Enforcement
Prevent the Use of Taxpayer Funds and Public Office to Advance any Religious, Ideological, or Foreign Systems of Law
Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
No Democrats in Leadership Roles
Ax the Property Tax
Secure Texas Elections
End Federal Overreach
Stop Sexualizing Texas’ Kids
Texas is Not for Sale
Don’t Gamble Texas’ Future
Mass Surveillance

Enterprise Zone Tax Breaks? NO!

WARNING: Long, but really important post

Tax abatements shift the tax burden from the business getting the abatement to all other taxpayers. How does that happen?

It’s a simple concept. Governments budget income and expenses, just like you do. Local government income is primarily tax revenue. Expenses? I don’t think I need to explain those…. government spending.

Let’s talk about taxes (income). There are property taxes, sales taxes, hotel occupancy taxes, personal property taxes on businesses and some others. But that will do for my example.

Let’s say Local Government A gets revenue as follows:

Residential property taxes: $1,000,000
Commercial property taxes: $2,000,000
Hotel & Occupancy taxes: $ 500,000
Personal Property taxes: $ 750,000
TOTAL INCOME: $4,250,000
BUDGETED EXPENSES: $4,250,000

BUT, local elected officials decide that Business A should get a “tax abatement” and not pay any (or reduced) commercial property taxes or personal property taxes for the next 5 years.

In our example, we’ll say that Business A is estimated to pay $50,000 in commercial property taxes and $25,000 in personal property taxes each year. Also, the county has agreed to handle all administrative tasks (expense), do road repairs (expense), waive inspection fees (expenses incurred but not reimbursed by fees). Let’s estimate that to be $75,000 in expenses and lost income.

So now, with abatements, TOTAL INCOME above becomes $4,175,000 ($4,250,000 minus $75,000). Then there are those incurred expenses not paid by Business A, but paid by the local government. So, BUDGETED EXPENSES is now $4,325,000 ($4,250,000 + $75,000).

A net zero budget is now $150,000 in the hole and someone, some taxpayer, has to make up that deficit.

Every time there is an abatement without a matching reduction in spending, some other taxpayer picks up the tab.

Abatements give businesses tax breaks. There’s no such thing for residential property owners. We residential property taxpayers just pick up that deficit created by the abatements because there’s never a reduction in spending.

In fact, development increases government costs to provide services. Industrial/commercial less than residential, but all development increases costs. And, the “Order” on Tuesday’s agenda specifically states such as follows:

The County recognizes that participation in the Texas Enterprise Zone Program may require ongoing administrative coordination, reporting, record retention, compliance monitoring, and financial review by County staff, including the County Auditor’s Office and other County departments. The Commissioners Court reserves the right to establish administrative procedures, cost recovery mechanisms, or related agreements, as authorized by law, to support the administration of enterprise projects.

I’ve never seen a study in Bastrop County about the per capita cost of services. I’ve never seen a study here proving the income generated by a business exceeds the increased cost of government services. All we ever hear is how much revenue a development will generate. It sounds good, but my experience in local government elected office says it rarely works that way. And, even when it does, shouldn’t someone give taxpayers a true financial analysis?

The Bastrop County Commissioners, all Republicans, have Order 2026-09 on their agenda the day after Memorial Day at 9 a.m. Great timing with schools out and a preceding holiday weekend. Even poorer timing considering it’s election day.

Any patriot working the election will be unable to attend the meeting either in person or online to express their opinion about this issue. To me, someone who has worked elections for years, this is a real slap. (Full disclosure, I’m not working this election due to a prior out-of-state commitment.)

The order seeks to “ordain” the County’s participation in the Texas Enterprise Zone Program. According to the Governor’s website, “The Texas Enterprise Zone Program (EZP) is a state sales and use tax refund program designed to encourage private investment and job creation in economically distressed areas of the state.” (emphasis added)

I stress “economically distressed areas” in the above description. There’s a map on the Governor’s site. Space X is not in an “economically distressed” area. Nor is Bastrop County designated as a “distressed county”. The County admits so in its “Order“.

Every application of the Texas Enterprise Zone Program to a business that is not in an economically distressed area denies those benefits to a business or county that is in such an area. Eligibility is limited according to the Governor’s website.

“…communities with a population of less than 250,000 have 6 designations available. The state may award a maximum of 105 designations statewide per biennium, and may award up to 12 designations per quarterly round.”

Then there’s the fact that this is an all-Republican Commissioner’s Court. We didn’t elect these people to give tax breaks to businesses while residential property taxpayers get slammed. The GOP Platform gives guidance on this.

No Corporate Welfare: We encourage government to divest its ownership of all businesses that should be run in the private sector. We oppose all bailouts of and subsidies to domestic and foreign government entities, states, and for all businesses, public and private. We agree with the Texas Constitution’s requirement for fair and uniform taxation andoppose special treatment or tax breaks for favored industries or companies. We call for repeal or sunset of existing subsidy or special-interest tax exemptions, including the Special Events Trust Fund program, the Texas Enterprise Fund, Moving Image Industry Incentive Program, and lab-grown meat incentives, and now request repeal of Chapter 403.601 of the Texas Tax Code. […] (Plank 78, 2024 Texas GOP Platform, highlighting added)

So, why are they doing this? Star-struck perhaps? Because it’s Elon Musk? Perhaps it’s pressure from higher levels of government. Frankly, that would be my guess.

In conclusion, I don’t care what business owner is getting a tax break. I don’t believe in them. Redirecting the tax burden from one entity to another is socialist thinking.

I’m actually an Elon Musk fan. I don’t blame him for trying to get every break he can for his businesses. But our elected officials were put there by US, by the voters. Elon Musk, Governor Abbott, Donald Trump did not put them at the dais. We did. And they need to remember that, remember who they are supposed to represent, when voting to give another business a tax abatement.

Vote Term Limits

Do you support Congressional term limits? Do you practice what you preach?

John Cornyn is running for US Senate for his fifth six-year term, thirty years. He is 74 years old and will be 80+ at the end of a fifth term. If you truly believe in Congressional term limits, you cannot vote for John Cornyn.

political funnel Politics is like an upside down funnel: there are lots of positions at the bottom but as you climb higher, there are fewer and fewer. For those who climb the political “ladder” thinking one position prepares you for another, politicians who don’t step aside block out other qualified individuals. With the amount of money raised by incumbents and the cost to campaign, one has to be a multi-millionaire (or have very wealthy friends) to slide into a higher position. Was our Republic created so only the wealthy can serve in elected office? I think not.

Not voting your belief in Congressional term limits does two things: it forces out some very talented people with new, fresh ideas and it creates an environment where only the wealthy, or those with massive war chests, can serve in office.

Term limits, and voting accordingly if you believe in them, keeps our Congress a citizen congress, one where people with other career experiences come to serve, using their experience to make America great again, and then head back to real life.

Americans Overwhelming Support Term Limits

According to TermLimits.com, in 2025 over 83% of Americans favored term limits for members of Congress. For Republicans or Republican-leaning respondents, that percentage was 85%. Even for Democrats, the percentage was huge: 79%.

clocks In 2025, US Senator Dave McCormick (R-PA) introduced a joint resolution limiting US Senators to two six-year terms and limiting US House members to six two-year terms: a maximum of 12 years in both offices. The President is term limited. Why not Congress?

Did you know?

More than one-third of Senators in the 118^th Congress were 70 or older. The 119^th Congress is the third oldest in history. The average Senator is nearly 64 years old, which is 11 years older than the average Senator in 1981. Similarly, the House Members are nearly nine years older on average than they were in 1981. As of this year, Members of the House and Senate have an average of 8.6 and 11.2 years of prior service in their respective chambers. This represents a steady increase from the early 20^th century when that number fell below six years for both the House and Senate.

~ McCormick Press Release, April 10, 2025

Early voting for the runoffs starts May 18. Think about this when you go to vote. Should any member of Congress serve 30 years? If you agree with me that’s far too long in one position, then it’s time to retire John Cornyn and elect Ken Paxton.