taxpayer dollars – Carol A. Spencer

Because you asked

I’ve been asked quite a few times who I recommend on the ballot. I’ve written a lengthy endorsement for the Attorney General’s race. Since tomorrow is election day, I’m going to share a few other recommendations.

US SENATE
Ken Paxton. Paxton has been a bulldog for Texans and Texas Values in his role as Attorney General. His opponents have not. Texas desperately needs a strong voice representing conservative Texans in the US Senate.

US HOUSE – CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 27
Michael Cloud. Michael Cloud is a strong Texas conservative and votes accordingly. He has earned positions on the Appropriations Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He deserves to be returned to Congress.

GOVERNOR
“Doc” Pete Chambers. Governor Abbott has, overall, done a good job for Texas. However, his endorsement of legislators based on one vote (School Choice) was inappropriate. I loved his bussing of illegals throughout the country as it brought that issue front and center for places that weren’t feeling our pain. I didn’t like his Covid decisions. Keeping big box stores open and forcing small businesses to close was unacceptable. Forcing bars to close because more than 50% of their revenue was alcohol while allowing restaurants to open and serve lacked consistency. Too many appointments and decisions seem to be made due to campaign financial support and I oppose that. Doc has said he will not appoint people to positions if they donate large amounts of money to his campaign. Refreshing.

LT GOVERNOR
Perla Hopkins. When Dan Patrick pushed for half a billion dollars for the movie industry every 2 years, he lost my vote. Texas Scorecard explained “The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Fund would receive $500 million every two years over the next decade, amounting to $2.5 billion by the 2034-2035 biennium.” If I wanted to support that industry, I’d go to the movies. I’m frankly sick of dolling out tax money to the favorite industry of the day…. especially one that has no impact on my quality of life.

ATTORNEY GENERAL
Aaron Reitz. I’m strongly endorsing Aaron Reitz for Attorney General. Not only is he Ken Paxton’s choice for the next AG, but he has the tenacity, core values, and strength of character to protect Texas and to manage over 4,000 employees. Read my entire endorsement.

COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEALS, PLACE 3
Lesli Fitzpatrick. Lesli is the most qualified candidate. She has a broad range of legal experience including significant criminal courtroom experience. She had her own legal practice, has worked for the State of Texas in a position that provided extensive knowledge of the Texas prison system. This race is for a seat on the highest criminal court in Texas, the one that reviews every death penalty case. Lesli is a solid conservative Republican. With her criminal courtroom experience, Lesli is the best choice.

TEXAS HOUSE DISTRICT 17
Tom Glass. If you’ve been to your mailbox lately, you’ll understand this endorsement. More than 125 Political Action Committees have donated to Tom’s opponent. Texans for Lawsuit Reform has donated well over a quarter of a million dollars to Tom’s opponent. If you want a legislator that answers to the big money donors, vote for the other guy. But if you want a legislator who fights for conservative Texans in his district, vote for Tom Glass.

BASTROP COUNTY JUDGE
Don Loucks. I was shocked when, at a candidate forum, our current County Judge had to ask the emcee what an NGO is. What?? He’s reviewing, voting for, and presiding over a multi-million dollar budget that includes tax dollar payments to NGOs and he doesn’t know what one is. He struggles to run a meeting as seen by those who were at the last County Commissioner’s meeting: taking testimony after an item had already been tabled. That violates Robert’s Rules.

Don’s opponent has shown that he does not have the skill set to make decisions for a county whose population is exploding. The County Judge literally has the lives of over 100,000 Bastrop County residents in his hands. We need a leader trained in emergency management, who understands budgets and taxes, who is conversant with the public safety needs of a growing Texas county. We need a strong, conservative leader and that’s Don Loucks.

A Failure of Responsibility

Since when do elected officials, representatives of the people (allegedly), ignore constituents? When I served in office, my goal was more communication with the public, not less (or in this case, none).

Even in the late 90’s when websites were just getting started, I created one for our town, complete with email access for the public. I started a township newsletter. I started “Mayor’s Open Office Hours” once a week in the evenings to meet with anyone who wanted to come in and chat. Whether the comments were positive or negative, I responded. That’s what elected representatives are supposed to do.

List of emails included on first email Why, then, when I emailed every member of the Bastrop ISD Board of Trustees, did I only hear back from the Superintendent of Schools? Someone obviously forwarded my email to her since I didn’t include her in the original email.

Not one elected school board member responded to my first email sent before the day of the protest! Not one elected school board member or the superintendent responded to my email the day of the protest either.

Let’s say I own a manufacturing business. I pay for the physical plant and equipment plus the salaries and benefits of the employees. Then, one day a bunch of them decide to take to the streets to protest some issue. They don’t protest at lunch time. They protest mid-morning. My business cannot continue as usual. I’ll limp along with fewer employees so I don’t have to shut down, but output won’t be the same.

This is exactly what these students did. And, now, without severe repercussions, they have learned the lesson that they can just walk out, ignore their responsibilities, and have little to no repercussion for doing so. The penalty is some checkbox that they were absent that day.

When my employees walk out, I still have to pay for the building, the equipment, the heat, the lights, the staff at all levels. When students walk out, taxpayers still have to pay for the school buildings, the heat, the lights and the staff at all levels.

The educational output is not the same because these students aren’t participating in classes. Class isn’t a one way street with the teacher having a megaphone. Class involves interaction and that is lost not only for those who protested but for those who remained behind.

Perhaps our elected school board representatives think they can hide behind their silence on this issue. To me, their silence screams loudly that they approve of this walkout.

The next Bastrop ISD meeting is Tuesday February 17 at 5:30. I encourage y’all who are furious about these protests to attend and speak out.

“The Board of Trustees holds Regular Board Meetings the third Tuesday of every month beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Jerry Fay Wilhelm Center for the Performing Arts, 1401 Cedar Street, unless otherwise posted. Meetings of the Board of Trustees are by law open meetings, and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend.”

This is not a first amendment rights issue. These students could have exercised their first amendment rights after school, on a Saturday or Sunday.

This is a lesson in responsibility. Every participant, be they students, teachers, administrative staff or elected school board members, have failed. Sadly, this is just another “F” in the grading of Bastrop ISD.

Tax Dollars Up In Smoke

Below is a portion of a post behind a parent-only section of the Bastrop ISD website. It was shared on a public FB group. I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this post because I don’t have children in the district. But the portion I’ve read says to me the response of the district is completely inadequate.

UPDATE: I sent a copy of this blog post to the BISD Board of Trustees. I was assured by Superintendent Dr. Kristi Lee that “students who skip school for a protest or for any other reason are disciplined according to the Student Code of Conduct.” I thank Dr. Lee for her prompt response. I hope parents and students who support this walkout understand that there are consequences.

Bastrop ISD has nothing to crow about. Four schools with F ratings. Three schools with D ratings. Seven schools with C ratings, including 2 high schools. Only one school each with an A or B rating… both high schools. (2024-25 TEA ratings)

I do not pay taxes so children can leave school for a protest. I do pay a boatload of taxes to educate Bastrop children.

I attended high school in the late ’60s and college in the early ’70s. Think Vietnam. We did not walk out during school hours. Political protests? I’ve always taken a vacation day from work to do so on my time. And I’ve attended a lot of them.

Students: want to protest? Do so on your own dime, on your own time. Saturday? Sunday? Be my guest. But on my dime you should be in school, learning.

“It’s important to note that this walkout is not sanctioned or organized by our school or the District.” Great, but now that you know about it, stopping students from leaving school for this purpose is your job.

If you do nothing but tell parents they need to speak to their kids, but allow students to leave, you are abdicating your authority over taxpayer-funded assets and the trust parents put in you for the safety of their children. You are supporting mob behavior and peer pressure. You are risking students being injured off school grounds while they are supposed to be in school, opening BISD to lawsuits. You aren’t doing your job(s), pure and simple.

You need to make it clear to students that you are in charge, that taxpayers don’t give their hard-earned money to pay for protests, and that actions have consequences.

I hope the portion of this Parent Square post that is not included states that any student leaving regularly scheduled classes and/or district property for this purpose will be considered truant and the consequences for that behavior will be applied. Anything less is unacceptable.

Pervasive Fraud

There are many types of fraud: theft of government property, theft of government services, fraudulent applications for government funds. Some are small… a few hundred dollars here or there. Some are larger… thousands received under false pretenses. Some are massive… millions or billions stolen right in front of our eyes.

I served as the mayor of a small town. I’ve been employed by government. My husband was foreman of a grand jury dealing with political corruption. We’ve seen and experienced a lot.

The fraud in Minnesota comes as no surprise. The scope of it does. Where was someone in government questioning the millions of tax dollars flowing who knows where? Watching all 43 minutes of this video is shocking and eye-opening.

Investigating fraud has nothing to do with skin color or countries of origin. It has to do with character or lack thereof.

I was in office 6 days when one of the largest snowstorms ever hit the northeast. A few weeks later, after thawing and freezing, many homeowners had significant water damage caused by ice thawing and backing up under eaves. An employee was in my office and we were chatting about this. Without blinking an eye, he suggested that to avoid the issue I head over to Public Works and grab a couple of buckets of “ice ban” (used to prevent icing on streets). If I threw it up on my roof, problem solved. He so casually suggested that I steal publicly purchased materials that it was evident to me he saw nothing wrong with it. The minute he left my office, I shared the conversation with his manager and said “If I ever catch that SOB or anyone else stealing from the taxpayers, I’ll fire them on the spot.” That was in 1996. I reported one employee to the county prosecutor with proof of what should have been considered “theft of services”: doing work for a private company on town time. I was informed, in writing, that this “didn’t rise to the level of a crime”.

This is how it goes in government. A little theft here, a little work for a private company there, repairs on a private home in return for help with getting a development approved… blind eyes turned to it all.

Elgin: $6 million taxpayer dollars missing. Bastrop: $25,000 taxpayer funds handed to an alleged non-profit with no subsequent reconciliation.

This is just what we know about. Tip of the iceberg? Likely yes.

I’ve been teaching a “Data & Research” class to teach those who are interested how to obtain, research, parse, and evaluate government data. There are many ways to circumvent transparency. If you’re interested in attending these classes, email me. These are your tax dollars being “inappropriately used”.