[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I don't want to derail the Severe Weather thread with politics, but there's been some pretty good reporting with details on how the GOP completely fucked over Texas residents in Kerr County on the issue of installing flood warning systems which - SHOCKER! - they are now lying about by saying taxpayers wouldn't fund it or it would have cost them money they didn't have.

A review of transcripts of minutes from the Kerr County Commission is pretty enlightening/damning. Specifically, in 2017 there was a grant available to pay the just short of $1M needed to do it, but the Commission refused because the money would come from the Obama Administration. Four years later, they had $5.1M in their account from Biden's America Rescue Plan Act to cover the costs, and again refused, this time because they wouldn't accept money from "criminal" Biden. It's unclear from what I read whether they actually gave the money back, though, because they were afraid it would be sent to NY or NJ or CA to be used for things the TX GOP was against so at the time, they simply elected not to use it specifically for a flood/disaster warning system (which was the proposal at the time) and either used it later for something else, or perhaps eventually gave it back.

I did not read the NYT article. I did find this one from a local non profit news site.

Why Kerr County balked on a new flood warning system | The Texas Tribune

It does not speak on the money from 2017 but there is reporting on the 2021 funding. If what is reported in this article is true, it appears that the politicians seem to doing what the people or at least the people that mattered in that county put them in office to do. I would say this was much closer to consensual fornication.

Kerr County did not opt for ARPA to fund flood warning systems despite commissioners discussing such projects nearly two dozen times since 2016. In fact, a survey sent to residents about ARPA spending showed that 42% of the 180 responses wanted to reject the $10 million bonus altogether, largely on political grounds.

“I’m here to ask this court today to send this money back to the Biden administration, which I consider to be the most criminal treasonous communist government ever to hold the White House,” one resident told commissioners in April 2022, fearing strings were attached to the money.

“We don't want to be bought by the federal government, thank you very much,” another resident told commissioners. “We'd like the federal government to stay out of Kerr County and their money.”

When it was all said and done, the county approved $7 million in ARPA dollars on a public safety radio communications system for the sheriff’s department and county fire services to meet the community’s needs for the next 10 years, although earlier estimates put that contract at $5 million. Another $1 million went to sheriff’s employees in the form of stipends and raises, and just over $600,000 went towards additional county positions. A new walking path was also created with the ARPA money.