Author Topic: Will a County Judge Force Citizens to Fund a Project They Rejected?  (Read 199 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Texas Scorecard by  Jacob Asmussen November 18, 2020

Citizens just voted to reject a multimillion-dollar courthouse project—but the county judge wants to force them to pay for it anyway.

Is a Texas county judge blatantly overriding the decision of local voters?

Aransas County Judge Burt Mills is currently planning to force citizens in the small coastal county to pay for a controversial multimillion-dollar project they just turned down at the polls.

In the recent November election, locals voted 53-46 percent to reject Proposition A, a $27 million debt to build a new county courthouse.

The project was mired in public controversy since the summer, when county commissioners increased the local taxpayer portion of the cost from $6 million to $17.2 million and announced they would try to force citizens to pay the expensive bill without even putting the project to a public vote (they would do so by issuing nonvoter-approved certificate of obligation bonds).

Following that announcement, local citizen Andrew Kane started a petition drive to compel the county to put the project on the November election ballot. After 1,100 people signed the petition, county officials had to comply and ask citizens’ permission for the money. During this time, local citizens formed a Facebook group called “Aransas County – let us vote” that quickly grew to 1,200 followers.

However, despite that movement and a majority of citizens voting to reject the massive new debt, Judge Mills is planning to do the project anyway—thus forcing citizens to pay for it—according to a Facebook post last week from County Commissioner Wendy Kilpatrick Laubach.

More: https://texasscorecard.com/local/will-a-county-judge-force-citizens-to-fund-a-project-they-rejected/

Offline Cyber Liberty

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Re: Will a County Judge Force Citizens to Fund a Project They Rejected?
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2020, 04:15:00 am »
Why not?  They do it all the time.
For unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death — if you’re unvaccinated — for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm. Sloe Joe Biteme 12/16
I will NOT comply.
 
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