The “Infrastructure” Bill: The Deeper You Get, The Worse It Gets

August 4th, 2021

The more conservatives look at the $1.2 trillion pork-filled “infrastructure” bill currently worming its way through the legislative intestines of capitol hill, the less they like it.

Vance Ginn and E. J. Antoni of the Texas Public Policy Foundation: “It has just $110 billion, or less than 10%, for what’s historically been considered infrastructure—roads and bridges. The other 90% is to fund mass transit waste, green energy nonsense, and more items that the states or the private sector could do.”

Speaking of green energy nonsense:

Obscured in more than 2,700 pages of the U.S. Senate’s so-called bipartisan “infrastructure” bill is a plan for state-mandated carbon reduction programs….

“A state, in consultation with any metropolitan planning organization designated within the state, shall develop a carbon reduction strategy,” according to the text, which is also in the officially released version of the bill.

The federal government oversees metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), which are designated by agreement between the governor and local governments and represent localities in all urbanized areas (UZAs) with populations over 50,000, as determined by the U.S. Census, according to the Federal Transit Administration. There are at least 420 MPOs in the United States, the National Association of Regional Councils estimated.

No later than two years after the bill’s enactment, states would have to present their carbon reduction programs for approval to the secretary of transportation. The proposed strategies must meet several requirements to be considered “green” enough.

Requirements include but are not limited to:

  • Reducing traffic congestion by disincentivizing single-occupant vehicle trips and facilitating “the use of alternatives” like public transportation, shared or pooled vehicle trips, “pedestrian facilities,” and “bicycle facilities” within the state.
  • Facilitating the use of vehicles or modes of travel that result in “lower transportation emissions per person-mile traveled as compared to existing vehicles.”
  • Incentivizing the construction of vehicles that emit less carbon.
  • Mark Tapscott also notes that the bill tests a new federal tax on every mile Americans drive:

    Buried in the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” in the U.S. Senate is approval for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to test a new federal tax on every mile driven by individual Americans.

    The bill directs Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to establish a pilot program to demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee designed “to restore and maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.”

    The objectives of the pilot program include:

    To test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

    To address the need for additional revenue for surface transportation infrastructure and a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

    To provide recommendations relating to the adoption and implementation of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

    Although the new tax is described as a pilot program and would initially rely upon “volunteers” representing all 50 states, the infrastructure measure would also require the Treasury Department to establish a mechanism to collect motor vehicle per-mile user fees from the participants.

    This is a very bad camel to let get its nose into the tent.

    Plus it institutes racial quotas on broadband.

    Right now the bill is being slow-walked while the senate fights over amendments. Knowing the way Washington works, no amendments can fix this monstrosity, not least because it spends money we don’t have on garbage we don’t need to line the pockets of people who view taxpayers as pinatas. Republican senators should filibuster this budget-busting bill.

    Austin Police Refunding Proposition Makes November Ballot

    August 3rd, 2021

    It’s official: Save Austin Now’s initiative to refund Austin police cut by the hard-left mayor and City Council is officially on the ballot in November:

    The petition is to restore a statutory level of 2 officers per 1,000 citizens, add an elected head of police oversight (not appointed by the council) and double officer training per year, among other things.

    Hopefully Austin’s citizens will vote for this outbreak of sanity in November.

    Now: When can we expect the City Council to actually follow the law and institute Prop B?

    2,702 Pages Of Pork

    August 2nd, 2021

    The pork-laden “infrastructure” bill has been unveiled, and it’s a monster. Some 2702 pages long, H. R. 3684 seems geared to shovel as much money into various branches of the federal bureaucracy as quickly as possible with as little oversight as possible.

    The table of contents alone is some 17 pages long. And the usual crappy government PDF practices seem at work here. Looking for “high speed rail”? That search brings up nothing, but if you search for “high speed” with two spaces “high” and “speed,” you get one mention on page 2331. “Rail” appears 322 times (because Democrats obviously love subsidizing choo-choos).

    Some random gleamings:

  • The word “tribal” appears 226 times
  • “Diversity” appears 23 times (most mentions appear to be unrelated to the SJW kind)
  • “Equity” appears 59 times, many under the “Digital Equity Act” (broadband subsidies)
  • “Housing” appears 68 times
  • “Marijuana” appears 12, most under “Sec. 25026. Report on marijuana research,” because evidently “driving while high is a bad idea” needs more federally funded research.
  • Some random minutia that somehow is found in a giant federal spending bill:

  • Sec. 11133. Bicycle transportation and pedestrian walkways.
  • Sec. 11527. Blood transport vehicles.
  • Sec. 11528. Pollinator-friendly practices on roadsides and highway rights-of-way.
  • Sec. 22402. Grade crossing accident prediction model.
  • Sec. 24214. Hood and bumper standards.
  • There’s a “Carbon Reduction Program” (starting page 328) because of course there is.

    There’s a lot of sections on “Cybersecurity” (194 matches), some of which might be a good idea in a separate cybersecurity bill, but is probably misplaced in an infrastructure bill. (The overwhelming problem is properly securing the technological infrastructure we already have. Buying new servers isn’t going to prevent the Tony Podestras of the world from using PASSWORD as their password…)

    All this only scratches the surface of a bill week-kneed Republicans are telling us is acceptable only because it doesn’t have every leftwing wishlist item the $3.5 trillion “infrastructure” bill does. I haven’t even remotely read all of this bill, and I’m not sure anyone has. That’s reason alone to urge Republicans to reject this monster.

    Maybe we could crowdsource reading the text of the bill, and weigh in on the individual sections…

    Chronicles of The Crazy Years 1: Gas Station Liability Lunacy

    August 1st, 2021

    Dwight mentioned this story to me, and at first I thought it was a joke, but its apparently just another manifestation of The Crazy Years. “New Mexico Court Rules Gas Stations Liable for Selling Fuel to Drunk Drivers”:

    Drunk driving is dangerous. The NHTSA says that someone is killed every 52 minutes due to a preventable crash where at least one party behind the wheel is intoxicated. Now, the New Mexico Supreme Court is looking to hold gas stations accountable for their role in knowingly allowing drunk drivers to hit the road.

    Last week the court ruled 3-to-1 that gas stations have a “duty of care” to not allow individuals who are intoxicated to purchase fuel. In fact, the ruling goes as far as to edict that any gas station which knowingly permits drunk drivers to fuel up their vehicles can be held liable for any injuries caused by that person behind the wheel while they are intoxicated.

    New Mexico is the second such state in the U.S. to publish a ruling which places the burden of responsibility on gas stations—Tennessee was the first. However, it’s important to note that there is no state law that explicitly prohibits the sale of gasoline to an intoxicated party in New Mexico. The court instead cited a fatal accident that occurred in 2011 where a gas station sold fuel to an intoxicated person who later got into an accident and killed the driver of the vehicle that was hit.

    How are they going to prove the “knowingly” part when so many sales are pay-at-the-pump with a credit card these days?

    This is part and parcel of the drive to disassociate people from blame for their own actions and failures and displace it to large faceless entities that the left must rail against (corporations, “white supremacy,” capitalism). The person responsible for a DUI is the person who drives drunk.

    Kentucky Minigunning

    July 31st, 2021

    Less than three months ago, Scott Allen DeShields, Jr. of Kentucky Ballistics almost died when his .50 BMG blew up.

    Not only did he recover well enough to shoot again, but yesterday he was out there shooting a Minigun!

    After shooting through the usual Kentucky Ballistic tropes (tables, watermelons and eggplants), Scott & Company getting down to shooting a car with not only the Minigun, but with a .50 BMG “Ma Deuce” machine gun.

    And not just any car! They shot a Robin Reliant, the three-wheeled UK car made infamous for flipping over on Top Gear.

    I think they fired off some $25,000 in ammo…

    LinkSwarm for July 30, 2021

    July 30th, 2021

    Greetings, and welcome to another Friday LinkSwarm! It’s seems less that I “finish” these than I abandon them…
    

  • Flu Manchu deaths hit zero in Sweden. Seems like “protect the elderly and go for herd immunity” was a much better strategy than “lock everything down, throw the economy into a steep recession, throw millions out of work, practice ineffective masking theater and let antifa/#BlackLivesMatter burn everything down so the Democratic Media Complex can drag Biden’s ambulatory corpse across the finish line in November.” Who’d of thunk it?
  • “Dem says party will lose House unless filibuster is squashed to pass election bill.” Dems: How can we win if you won’t let us cheat?
  • Supreme Court upholds Arizona’s voting integrity laws. Naturally, Democrats freak out…
  • Also in the courts, a defeat for Biden’s racist reparations policy.
  • Did Republicans surrender on pork-laden infrastructure bill? Sure seems that way. You can brag about how small the shit sandwich you’re eating is compared to the much larger one they wanted to shove down your throat, but it’s still a shit sandwich. Write your senators to express opposition to any infrastructure bill.
  • “North Carolina Congressman Proposes to Kill 2,378 Pet Projects in New Budget.” Good. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
  • Speaking of corruption:

    The brother of one of President Joe Biden’s closest advisors lobbied members of the National Security Council for General Motors in the second quarter, according to a new disclosure report reviewed by CNBC.

    The report shows that Jeff Ricchetti, brother of White House counselor Steve Ricchetti, engaged with the NSC for the car-making giant on “issues related to China.” The company paid Ricchetti $60,000 last quarter for his lobbying services.

  • Gavin Newsom just might lose the California recall. How bad do you have to suck to lose a recall election in a one-party state? The answer is “Gavin Newsom bad.”
  • He’s also trying to ban fracking.
  • By a 9-1 margin, Detroit residents are more concerned with controlling crime than police reform:

    By an overwhelming 9-1, they would feel safer with more cops on the street, not fewer. Though one-third complain that Detroit police use force when it isn’t necessary – and Black men report high rates of racial profiling – those surveyed reject by 3-1 the slogan of some progressives to “defund the police.”

    “It’s scary sitting in the house, and when you go outside to the gas station or the store, it’s possible someone will be shooting right next to you,” said Charlita Bell, 41, a lifelong Detroit resident who was among those called in the poll. Last year, when her car was hit by stray bullets during a shopping trip, she hurried home rather than wait for the police for fear the shooter might return.

  • Things that make you go “Hmmmm“: “Why Are Soros And Gates Buying UK COVID Testing Company?”
  • France Warned US in 2015 About China’s Wuhan Lab“:

    In 2015, French intelligence officials warned the U.S. State Department and their own foreign ministry that China was cutting back on agreed collaboration at the lab, former State Department official David Asher, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.

    By 2017, the French “were kicked out” of the lab and cooperation ceased, leading French officials to warn the State Department that they had grave concerns as to Chinese motivations, according to Asher.

  • 90% of the illegal aliens let in by the Biden Administration don’t report to ICE as required by law. This is my shocked face. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • “If you hate the culture wars, blame liberals.”
  • “Liz Cheney Is The Most Unpopular Republican In The Country.” To quote the nameless sage: Duh!
  • Connecticut Democrat arrested for committing that voting fraud that doesn’t exist.

    Bridgeport Councilman Michael DeFilippo has been indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple election fraud charges.

    DeFilippo, 35, a Democrat who represents Bridgeport’s 133rd District and has been a city councilman since 2018, is accused of conspiring to “interfere with and obstruct Bridgeport citizens’ right to vote by falsifying his tenants’ voter registration applications and absentee ballots applications, then stealing tenants’ absentee ballots and forging their signatures in order to fraudulently vote for him,” according to Acting U.S. Attorney Leonard C. Boyle.

    (Hat tip: CTIronman.)

  • “Antifa celebrates as Washington State police officer shot in the head and killed.” (Hat tip: Ian Miles Cheong.)
  • Despite soaring crime rates, left wing idiots on the Minneapolis City Council still want to defund the police. (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
  • Who is behind the defunding push? You know who.

    Billionaire financier George Soros directed $1 million to a left-wing group that seeks to cut funding to police departments around the country, according to federal records.

    Soros sent the funds to the Color of Change PAC on May 14, the Washington Free Beacon reported on July 22, citing Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. The contribution was the largest political contribution made by Soros during the 2021 election cycle.

    Color of Change, which describes itself as a racial justice group, has frequently called for the defunding of police departments across the United States, including leading an online campaign to slash funding following the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

  • Man threatens to rape, kill woman through her Ring doorbell camera.
  • Speaking of doorbell cameras: Justice is served:

    (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)

  • Also speaking of instant justice, Texas style: Everybody must get stoned.
  • MyPillow employee beheaded in Shakopee, Minnesota. Suspect is in custody. “They say Alexis Saborit is also facing previous charges of property damage, arson, and obstruction. The presiding judge, Richard C. Perkins, allegedly ignored claims of mental illness brought forward to the court and [Saborit] was somehow released back into the public.”
  • Joe Biden’s own laws don’t apply to Hunter:

  • Texas Governor Greg Abbott finally preempts localities from imposing capacity restrictions. Better late than never…
  • Sucky cable news channels continue to suck:

  • Dust storm envelops Phoenix.
  • Jackie Mason, RIP. Also one from Dwight.
  • Speaking of Dwight obits, Snort Snodgrass, acclaimed fighter pilot.
  • Scarlett Johansson sues Disney, “alleging that her contract was breached when Black Widow was released on Disney+.”

    Image totally for illustrative purposes.

  • The British definition of happiness is a bit different than ours…
  • Some Mao Tze Lung memes:

  • “Hunter Biden’s Polar Bear Standing by a White Rock in a Blizzard sells for $10 million to unknown buyer.” (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Saw meets the Lockpicking Lawyer.
  • Maniac MANiac…

  • Austin Pays $10,000 A Day To Indoctrinate APD In Critical Race Theory, Demands Officers Sign “Contract” Before Even Taking Class

    July 29th, 2021

    Austin is paying a consultant $10,000 a day to indoctrinate police in Critical Race Theory under the name of “Groundwater Analysis”:

    The person they contracted with specializes in teaching Critical Race Theory. “Systemic racism,” “equity,” the whole nine yards.

    But wait. It gets worse.

    Attendees are required to agree to a “contract” stating that attendees must agree to certain conditions before taking the class, including:

  • Not taking notes
  • Not to talk about the class outside the class (“Vega rule”)
  • They must agree that the United States, Texas, Austin and APD are institutionally racist.
  • So before even taking the class, student are required to agree with the racist tenets of hard left Critical Race Theory.

    That’s a Soviet May Day parade of red flags, and probably illegal under Texas law, both due to being signed under duress and because there is no “mutual consideration” between the two parties. (Also note how the facilitator made sure that no lawyers were in attendance before offering up this “contract.”)

    Requiring APD officers to attend such a course, and agree to such terms a priori, is both unamerican and probably illegal.

    Democratic Megadonor Ed Buck Convicted Of All Charges

    July 28th, 2021

    Democratic Party megadonor Ed Buck, the perverted creep who lured young black men to his home to administer frequently fatal methamphetamine overdoses to them, has been convicted of all nine charges:

    Ed Buck, a longtime fixture of West Hollywood politics, was convicted Tuesday of charges that he supplied the methamphetamine that killed two men during “party-and-play” encounters at his apartment.

    After about four hours of deliberations, the jury found Buck guilty of every charge in a nine-count indictment that also accused him of maintaining a drug den, distributing methamphetamine and enticement to cross state lines to engage in prostitution.

    Buck, 66, could spend the rest of his life in prison. The convictions for supplying the meth that resulted in death each carry a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

    The verdict concluded a two-week trial that featured harrowing testimony by Black men hired by Buck, who is white, to show off their bodies in underwear and get high on crystal meth and the party drug GHB. Excerpts from Buck’s hundreds of graphic videos and photos of the drugs-and-sex sessions were played at the trial.

    Buck’s obsessive pursuit of his dangerous fetish led to the overdose deaths of two Black men in his apartment: Gemmel Moore, 26, in July 2017, and Timothy Dean, 55, in January 2019.

    It was only in September 2019, after a third Black man nearly died of an overdose, that Buck was arrested — a delay that fueled angry protests by activists who accused law enforcement officials of failing to aggressively investigate a politically influential white man. Buck, a onetime candidate for West Hollywood’s City Council, made more than $500,000 in campaign donations over the last couple of decades, nearly all of it to Democrats.

    Because there were interstate drug distribution and prostitution aspects to the Buck case, Buck caught federal charges:

    A federal grand jury today returned a superseding indictment charging Edward Buck with four additional felonies, including that he allegedly enticed victims – including a man who died at his West Hollywood apartment after he administered drugs to him – to travel interstate to engage in prostitution.

    Buck, 65, was arrested in September 2019 after being charged in United States District Court with providing methamphetamine to a man who died after receiving the drug intravenously. Since that time, federal authorities have continued to investigate Buck for additional crimes.

    The four additional counts charged today – bringing the total number of charges in this case to nine counts – include one count alleging that Buck knowingly enticed 26-year-old Gemmel Moore to travel to the Los Angeles area to engage in prostitution. Buck allegedly provided methamphetamine to Moore, who overdosed on the drug and died on July 27, 2017.

    Buck also is charged with another count of enticing another man to travel with the intent of engaging in prostitution.

    The superseding indictment also charges Buck with one count of knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine, and one count of using his residence for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.

    Last year, a federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging that Buck “engaged in a pattern of soliciting men to consume drugs that Buck provided and perform sexual acts at Buck’s apartment,” which is a practice described as “party and play.” Buck allegedly solicited victims on social media platforms, including a gay dating website, and used a recruiter to scout and proposition men.

    Once the men were at his apartment, Buck allegedly prepared syringes containing methamphetamine, sometimes personally injecting the victims with or without their consent, according to the indictment. Buck also allegedly injected victims with more narcotics than they expected and sometimes injected victims while they were unconscious.

    Another victim, Timothy Dean also suffered a fatal overdose in Buck’s apartment, on January 7, 2019, the indictment alleges.

    For years Ed Buck was protected because of the campaign donations he doled out to Democratic politicians:

    West Hollywood politics has a glimmering rainbow surface, but the authentic underlying powers are real estate interests. The City Council controls the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development projects, a fact reflected in their campaign contributions. “Developers don’t drop tens of thousands of dollars in West Hollywood because they like the City’s position on gay marriage, says former West Hollywood Mayor Steve Martin.

    With a huge war chest supporting them, a small handful of politicians reduced the government of West Hollywood to a game of musical chairs. John Duran, John D`Amico, John Heilman, Jeffrey Prang, and Abbe Land would bounce back and forth between the Mayor’s Office and City Council for decades, winning eighteen out of the last twenty-one mayoral elections between them.

    Ed Buck played a variety of supporting roles in the political machinery, buoying the chosen few.

    D’Amico’s political career was launched on the back of Buck’s support, winning a seat on City Council after marching through West Hollywood with Buck promoting his “Fur Free WeHo” campaign. Buck’s donations and connections to other major donors, including billionaire Gary Michelson, brought tens of thousands of dollars to Buck’s friends on City Council through multiple entities sharing the name ANIMAL PAC.

    Buck’s money also bought him a position on the Steering Committee of the Stonewall Democratic Club, the kingmaker of West Hollywood politics. Buck used his position on the Steering Committee to influence Stonewall’s secretive endorsement process, one “designed to protect incumbents and well-financed, well-connected candidates,” says a former Steering Committee member. Stonewall rank and file must have wondered why the LGBTQ group was promoting candidates for County Tax Assessor and Board of Equalization. Buck was so useful, Abbe Land would open City Council meetings by calling him to recite the pledge of allegiance.

    He also appeared to be a lot of local Democratic politicians’ favorite conduit to evade campaign finance limits:

    Officially retired since his early thirties, Buck would not have had the money to sustain his prolific spending habits relating to drugs, escorts, and politics. His biggest payday was in the 1980s when he flipped his friend’s business, Gopher Courier, to profit just over a million dollars, after which he lost money investing into pay-phones and a restaurant.

    After moving to West Hollywood, Buck was suspiciously cash-rich and asset poor, driving a wreck of a car and living in a rent-controlled apartment. Journalists paint Buck as a wealthy social climber, but his finances and lifestyle suggest he was a dirty political operative.

    Data from California’s political contribution records is highly truncated, but campaign finance rules create patterns that highlight alliances.

    One can skirt contribution limits and obscure contribution origins by breaking up large donations into smaller payments and passing them through family members and political allies, so I looked for donors that matched Buck’s donations.

    He donated varying amounts to plenty of politicians and causes, but there were consistent primary beneficiaries such as Jeffrey Prang, John Duran, Scott Svonkin, Honesty PAC, and of course, his ANIMAL PACs. The highly incestuous top donors who also supported Prang, Duran, Svonkin, and Buck’s PACs were real estate interests, chief among them being Excel Property Management Services managed by CEO Arman Gabay. Arman Gabay and his company funded Jeffrey Prang’s successful 2014 Los Angeles County Assessor bid with the help of Ed Buck, Ed Buck’s future attorney Seymour Amster, ANIMAL PAC, John Duran, West Hollywood activists, and various real estate interests. The same donors also funded periphery candidates who endorsed Prang and Svonkin.

    And don’t forget this classic photo of Buck with California Democratic congressman Ted Lieu.

    Or this one:

    Ed Buck was useful, and that’s why Buck (and his deadly fetish games) were protected from public scrutiny and prosecution. Then the New York Times lied and tried to call him a “small-time Democratic donor.”

    More background on Buck can be found in these Grant Baker pieces here, here, and here.

    Trump Endorses Paxton Over Bush

    July 27th, 2021

    All that sucking up to Trump got George P. Bush bubkis:

    At the end of May, former President Donald Trump said that he liked two Texas attorney general candidates — current Attorney General Ken Paxton and Land Commissioner George P. Bush — “both very much,” but that he would make his “endorsement and recommendation to the great people of Texas in the not-so-distant future.”

    Trump followed through with that on Monday evening and announced his endorsement of Paxton.

    “Attorney General Ken Paxton has been bravely on the front line in the fight for Texas, and America, against the vicious and very dangerous Radical Left Democrats, and the foolish unsuspecting RINOs that are destroying our Country,” said Trump.

    “Ken is strong on Crime, Border Security, the Second Amendment, Election Integrity and, above all, our Constitution. He loves our Military and our Vets. It is going to take a PATRIOT like Ken Paxton to advance America First policies in order to Make America Great Again. Ken has my Complete and Total Endorsement for another term as Attorney General of Texas. He is a true Texan who will keep Texas safe—and will never let you down!”

    Paxton said that he was “honored to receive the endorsement” of Trump.

    Several weeks ago after appearing at an event in South Texas along the border with Trump, the attorney general expressed optimism that the endorsement would “fall towards me at the right time.”

    After the contested presidential election last year, Paxton filed a lawsuit on behalf of the state challenging the constitutionality of the elections in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, though the Supreme Court ultimately tossed his suit out.

    I don’t agree with 100% of Trump’s endorsements, but he got this one right. Among Texas conservatives here is a palpable lack of excitement over Jeb!’s son moving up to Attorney General. Land Commissioner is not an office that usually draws much attention, but all the attention George P. Bush has drawn to it has tended to be negative, especially the Alamo controversy. There’s also a feeling that Paxton has generally done an excellent job and been on the right side of almost every issue, even if he hasn’t won all of them in court.

    Paxton is also outpolling Bush right now 42% to 34% (usual poll caveats apply), and Eva Guzman has not yet made much of an impression on the race. Paxton also has more money on hand, but the Bush clan has a famously deep and effective money-raising machine, and Bush has already raised $2,264,137.95 for the race. How much Trump’s endorsement of Paxton will cool fundraising enthusiasm for Bush remains to be seen. I doubt many the people writing checks to Bush backed Trump prior to 2016, but Trump’s endorsement swings a lot of weight in Republican primaries, and I suspect a certain percentage of Bush donors may now see any further donations as wasted money.

    Whoever wins the primary is likely to face Joe Jaworski in the general, and right now he has more cash on hand than any declared Democrat running statewide in 2022.

    It’s going to be an interesting race…

    Dallas Mayor Wants To Hire 275 More Police

    July 26th, 2021

    While Austin’s leadership remains in the grip of police defunding lunacy, Dallas mayor Eric Johnson has stepped up to request 275 additional police officers:

    Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax’s proposed budget is due next month, and Mayor Eric Johnson is requesting that it include enough funding to hire 275 additional police officers during the next fiscal year.

    In a press statement on Tuesday, Johnson also called for a pay bump for first responders and said that “public safety must come first.”

    “While we cannot depend on police alone to prevent crime, our officers play a unique role in taking dangerous people — especially repeat offenders — off our streets,” Johnson said. “Our police department has been strained in recent years by short staffing, which has necessitated substantial police overtime spending.”

    The mayor also said that the city should expand its police force “to meet the demands of our residents and to make our communities safer and stronger.” The current fiscal year’s budget and an initial draft of the coming fiscal year’s budget only provide for 150 new officers, according to a July 15 memo from Johnson to Broadnax.

    Adding 275 officers would also be “70 officers above the expected attrition.”

    According to the city manager’s office, the Dallas Police Department (DPD) has hired and trained 77 officers so far this fiscal year, and 144 officers have resigned, retired, or otherwise lost their jobs. This has created a net loss of 67 police officers so far.

    DPD was the center of controversy last year when the city council chose to cut 25 percent of the department’s overtime budget for the current fiscal year. Following the budget cut and a series of other dustups, then-Chief Renee Hall left her post in December.

    Johnson has been an ardent supporter of the department and actively fought a movement to divert funds away from the department during last year’s budget talks. The mayor called the DPD overtime cut “unconscionable” and proposed cutting the salaries of high-level city employees instead.

    While other cities have abandoned police defunding lunacy, Austin’s blinkered far-left city council and mayor still refuses to protect citizens from rising crime rates.