Austin news has been accumulating in heaps in drifts like trash strewn from a homeless encampment in a public park. So let’s grab a shovel:
More than $6 million in taxpayer money flowed to Austin nonprofits affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but taxpayers might never learn the identities of the organizations that got the money or get a chance to dig into their stated need for assistance.
Citing a little-known state law that government transparency experts are only now learning exists, the city has refused to turn over a list of the 365 nonprofits that were granted the funds.
The $6 million was funneled through the city from the federal government and distributed out of the Austin Nonprofit and Civic Health Organizations Relief fund, more commonly known as the ANCHOR fund.
On Oct. 19, the American-Statesman requested a list from the city of the fund’s award recipients. On Nov. 16, the city denied the newspaper’s request, saying in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that it thought the information was exempt from public disclosure and requested that Paxton’s office affirm that determination.
The law invoked by the city’s legal department, House Bill 3175, went on the books after the 2019 Texas legislative session.
Filed by state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-Beaumont, the bill made confidential the name and other identifying information of individuals and businesses that apply for state or federal disaster recovery funds. The definition of disaster, as spelled out in the law, includes such things as floods, earthquakes and hostile military action. It also includes epidemics, such as the COVID-19 crisis.
The disclosure of federal relief dollars is not exempted from public records if the money is awarded by the federal government. For example, news organizations, including the Statesman, have obtained through public records the names of businesses that received financial assistance through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.
But under the new state law, Austin was able to withhold the identities of businesses that received assistance from the ANCHOR fund because the money, although originally from the federal government, went to the city before it was distributed to the nonprofits.
I just naturally assume the money was handed out as graft to members of the Homeless Industrial Complex, Greg Casar’s leftwing cronies, and various antifa/#BlackLivesMatter riot instigators (I’m sure there’s a lot of overlap between those categories).
Cabo @mayoradler is 100% responsible. https://t.co/aHcfW6Rmv9
— Austin Network (@Austin_Network) January 5, 2021
As the cherry on top, the City of Austin’s Stage 5 Wuhan coronavirus restrictions are still in effect through February 16…
Tags: ANCHOR fund, Austin, Brad Johnson, Crime, Democrats, drugs, fraud, Greg Casar, homeless, Joe Deshotel, Ken Paxton, Matt Mackowiak, Regulation, Social Justice Warriors, Steve Adler, Taxes, Texas
Not every restaurant in Austin is being anal about the mask requirements. I’ve been in two different South Austin restaurants in the past ten days where the staff were the only ones wearing masks, and nothing was said and I was seated. One restaurant did turn me away; I told the manager he was walking a $50 ticket, but he just shrugged his shoulders. Austin elected this mayor and council, and what’s more sad is that they’ll be reelected.
ANCHOR fund, eh?
ACORN by another name, looks like to me.
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