Just over $95 million of the $1.9 trillion from the American Rescue Act is being used right here in Brazos County. Bryan received slightly more than $21 million, while College Station received $29 million, Brazos County received a total of $42 million in funding.

So, let me clear this up. They each received millions of dollars, yet voted to raise our taxes by more than 10%?

Where are the local elected officials who campaigned on tax cuts? They certainly changed their tune after being elected. To me, this sounds like Washington, DC.

We should applaud Commissioners Steve Aldrich and Russ Ford for being the only two local elected officials willing to raise the issue.


https://www.kbtx.com/2022/09/26/brazos-county-commissioners-set-discuss-allocating-425-million-arpa-funds/

We need an Aggieland Taxes board

There's a lot of Post Oak Mall still to be bought.

They cry that they need to hire sheriff's deputies, and the health department is understaffed, while sitting on $80m.

If that's not enough to hire deputies and a couple of folks for the Health Department, then I need to apply with the county!

Come on guys, 29 mil barely buys you a concession stand and a bathroom at the ball park.

LSCSN said:

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whats a rainy day fund?

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Something you *USE* during a rainy day/pandemic. Not something you sit on, during the rainy day, then raise taxes after, during a recession. I know my salary only went up 2.7%, and I'm not old enough to have my taxes frozen.

They're going up anyway, due to BCAD. That delta should be plenty for Nancy and Duane.

How much of this is to pay off the county covid czar that weathered out the pandemic in New Mexico.

It's greed. When you get money you just need more. Another case and point - Blue Baker receiving millions of dollars in forgiven PPP loans but continuing to raise prices during and after the pandemic.

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$95 million awarded to local entities, why did they have to raise taxes?

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You need to ask? Government doing what (bad) government does.

althormoon said:

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It's greed. When you get money you just need more. Another case and point - Blue Baker receiving millions of dollars in forgiven PPP loans but continuing to raise prices during and after the pandemic.

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This reads like you have no idea what you're talking about.

First I seriously doubt a business the size of Blue Baker got "millions" in PPP funds. I was extremely familiar with the math of PPP (not for Blue Baker) including food service businesses likely bigger than they are and nobody got close to that figure.

Second what does money received to keep employees paid in 2020 and 2021 have to do with rising food and labor costs in 2022? If they were forgiven that means they used the funds appropriately which means at least 60% of that money went to employees during the shutdowns.

althormoon said:

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LOYAL AG said:

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althormoon said:

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It's greed. When you get money you just need more. Another case and point - Blue Baker receiving millions of dollars in forgiven PPP loans but continuing to raise prices during and after the pandemic.

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This reads like you have no idea what you're talking about.

First I seriously doubt a business the size of Blue Baker got "millions" in PPP funds. I was extremely familiar with the math of PPP (not for Blue Baker) including food service businesses likely bigger than they are and nobody got close to that figure.

Second what does money received to keep employees paid in 2020 and 2021 have to do with rising food and labor costs in 2022? If they were forgiven that means they used the funds appropriately which means at least 60% of that money went to employees during the shutdowns.

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It's public information. You can go to propublica and type in a College Station zip code and see how much everyone in the area got. Their smallest loan forgiven was 500k (guessing their smallest store) and two other loans for their LLC were even more than that. Many other restaurants in the area also got hundreds of thousands (Dixie Chicken, Coopers, Veritas, Napa Flats and on and on). Feel free to look it up yourself.

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I will but that doesn't change the crux of the discussion. PPP was intended for businesses to keep their employees paid while the government forced all of us to close. To be forgiven at least 60% had to be used for payroll with a max of $8333 x 2.5 for an owner. Other uses could be rent, utilities, operating software subscriptions and suppliers. Since it was forgiven I'm going to assume they did it the right way which by definition means they didn't get rich off of it.

The real point for me is that complaining about a business owner getting then being forgiven for PPP is misplaced rage. Blame the government that WAY overreacted to a severe cold and grossly stepped out of bounds in their authority. What were businesses supposed to do to keep their employees? We couldn't generate revenue because of said government overreaction.

althormoon said:

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LOYAL AG said:

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althormoon said:

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It's greed. When you get money you just need more. Another case and point - Blue Baker receiving millions of dollars in forgiven PPP loans but continuing to raise prices during and after the pandemic.

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This reads like you have no idea what you're talking about.

First I seriously doubt a business the size of Blue Baker got "millions" in PPP funds. I was extremely familiar with the math of PPP (not for Blue Baker) including food service businesses likely bigger than they are and nobody got close to that figure.

Second what does money received to keep employees paid in 2020 and 2021 have to do with rising food and labor costs in 2022? If they were forgiven that means they used the funds appropriately which means at least 60% of that money went to employees during the shutdowns.

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It's public information. You can go to propublica and type in a College Station zip code and see how much everyone in the area got. Their smallest loan forgiven was 500k (guessing their smallest store) and two other loans for their LLC were even more than that. Many other restaurants in the area also got hundreds of thousands (Dixie Chicken, Coopers, Veritas, Napa Flats and on and on). Feel free to look it up yourself.

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Ok I went back and looked. Multiple thoughts:

1. That's not a comprehensive list as only one of my clients in 77840 or 77845 is in there and even my business is not. The one that is was accurate so that's good news.

2. That number for Blue Baker is much bigger than I would have expected for a business that size which tells me their payroll is much bigger than I believed it was. The math was literally 10 weeks of payroll according to the business' 941 so there was really no room for fraud though obviously it did happen. We're seeing fraudulent loans prosecuted so if they committed fraud we'll know eventually. Until then I'll assume they got 10 weeks of payroll and spent it appropriately.

3. How do you benefit in knowing that information? Do what you want with your time but looking up a business' PPP amounts strikes me as ***** envy which is just not something I engage in. Not saying that's your motivation just saying it's the last thing on earth I'd think to spend time on. How does knowing this make your life better? Genuine question.

It is odd that you are defending the program so strongly when the waste fraud and abuse associated with the program is so widely known.

cslifer said:

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It is odd that you are defending the program so strongly when the waste fraud and abuse associated with the program is so widely known.

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I'm not defending it. I think it was a terrible idea in an avalanche of terrible ideas that year. I know there's been fraud and if these local businesses committed fraud eventually they'll be prosecuted and we'll know about. I said I know the program well including the math for determining how much was advanced and how to secure forgiveness. Between the two PPP programs my company handled the entire process from application to forgiveness for probably 45 loans. I'll bet there aren't 10 people in this town that know that program better than I do.

This conversation violates two things I never do in life:

1. Envy someone else for what they have.
2. Assume someone I've never met is a crook with the notable exception of national politicians who are all crooks.

Taking the time to research what someone received in PPP money then complaining about it online in a tone suggesting the recipient has somehow done something wrong despite no evidence violates both of those rules. If you don't like PPP that's fine but blame the politicians who implemented policies that literally threatened millions of small businesses rather than the owners of those businesses who did whatever they could to survive.

Then to complain about price increases in 2022 because someone received a grant that they used to maintain payroll in 2020 once again looks like misplaced rage. Blue Baker isn't raising prices because they want to they're raising them because the raw materials and labor they use to make food are soaring and that's happening in part because of those same destructive government programs. Current inflation isn't greed, that's just absurd. Printing trillions in the wake of Covid has to create inflation, there's no other possible outcome. Then mix in labor imbalances caused by retiring boomers and collapsing Asian supply lines and this is what you get. This was always going to be a difficult decade. Covid and specifically the government's response to Covid only made it worse. Blaming business owners for what we're seeing in the economy is just wrong.