December 5, 2025 • 31 mins
Michael Berry tackles heated debates over property taxes, marijuana laws, and the hidden agendas shaping Texas policy.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael darry Show is on the air. That wasn't the
(00:25):
smoothest transition ever, was it. I heard it? Yeah, I
definitely heard it, and they heard it. Everybody heard it.
Do you think you can slip it by? Oh, maybe
they should mind their own business?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Happy or happy day? When do those war? When it wore,
when those war? She was away love happy day or
(01:10):
happy dad?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Or happy day?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We do those walls.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And pretty warm.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
We do this war?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
She look away, he loved. It's a happy day, a
(02:12):
happy day.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Or a happy day of winter of war? Oh, witty
war winterred of war?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Three of a way a happy day? Ode what have
(03:18):
you deal?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
What have you deal? Or happy day? Or habitay? When
(04:43):
those walls when it was.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
When those war.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Three was the way he needed.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
To love me.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
The Oh.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yes, it's open line Friday. I love that because that
means we get to hear from you your I truly believe.
Has your week flown as it blown? Good news, bad news?
Something we said earlier in the show in the week
that you wanted to get on and just couldn't whatever
that might be. Seven one three nine nine nine one
(05:28):
thousand and seven, one three nine, one thousand. Of course
you can email me through the website Michael Berryshow dot
com now to get us started as we always do
courtesy of the greatest executive producer in all the land,
CHATTACONI knakadishi you want to do. I cannot go out
(05:50):
in public without some woman at the very next table
who's a cackler and apparently whoever she's with is Bob Hope.
They just they did just one line. She did right.
Nobody at their table can tell her to shut up.
Parafang attack inside a barber shop. That video shows a
man getting angry after a hair Security.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
Video from that day shows Davis walking back into Square
Biz with a gun and threatening the owner, Samuel Wilson.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Wilson says this was all over an issue with Davis's hairline.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
The haircut is that bad though, that he pulled a
fire in front of.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
A key dispute resolution skills absolutely act a fool. The
dude cuts your hairline too high, it'll grow back. Video
of a raccoon that has gone viral. It broke into
a liquor store. Bran sacked several shelves. The animal became
intoxicated and it passed out.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
In that row?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Was she just not able to contain her laughter? Her cackle? Hody,
we know you knew the story already. There's no way
you thought it was that funny. The fifth time you
heard it. You just couldn't control yourself. Was that supposed
to add to the y'all should be lat Was that
the laft track? I'm driving in and I hear it,
And the thing about I don't understand it is it
(07:06):
was a Michael Berry endorsement. It was a public grand ranch.
So why would you do? I appreciate that you endorse him,
but why would they play when they could have a folks?
It's Michael Berry? I just I hope they get. Do
they get a discount home mess pot? If it's if
it's you?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
What?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
What just happened? What you cannot go out? What did
you just do? At the very next table? Who's al An?
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Apparently?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Really? Why would I appreciate that you endorse them? But
why would they play when they could have a folks
it's Michael Berry? I just I don't they get Do
they get a discount homes pot? If it's if it's you?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Ast me?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Steve Cropper, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame, has died, who wrote classic songs And sitting
on the dock of the bay and in the midnight
out sane.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Crumber, you were the soundtrack of my life. What are
you most proud of? The biggest thrill I get is
sharing the song that I've written on the radio. There's
something about radio and you hear it on the radio.
You're sitting in your car and you go, hey, I
had something to do with it.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Hey, that's me.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Now, Hey, this is Tracy Bird. And I tipped my
hand to the keeper the stall and with the sticks
(08:37):
with a six pack, an abdominal snowman. Abdominal snowman. Buddy
of mine kept telling me how he could print a
pistol with this three D printer. I was not very impressed.
I've had a cannon printer for years. To an old
(09:01):
friend from high school, he got fired from the Viagara
factory after being accused of stealing. He said, I guess
I don't want hard workers. Al you're on Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
Go ahead, Hey, Michael, how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I'm good.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
You noticed we just went through a session of Dan
having pissy fits about point and fuse products and try
to ban them. And Abbot wasn't going to sign I
can see things. He could be president kious chances, But
they kept doing something and they finally came to a
conclusion on it. Now you have but nine misdiscipo or
medical marijuana dispensary company when it opened up in Texas?
Would it be nice if you able to eliminate your
(09:38):
competition before you open up your branch offices?
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I didn't catch the connection at the end.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
So say that we think they eliminated or they eliminating
the gummy in the stores? Right, Okay, I never cared
about it as long as the flower was there. They
didn't care about it as long as that they for there.
But when you got to confused strength that applies the
alcohol business, which is losing business of Texas. Okay, it's
I think it's three hundred dollars and pounds out into
(10:09):
it that these medical dispensaries charge three hundred dollars pounce.
There's money being vague here. If I think we just scammed,
do you think they would open up if we did?
If we were still approving the fires the gummies can
fuse strengths. Do you think it would open up that's
competitive industry. No. Now they have their enough bus competition
(10:31):
and I think it's one hundred dollars to take a
test to it.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I don't use it.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
I don't care. But Republicans that'll wake up to get
scammed Dan Patrick scamdrunt profie taxes, Dan Patrick scam.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Drunk wake up coming. I'm sure everybody else is grasping it,
and I'm not, but I want to make sure I
actually understand the part you're saying that once they once
you take the vapes and the other stuff out and
you're only left with the gummies, then the price has
gone up. So I don't know that.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
But my point is the medical suspensary companies want to
dominate the market.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
I know a girl that was the Massachusetts and they
have leedo a marijuana up there, and she came down here.
We're done here, and by two years I just went
back up to Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
And she goes.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
I was amazed of all of the Spencers all, you know,
because people you can buy up here and the price
went down like crazy there that competition. Aren't Republicans believing
in that? So why would they fund for back eliminating competition.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, you know, here is the deal. Thank you for
the call, and thank you for the patients. I was
I was trying to make sure I understood your point,
which I don't always grasp and that's on me. When
you're a policy maker, a legislator is a lawmaker, and
(11:57):
when you're a policy maker a lawmaker, there are a
thousand different issues you can attack and or you can
choose to do nothing. On the issue of marijuana, which
has turned into one of the most contentious issues in
the state of Texas, here is your challenge, and I'm
(12:20):
going to be blunt about where the sides are pitched,
and that's going to upset people, especially people who are
in the discussion, but that doesn't make it any less true.
One of the issues you've got is mommies. And you've
got mommies who say, well, you've got mommies whose son
got really into marijuana products, and some of whom get
(12:43):
into the synthetic stuff. And that synthetic stuff, from what
I understand, is very very bad and it can hurt you.
It's not fentanyl, but it's not it's not nothing. So
people get into that stuff. Young people and Mommy's upset,
(13:05):
and so Mommy's a mama Bear can be a powerful
lobby and a very attractive and I don't mean that
in an inappropriate way, a very attractive proponent for a position.
You also still have a lot of older folks in
the state of Texas, particularly evangelistic Christians, who view it
(13:28):
as the dope the way my mother did until very
late in her life. And that is the same dope
that the FBI under Hoover and all wanted you to
believe was going to you know, if you took it
one time, it was going to be refor madness and
you would become zombie and everyone would die.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
But here's the flip side. I was with somebody earlier
this week and he was saying that he will never
support a Republican again, and then will he will secretly
quietly support Democrats without putting his name on it, because
he has a child with epilepsy and it is marijuana
based products that a doctor told him I can't prescribe,
but I think you should try. And so that's what
(14:08):
his child was having epileptic fits all day every day.
I was afraid the child was going to dide. I
was six seven years old. So he's studied, he's got
plenty of money, he's studied, he traveled all over the country,
they did all these tests on the only thing that
will give his child any relief is that. I cannot
tell you how many veterans that I have heard from
on this issue that will not vote for Republicans again
(14:30):
because of it, because this is the only thing that
gives them relief from PTSD and all sorts of other things.
I talked to little old ladies who tell me I
never believed I wanted that dope out of here, and
it's turned out to be the only thing that gives
me any relief from chronic pain, from excruciating pain. Well, so,
(14:53):
now we've got an issue that is not a cut
and dried issue. Now you've got an issue where you're
turning people who are naturally Republicans against you. Are you
doing the right thing? There are people who are against
it because they're against it. And then the real master
they're serving here is the alcohol industry. Let's just put
(15:13):
it what it is. The alcohol industry is suffering as
a result of this. They're seeing a slide in sales.
And I'm going to tell you as a guy who
enjoys his alcohol. Everything I've read, and it's a lot.
Alcohol is ten times worse for you and a hundred
times more more widely abused than marijuana. That's fact. I
mean the fact. But I've asked. It's living on Friday
(15:38):
seventy one three one thousand, Charles. You are up next
or take it away, bye, Michael.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I just wanted to call in.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
I hear a lot of people complaining with the legislature
about property taxes, and I understand why people are mad
about it, but shouldn't there be some responsibility on the
local levels. I live in a very Democrat area, so
I don't expect, but if you live out in Montgomery
or something, you're basically all elected Republicans, and shouldn't it
be somewhat on them to cut government or not spend
(16:10):
or lower the property taxes, as opposed to just complaining
about the lieutenant governor or the state house not doing enough.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It's a very interesting question. If you look at polling data,
it will track rather consistently that about eighty percent of
people will support eliminating property taxes, right, And I'm curious
who the other twenty percent are. I think their thought is,
(16:38):
I don't pay property taxes anyway. That's rich people. I
don't want them getting off. So people have this idea,
you know, here's the things I have to pay. I
don't want to have to pay that. They probably would
be opposed. They probably vote to eliminate your electric bill,
your car payment, your house payment. Because you are correct. Well,
(16:58):
let me say this, when you consider that most states
in the Union, I don't know what the exact number is,
I could look it up, but I have in the past.
Most states have three forms of taxes. They've got a
property tax, which is typically far lower than ours Colorado,
for instances, is a pittance of what ours. Is a
(17:20):
sales tax, which we have and which is what eight
and a quarter is that right? And then an income tax.
We don't have an income tax. We do have a
franchise tax, which is not exactly a corporate income tax,
but it's in the family of it. But almost the
(17:40):
entirety of our federal budget that does not come from
the federal government comes from property taxes. Now, when you
consider that the bulk of that is going to local items,
then it is interesting that you blame the state for it.
But here's the problem. That's a problem the state takes
(18:02):
upon themselves because if you're running for lieutenant governor or
you're running for governor, you desperately need to promise to
change things that will make people come to the polls.
And if you say I will have more readings of
declarations for visitors to the capital that today is their day,
(18:24):
that's not going to get people to the poles. So
you say, I'm going to eliminate property taxes, and there's
candidates running on that basis. Right now, I'm going to
eliminate property taxes, and people show up and vote for it.
The problem is then they're angry when you don't do it.
So you hope to throw up some smoke screens and
(18:46):
distractions after that that will get their attention. And some
people are just a dog on a bone. They won't
let it go. They've voted for that, you promised it,
why won't you do it? And so then people see,
let's take Bettancourt. They see Bettencourt out there saying look
what all I've done. I've lowered your property taxes, and
(19:07):
they look at their property taxes and they go, no, no,
actually not. But to your point, there is a bulk
of that property tax that is going for local items.
And you know, I have to tell you I see
a sort of cognitive dissonance when it comes to this
(19:28):
issue people generally. Well, I'll step back and give you
a better example, an easier example. When when the move
for term limits for members of the House, when it
really picked up speed, must have been twenty years ago.
There was an in depth, well funded study done and
(19:51):
something like, you know, eighty eight percent of people were
for term limits of House members. But then they said,
would you continue to vote for your House member if
they're beyond that? Yes? So what that meant was everybody
wanted their congressmen. They just didn't like those other congressmen
(20:12):
who hang around for a long time, but their guy
they like to keep. Well that it doesn't add up,
And when you realize it's like there's certain times you
just don't answer a question honestly, when a fat woman asks,
yous this make me look fat? You just you don't
(20:32):
answer that question. People also, I will tell you that
this is one of the challenges I found when you
have elections for really hyper local officials like school board members,
it is absurd that we have elections for those people
(20:56):
during off year off times, so you will have have
an election at a time that there's almost nothing else
going on, and you've got members of the school board
and drainage district and these sorts of things. And that
is by design. Why do we need all these different elections.
Why not put these elections on a standardized schedule every
(21:19):
two years, put the city councils on it, put everybody
on that election. If that happened, you would see a
conservative swing. And they know this in every level of government,
because the people who show up to vote for Donald
Trump will show up to vote to eliminate the local
(21:39):
football stadium eighty million dollar bond offering. They would show
up to cut all this. They would kick all the
liberal do good or progressives off the school boards. And
they know this, and that's why they don't allow it.
And that's why they have it during an off time.
And during that off time, which where they raise money
(22:01):
to build eighty million dollar sports stadiums and all sorts
of other stadiums, and just to keep enough parents happy,
they'll also build some tennis courts and they'll also put
a new swimming they'll throw some some things in so
that you can get more parental groups in on it.
And they do that during an off time when when
Trump voters, you know, Maga voters, America First voters, Conservatives,
(22:23):
Tea Party are not going to show up to the polls,
and so they get and so what they do is
they get staff members and parents of kids involved in
some activity and they get a very very low turnout,
but it's enough to get their agenda item passed. And
that's what you see more and more of. But yes,
you could solve a lot of these property tax problems
(22:46):
at the most local level, but the most local level
we're not doing as well as we think we are.
Look at what happened at what was the was it
SI Fair? Was the school district that you just had
three of the members booted off? And you have them,
you have these people that are getting support from the
Democrat Party and from Organized Blue Act Blue type organizations,
(23:10):
and they're coming in and they're registering their voters, and
they're finding everybody they can that is against anything that
that would look Christian or conservative or white, and they
pull together these coalitions. Hell Spring Branch Independent School District
should be one of the most conservative districts in the country,
and yet you've got a battle the left wants to
(23:32):
win that school board. I mean that is that that
is a pitched battle they want to win, and you
think that we should never lose that lot of look
at the results. It's the Michael Berrys shows. We're talking
about the property tax, and it's something that people care
deeply about. Show me just one time, one time, because
(23:55):
I haven't seen it a single person running for office
talk about eliminating the property tax. That tells you we're
going to eliminate an expense. Taxes don't have constituencies. Taxes
don't have supporters. People hate taxes, but expenses, expenses have recipients.
(24:19):
So you give away your taxes, you receive money from
the government. So now you start getting into an area
where not everybody loves it. So you just keep saying,
I hate having to pay the bill at the restaurant.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Let's make it so we don't have to pay the
bill at the restaurant. Okay, Well, that means you need
to show me what you're not going to eat. That
means you don't eat out. Are you proposing that you
don't eat out? We're not going to pay the bill.
At the restaurant. The bill's too high at the restaurant,
and that's what we do. No one ever suggests making
(25:02):
a cut to a single thing. I've never seen it.
Prove me wrong. I would love to James Joli, Michael
Berry show go ahead. Hey, what's up, buddy.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I've got something that I have sent to Bettencourt, Patrick
and Abbott, and all I get is an automated response.
Is what my proposal is is to roll what you
were paying in property taxes or evaluations back fifteen years now.
If you've made improvements on your property in fifteen years, yeah,
(25:34):
you're gonna be taxed on it. Roll it back to
that point and set it until you sell the house
or sell the property to the next person. That way,
it's budgetable. You've got to be able to figure out
how much it's going to be, because I mean, I'm
fifty eight years old and we're on fifteen acres west
of Montgomery, and if it keeps climbing like it is
(25:56):
right now, I'm going to be paying probably fifteen thousand
dollars a year and most of it goes to the school.
And I don't even have anybody in the school. You
talked about the smaller things below the emergency service district.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Well, look at that.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Amount compared to the school and if they can still
build fire stations, they can still the police departments buy
new trucks that I'm not sure all this money that
goes to the school districts, where is that money going
and is everybody paying for it? Another thing, apartment complexes.
You might have three hundred and fifty people living in
this apartment complex. Are they averaging paying about four to
(26:34):
five thousand dollars a year on their property tax?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
But it's not a pro rata property tax. It's an
advalorum system. So the system is based on a valuation.
So you might have one guy paying for one hundred
acres that he's this value that let's just say two
hundred million dollars, but is the most valuable property in
the state of Texas for whatever reason, for the sake
(26:59):
of argument, And then you might have a thousand people
living on two acres in a crammed in apartment complex
that costs a lot less. It's all based on a valuation.
This goes back to our state constitution. This was the
system that we created, which is fine, but we do
not have and will not have without a constitutional amendment
an income tax. We do not have and will not
(27:21):
have without a constitutional amendment, a wealth tax. So we
have a system of a property tax, and everybody is
against the property tax, the property taxes too much. We're
going to give you property tax relief. We're going to
eliminate the property tax. And it is the silliest damn
thing in the world. It's like we're children. You can
(27:41):
find a hundred different ways that will spend less, that
you will take less from the people from their property tax.
It's not like we've created a system and it's taken
all our money and then the money is on the
other side of the fence and none of us can
ever get to it, and we need to get that
money back. That money is being spent, Okay, no one
(28:04):
is addressing this fact that money is being spent. Every
school district in the state is building a new building,
every one of them. Every one of them has built
a new stadium. And they'll tell you, well, that's not
property taxes, that's bonds that you're taking out. It all
ends up being paid for by the taxpayer. Stop giving
(28:27):
education to illegal alien kids, Deport the kids, stop building
new schools stop that everybody wants to teacher pay raise.
It's crazy to me, everybody wants to teacher pay raise.
When it comes time for teacher pay raises, it's a
big political issue. Republicans love to say we're for the teachers,
because then we don't look like bad guys. We're for
(28:48):
the teachers, and our teachers deserve a pay raise, and
the Democrats go, damn, they got out in front of
us on that. Yeah, I guess you do. Okay, well,
we're for that and some and so we get into
an argument as to who can pay the tea teachers more.
Because everybody loves the teachers. To the Whitney Houston song,
everybody loves the teachers. We all want the teachers to
make more money, and teachers deserve it, and by God,
(29:09):
that's our children and that's our future, and we need
to pay them more more for what what were we
paying them before? Does anybody know what we were paying them?
Does anybody have any idea what we pay them?
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Know?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
But pay them more? By God, that's for the children.
And everybody's wife, sister, niece, aunt, sister in law is
a teacher. So nobody wants to pay the teachers, less
set set what demons. Nobody wants to be a demon,
Nobody wants to be a grump. We got to pay
the teachers more. We hear it every election cycle, and
(29:43):
Republicans get out in front of this because guess what,
there's no real downside to spending more money. There's no
real downside to spending more money. This is what reagan
Omics taught us. For all the talk, Reagan never wanted
to cut anything. Reagan wanted to spend more and did
(30:04):
spend more. And nobody wants to admit that, but it's true,
and Republicans figured that out. Republicans talk we need to
tighten our bouts, but we need to really give some
relief to the taxpayer. So wait, we're going to eliminate
property taxes and pay the teachers more. How does that
(30:25):
work because they're going to pay everybody else at the
school as well. School districts are in some counties the
biggest governmental entity, and the superintendent's more powerful than the
state rep in that district, so the state rep won't
dare go against this. That's why school choice was heresy.
(30:46):
Can't have school choice because that would create competition, and
if we had competition. We might end up with better
education in smaller schools, taught by people who weren't professional
educators at the local school, with a big, fat retirement program.
Fact of the matter is, if you run the projections,
we cannot pay for police, fire teachers, government employees. We
(31:09):
are on a fast track to bankruptcy. But no Republican
will ever tell you that, and maybe they shouldn't because
no voter will reward you for it. But it's a fact.
You cannot afford the law enforcement, fire, and educators that
are that are being paid now when they hit their
retirement cannot afford it.
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael darry Show is on the air. That wasn't the
(00:25):
smoothest transition ever, was it. I heard it? Yeah, I
definitely heard it, and they heard it. Everybody heard it.
Do you think you can slip it by? Oh, maybe
they should mind their own business?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Happy or happy day? When do those war? When it wore,
when those war? She was away love happy day or
(01:10):
happy dad?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Or happy day?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
We do those walls.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
And pretty warm.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
We do this war?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
She look away, he loved. It's a happy day, a
(02:12):
happy day.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
Or a happy day of winter of war? Oh, witty
war winterred of war?
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Three of a way a happy day? Ode what have
(03:18):
you deal?
Speaker 2 (03:21):
What have you deal? Or happy day? Or habitay? When
(04:43):
those walls when it was.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
When those war.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Three was the way he needed.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
To love me.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
The Oh.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yes, it's open line Friday. I love that because that
means we get to hear from you your I truly believe.
Has your week flown as it blown? Good news, bad news?
Something we said earlier in the show in the week
that you wanted to get on and just couldn't whatever
that might be. Seven one three nine nine nine one
(05:28):
thousand and seven, one three nine, one thousand. Of course
you can email me through the website Michael Berryshow dot
com now to get us started as we always do
courtesy of the greatest executive producer in all the land,
CHATTACONI knakadishi you want to do. I cannot go out
(05:50):
in public without some woman at the very next table
who's a cackler and apparently whoever she's with is Bob Hope.
They just they did just one line. She did right.
Nobody at their table can tell her to shut up.
Parafang attack inside a barber shop. That video shows a
man getting angry after a hair Security.
Speaker 6 (06:11):
Video from that day shows Davis walking back into Square
Biz with a gun and threatening the owner, Samuel Wilson.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
Wilson says this was all over an issue with Davis's hairline.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
The haircut is that bad though, that he pulled a
fire in front of.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
A key dispute resolution skills absolutely act a fool. The
dude cuts your hairline too high, it'll grow back. Video
of a raccoon that has gone viral. It broke into
a liquor store. Bran sacked several shelves. The animal became
intoxicated and it passed out.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
In that row?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Was she just not able to contain her laughter? Her cackle? Hody,
we know you knew the story already. There's no way
you thought it was that funny. The fifth time you
heard it. You just couldn't control yourself. Was that supposed
to add to the y'all should be lat Was that
the laft track? I'm driving in and I hear it,
And the thing about I don't understand it is it
(07:06):
was a Michael Berry endorsement. It was a public grand ranch.
So why would you do? I appreciate that you endorse him,
but why would they play when they could have a folks?
It's Michael Berry? I just I hope they get. Do
they get a discount home mess pot? If it's if
it's you?
Speaker 4 (07:26):
What?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
What just happened? What you cannot go out? What did
you just do? At the very next table? Who's al An?
Speaker 5 (07:38):
Apparently?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Really? Why would I appreciate that you endorse them? But
why would they play when they could have a folks
it's Michael Berry? I just I don't they get Do
they get a discount homes pot? If it's if it's you?
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Ast me?
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Steve Cropper, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame, has died, who wrote classic songs And sitting
on the dock of the bay and in the midnight
out sane.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Crumber, you were the soundtrack of my life. What are
you most proud of? The biggest thrill I get is
sharing the song that I've written on the radio. There's
something about radio and you hear it on the radio.
You're sitting in your car and you go, hey, I
had something to do with it.
Speaker 5 (08:15):
Hey, that's me.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Now, Hey, this is Tracy Bird. And I tipped my
hand to the keeper the stall and with the sticks
(08:37):
with a six pack, an abdominal snowman. Abdominal snowman. Buddy
of mine kept telling me how he could print a
pistol with this three D printer. I was not very impressed.
I've had a cannon printer for years. To an old
(09:01):
friend from high school, he got fired from the Viagara
factory after being accused of stealing. He said, I guess
I don't want hard workers. Al you're on Michael Berry Show.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
Go ahead, Hey, Michael, how are you doing.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
I'm good.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
You noticed we just went through a session of Dan
having pissy fits about point and fuse products and try
to ban them. And Abbot wasn't going to sign I
can see things. He could be president kious chances, But
they kept doing something and they finally came to a
conclusion on it. Now you have but nine misdiscipo or
medical marijuana dispensary company when it opened up in Texas?
Would it be nice if you able to eliminate your
(09:38):
competition before you open up your branch offices?
Speaker 5 (09:45):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
I didn't catch the connection at the end.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
So say that we think they eliminated or they eliminating
the gummy in the stores? Right, Okay, I never cared
about it as long as the flower was there. They
didn't care about it as long as that they for there.
But when you got to confused strength that applies the
alcohol business, which is losing business of Texas. Okay, it's
I think it's three hundred dollars and pounds out into
(10:09):
it that these medical dispensaries charge three hundred dollars pounce.
There's money being vague here. If I think we just scammed,
do you think they would open up if we did?
If we were still approving the fires the gummies can
fuse strengths. Do you think it would open up that's
competitive industry. No. Now they have their enough bus competition
(10:31):
and I think it's one hundred dollars to take a
test to it.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
I don't use it.
Speaker 6 (10:33):
I don't care. But Republicans that'll wake up to get
scammed Dan Patrick scamdrunt profie taxes, Dan Patrick scam.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Drunk wake up coming. I'm sure everybody else is grasping it,
and I'm not, but I want to make sure I
actually understand the part you're saying that once they once
you take the vapes and the other stuff out and
you're only left with the gummies, then the price has
gone up. So I don't know that.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
But my point is the medical suspensary companies want to
dominate the market.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yes.
Speaker 6 (11:06):
I know a girl that was the Massachusetts and they
have leedo a marijuana up there, and she came down here.
We're done here, and by two years I just went
back up to Massachusetts.
Speaker 4 (11:17):
And she goes.
Speaker 6 (11:17):
I was amazed of all of the Spencers all, you know,
because people you can buy up here and the price
went down like crazy there that competition. Aren't Republicans believing
in that? So why would they fund for back eliminating competition.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
Yeah, you know, here is the deal. Thank you for
the call, and thank you for the patients. I was
I was trying to make sure I understood your point,
which I don't always grasp and that's on me. When
you're a policy maker, a legislator is a lawmaker, and
(11:57):
when you're a policy maker a lawmaker, there are a
thousand different issues you can attack and or you can
choose to do nothing. On the issue of marijuana, which
has turned into one of the most contentious issues in
the state of Texas, here is your challenge, and I'm
(12:20):
going to be blunt about where the sides are pitched,
and that's going to upset people, especially people who are
in the discussion, but that doesn't make it any less true.
One of the issues you've got is mommies. And you've
got mommies who say, well, you've got mommies whose son
got really into marijuana products, and some of whom get
(12:43):
into the synthetic stuff. And that synthetic stuff, from what
I understand, is very very bad and it can hurt you.
It's not fentanyl, but it's not it's not nothing. So
people get into that stuff. Young people and Mommy's upset,
(13:05):
and so Mommy's a mama Bear can be a powerful
lobby and a very attractive and I don't mean that
in an inappropriate way, a very attractive proponent for a position.
You also still have a lot of older folks in
the state of Texas, particularly evangelistic Christians, who view it
(13:28):
as the dope the way my mother did until very
late in her life. And that is the same dope
that the FBI under Hoover and all wanted you to
believe was going to you know, if you took it
one time, it was going to be refor madness and
you would become zombie and everyone would die.
Speaker 6 (13:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
But here's the flip side. I was with somebody earlier
this week and he was saying that he will never
support a Republican again, and then will he will secretly
quietly support Democrats without putting his name on it, because
he has a child with epilepsy and it is marijuana
based products that a doctor told him I can't prescribe,
but I think you should try. And so that's what
(14:08):
his child was having epileptic fits all day every day.
I was afraid the child was going to dide. I
was six seven years old. So he's studied, he's got
plenty of money, he's studied, he traveled all over the country,
they did all these tests on the only thing that
will give his child any relief is that. I cannot
tell you how many veterans that I have heard from
on this issue that will not vote for Republicans again
(14:30):
because of it, because this is the only thing that
gives them relief from PTSD and all sorts of other things.
I talked to little old ladies who tell me I
never believed I wanted that dope out of here, and
it's turned out to be the only thing that gives
me any relief from chronic pain, from excruciating pain. Well, so,
(14:53):
now we've got an issue that is not a cut
and dried issue. Now you've got an issue where you're
turning people who are naturally Republicans against you. Are you
doing the right thing? There are people who are against
it because they're against it. And then the real master
they're serving here is the alcohol industry. Let's just put
(15:13):
it what it is. The alcohol industry is suffering as
a result of this. They're seeing a slide in sales.
And I'm going to tell you as a guy who
enjoys his alcohol. Everything I've read, and it's a lot.
Alcohol is ten times worse for you and a hundred
times more more widely abused than marijuana. That's fact. I
mean the fact. But I've asked. It's living on Friday
(15:38):
seventy one three one thousand, Charles. You are up next
or take it away, bye, Michael.
Speaker 4 (15:45):
I just wanted to call in.
Speaker 5 (15:46):
I hear a lot of people complaining with the legislature
about property taxes, and I understand why people are mad
about it, but shouldn't there be some responsibility on the
local levels. I live in a very Democrat area, so
I don't expect, but if you live out in Montgomery
or something, you're basically all elected Republicans, and shouldn't it
be somewhat on them to cut government or not spend
(16:10):
or lower the property taxes, as opposed to just complaining
about the lieutenant governor or the state house not doing enough.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
It's a very interesting question. If you look at polling data,
it will track rather consistently that about eighty percent of
people will support eliminating property taxes, right, And I'm curious
who the other twenty percent are. I think their thought is,
(16:38):
I don't pay property taxes anyway. That's rich people. I
don't want them getting off. So people have this idea,
you know, here's the things I have to pay. I
don't want to have to pay that. They probably would
be opposed. They probably vote to eliminate your electric bill,
your car payment, your house payment. Because you are correct. Well,
(16:58):
let me say this, when you consider that most states
in the Union, I don't know what the exact number is,
I could look it up, but I have in the past.
Most states have three forms of taxes. They've got a
property tax, which is typically far lower than ours Colorado,
for instances, is a pittance of what ours. Is a
(17:20):
sales tax, which we have and which is what eight
and a quarter is that right? And then an income tax.
We don't have an income tax. We do have a
franchise tax, which is not exactly a corporate income tax,
but it's in the family of it. But almost the
(17:40):
entirety of our federal budget that does not come from
the federal government comes from property taxes. Now, when you
consider that the bulk of that is going to local items,
then it is interesting that you blame the state for it.
But here's the problem. That's a problem the state takes
(18:02):
upon themselves because if you're running for lieutenant governor or
you're running for governor, you desperately need to promise to
change things that will make people come to the polls.
And if you say I will have more readings of
declarations for visitors to the capital that today is their day,
(18:24):
that's not going to get people to the poles. So
you say, I'm going to eliminate property taxes, and there's
candidates running on that basis. Right now, I'm going to
eliminate property taxes, and people show up and vote for it.
The problem is then they're angry when you don't do it.
So you hope to throw up some smoke screens and
(18:46):
distractions after that that will get their attention. And some
people are just a dog on a bone. They won't
let it go. They've voted for that, you promised it,
why won't you do it? And so then people see,
let's take Bettancourt. They see Bettencourt out there saying look
what all I've done. I've lowered your property taxes, and
(19:07):
they look at their property taxes and they go, no, no,
actually not. But to your point, there is a bulk
of that property tax that is going for local items.
And you know, I have to tell you I see
a sort of cognitive dissonance when it comes to this
(19:28):
issue people generally. Well, I'll step back and give you
a better example, an easier example. When when the move
for term limits for members of the House, when it
really picked up speed, must have been twenty years ago.
There was an in depth, well funded study done and
(19:51):
something like, you know, eighty eight percent of people were
for term limits of House members. But then they said,
would you continue to vote for your House member if
they're beyond that? Yes? So what that meant was everybody
wanted their congressmen. They just didn't like those other congressmen
(20:12):
who hang around for a long time, but their guy
they like to keep. Well that it doesn't add up,
And when you realize it's like there's certain times you
just don't answer a question honestly, when a fat woman asks,
yous this make me look fat? You just you don't
(20:32):
answer that question. People also, I will tell you that
this is one of the challenges I found when you
have elections for really hyper local officials like school board members,
it is absurd that we have elections for those people
(20:56):
during off year off times, so you will have have
an election at a time that there's almost nothing else
going on, and you've got members of the school board
and drainage district and these sorts of things. And that
is by design. Why do we need all these different elections.
Why not put these elections on a standardized schedule every
(21:19):
two years, put the city councils on it, put everybody
on that election. If that happened, you would see a
conservative swing. And they know this in every level of government,
because the people who show up to vote for Donald
Trump will show up to vote to eliminate the local
(21:39):
football stadium eighty million dollar bond offering. They would show
up to cut all this. They would kick all the
liberal do good or progressives off the school boards. And
they know this, and that's why they don't allow it.
And that's why they have it during an off time.
And during that off time, which where they raise money
(22:01):
to build eighty million dollar sports stadiums and all sorts
of other stadiums, and just to keep enough parents happy,
they'll also build some tennis courts and they'll also put
a new swimming they'll throw some some things in so
that you can get more parental groups in on it.
And they do that during an off time when when
Trump voters, you know, Maga voters, America First voters, Conservatives,
(22:23):
Tea Party are not going to show up to the polls,
and so they get and so what they do is
they get staff members and parents of kids involved in
some activity and they get a very very low turnout,
but it's enough to get their agenda item passed. And
that's what you see more and more of. But yes,
you could solve a lot of these property tax problems
(22:46):
at the most local level, but the most local level
we're not doing as well as we think we are.
Look at what happened at what was the was it
SI Fair? Was the school district that you just had
three of the members booted off? And you have them,
you have these people that are getting support from the
Democrat Party and from Organized Blue Act Blue type organizations,
(23:10):
and they're coming in and they're registering their voters, and
they're finding everybody they can that is against anything that
that would look Christian or conservative or white, and they
pull together these coalitions. Hell Spring Branch Independent School District
should be one of the most conservative districts in the country,
and yet you've got a battle the left wants to
(23:32):
win that school board. I mean that is that that
is a pitched battle they want to win, and you
think that we should never lose that lot of look
at the results. It's the Michael Berrys shows. We're talking
about the property tax, and it's something that people care
deeply about. Show me just one time, one time, because
(23:55):
I haven't seen it a single person running for office
talk about eliminating the property tax. That tells you we're
going to eliminate an expense. Taxes don't have constituencies. Taxes
don't have supporters. People hate taxes, but expenses, expenses have recipients.
(24:19):
So you give away your taxes, you receive money from
the government. So now you start getting into an area
where not everybody loves it. So you just keep saying,
I hate having to pay the bill at the restaurant.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Let's make it so we don't have to pay the
bill at the restaurant. Okay, Well, that means you need
to show me what you're not going to eat. That
means you don't eat out. Are you proposing that you
don't eat out? We're not going to pay the bill.
At the restaurant. The bill's too high at the restaurant,
and that's what we do. No one ever suggests making
(25:02):
a cut to a single thing. I've never seen it.
Prove me wrong. I would love to James Joli, Michael
Berry show go ahead. Hey, what's up, buddy.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I've got something that I have sent to Bettencourt, Patrick
and Abbott, and all I get is an automated response.
Is what my proposal is is to roll what you
were paying in property taxes or evaluations back fifteen years now.
If you've made improvements on your property in fifteen years, yeah,
(25:34):
you're gonna be taxed on it. Roll it back to
that point and set it until you sell the house
or sell the property to the next person. That way,
it's budgetable. You've got to be able to figure out
how much it's going to be, because I mean, I'm
fifty eight years old and we're on fifteen acres west
of Montgomery, and if it keeps climbing like it is
(25:56):
right now, I'm going to be paying probably fifteen thousand
dollars a year and most of it goes to the school.
And I don't even have anybody in the school. You
talked about the smaller things below the emergency service district.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Well, look at that.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Amount compared to the school and if they can still
build fire stations, they can still the police departments buy
new trucks that I'm not sure all this money that
goes to the school districts, where is that money going
and is everybody paying for it? Another thing, apartment complexes.
You might have three hundred and fifty people living in
this apartment complex. Are they averaging paying about four to
(26:34):
five thousand dollars a year on their property tax?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
But it's not a pro rata property tax. It's an
advalorum system. So the system is based on a valuation.
So you might have one guy paying for one hundred
acres that he's this value that let's just say two
hundred million dollars, but is the most valuable property in
the state of Texas for whatever reason, for the sake
(26:59):
of argument, And then you might have a thousand people
living on two acres in a crammed in apartment complex
that costs a lot less. It's all based on a valuation.
This goes back to our state constitution. This was the
system that we created, which is fine, but we do
not have and will not have without a constitutional amendment
an income tax. We do not have and will not
(27:21):
have without a constitutional amendment, a wealth tax. So we
have a system of a property tax, and everybody is
against the property tax, the property taxes too much. We're
going to give you property tax relief. We're going to
eliminate the property tax. And it is the silliest damn
thing in the world. It's like we're children. You can
(27:41):
find a hundred different ways that will spend less, that
you will take less from the people from their property tax.
It's not like we've created a system and it's taken
all our money and then the money is on the
other side of the fence and none of us can
ever get to it, and we need to get that
money back. That money is being spent, Okay, no one
(28:04):
is addressing this fact that money is being spent. Every
school district in the state is building a new building,
every one of them. Every one of them has built
a new stadium. And they'll tell you, well, that's not
property taxes, that's bonds that you're taking out. It all
ends up being paid for by the taxpayer. Stop giving
(28:27):
education to illegal alien kids, Deport the kids, stop building
new schools stop that everybody wants to teacher pay raise.
It's crazy to me, everybody wants to teacher pay raise.
When it comes time for teacher pay raises, it's a
big political issue. Republicans love to say we're for the teachers,
because then we don't look like bad guys. We're for
(28:48):
the teachers, and our teachers deserve a pay raise, and
the Democrats go, damn, they got out in front of
us on that. Yeah, I guess you do. Okay, well,
we're for that and some and so we get into
an argument as to who can pay the tea teachers more.
Because everybody loves the teachers. To the Whitney Houston song,
everybody loves the teachers. We all want the teachers to
make more money, and teachers deserve it, and by God,
(29:09):
that's our children and that's our future, and we need
to pay them more more for what what were we
paying them before? Does anybody know what we were paying them?
Does anybody have any idea what we pay them?
Speaker 6 (29:19):
Know?
Speaker 1 (29:20):
But pay them more? By God, that's for the children.
And everybody's wife, sister, niece, aunt, sister in law is
a teacher. So nobody wants to pay the teachers, less
set set what demons. Nobody wants to be a demon,
Nobody wants to be a grump. We got to pay
the teachers more. We hear it every election cycle, and
(29:43):
Republicans get out in front of this because guess what,
there's no real downside to spending more money. There's no
real downside to spending more money. This is what reagan
Omics taught us. For all the talk, Reagan never wanted
to cut anything. Reagan wanted to spend more and did
(30:04):
spend more. And nobody wants to admit that, but it's true,
and Republicans figured that out. Republicans talk we need to
tighten our bouts, but we need to really give some
relief to the taxpayer. So wait, we're going to eliminate
property taxes and pay the teachers more. How does that
(30:25):
work because they're going to pay everybody else at the
school as well. School districts are in some counties the
biggest governmental entity, and the superintendent's more powerful than the
state rep in that district, so the state rep won't
dare go against this. That's why school choice was heresy.
(30:46):
Can't have school choice because that would create competition, and
if we had competition. We might end up with better
education in smaller schools, taught by people who weren't professional
educators at the local school, with a big, fat retirement program.
Fact of the matter is, if you run the projections,
we cannot pay for police, fire teachers, government employees. We
(31:09):
are on a fast track to bankruptcy. But no Republican
will ever tell you that, and maybe they shouldn't because
no voter will reward you for it. But it's a fact.
You cannot afford the law enforcement, fire, and educators that
are that are being paid now when they hit their
retirement cannot afford it.
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