Dr. Robin Armstrong - Galveston County Commissioner Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bills that way sometimes with property taxes, doesn't it. I mean,
that's kind of the biggest, biggest knot we have to
crack here in Texas is our reliance on property taxes.
We don't have a state income tax, but we have
a pretty good sized property tax. I as big as
when I got here seven eight years ago. But still,
you know, for a lot of people, it's an affordability issue.

(00:20):
And one of the things that we are doing here
in Texas is we are requiring cities to put it
up to a vote to the people if they want
to raise your property taxes. Only there are four cities
that are not playing along. In fact, citing that new
state law, Attorney General Ken Paxton told these four cities,
including Lamark, that you know, they're not allowed to do this.

(00:43):
They can't just raise taxes. And Lamark is basically saying
we have to or financially strapped, we have no choice.
So this will probably end up playing its way out
in court. I would think joining us talk about doctor
Robin Armstrong. He is in Galveston County. He's a Galveston
County commissioner. I don't know how much you know about
the city finances in Lamark. But what do you know
about what's gone wrong there, doctor Armstrong, Well.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I know what has happened is is mismanagement. And they
will they will even admit to that that it's been mismanaged.
The problem is they've been the ones in power, you know,
the Democrats and their those have been empowered for the
last you know, fifteen to twenty years, and so they
say it's mismanagement by their city former city manager, you know.

(01:29):
But it's their producier responsibility to make sure that the
budgets are in line. They haven't turned in an audit
in many years and so and so they're required to
turn in an audit to the government, to the state
government every year. They haven't done it in many years.
And so they just have not managed their budgets well.
And so they've spent more than they've taken in. And

(01:52):
now they're at the point where they're about to be
bankrupt if they don't do something emergently. And so now
the desire is for them to raise taxes. Of course,
that's always the Democrats answer. But we have statute in place,
in a law that just passed as last legislative session
that prevents them from doing that, like you said, without
a vote and without these audits being done, and so

(02:13):
they have to hold off on that from a state
wide perspective, from a state law, they have to hold off.
But they're saying they're going to have to do it,
and so we'll see what happens. You're right, it's going
to play out in court and we'll see what happens.
But this is Democrat mismanagement. This is happening in these
largest cities all over the country now as well.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Of course the people you know holding the bag on this,
or the citizens who live in Lamark. If you don't
have any money, how do you provide you know, basic
city services to your taxpayers in the interrum while you
try to figure out do you borrow money?

Speaker 2 (02:42):
What do you do? Well? I mean they're they're they're
shifting some money around right now. They're certainly going to
have to go into more debt to try and try
and get this money. But this is something that every
city and every every municipality and county has to deal
with hire to pay our bills. And and you know,

(03:02):
we're not like the federal government that can just continue
to borrow, borrow, borrow money. So what will happen is
that is that the city will will go bankrupt and
then they'll they'll have to sort of unincorporate, and so
it was a traged situation for the residents there and
then eventually they'll have to move out of that city
just because the city is so poorly run, which is

(03:23):
happening in large cities all over the country. And so
I think it's a it's it's a it's a it's
a telltale story of I think, what's going to happen
in New York City, what's gonna happen in Houston, what's
happening in all these different cities. But but these cities
are going to be so large that that it's going
to be it's gonna have a lot bigger effect. And
so we just need to not elect Liberals and Democrats

(03:44):
who do not know how to manage budgets to these
positions because they don't know how to manage them and
they're not doing well and they're causing problems, bankruptcies. It's
just horrible.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
Well, hopefully the tax fairs of the Mark and other
Texas cities that are going through this will realize that
and start electing people who are more fiscally responsible, doctor Armstrong,
thank you. As always, that's doctor Robin Armstrong, Galveston County Commissioner,