Conroe, October 29 – On the anniversary of the stock market collapse in 1929 (October 29, 1929) and the centenary of the Communist “October Revolution” in Russia (October 25, 1917), it seems appropriate to discuss the Montgomery County Tax Office’s misleading “Budget Highlights” document (shown below at bottom of article), which Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae […]
Conroe, July 24 – In an obvious effort to exclude public participation in the statutorily-required “public hearing” on the proposed Montgomery County Budget, County Judge Craig Doyal failed to post a proper notice for the budget meetings that will occur this week. Amazingly, nowhere on the proposed agenda is there any mention of a “public […]
ERIC YOLLICK, The Golden Hammer Conroe, May 21 – This past Thursday, and over the past several weeks, I’ve seen first-hand how immensely trained are the law enforcement officers in the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office through the Citizens Academy classes Sheriff Rand Henderson and his team provide to the public free-of-charge. It’s been a great experience […]
ERIC YOLLICK, The Golden Hammer The Woodlands, May 16 – Well-run government should be boring and should stay out of the headlines. Montgomery County Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack’s budget numbers are pretty boring with two exceptions. This article is the third of a 4-part series on each of the Commissioner Precincts based upon the documents The Golden […]
ERIC YOLLICK, The Golden Hammer Conroe, May 12 – County Judge Craig Doyal received “The Golden Hammer Award” for “hammering the taxpayers” at the Tuesday, May 9, 2017, Commissioners Court meeting for Doyal’s complete lack of understanding of the tiny Departmental budget of his own County Department. Doyal’s “County Judge” Department is Account 400 for any […]
Conroe, May 6 – If you have imagined that the Montgomery County government is actually intending to cut spending, you need to jump into the real world. Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal has made clear to County Department Directors behind-the-scenes in private meetings that he doesn’t have any intention whatsoever of cutting any Department budgets. […]
IMAGE: Montgomery County Information Technology Director Marshall Shirley. Conroe, March 9 – The Golden Hammer caught County officials red-handed attempting to cover up a major sabotage of the County Budget presentation on the County’s so-called website (www.mctx.org). Some time around the morning of Tuesday, March 8, 2017, the Fiscal Year 2017 Montgomery County Budget transmogrified from […]
Conroe, March 6 – Montgomery County’s annual budget is far greater than the $381 million that County Judge Craig Doyal and the four County Commissioners disclose when they vote upon and publish the Annual Budget, because those funds do not include tens of millions of dollars of monies carried over and unspent from previous years. […]
ARE THE TAXPAYERS “NOTHING MORE THAN…[CRAIG DOYAL’S] ATM”? Conroe, February 27 – Montgomery County Auditor Phyllis Martin, working closely with County Judge Craig Doyal and “chief of staff” jim fredricks, added an Agenda item to create a secret budget committee that would take the departmental budget review power away from the Commissioners Court and tuck […]
Conroe, February 21 – Over the past four days, The Golden Hammer, Montgomery County’s leading daily newspaper, has reported two countervailing stories, each from the perspective of a protagonist, Dodi Shaw, the Montgomery County Human Resources Department (“HR”) Director, and Stephanne Davenport, the countywide elected Treasurer, who, of course, heads the County Treasurer’s Department. (“Breaking […]