Kelli Cook, Publisher, The Golden Hammer Despite the promises of “reform”, “fiscal responsibility”, and “conservativism”, there’s a harsh reality to the governance we’ve suffered from both political parties during the past five decades. That reality is that government primarily serves its own hunger for more tax dollars to keep it afloat. When citizens dare question spending […]
Kelli Cook, Publisher, The Golden Hammer One of the best expressions of the American form of government comes from a statute, Section 552.001(a) of the Texas Government Code: “Under the fundamental philosophy of the American constitutional form of representative government that adheres to the principle that government is the servant and not the master of the […]
Image: Precinct 3 Montgomery County Commissioner James Noack legitimately complained about the fact that Budget Director Amanda Carter wanted the Commissioners Court to approve the “Salary Schedule” for the entire Montgomery County government without seeing it prior to the meeting. The Commissioners Court voted 4 to 1 to approve the “Salary Schedule” blindly, since they’re […]
Conroe, September 27 – The Montgomery County government’s elected servants are hardly servants at all. They receive salaries far higher than the median per capita income of this community. The Montgomery County Commissioners Court approved the Fiscal Year 2020 Salary Schedule at the regular meeting on Tuesday, September 24, 2019. The sound which you may […]
The Golden Hammer Staff Reports Conroe, September 26 – The Golden Hammer, Montgomery County’s leading daily newspaper, has compiled the “Platinum Platoon,” the list of the one hundred and thirty-nine (139) Montgomery County government employees, who are not elected servants and who receive more than $100,000 per year in salary. It’s important to note that Montgomery […]
Image: “Mohawked” Precinct 3 Montgomery County Commissioner James Noack has focused three of the last four year’s budget sessions on giving himself and other elected servants a giant salary increase. Unfortunately, the County government has failed to focus on spending and property tax reform. Conroe and The Woodlands, June 19 – Hovering at a gargantuan […]
Image: Alex in the 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange, obviously portrayed the budget methodology of the Conroe Independent School District in this scene involving the “Ludovico” technique of brainwashing. Rather than examining school district departments, conducting zero-based budgeting to determine whether expenditures have any purpose, or brainstorming novel ideas about methods of reducing overall spending, the […]
Conroe, June 17 – Four days ago, The Golden Hammer, Montgomery County’s leading daily newspaper, published the top fifty non-law enforcement, non-elected servant salaries in the free spending Montgomery County government, a governmental entity which clearly suffers from a complete lack of management. The article was “‘Solid Gold 50’ Salaries Unmask County Government’s Explosive Salary Inflation,” The […]
Conroe, June 13 – The “Solid Gold 50” salaries, the highest fifty (50) non-law enforcement, non-elected salary holders in the Montgomery County government, unmask the primary explosive spending problem: salary inflation. As the Commissioners Court passed the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget on September 5, 2018, Precinct 3 Montgomerty County Commissioner James Noack asked the wrong […]
Image: The ghosts at Disney Land’s Haunted Mansion are portraying some employees of the Montgomery County government. Conroe, February 1 – The Montgomery County Commissioners Court came very close to saving taxpayers over $1 million in the annual budget by closing vacant positions and sweeping the budgeted funds for those positions into the County government’s […]