Here is your Morning Brief for the morning of August 4, 2014. Give me your feedback below and tune in to The Chad Hasty Show for these and many more topics from 8:30 to 11am. Remember, you can listen online at KFYO.com or on your iPhone/Android with the radioPup App.

Lubbock Chamber
Lubbock Chamber
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I'm Back!

After a nice week off it is great to get back into the swing of these.

First things first though, big thanks to Carl Tepper, Paul R. Beane, and Ysidro Gutierrez for guest-hosting last week. I get emails from listeners every time I'm away and have heard good things about all of the hosts.

We have a lot to talk about this week on the show. The campaigning is on for the Texas Senate and for HD-83. I thought it was wise of Charles Perry to remove his name from the ballot in HD-83. It shows he is committed and believes he will win the Senate seat. It also helps HD-83 in the long run.

Texas leaders are taking a look at getting rid of the lottery. Honestly, I don't understand why. The lottery brings in money and was never intended to solve all of our money woes. However, a billion here and a billion there doesn't hurt. The state should never count on the money coming in from the lottery but getting rid of it sounds like a stupid idea to me.

Today and throughout the week I'll share a few stories from vacation. A few have to do with stupid big government regulations and one has to deal with husbands riding passenger as their wife drives. THAT will get the PC Police all upset!

The Political Arm of Imagine Lubbock Together

While I was out on vacation the race for the Texas Senate seat in District 28 really began rolling. The Lubbock AJ had an interesting piece about the money war between Charles Perry and Jodey Arrington. The most interesting part of the story were the quotes from the chairwoman of the Imagine Lubbock Together group.

Remember, Imagine Lubbock Together has been sold to the people of Lubbock as a strategic planning group. While politics has always played a role with Imagine Lubbock Together, they tend not to highlight it during public meetings. Of course, if you listen for keywords and know what some of the goals are it probably doesn't surprise you that politics is involved. In this story though, Imagine Lubbock Together sounds less like a civic group and instead sounds more like a Political Action Committee.

Arrington’s list of donors includes Imagine Lubbock Together backers, including Connie Wharton, the organization’s chairwoman.

Wharton said her $2,000 contribution shows confidence Arrington, rather than Perry, will support policy promoting economic development in the district, recalling what she called difficulty her organization had in working with Perry.

“I think Jodey represents a balance,” Wharton said. “He has a great gift for listening to all sides and bringing them together.”

Ahead of the 83rd Legislative session in 2013, Perry and Duncan said fellow state lawmakers were unlikely to support the organization’s call for a bill letting Lubbockites vote for up to a 1-cent sales tax to fund projects Imagine Lubbock organizers say residents asked for during months of public meetings and polling the previous fall and winter.

Wharton said Perry didn’t seem open to working with the organization on implementing a 1-cent sales tax option at any point.

“It was just different than with the others,” she said. “We just didn’t get a good sense that he wanted to help us.”

Perry acknowledged his opposition to the sales tax may be reason for some to oppose him.

“But I know there are others who support me because I opposed that,” he said.

In the end, Wharton said, Imagine Lubbock leaders acknowledged 2013 likely wasn’t the best time to implement a 1-cent sales tax option, but haven’t given up on the idea to fund future development in Lubbock.

Remember, this is the same group that backed Steve Massengale's failed campaign against Charles Perry in this years primary for HD-83. Imagine Lubbock Together backed by the Lubbock Chamber continues to run candidates against small government conservatives because of one issue... tax increases! Does this make any sense at all? Perry is a well-liked (see the HD-83 results for proof) small government conservative and two major organizations that are supposedly looking out for Lubbock's future continually oppose him because he won't vote to raise the sales tax. Imagine Lubbock and the Chamber have to realize that they aren't on the same page as the majority of people in this city right?

Another question to think about and that I'll discuss on today's show is this, is Imagine Lubbock Together just another political organization? They wanted citizens to dream big, but what this group has shown over and over again is that they want political muscle and the ability to raise taxes for unnamed projects.

Seems to me that Imagine Lubbock Together is just one step away from putting out scorecards of local legislators.

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These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard online in our podcast section after the show at kfyo.com.

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