Austin’s KXAN recently uncovered a scandal where the Teacher Retirement System of Texas signed a lease on luxury office space for $326,000 per month. This should surprise no one. This is what government does.
Even more predictable than this sort of scandal, however, were the insincere howls of alleged “outrage” from legislators who’ve never lifted a finger to prevent this sort of scandal in the first place:
State Rep. Drew Springer (R–Muenster), of course, has had four legislative sessions to address this issue. Yet he’s never done anything—at least, not anything beyond lip service.
If you are a retired teacher, understand this: Drew Springer does not give a rat’s rear end about you. The only reason Springer is pretending to care is because you represent a short-term political problem. Springer’s goal is to do the bare minimum to get you to go away.
To be fair, the preceding paragraph describes 95 percent of the legislature; Springer is just the most flagrant.
But it gets better, because you’ll never believe who the legislature put in charge of cleaning up this mess:
In case you’re unaware, retired teacher, Jim Murphy is this guy:
Employment contracts between Murphy and the Westchase District, a governmental agency and political subdivision of the state, show Murphy banking a fixed monthly fee of over $26,000 a month. That is a whopping $312,000 a year. The contract also lists him as a “consultant” even though the website for the Westchase District clearly says he’s the general manager.
So what is the problem? Texas state law says, “No member of the Legislature may hold any other office or position of profit, except as a notary public.”
In other words, a legislator cannot hold another taxpayer-funded job. Murphy is a five-time state representative.
With all due respect, retired teacher, for the Texas legislature to put someone like Murphy in charge of cleaning up this mess tells you exactly what they think of you.
But as the comments in the linked social media posts make clear, retired teachers seem to be lining up to thank politicians like Murphy and Springer, despite those politicians being the ones who didn’t do a thing to stop this mess in the first place. What’s that saying about trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?
Retired teacher, don’t be taken for a ride by these politicians any longer.
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