An opponent of Granbury Independent School District’s latest bond proposal was arrested and charged with a felony over temporary permits for a borrowed school bus, which has been featured in a “No Bond Bus Tour” sponsored by local families concerned about district spending and taxes.
The bus driver, Steve Biggers, called Friday’s arrest by Hood County sheriff’s deputies “harassment” and “interfering with a political campaign.”
Biggers borrowed the bus from a friend and has been driving it around the district as part of a campaign cautioning voters about the tax impact of the May 4 bond election.
By the district’s own calculations, Granbury ISD’s proposed $161 million bond will cost local property taxpayers $315 million with interest.
The bond proposal is the district’s third in three years. The last two failed, and Biggers believes local officials are determined to ensure this year’s bond passes.
“They’ve weaponized the sheriff’s department,” Biggers told Texas Scorecard on Monday.
Hood County Sheriff Roger Deeds publicly supported Granbury ISD’s 2023 bond, and Biggers said the deputy who arrested him is married to a Granbury ISD teacher.
Biggers, who is the outgoing Hood County Republican Party chair, described the events leading to his arrest on Friday.
Last Wednesday, Biggers drove the bus—which is emblazoned with the slogans “Caution High Taxes Ahead” and “If You Know, You No”—to an event where Granbury ISD Superintendent Jeremy Glenn was speaking about the bond.
Sheriff Deeds was at the event.
During the event, Deeds’ deputies ticketed Biggers, claiming that the temporary tag on the bus was not valid, even though it had not expired.
Deputies confiscated the tag but told Biggers he could still drive the bus to get it inspected and obtain a 30-day permit, which he did.
As he left home Friday for a tour stop, Biggers said he was immediately pulled over by sheriff’s deputies and arrested for “tampering with a governmental record,” which under some circumstances is a felony.
Deputies took Biggers to jail, made him remove his yellow “If You Know, You No” shirt, and told him he would be held overnight and arraigned Saturday—sidelining the bus on the weekend before the start of early voting in the bond election.
Biggers was then interviewed by a detective—for a temporary tag violation. They claimed the 30-day permit should not have been issued because of the tickets he received on Wednesday.
He was charged with a third-degree felony before being released late Friday night, after six hours in custody.
When he went back to the tax assessor’s office Monday morning to resolve the permit issue, he was told the clerk who had issued the bus permit was new and “kind of made a mistake” by not having him fill out additional paperwork and pay the fine for the tickets before issuing the permit—standard procedure when someone has been ticketed for expired tags.
Biggers said he completed the permit application in good faith.
He believes the official harassment is meant to intimidate him and others speaking out against the bond but said he won’t be silenced.
“There’s no shame in my game. I won’t stop until I expose this corruption,” he said.
Biggers said he wore his yellow “No Bond” shirt to church on Sunday, and several people approached him to say “Keep doing what you’re doing.”
He said the “No Bond Bus Tour” will be back on the road Tuesday.
Early voting in the special bond election is underway now through April 30. Election Day is Saturday, May 4.
