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Congratulations to Kerry Fossler and all the residents of the City of Bastrop! Fossler won with 53% of the vote in her two-way race with Jimmy Crouch for Bastrop City Council Place 4. It's not easy to defeat an incumbent, even one that's only been in office one term. And though Kerry was an exceptional candidate -- and is a natural leader -- she also ran at the exact right moment to give Bastrop an exceptional chance. While Austin's growth is slowing, growth in the counties around Austin is rapid. Therefore, cities around Austin are dealing with big challenges to our water, land, and affordability. The Fossler v. Crouch race heated up just as developers pushed the Gateway shopping center, hotel, and more at the top of a hill of piney woods (aka the Lost Pines neighborhood) overlooking the city of Bastrop and next to the Bastrop State Park. If you missed our article about it, be sure to read it here . MOST IMPORTANT -- SHOW UP BASTROP ON THURSDAY NIGHT! This coming Thursday, May 9th, at 6 pm, the Planning and Zoning Commission will -- for the second time -- be asked to approve the change in zoning of the Lost Pines area from rural (P2) to the highest density commercial development option (P5). The posting is not up yet, so perhaps staff and the City Manager will have second thoughts. We can only hope and show up! Watch for the posting here . We leave you with a quote from Pablo Serna , a licensed architect and respected member of the Planning and Zoning Commission in previous years. We hope to learn more from Serna as the city grapples with affordability and development and the efforts by developer interests to neuter the decisions made with the involvement of 1500 citizens to plan the City of Bastrop. It's called the "B3 Code" and it's an important tool for citizens to plan their city -- unless you like what happened to Austin: “By recommending this zoning change and increases to development, the city staff has betrayed the will of the people.  For nearly ten years, the citizens of the City of Bastrop have been working with professional planners, architects, and engineers to capture a vision for the future growth of Bastrop. None of the numerous planning documents have the area known as the “Lost Pines” on the chopping block for massive commercial, retail, and hotel development. It was obvious to everyone that the Lost Pines were a natural treasure, part of the Houston Toad Habitat, and worth conserving at all costs. We now call upon the Planning and Zoning Commission and ultimately the City Council- to stay the course and deny this request.” Pablo Serna On a personal/political note from us at LIV, witnessing citizens of all political backgrounds working together on this local race gave us a ray of hope for the future of all Texans. Let's keep this going! Please share this article! Got questions? Contact us and feel free to post a comment below this article. You don't have to agree, but be nice. :)

Quorum Report: Dave Carney admits Abbott's campaign tirade to remove House opponents based on "bull#3!t". Read it here . Meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald's System Update report on last night's show covered Texas Governor Greg Abbott's extraordinary abuse of power on behalf of a foreign government -- Israel -- over the rights of the citizens of Texas.   The dear Governor is attacking freedom to protest, aka political speech with extreme government overreach.   This should tell you that what Quorum Report is suggesting is true. The Governor is capable of telling us whatever he wants in his never-ending quest for power over us. LIV Board Member, Debbie Russell, said: Abbott's overreach was on display Wednesday when he sent DPS in riot gear (unheard of before) to UT, falsely arresting over 70 students, to crush divestment dissent. More here about the UT-Austin protest and the faculty confidence lost in the university president from the Austin Chronicle.

Every once in a while, the people score. This time, we thank the dynamic attorney trio -- Aleshire , Bunch and Lewis -- as citizens get some pleasure in seeing the real estate hogs lose. The trio represented Taxpayers Against Giveaways , former State Senator Gonzalo Barrientos , former Austin City Council member Ora Houston and Faye Holland. The trio scored big in district court last week in a lawsuit they brought a year ago to enjoin the City’s plan to spend property tax dollars to subsidize an $8 billion private luxury real estate project. As they often say about tax-based strategies, it’s complicated! State District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum cut through those “complications” to deny the pigs at the trough the $354 million of hard-earned public monies (i.e. taxpayer dollars!). She ruled with a clear understanding of the underlying law and rendered a comprehensive final order in the plaintiffs’ favor against the development. The Judge stopped the City of Austin  from giving the property tax kickbacks to the largest commercial developers in Central Texas -- Endeavor Real Estate Group . Endeavor's lobbyist attorney, Richard Suttle , claimed the property is "blighted," and thus qualifies for receiving tax rebates from the City of Austin as a TIRZ -- Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone.   The property is the old Austin American-Statesman property along Auditorium Shores and the "bat bridge" and is inarguably one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in Austin, Texas! Judge Mangrum recognized the need under the TIRZ law for developers to establish that “but for” the public subsidies, the property would not be redeveloped and rejected the developer’s claim that developing it “faster and better” with public money satisfies that legal test.   The fun may have just begun because, if the City of Austin appeals Judge Mangrum’s decision that granted “summary judgment” (granting the plaintiffs' request to stop the giveaway as a matter of law, there being no questions of fact to be resolved in a trial), the City risks a decision that could set a legal precedent throughout the state. Thanks to The Austin Bulldog , we get the full story linked to their previous excellent coverage. Nice bulldoggy! Click on their logo below to be taken to the full article. Additionally for us Open Government Advocates! Bill Bunch Sues Watson Council for Open Meetings Violation One of the key leaders in the Central Texas Growth Machine, besides Richard Suttle and Endeavor Real Estate Group, is their friend, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson . In a separate action, Bill Bunch, Executive Director of Save Our Springs Alliance , received a favorable decision in his April 12 lawsuit against the Watson Council for an Open Meetings Violation. See Austin Monitor article here . You go, Bill! LIV Note : Richard Suttle has been skulking around Austin City Hall like he owns the place for years. That's because he -- and the city -- have helped make Endeavor Real Estate Group the largest commercial real estate firm in Central Texas. Don't forget it was Endeavor that was able to score The Domain luxury shopping mall subsidies in 2007 before they flipped it to Simon Malls, one of the largest mall developers in the world. The story on The Domain is here .

Voters in the City of Bastrop have a rare opportunity to nip the placement of the Gateway Project -- a massive development across the road from Bastrop State Park -- in the bud. City Council member Jimmy Crouch supports Gateway. His opponent, Kerry Fossler, does not support it as proposed. ( Bastrop Votes Forum, scroll to 34:54 ) Early voting • April 22 - 30 Election Day • Saturday, May 4th How to make growth pay for itself is at stake. Bastrop Gateway touted as "Domain-like," as in the luxury shopping mall in Austin, is a rushed high-density high-end multi-use development, including a 12-story hotel looming over the Bastrop State Park. It's at the top of the hill that is the gateway to the city of Bastrop. ( Note: Austinites heard too late to nip the 20-year subsidy waivers of property and sales taxes for Austin's The Domain since 2007!*) In their April 3 article about Gateway, Community Impact News wrote: "The plans include 600 residential units, including townhomes and apartments, as well as retail space and a hotel. The developer applied for a zoning change to a planned development district, requiring City Council approval." On March 28, the city's Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) unanimously voted to change the existing rural zoning (P2) to high-density commercial development (P5) to make way for this project . On April 2, a week before Gateway might have sailed through Council adoption, Gateway --and a possible Council majority -- hit a brick wall. (Watch it here .) Hundreds of citizens gave the Council a wake-up call, livid about the placement of the project. The Bastrop State Park is where much of its 5000 acres of piney woods burned in the massive Bastrop Complex fire in 2011. Very little of the Lost Pines woods are left after 32,000 acres burned, along with over 1600 structures, mostly homes. The trauma of those losses endure. Accordingly, most citizens were taken aback by the cluelessness of Gateway's promotion of high-end shopping, housing that most Bastropians could not afford, and, most telling, the idea that a small part of the forest that remains would be gone. (Watch the video here .) LIV's Linda Curtis has been asking questions about the project. Apparently, the City didn't properly notify everyone affected by the project about the March 28 proposed zoning change. The process at the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is scheduled to restart at a special meeting of P&Z tentatively scheduled for May 9th. That's five days after the city election. "I'm glad the City is redoing this. I hope P&Z and the Council, no matter who wins this election, see the error of their ways. Suffice to say that the voters of Bastrop have a mighty sword they have refrained from using. That's the right to a voter referendum to reverse Council decisions," said Linda Curtis, LIV Advisor and our "petition queen." Decisions have consequences and so do elections. Get out and vote, Bastrop! The Good News: What You Can Do Get your friends who live in the City of Bastrop out to vote. Share this fun video - " Nip it in the bud, Bastrop " and consider a donation to Independent Texans PAC for some low-budget ads. Note: Paypal will give you the option of using a credit card. There's a whole lot more to learn about making growth pay for itself. To wet your whistle read more below and let's talk about it! We love hearing from you. Feel free to post a comment at the end of this page. More info for you deep divers : One of the reasons rapid growth does not come close to paying for itself in Texas is developers do not pay enough up-front one-time impact fees to help shoulder the costs of infrastructure for new development. In Texas, only home-rule cities (cities with at least 5,000 population can charge impact fees like Bastrop) are allowed to impose those fees on new developments. In Texas, those fees are quite limited relative to other fast-growth states like Florida, for example. In addition, other states allow impact fees to be charged at all levels, including counties. No so in Texas. * The Domain Mall Subsidies: With only a two-week notice in 2003, the Austin City Council approved The Domain luxury shopping mall subsidies for twenty years starting in 2007. There was a big brouhaha -- and a public vote forced by a citizen petition drive -- that we won't go into here. For the details, go here Wikipedia . Don't fall for the argument that anyone is against growth. Let's just stop incentiving it! Learn more about Form-Based B3 Code from Strong Towns here . Read more of the fine print on Gateway here . Bastrop's growth is on a tear, especially on the western side of the county. More here , thanks to Community Impact News and a group of diligent citizens we'll tell you more about soon.

Join us with Sarah Stogner  on Twitter Spaces tonight for some fun and sass with LIV co-founder, Linda Curtis . Join us here .   Sarah is a Republican of a different order than Tim Dunn 's Texas Taliban (TT). She is as independent-minded as they come and a super-geek attorney when it comes to oil and gas and how it's impacting our most precious resource of all, groundwater.   The TT is gearing up with millions to buy more Texas House seats in the tiny turnout runoff primary slated for May 28th. In our view, this is the wrong kind of "anti-incumbency" movement taking us backward -- a serious distortion of term limits.   Read this Quorum Report piece  that follows the money.   Contact us if you can't make it tonight on Twitter.

" Come and Get Your Love ," reminds us that love of life on our planet is a powerful thing. As we witness the two-party breakdown on wars, how are we using this power to represent the vast majority of Americans who want an end to endless war? In the quest to get some peace-making love, please watch last night's Glenn Greenwald's System Update and share it. The independent journalist-attorney puts forth a cogent argument about how to understand Iran's recent attack as a signal for de-escalation. LIV Note: The presidential election could turn out to be the only way to send a signal to both parties. We are watching! Note: ICYMI, our last post, " Hell no, Texas Taliban, we won't go " is making the rounds. Contact LIV at 512.213.4511 or send an email to contact@livtx.org .

Is the fight to lockdown one-party rule in the May 28th GOP tiny turnout runoff primaries an opportunity for Texas independents to take King Greg -- and his fat-walleted donor friends -- down a notch? Join us on Tuesday night to hear from former State Rep. David Simpson, and national ballot access expert Richard Winger, along with a special guest from West Texas, Sarah Stogner. King Greg and his billionaire cronies are flooding Texas with cash from West Texas billionaire Tim Dunn , a guy who wants to tell you how to read your bible, as are donors from across the nation, like Pennsylvania-based TikTok investor, Jeff Yass , the largest donor in the nation and the D.C. based political whorehouse, Club for Growth . We believe that this GOP primary is not -- as Texans are being told -- really about "school choice" (vouchers) or the Texas border. It's more about the continued march to dismantle local control and representative government in Texas. Remember HB 2127 is still in court. If these power-hungry dudes elect more of their cronies to the Texas House, they will move to close the Texas open primary in the 2025 legislative session. This is to serve the desires of those who wish to thwart our U.S. and Texas constitutional guarantees to representative government. We will get right to these questions on Tuesday night and move from there. Why are open primaries important to Texas voters? And, how can Texas independents be a force to swing the outcome on May 28th? Join us on Zoom, Tuesday night, April 9th, 7 pm -- RSVP here. Invite your friends. Try to get through this homework for this event . Read: " I wear no Man's Collar ," Rep. Glenn Rogers (R-Mineral Wells) Read: " Texans Must Demand Reform to End Extremism, Scandal ," Joe Jaworski Read: " David Simpson: declaring political independence ." Read: " How the Texas GOP Lit its Hair on Fire, and every Texan's local control ." For later, a long read: " What Liberals Get Wrong About 'White Rural Rage ', Almost Everything ,"  Nicholas F. Jacobs. ==> BTW, on No Labels' decision to withdraw from the presidential race: the independent movement must be built from the ground up and focused on the uplifting of independent voters. We learned this when Ross Perot and the Reform Party in the 1990s imploded after our 4-year and very well-funded experiment took place. More soon as we sift the wheat from the chaff on the direction of the independent movement. See you soon on Zoom!

Opinion : Millions of baby boomers like me protested the Vietnam War, chanting, "Hell no, we won't go." We hated President Johnson , to whom we chanted "Hey, hey, LBJ how many kids did you kill today?" We called Richard Nixon "tricky Dick". We had no use for either party. Our movement to end a mistaken war we saw as intimately connected to two-party rule in America. Dr. King never endorsed Kennedy. He moved independently with us to fight to open up electoral competition in America. It was an imperfect insurgency and we failed. But let me remind you, it was Nixon, not LBJ, who was forced to get us out of Vietnam. That is not an endorsement of Donald Trump . I'm just saying that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party have some dues to pay for what is happening in Ukraine and Israel, just as Nam forced LBJ to not seek reelection. For now, there is no major independent challenge to Biden or Trump that can claim the mantle of getting America out of perpetual war and our related $34 trillion debt -- and counting. Trump had his chance and blew it. Biden is blowing it. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr ., who is running as an independent for President, has failed the test as a candidate for peace, having consistently supported -- even more so than President Biden -- giving Israel a blank check in the Middle East. Today, we see the out-of-control Israel's escalation of a regional war in the Middle East. Who among us doesn't at least feel the possibility of WWIII? What can we do? We will see in May who the national Libertarian Party nominates and in July, who the Greens nominate as well. Rather than demonizing them, the major parties and their candidates could move to adopt their anti-war positions -- if they espouse them -- to counter their "vote-splitting" arguments. What do these wars have to do with Texas politics? This TV ad is now running in Texas funded by the Washington-based Club for Growth . Club for Growth is all for "free-market" competition, but apparently not in our electoral arena. I almost want the Texas Taliban to succeed. It's as if they're taking their cues from Netanyahu. They will kill the Texas GOP much faster than we could by competing with them with better ideas. But there are some good people in the runoffs in addition to Rep. Phelan. In particular, natural resources protectors, Reps. DeWayne Burns ( HD-58, Cleburne ) and Gary VanDeaver ( HD-1, New Boston ), allies in the fight to protect Texas land and water. Join us to talk about Open Primaries, the GOP runoff primaries and the Texas Taliban with former State Rep. David Simpson and Rich Winger of Ballot Access News on Tuesday, April 9, 7 pm. Sign up here to join us online . For the deep dive into the current mess of US foreign policy in Israel and Ukraine : Watch independent journalist Glenn Greenwald's April 2nd interview with Professor John Mearsheimer as Israel moves even further out-of-control after bombing the Iranian embassy in Syria and killing humanitarian aid workers, all paid for by U.S. taxpayers: Prof. John Mearsheimer Dissects Catastrophic US Foreign Policy: Israel-Gaza, Russia, China, & More | SYSTEM UPDATE #252 Great Additional and Quick Reads: Read: " I wear no Man's Collar ," Rep. Glenn Rogers , reprint from the Weatherford Democrat Read: " Texans Must Demand Reform to End Extremism, Scandal ," former Galveston Mayor, Joe Jaworski , reprint from The Daily News (Galveston) Read: " David Simpson: declaring political independence ," by former State Rep. and Republican, now independent, David Simpson , reprint from Longview News-Journal.

Oops, the Guv gets caught in this hilarious fight-back 30-sec TV ad posted by Quorum Report's, Scott Braddock , who wrote , " In a new TV commercial, State Rep. DeWayne Burns (R-Cleburne) has to point out that Abbott is attacking him about a bill that Abbott himself signed into law." Is there a reason they have to make stuff up? Rep. Burns , one of the good guys on Texas water policy, is in a very expensive runoff on May 28th and has been targeted for defeat because he didn't go along to get along with Greg Abbott and his political allies.

“ The answer to speech that we disagree with or irresponsible speech is more speech and responsible speech. Republican and Democrat authoritarian leaders have lost their way,”  a former State Representative and longtime Republican, David Simpson who just left the Republican Party of Texas– see Longview News-Journal .   Just as the world has come together – from across all faiths and political orientations -- for a ceasefire in Gaza, and as we witness a man-made disaster and famine set in, what does the Governor of Texas do?    Texas Gov. Greg Abbott just issued an Executive Order  to curb free speech on Texas university campuses. It’s all supposedly in the name of deterring anti-semitism. Sorry, Governor, but millions of Jews including in Israel itself, are protesting the genocide happening in Gaza. This review by Jewish Voices for Peace lays out the resolution, noting the ceasefire is only for a few weeks .  “ Memo to the sick bastard aka King Greg: According to the ACLU-TX, ‘ Universities must already protect students, faculty, and staff from harassment directed at any racial, ethnic, or religious group. Peaceful expressions of dissent are integral to the educational experience and a functioning democracy .’” Debbie Russell , Board Member, League of Independent Voters of Texas, and longtime free speech advocate.   For all you free speech advocates and political independents, check out what a real conservative , longtime independent and Constitution Party leader, Pastor Chuck Baldwin, says about why no one should accept Hamas’ body count of 30,000 Gazans.”   “ How Many Gazans Have Been Murdered by Biden and Bibi? Thirty Thousand? More like Two Hundred Thousand .”  (Note: Ryad Mansour , the Palestinian representative to the UN, estimates 100,000 deaths .)

The price of tea in Texas is this. It's the $6M donation -- the largest in Texas political history -- to Gov. Greg Abbott from TikTok investor and Pennsylvania resident, Jeff Yass . The money was given to push vouchers in rural Texas where Republican legislators refused to go along to get along in no less than four legislative sessions called by King Greg. Take this in, dear Texas independents -- those who vote for the person, not the party -- numbering in the millions of Texans including primary voters! What's TikTok and the price of tea in Texas got to do with it? The Republican primary ballot contained 13 non-binding referendums. Proposition 9 was the least popular, though it handily passed at 72%. It posed: PROPOSITION 9: THE REPUBLICAN PARTY OF TEXAS SHOULD RESTRICT VOTING IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY TO ONLY REGISTERED REPUBLICANS . Thanks to the honest conservative news at The Texan, we were warned about how the stage was set for this in 2022 when the Texas GOP changed their rules to exert more party control. Then, on Super Tuesday, March 5, 2024, the move was made to close at least the GOP primary. We have no idea if Jeff Yass supports this move by the Texas GOP to consolidate power. All we know is that Yass lives in one of the 29 states with a closed primary . Here's something you can do to help readjust the crown on Gov. Abbott 's head. Call the Governor at 512.463.2000 and tell him you want competitive elections, not fixed ones. Then donate or become a member of LIV today: Note : The reasonable and respectful Chair of the House Elections Committee, Rep. Reggie Smith (R-North Texas) , was defeated in the GOP primary. Will closing our long-held open primary and marginalizing independents even more than we already are, be on the agenda? Last time we checked, bears still poop in the woods. Be sure to read our other post this week in our news section.

Harvey Kronberg at Quorum Report was the lone ranger who hinted the Speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan (R-Orange) might be in trouble. Phelan had his hat handed to him in his own primary on March 5th in SE Texas, paying the price for allowing the impeachment of a well-known escape artist and self-serving ideologue, Attorney General Ken Paxton . The Speaker and eight other Republican incumbents are in the May 28th runoff. Pay attention because these fools, especially King Greg , may have opened to door for the the very people they love to hate so much, Texas Democrats. Why you should hold on to your hat is this: "The grim and not so funny joke is that for all the violence Abbott has perpetrated on the culture of the House, he may get ‘credit’ for increasing Democratic numbers in November while failing to change the anti-voucher math." Harvey Kronberg From behind the paywall: HK: The GOP primary is the first episode, declining Republican percentages in presidential years may have surprising consequences in defining the Texas House PS Remember you can vote in the runoff primary, even if you didn't vote in the first round. You may not switch parties in the second round, however.