Maybe local officials are often so wrong because peers mislead them

Taylor County’s Chuck Statler misleads officials on taxpayer funded lobbying issue.

I have decided that there must be as many county judges and commissioners who are simply ignorant of that of which they speak as are dedicated liars, especially about legislative matters. Why? Because it is clear from reading County Progress, the magazine off the County Judges and Commissioners Association of Texas, that their own ignorant, or untruthful, leaders are misinforming them.

Chuck Statler, a county commissioner from Taylor County, is the current president of the association and in his letter to its members in the January issue of County Progress he mislead other commissioners and judges across Texas.

Writing of the next legislative session, Statler wrote: “There will be very strong efforts to try to take voices away for cities, counties, and school districts, which will limit access of local officials to legislators during the legislative session.”

Statler expressly claims that efforts to end taxpayer funded lobbying “will limit access of local officials to leglislators.”

That is an outright falsehood, often repeated by other local officials, so either Chuck Statler is a liar, he simply is not very bright, or he is stupid because he has chosen to be ignorant about what the bills in question do and yet writes publicly about such.

Not only would it be unconstitutional to limit the access of local officials to legislators, no one has proposed such – in any manner. Statler’s oft repeated phrase misleads other local officials about efforts to end taxpayer funded lobbying in which local government uses our money to hire professional lobbyists to then, quite often, lobby against our interests.

Ending local governments paying professional lobbyists with our money in no way limits any person’s, local official or not, access to legislators. To believe otherwise is a sign of utter incompetence or stupidity.