By james art LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – Lubbock County Ranch Cary Shaw says it’s time for a new direction in District 3.
That’s why he’s challenging incumbent President Gilbert Flores, who says change isn’t always a good thing.
Flores, a Democrat, says he’s enjoyed representing Precinct 3 for 24 years, so he wants to keep doing it.
“I have to win it. I have to win the support of my constituents not only in Ward 3 but across the county,” he said.
Cary Shaw, a Republican and career rancher, says his district has often been overlooked.
“The reason I’m going this way is because God told me that I’m the one to bring Precinct 3 back to what it needs to be back equal to the other precincts,” he said.
Shaw says Flores was negligent in making sure the roads in northeast Lubbock County were taken care of.
“Since the last time I ran, the roads that were graded were too narrow for two vehicles to meet, which is a public safety tradeoff,” Shaw said. “One man must step into the ditch to pass another.”
Flores says there are 400 miles of caliche and dirt roads in the stretch, so it’s harder than it looks to get to all of them.
“So all he talks about is roads and promises to grade every road in my area. Caliching one mile costs $75,000. Can you imagine what he will try to spend? There are 37 departments in the county, not just road fund,” Flores said.
Those departments will have to work with less money than Flores and Judge Curtis Parrish had hoped for.
When two commissioners recently missed meetings, the county was forced to adopt the property tax rate without new revenue. Flores says that if he wins, his top priority will be balancing the budget.
“This year we had complications. Major complications. We’ve cut a lot of funding for a lot of departments next year. It won’t get any better. It will most likely get worse and I want to be here when that happens. I want to be here to help balance our budget and keep our tax rate as stable and low as possible,” Flores said.
Shaw says it’s time to stop “taxing and spending.”
“People see this pain that’s going on in Lubbock County, and then they see all these taxing entities that want to raise taxes.” And they know my opponent wanted to raise taxes 3.5 percent this year, and they were going to make the two brave commissioners not last,” Shaw said.
Both candidates plan to campaign at Amigos on University as often as they can before the election is over.
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