Welcome to the Greatest Show in Frisco—Starring Your Wallet!  Ladies and gentlemen, step right up! Frisco has unveiled its latest act in the grand circus of civic spending—a $300+ million performing arts center!  That’s right, folks, for the low, low price of just hundreds of millions of your hard-earned tax dollars, we, the citizens of Frisco, can enjoy the privilege of funding a shiny new venue for performances most of us will probably never attend. 

And who’s leading this blockbuster production?  The front line “sales pitch artists” include The City of Frisco and a company called Theatre Project Consultants Inc.  Of course, they are using their friends at Community Impact to deliver messages to mailboxes of 30,000+ residents.  But wait, there is more!  Enter, SMART FRISCO, the newest political action committee in town, whose idea of “smart” appears to be convincing taxpayers that we absolutely, positively must have this arts center—or else the arts police will revoke our cultural credentials, and the ghost of Shakespeare will haunt City Hall!

Who is Smart Frisco?  The website says it is a citizen-driven political action committee dedicated to informing and educating our community about the Center for the Arts Bond Initiative and its role in driving economic development.  We went to the city’s website and looked up campaign finance reports and we found the Campaign Treasurer Report filing which lists Heather Eastburn as the treasurer and their HQ office is a UPS store in Frisco.  Sound familiar?   Just last year Bill Woodard (current council member) set up the Safety-First Frisco PAC against the Frisco Firefighters also HQ at a UPS store? 

We looked up the Smart Frisco PAC on the Texas Ethics Commission website.  First, we searched by the treasure’s name and found NOTHING!  Then we searched by Smart Frisco and found NOTHING!  Then we looked under Active Campaign Filer Lists for political committees with appointed treasures and NOTHING!  Why is it so hard to find out who is behind the PAC and who is financing the PAC?

Smart Frisco recently just posted to their Facebook Page an eye-catching graphic showing a set of tickets that read “COSTS NOTHING CHANGES EVERYTHING!”  The website has the same stylish, eye-catching “PRO-PROPAGANDA” wanting you to “VOTE YES” and telling you “IT WILL COST YOU NOTHING!”  They want you to believe this project would be “By Frisco, For Frisco, and most importantly, IN Frisco!”

The post elicited several responses and questions like who will be paying the annual $6 million cost for theater operations?   Newsflash Frisconians, there’s no such thing as a free lunch!  Ever heard the quote, “one man’s ‘free’ is another man’s tax increase?”  One thing we know for sure is compliments are free, but this arts center sure isn’t! 

Smart Frisco refers to a Community Impact graphic on one post which states the city believes they can raise $50 to $60 million in individual gifts and another $50 to $60 million in corporate gifts.  Then in May they are asking you to vote on a BOND which they claim pending approval, will be for no more than $160 million.  Lastly Prosper ISD has committed $100 million to the project. 

Prosper ISD?  What about Frisco ISD?   Frisco ISD, who is facing a budget crunch, is building their own Performing Arts Center using $43 million earmarked from the approved 2018 Bond.   Remember in 2021, The City of Frisco, Frisco ISD and developer Hall Group entered a partnership to build a “JOINT” PAC at Hall Park.  In August 2022, the city and school district announce they were parting ways and canceling the “JOINT PROJECT PLANS!” 

FRISCO ISD is facing a BUDGET SHORTFALL, which they blame solely on the Frisco voters who did not vote to approve the last bond. Yet they, too, can justify the need to build a $50 million performing arts theater that belongs solely to Frisco ISD even though they are cutting some arts programs. They are blind to the fact that residents are demanding financial transparency on how they have already spent hundreds of millions of previous bond money on things other than what they promised it would go for at the time.  That is a tangent for another blog!

Back to the question: Who is Smart Frisco?  Honestly, we don’t know!  We know the treasure has a mug shot, but we are not sure if that is relevant.  I bet we will learn exactly who Smart Frisco is when they have to file their first campaign finance report.  Remember, you can’t fill a gas tank for free! The purse must be filled to fund a PAC, so we believe the donor’s list will speak volumes on who is holding the marionette strings of the dancing dolls.

Stay Tuned… dropping more soon!