Scarpello said he’ll conduct a full review of Saturday’s election and implement a plan to revise the county’s voting processes, which he called “deficient.”

Scarpello said he’ll conduct a full review of Saturday’s election and implement a plan to revise the county’s voting processes, which he called “deficient.”
Commissioners declare emergency to analyze state of nonfunctioning TechShare.Courts.
After a few contentious hearings, countywide polling places have been approved in Harris County.
Lewisville Mayor Rudy Durham, who is also Denton County’s chief appraiser, claims conflict-of-interest legislation targets him and harms voters. Denton’s appraisal district is in the midst of a public integrity investigation.
Nelson travels to Austin again to oppose key component of property tax reform.
Voters will decide in November whether to stop cities in Johnson County from annexing property without owners’ consent.
Results of a March primary election tainted by voter fraud were flipped in a July 21 rematch.
With the addition of Palo Pinto County, five Texas counties are now on track for a November vote to stop cities from annexing property without owners’ consent.
Council members, frustrated with the mayors refusal to move on an item, called a special meeting to discuss the state of Houston firefighter pay.
Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal shuts down citizens advocating for spending cuts.
Prominent attorney and Republican judicial candidate in Lubbock dies after cycling accident.
Cities are trying to deny claims of work-related illnesses by firefighters.
The sheriff has cost taxpayers even more money in an attempt to undermine state and federal law enforcement.
City officials have raised taxes dramatically on residents, despite a growing tax base driven by new commercial development.
Metering Memorial Park is more about parking violation revenue than meter fees.
Speaking at a Capitol news conference yesterday, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said "We don't have a 14.3 billion dollar surplus." He asserted that "when you look at promised property tax cuts out to 2011, we're looking at a balanced budget with just a modest increase in our expenditures." Dewhurst made similar remarks today at the Legislative Budget Board meeting where the LBB set the constitutional spending limit, which based on projected personal income growth, will allow a 13.11 percent increase in general revenue expenditures for the 2008-09 biennium.
The Abilene Reporter-News has a revealing piece today discussing how Abilene taxpayers support revenue and appraisal caps while local officials are frightened by the prospect. The most eye-opening quote is:
Taylor County Commissioner Chuck Statler likened the county's situation to his personal budget at home: ''If your expenses continue to increase, why would you want to reduce your income?''
The Galveston Daily News reported this month that the board of the Galveston Independent School District voted to pay the Austin consulting firm Moak, Casey & Associates up to $15,000 to lobby the Texas Education Agency (TEA) on their behalf. The specific purpose of this arrangement is to get TEA to agree to a swap between the money the district will receive to buy down school property taxes and the money they will owe the state in Robin Hood payments. Suffice it to say, the article states that some questioned why district officials just don't call TEA themselves to find out whether this is feasible.
State Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) is quoted by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as saying that he'd rather "something wrong than do nothing." The sad thing is that in this case, the "wrong thing" he'd rather do is raise local taxes to pay for more wasteful mass transit spending, than "do nothing" which apparently includes making local governments squeeze more effiency out of their spending programs.
The Houston Chronicle's Janet Elliott noted in her blog this week the creation of TFR.
As we reported earlier on this blog, we have urged the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) to adopt growth in gross state product instead of total personal incomes as the index for measuring growth in the state's economy for purposes of calculating the constitutional spending limitation. Making this change would mean that Texas politicians could increase state spending by at least $3-$6 billion dollars less in the 2008-09 biennium than they could otherwise.
DallasBlog.com contributor (and editor of the Lone Star Report) Will Lutz noted the formation of TFR in a posting this morning. You can read his post here.
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On the "Postcards from the Lege" section of the Statesman's website, reporter Mike Ward noted the formation of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. Check out his actual posting here.
New organization offers vision, leadership on tax relief, spending reforms Advocacy efforts focused on promoting sound fiscal policy among lawmakers, taxpayers |
AUSTIN, Texas – Unveiled in Austin today is a new organization, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, developed to promote government accountability to taxpayers and citizens. The mission of TFR is to create and sustain a system of strong fiscal stewardship within all levels of state government that serves to empower all Texans.
Board chairman and Midland businessman Tim Dunn announced that the organization will be headed Michael Quinn Sullivan. Sullivan comes to TFR from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he served as vice president and director of media and government relations. TFR was originally founded in early 2006 as Empower Texans.