The Houston Chronicle recently reported that the town of Shenandoah Texas has hired taxpayer-funded lobbyists for $30,000 this session.

Once in a while the mainstream media hits the nail on the head and such is the case with a staff editorial in today's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. This piece enclosed below in no uncertain terms urges the Legislature to return the surplus to taxpayers. Further, it points to the folly of simply shifting taxes and argues that rather than raise other taxes to pay for further property tax relief, the Legislature should simply utilize the surplus – the amount by which Texans have overpaid in taxes.

Governor Perry had a great line reported in the state's media outlets:
       "Only in Austin and Washington would returning $8 billion to citizens be considered spending."

That's a great point. The state's spending cap was called the "Texas Tax Relief Act," and was supported by an overwhelming vote of the people in a constitutional election. Most Texans probably assumed that if spending was kept under control, their taxes would be as well. It's doubtful any voter thought tax relief could be confused with spending, and it is reasonable to assume that they figured any overage would come back to them and not be used to grow government.

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 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.