Today House members voted to increase their operating budgets and raise the salary cap for legislative employees. While small businesses are tightening their belts, legislators are adding notches.
Under the new rules, legislators will get an extra $1,000 per month to run their offices. At the same time they raised the amount they can carry forward from $15,000 to $25,000.
While many Texans are scaling back their family budgets and holding their collective breath to hear the next bit of economic news waiting out the downturn, our state government should be no different.
Voting against the bill were State Representatives Doc Anderson, Jimmie Don Aycock, Bill Callegari, Joe Crabb, Brandon Creighton, Dan Flynn, Patricia Harless, Will Hartnett, Doug Miller, Sid Miller, and Rob Orr.
Please take the time to thank these Representatives. (Clicking on their name will take you to their Index rating page, from which you can type them a thank-you note which we’ll hand-deliver!)
Coming into this session many legislators pledged to watch the dollars and cents closely.
This will serve as a missed opportunity to demonstrate to constituents that resolve, the resolve to stop the growth of government at the expense of more taxpayer dollars.
