NEWS
Advocates for Big Government: Paid for by… your taxes!
Roddy Stinson, a columnist at the San Antonio Express-News, has hit the nail on the head with a piece in today's paper. He correctly describes the response of local governments to the idea of slowing down the amount of money they can grab as "Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Leading the sky-might-fall chorus is the well-heeled, city-government-is-king Texas Municipal League."
Sen. Carona would rather do the wrong thing… on taxes?
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.
Killing the Business Tax…
 When Texas lawmakers instituted the “gross margins†business tax, it is a safe bet they didn’t expect trail-lawyer-extraordinaire Mark Lanier to sue them over it. But that’s exactly what he’s planning on doing, according to today’s Houston Chronicle.Â
Houston Chronicle notes TFR
The Houston Chronicle's Janet Elliott noted in her blog this week the creation of TFR.
Return the Surplus
Howard About That! Legislator Files Bill to Fix Spending Limitation
As we reported earlier on this blog, we have urged the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) to adopt growth in gross state product instead of tot
al 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 notes TFR’s launch
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.
Â
Austin American-Statesman notes TFR formation
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.
Sullivan to lead Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
|
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.
State Auditor: Higher Ed High on the Hog
Today, the Texas State Auditor released a detailed report on the number of full-time equivalent employees in state government. The central conclusion of the report is that, while state agencies have reduced their num
ber of FTE's by 8.4 percent since 1997, higher education institutions have grown their workforce by 26.1 percent over the same period. In fact, the report found that Texas higher ed institutions now have 143,044 FTE's, more than the 142,621 in all other state government agencies combined. While most colleges submitted an explanation for busting their FTE target, the Texas State Technical College in Harlingen failed to provide any reason to the Auditor.
Suddenly Responsible?
The San Antonio Express-News wants lawmakers to hold on to the state surplus revenue. The longer lawmakers hold it, the longer they will be tempted to spend it.