Under legislation adopted by the Texas House yesterday, you’ll soon be paying state employees not work at their tax-funded jobs; no, you’ll be paying them to volunteer their time!
The Texas House approved HB 1462 by a margin of 87-57. The legislation lets state employees take up to five hours a month as paid leave if they are volunteering with CASA — the “Court-Appointed Special Advocates” which represents the interests of kids. Quoting the Lone Star Times:
There is no question in my mind that CASA is a worthy volunteer group. I know this because I volunteered for them in the past. But the key word is VOLUNTEER! If the State of Texas is paying people to work at CASA, why is it called volunteering? Isn’t it really employee sharing? Of course it is. And how much will this cost Texas taxpayers? Glad you asked. In one of the more bizarre fiscal notes that I’ve read, the conclusion is that it will cost the Texas taxpayers: Nothing.
According to the Legislative Budget Board: “The bill would result in lost productive time at work for the employees who participate in the volunteer program. Lost productive time is not a direct fiscal impact to the state.”
Kind of makes sense. State bureaucrats doing nothing only costs us their salary and benefits. It’s when they start regulating, implementing, enforcing and such that it costs us the big money.
Voting FOR this silliness:
Allen; Alonzo; Alvarado; Anchia; Bohac; Bolton; Burnam; Castro; Chavez; Cohen; Coleman; Cook; Davis, Y.; Deshotel; Dukes; Dunnam; Dutton;
Edwards; Eiland; Eissler; England; Farabee; Farias; Farrar; Flores; Frost; Gallego; Gattis; Geren; Giddings; Gonzales; Gonzalez Toureilles; Guillen;
Gutierrez; Heflin; Hernandez; Herrero; Hochberg; Hodge; Homer; Hopson; Howard, D.; Hunter; Jackson; Kent; King, S.; King, T.; Kuempel; Leibowitz;
Lucio; Madden; Maldonado; Mallory Caraway; Marquez; Martinez; Martinez Fischer; McCall; McClendon; McReynolds; Menendez; Miklos; Moody; Naishtat; Oliveira; Olivo; Ortiz; Otto; Pen˜ a; Pickett; Pierson; Pitts; Quintanilla; Raymond; Ritter; Rodriguez; Rose; Smith, W.; Solomons; Strama; Thibaut; Thompson; Turner, C.; Turner, S.; Veasey; Villarreal; Vo; Walle.
And against it: Anderson; Aycock; Berman; Branch; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Button; Callegari; Chisum; Christian; Corte; Crabb; Craddick; Creighton;
Crownover; Darby; Davis, J.; Driver; Elkins; Fletcher; Flynn; Hamilton; Hardcastle; Harless; Harper-Brown; Hartnett; Hilderbran; Howard, C.; Hughes; Isett; Jones; Keffer; King, P.; Kleinschmidt; Kolkhorst; Legler; Lewis; Miller, D.;
Miller, S.; Morrison; Orr; Parker; Patrick; Paxton; Phillips; Riddle; Rios Ybarra; Sheffield; Shelton; Smith, T.; Smithee; Swinford; Taylor; Truitt; Weber; Woolley; Zerwas.
