A central pur
pose of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility is to give taxpayers a voice in Austin in the face of the powerful forces that lobby for more spending. Is there a way to determine whether fiscally conservative organizations or groups that advocate more government have greater concern for taxpayers?
How about searching these groups’ websites for the word “taxpayer” or “taxpayers.” I did just that either using each site’s built in search engine or advanced Google search specific to the domain and the results speak for themselves.
The Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP) is the leading advocate of more spending – they back a state income tax and their head recently said Texas has far less government than it needs. Their website states they are celebrating 20 years of activism. During this time, only 4 documents on their website mention “taxpayers” and zero mention “taxpayer.”
For about the same length of time, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) has been promoting limited government. Their website search shows that they have mentioned “taxpayer” 296 times and “taxpayers” 624 times.
Here are some similar results:
Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA) (more spending)
4 for taxpayer or taxpayers
Conference of Urban Counties (more spending)
6 for taxpayer or taxpayers
Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (less spending)
74 for taxpayer or taxpayers
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (that’s us and this site is only two months old)
40 for taxpayer or taxpayers (excludes this post of course – now that wouldn’t be fair)
Every group is surely entitled to their own view about the size and scope of government and the tax burden and we respect each of these group’s commitment to their principles, but we urge everyone to keep taxpayers in mind, even if it is to state candidly their position against reducing the burden on taxpayers.
