Action Update - Issue 100 : : June 11, 2007
Royal Masset
The Rodeo Ends. Session Summary.
If you go by media accounts the 80th session saw a collapse in leadership at all levels. There is some truth in this. But the larger truth is that the legislature did what it is supposed to do. It funded state government without excessive growth. It reacted to most current public concerns and updated our laws. I would give it a B for producing good laws for Texas.
I would probably give it an F for artistic form. But unlike in figure skating, form only counts when it causes people to lose faith in their government. We are not even close to endangering our state institutions. One could argue without being facetious that Texans have never really believed in government so there is nothing to lose faith in. Within a 25-year period from 1836-1861 Texans went to war against both the United States of Mexico and the United States of America. We don’t like anyone telling us what to do.
Most of the controversies that reverberate in the state media are inside baseball and do not mean much outside Austin. At the beginning of the session one would have thought Governor Perry was the most disliked man in Austin. He had the temerity to issue executive orders without telling the legislature in advance or seeking their approval. Heaven forbid that our Governor tried to Govern Texas! Take Heart, Rick. Governor Houston was so disliked he was driven from office. Yet such was his impact on history that the first word uttered by man when he landed on the moon was “Houston.”
By the end of session Governor Perry was the most liked man in Austin. Perhaps because of Perry’s momentary lack of power, Lt. Governor Dewhurst and House Speaker Craddick got high on their own power trips. Legislators who were in a tiff over Perry’s lack of proper obsequiousness went ballistic when their Chamber leaders had the unmitigated gall to tell them what to do! So in the end they all joined Perry’s team and fell over themselves supporting things like bonds for cancer research and toll roads.
 The big truth about any legislative session is that 90% of what they do is the budget. If you want to know what any government does, such as a school district, city or Texas, look at its budget- expenditures and revenues. Expenditures define what government does. Often expenditures have little to do with constitutional enumerations of the responsibilities of government. Texans for Texas is an excellent source of information about the unremitting growth of government into new areas. Mark Levin on May 8, 2007, had an excellent article on “The Preoccupation with Occupational Licensing.”
Right now it appears that the legislature has increased spending for the next biennium at a 3% annual increase beyond population growth. While this is a reasonable amount the biggest hidden truth about state budgets is that they can undergo large increases after the session ends through supplemental appropriations. Since the budget is almost always the last thing passed by the legislature we won’t know what’s in it for weeks. I personally will rely on budget experts such as Peggy Venable, Michael Sullivan and anything by Texas Public Policy Foundation to tell us how this budget compares to the past, how it treated home owners and other taxpayers, and if there are any new programs that may metastasize in the future and require more taxes. I am disappointed that many taxpayer reforms proposed by Tom Pauken’s Task Force on Appraisal Reform were not adopted.
The big winners this year were social conservatives. My impression is that since Republican legislators failed to enact conservative reforms in taxes, immigration and education, they had to do something that we conservatives would appreciate. So we had a great year for social issues. I don’t mean to sound flippant. Many readers will recall how difficult it was in the past to get more than one or two social issues passed in each session. This year we passed dozens. Many will have significant impact in areas such as public education.
The success of social issues illustrates another large truth about the legislative process. People who work for a cause will usually prevail if they persevere. To the amateur the legislative process appears irrational and erratic. To pass a bill in the house you need the support of the Speaker, its assigned Committee Chairman, the Calendars Committee and finally enough members to pass it through three readings without it being amended into oblivion. Perhaps the best thing about our legislative process is that it is designed to make passing laws hard. The first rule of lobbying comes from Galatians VI (King James Version) “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
For Taxpayers, Session's End
Is Welcome News
by Michael Q. Sullivan
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
Taxpayers can take great pleasure in the fact that this legislative session has come to a close and lawmakers are leaving Austin. When the new $152 billion budget kicks in, the state will be spending $2,410 per second of the taxpayers' money.
"Despite a $14 billion surplus and skyrocketing property tax bills, Texans are not getting any additional relief, they are not seeing that money returned to them.
"During the 2006 election season Texans were promised substantive reforms to the property tax appraisal system, but nothing has changed thanks to the stranglehold entrenched interests have in perpetuating the existing system.
"We can perhaps take solace in the fact that they didn't spend all of our money. For the first time in memory, the legislature actually left some of our cash on the table. That's good news. Likewise, this new budget grows far less than did the budget last biennium, and actually comes in under the growth of population and inflation. While Texans in a loud voice have said they were eager to see meaningful, strict limits placed constitutionally on the growth of state and local government, that legislation was left stuck in committee.
"The House and Senate should be congratulated for passing HB3430, which will make state government more transparent by opening the books on actual expenditures, contracts and grants for online review. And it is historically significant that, in 2008, the state will finally stop collecting the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund tax. That's a step in the right direction for taxpayers.
When lawmakers come to the 81st Session of the Texas Legislature, they will hopefully do so with a greater passion for tax reform, a stronger sense of
urgency for tax relief, and a renewed interest in promoting commonsense budget reforms that empower Texans."
RECOMMENDED READING
- Texas Says “No” to Kelo
With HB 2006, Texas has taken a determined stand against the U.S. Supreme Court’s abandonment of one of our most fundamental rights, saying “No” to Kelo and “Yes” to private property rights.
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