We’ve all heard it: “Texas is the #1 job creator in the country.” “We passed a conservative budget with no new taxes.” “Gross domestic product is up, & unemployment is down.” “We have jobs-jobs-jobs,” 81% of which go to immigrants, legal and illegal. Ever wonder what else are they aren’t telling us? Turns out, a lot.
How many rank & file Texans know that Texas:
- is #11 in the nation for reliance on federal dollars
- leads the nation in road debt
- is in more debt than the Postal Service, which is bankrupt
- has passed spending increases totaling $8 billion over & above the population-growth-rate + inflation limit
We have the number one economic engine in the country, but as Michael Quinn Sullivan succinctly put it, “The least drunk person in the room probably shouldn’t be held up as a model of sobriety.”
In the last session, lawmakers started off with $20 billion of revenue. Not all of it was spent on nonsense, but of it much was.
Corporate welfare is financial assistance, such as tax breaks or contributions (called subsidies), given by the government (taxpayers) to profit-making companies, especially large corporations. In the last session:
- Film & music marketing received $95 million, a 200% increase from the last session in 2011. This is to attract for-profit entertainment projects to Texas.
- The Emerging Technology Fund got $57 million taxpayer dollars.
- The Texas Enterprise Fund was awarded $120 million.
From an earlier session, Formula One Racing was given $25 million over a 10 year period from YOU the taxpayer. “You mean the Formula One?” Yeah, that Formula One. This is nothing more than the state of Texas paying people who are already swimming in money to come to Texas and make more money. State-sponsored bribery is one of the means employed by our elected officials in Austin to inflate the Texas job market.
Texas should be a business friendly state, with low taxes and sensible regulations. That alone & a healthy economy should attract most businesses without resorting to unconstitutional enticements to get them to come here.
Also from an earlier session, they blessed us with a new requirement for schools: if 80% of a school’s students qualify for free or reduced breakfast, it has to be made available to the entire student body and naturally, you are paying for it.
In the last session, our criminal justice director got a $73,000 raise. The Health & Human Services director got a $35,000 raise after being on the job for only a few months. The head of the Board of Pardons and Paroles received a $45,500 raise. The state librarian got at $35,000 raise, and our Parks & Wildlife Director got a $27,400 raise. Wow. Couldn’t they have reduced our taxes just a little?
And of course, “education cuts were restored.” The classrooms might see a little, but most of the money will go to corrupt, left leaning Big Ed. Big Ed is the upper echelon of public education-your commissioners, superintendents, directors, administrators, coordinators, specialists, liaisons, etc. Most “education” funding goes to pay for their bloated salaries & perks instead of going to teachers & classrooms.
You would think that if you compared Texas to union-besotted California in public education spending, that Texas would put California to shame. Not so fast:
Education Texas California
| Population | 26.06 million | 38.04 million |
| State Spending per person | $2,043 | $1,345 |
| ISD Debt | $64 Billion | $49.9 Billion |
| Nationwide Ranking | 42nd | 41st |
Oh, did I mention that our legislators voted themselves an increase in their pensions?
Clearly, Texas has a really big problem. Our legislators spend like drunken sailors then, using accounting sleight-of-hand and budgeting gimmicks, make it look like they “lowered taxes and cut spending.” How many times have we heard that? Clearly, this is not the case, and it could not be done session after session without Joe Straus (or someone equally corrupt) as Speaker. It is time for Texas to clean up its House.
We now have a red state, a red governor, a red senate, & a purple House because of our blue Speaker. Speakers are not elected by the voters. They are elected by the members of the House. Straus was first chosen for the position in 2009 by a coalition of Democrats and liberal Republicans. The RINO stranglehold in Austin has kept him there since.
Representatives and senators introduce bills which are then forwarded to certain committees. Who chairs these committees pretty much decides if their bills will make it out of committee. The Speaker appoints the chairs. Straus is partial to appointing liberals of both parties to chair the committees that decide to either pass bills to be considered by the entire body, or let them “die in committee.” This is how Straus kills conservative legislation session after session.
This January, the House will convene for the 84th Session. The very first vote will be for Speaker. A real conservative, Scott Turner, is running against Straus. For all the success of the Tea Party, organized, well-funded, and entrenched RINOs continue to control the House.
How will Texas survive the next two years of the Obama offensive if Joe Straus is still running our House?
We can fix this. Chances are better than average that your representative is planning to vote for Joe Straus. If EVERYBODY contacts their rep and asks them who they are supporting for Speaker, they will feel the heat. If the answer is anything other than “Scott Turner,” you have a problem. Tell them that if they vote for Straus, you will never support them again. Promise them that you will get behind anyone who opposes them in the next primary and do all you can to defeat them . . . and keep your promise. If they get enough calls and emails, knowing that they are being watched, they just might change their vote.
Straus’s supporters have a prepared list of excuses, none of which hold water. Don’t buy any of it. I am making a list of their excuses. When you get one, send it to me.
Once the vote is taken, the list of who voted how will be made public and everyone will know . . . and we will not forget. Texans are problem solvers. Joe Straus is a big one. Contact your rep now, and again between January 2nd and 15th when the next session starts. Our House will never be clean as long as a dirtbag runs it.
Jan Shedd
Kaufman County Tea Party
11.18.14
