Approves fiscally responsible use of Economic Stabilization Fund to close out current budget year, avoid tax increases

by Rep. Erwin Cain, District 3 | March 31, 2011 | Press Release

Austin — Tonight, the Texas House of Representatives passed HB 4 by a vote of 100-46 in order to balance the books for the current budget year as required by the Texas Constitution. The House also passed HB 275 by a vote of 142-2 authorizing a one-time $3.1 billion draw down of the Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) to pay this year’s outstanding obligations. Rep. Cain voted in favor of both measures.

Cain said, “The Legislature is faced with the painful reality that state government must live within its means. In difficult financial times, we have to tighten our belt just like every family in Texas. The challenge has been to downsize state government in the most fiscally responsible way possible. The House has done that and I’m pleased to have been a part of that effort.”

Governor Rick Perry, Speaker Joe Straus, and Comptroller Susan Combs recently announced their support for closing out the Fiscal year 2011 budget gap with $800 million in budget cuts, utilizing $300 million in increased sales tax collections, and a one-time use of the ESF. Over the last several weeks, approximately $1.1 billion in savings have been identified, mitigating the draw down on the ESF.

“We’ve worked long and hard to find every efficiency possible. In the end, no one is pleased with the choices we have to make. But we were elected to make tough fiscal decisions. We owe it to taxpayers, and most importantly our children and their children, to insure every dollar is spent as responsibly and efficiently as possible.”

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by Rep. Jason Isaac | March 31, 2011 | www.isaacfortexas.com

Friends:

We have reached the halfway point of the legislative session. I am proud of the what we have accomplished so far but know that our most difficult work still lies ahead.

As you might know, I was appointed to the Elections and the Agriculture & Livestock Committees for the 82nd Legislative Session, two areas that have a major impact on our state.

Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of a constitutional republic.  We are working to improve election integrity and strengthen the system to provide for a more secure and efficient voting process.    I am proud to announce that we recently passed the voter ID bill out of both the House and the Senate and can look forward to increased confidence in our elections.

Agriculture is one of the most important industries in our state, contributing about $100 billion of economic impact and employing one in seven working Texans.  With a large amount of rural land in our district, this committee allows me to impact issues that are particularly important to House District 45, and to citizens across the state.

For more information on committees or to view committee schedules, visit the House website at www.house.state.tx.us.

As we take up the budget on Friday, I will be focused on  the issues that are priorities for my constituents, fighting tax increases, increasing efficiencies, reducing burdens on school districts, finding funding for nursing homes, etc.  As a conservative, I believe that the current shortfall provides us with a good opportunity to reevaluate the size and scope of our government, but also know how important it is to protect basic essential services.

For more information on public school finance in Texas, I encourage you to visitwww.protecttheclassroom.com andwww.redappleprojectsite.com.  These are both good resources that show a side of the story you may not be hearing and demonstrate how important teachers are to education.

Your input is crucial, so please continue to let me know your thoughts and concerns.

Jason

More…

Internationally renowned economist disputes pro-spending interpretation of LBB dynamic economic impact statement on proposed 2012-13 Texas state budget

AUSTIN – Internationally renowned economist and Texas Public Policy Foundation Senior Fellow Dr. Arthur Laffer issued a research report today, entitled “Texas’ Fiscal Future,” that endorses the Texas House’s passage of CSHB 1, the proposed 2012-13 state budget it will debate tomorrow, and disputes the claim that Texas would lose hundreds of thousands of jobs if the bill becomes law.

“The passage of CSHB 1 will not cause less jobs in Texas relative to any other option at hand,” Dr. Laffer wrote. “In fact, I can think of no response to the current Great Recession that the Texas state government could do that would be better for state employment than CSHB 1.”

Last week, the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) issued a dynamic economic impact statement that included a table at the bottom indicating Texas would have 272,000 fewer jobs next year than in a baseline scenario where spending and available revenue remained at the levels contained in the 2010-11 budget. Available revenue for the 2012-13 biennium is currently projected to be $10 billion lower than in the current biennium.

“There has been an impression created in the press and embraced by many that the [Legislative Budget Board] report suggests that adoption of the bill CSHB1 by Texas would cost Texas 272,000 jobs in 2012 and 335,000 jobs in 2013,” Dr. Laffer wrote. “This answer, at least as interpreted by the press, is wrong and not based on sound economics.”

Dr. Laffer, a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both his terms, challenged the LBB model’s apparent assumption that there is a positive correlation between government spending and job creation.

“This approach is indicative of a mistaken belief that government spending creates jobs and represents a failure to understand that government doesn’t have a single entry accounting system,” Dr. Laffer wrote. “Government can’t bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble. For every transfer recipient there’s a transfer payer. It’s as simple as that. Neither borrowing nor taxing to overspend helps the economy.”

Dr. Laffer’s report cites time series data showing that states and countries with lower government spending as a percentage of their economies realize stronger economic growth than those states and countries where government spending is the highest.

“Texas has been on the right track and shouldn’t change now,” Dr. Laffer concluded. “Texas is the example others should follow, not the reverse.”

The report, “Texas’ Fiscal Future,” is available for download from the Foundation’s website, www.TexasPolicy.com.

-*-*-

Dr. Arthur Laffer is Chairman of Laffer Associates, a supply-side investment research firm, and a Senior Fellow of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Laffer was a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board for both of his terms.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin.

Primary website: www.TexasPolicy.com

Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/TexasPublicPolicyFoundation

Twitter feed: www.Twitter.com/TPPF

The Peter Morrisson Report

Summary of this week’s report:

Republican sellouts are once again threatening to derail good immigration legislation in the Texas Legislature. Please contact the chairman of the State Affairs Committee, Rep. Byron Cook, and ask him to kill the guest worker program proposed by Rep. Aaron Pena and to hold hearings on HB 296, the bill requiring E-Verify system for Texas employers.

His phone number is 512-463-0730.

The full report is below:

I have to admit, despite the re-election of Joe Straus, I had high hopes for the 2011 Legislature. With Republicans controlling a 2/3 majority of the House, surely good legislation would pass dealing forthrightly with the immigration issue. The Senate’s arcane 2/3 rule might allow the Democrats to kill good legislation there, but at least all Republicans could unite in 2012 against a common enemy.

Sadly, this appears to not be the case this year. While the House has passed Voter ID legislation and is likely to pass anti-sanctuary-city legislation, they have done nothing on the core issue, which is E-Verify to remove the jobs magnet that creates the illegal immigration problem to begin with.

Worse than that, one recently converted Republican, Aaron Pena, has introduced a guest worker bill at the behest of the Cheap Labor Lobby. While the E-Verify bill, HB 296, has not yet had a hearing, Rep. Byron Cook fast-tracked Pena’s traitor bill to a hearing this week.

What the heck is wrong with the Republican Party? They won’t hold hearings for good bills, but they have plenty of time to consider a guest worker program. We’ve seen this movie twice before, first with sellout Republican David Swinford in the 2007 session and then again with Burt Solomons as chair of the State Affairs Committee in the 2009 session. Now it appears that Rep. Byron Cook is going to do a repeat.

Rep. Cook desperately needs calls telling him this is unacceptable behavior for someone who is supposed to be looking out for Republican interests.

All over the nation, the Republican Party is failing us. In Arizona, 60 Cheap Labor Lobby CEO’s wrote a joint letter to the Republican leadership and derailed all of the immigration legislation there, including a bill to challenge birthright citizenship. In Utah, Republicans spit in the face of the Tea Party by passing a guest worker program run by the state: a proposal now gaining traction among sellout Republicans in North Dakota and Texas.

The media, of course, is heaping praise on these Republicans who betray their base. But here’s the real tragedy: they still haven’t learned anything. They think they can get away with passing this legislation and nothing will happen to them. They think the Tea Party will be mollified with symbolic legislation instead of real immigration action to eliminate the jobs magnet.

My friends, I’m afraid we have much work left to do in the 2012 primaries. If Rep. Cook keeps it up, he’s the natural one to go on the chopping block. If you are in his district and have an interest in being your next state representative, or know someone who does, please get in contact with me. The time to plan a campaign is coming soon. We’ll wait and see what these spineless Republicans do, but we have to be ready if they betray us.

Please contact the chairman of the State Affairs Committee, Rep. Byron Cook, and ask him to kill the guest worker program proposed by Rep. Aaron Pena and to hold hearings on HB 296, the bill requiring E-Verify system for Texas employers.

His phone number is 512-463-0730.

Sincerely,

The Peter Morrison Report
http://www.PeterMorrisonReport.com
http://www.facebook.com/morrisonreport

by Peggy Venable | March 30, 2011 | Americans for Prosperity

Our voices needed in Austin on Wednesday, April 6.

We are working with other groups to hold a press conference  and day at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 6.  We know it is short notice, but the state budget is moving quickly and we anticipate the House will pass some good amendments Friday and this weekend – we want the Senators to be onboard.

Tea party voters and limited government advocates have been vastly outnumbered at the Capitol this legislative session.

• Today, the group Cover Texas Now (advocating for ObamaCare) and school administrators and their lobby organizations converged on the Capitol with similar messages:  Don’t cut spending, and drain all of the Rainy Day Fund.
• Earlier in the week, a group rallied at the Capitol chanting “3 point 2 just won’t do” referring to the Rainy Day Funds the legislature might use to fill this year’s revenue shortfall.
• These groups are calling on legislators to use all of the rainy day funds.

We need to send a message to Legislatures that you support cutting the budget and remind lawmakers that the voters demanded in November that our lawmakers stop overspending and stop mortgaging our children’s futures.

It is short notice, but the House will likely pass the budget this weekend and send it to the Senate.  We want to support the spending cuts the House will be making and provide support for those in the Senate.

You can help shape the future of Texas. If we don’t cut spending now, then when?

We hope you or someone from your tea part could come to Austin to participate.

Please share this with your friends and plan to be at the Capitol on Wednesday, April 6, mid-morning.  We will provide more specific information tomorrow.

-*-*-

Peggy Venable | Director

Americans for Prosperity – Texas

807 Brazos Street, Ste. 210 | Austin, Texas 78701

www.AmericansForProsperity.org; www.afptx.org

Americans for Prosperity is a grassroots organization of taxpayer advocates.

AFP-TX on YouTube

AFP-TX on Facebook, Peggy Venable on Facebook

AFP-TX on Twitter; Peggy Venable on Twitter

by Colleen Vera | March 30, 2011 | Citizen Report

The Committee on Elections hearing held in Austin this past Monday was very interesting. I did not know that someone on death row who has a case on appeal can still vote. There was also some eye opening testimony on mail in ballot voter fraud. I have listed the bill #’s and times when testimony was given for each.

[The VIDEO recording is here. The bill subjects can be found at the time markers in the recording.]

HB 1716  Mail in ballots   18:43 – 26:33

HB 847    Date of precinct conventions  47:00 – 52:40

HB 1226  Felony voting 1:05:40 – 1:14:15

HB 1503  Special Peace Officers   1:14:30 – 1:19:36

HB 2051  Oath    1:19:54 -

HB 2052  Cleaning voter rolls

HB 2053  No Felony for Poll Watchers

HB 2058  Assisting voter

HB 2449 (HB 2585)  Illegal possession of mail in ballots

HB 3055  False info on mailed ballot       - 3:02:04

HB 1679  Penalties for ballot harvesters   3:10:45 – 3:28:42

HB 2595  Mail in ballots        3:38:00 -

HB 2817  Procedures      -  3:48:47

State budget battle in TX House begins Thursday!

by JoAnn Fleming | March 30, 2011 | www.gawtp.com

Rally the troops! Calls & faxes needed now and every day this week!

Legislators are only hearing from people who want to spend more!

TX cannot become California! Take a stand NOW – right Now – melt the lines!

What you need to know:

Deadlines to file amendments (to cut or spend more) to the budget bills have passed. Debate comes to the House floor this week. Expect tax & spenders in both parties to make every effort to beat down spending cuts by parliamentary maneuvers and by proposing amendments to amendments. The amendment process will be long, stressful, heated, and intense.

On Thursday (March 31) the first round of the state budget battle in the House begins with: HB 4: state budget supplemental bill dealing with current budget shortfall. Several fiscally-sound and necessary cost-cutting amendments will be debated. We also expect a flood of spending increase amendments and “amendments to amendments” on the floor.

Also on Thursday, HB 275: appropriating money from the Rainy Day Fund to cover the current budget shortfall. Note: This bill would approve spending up to $3.2 billion from the People’s savings account, leaving approximately $6.2 billion remaining to cover the projected need of more than $14 billion in new funding to cover Medicaid increases even without ObamaCare, which – if not defunded or struck down – will add more!

Friday (April 1): budget debate begins on HB 1: General Appropriations Bill for the 2012-2013 state budget. Debate expected through the weekend.

Once the budget bills get through the House, they will go to the Senate where the same process will take place. Once there is agreement on the separate budget bills in the Senate, the result will go to Conference Committee for reconciliation with the House. This will be a long, contentious battle that may not end with the regular session. If an agreement is not reached, a special session will be necessary.

Save Texas from becoming California! Act Now!

Call and/or fax your state representative now and every day this week. The crowds of “spend more” protestors showing up on the steps of the Capitol, in the offices of our officials, and roaming the halls far outnumber us. Why? Because we are busy working and cannot take days off to lobby! Counter them by melting the lines to the Austin & District offices of your state rep! To find your state representative’s contact info, go to:  http://www.house.state.tx.us/members/find-your-representative/

Talking Points to use:

The 2nd Annual Lone Star Tax Day Tea Party! April 15, 2011

QUIKTRIP PARK * 1600 Lone Star Parkway * Grand Prairie, Texas

Sponsored by the Lone Star Tea Party & Groups Across Texas

General admission is free. Donations welcomed at gate. $25 VIP seating is available for purchase.

To purchase VIP Seating or for more info, please visit the Lone Star Tea Party

Lone Star Tea Party is a coalition of over 20 local Tea Party groups.

Last year’s event drew thousands of North Texans. JOIN US!

Friday, April 15th 2011 Doors open at 4:30pm
Main stage entertainment starts at 7:00pm

Special Guest / Emcee Mark Davis (WBAP 820, The Rush Limbaugh Show) | Jeff Bolton, host of Jeff Bolton Mornings, KLIF 570 | Singer/Songwriter Krista Branch performing ‘I Am America’ and ‘Remember Who We Are’ | Musician and Youth Pastor Jeremy Dodge performing ‘Stand Up’ and ‘I am American’ | Pastor Stephen Broden, Fair Park Bible Fellowship | Luca Bocci, Spokesman, Tea Party Italia | Dr. Yuri Maltsev, Senior Fellow, Ludwig von Mises Institute | Stewart Rhodes, Founder of Oathkeepers | Tim Cox, Founder of GOOOH Author and Business Professor | Evgeniy Gentchev, When We Are Free

UPDATE***

The Lone Star Tea Party this Friday at Quick Trip Park in Grand Prairie: They need volunteers to help out in many capacities. Areas needing volunteers:

• Setup/tear down
• Welcome/Sign in area (4 or 5 entrances)
• T-shirt/raffle sales
• Clean up during/after the event

I can take a crew that wants to leave @ 2pm, to arrive @ 3pm and work till midnite.  There are others doing shorter periods.  PLEASE LET ME KNOW BY THURSDAY am IF YOU WANT TO HITCH-ON.

Contact Q Coleman: RallyForce@gmail.com, or EventNet@Verizon.net

They also need plain ole ATTENDEES!!! 4:30-8:30pm.

If you can’t help out, PLEASE support it with your presence: you won’t regret it LET’S MAKE THIS WORK, PATRIOTS!!!

Now is the time to stand up – this is the gateway to 2012. Our Nation depends on us. The Tea Party members are the only ones lobbying for the people that pay the bills of this country.

by Rep. Lyle Larson, HD 122  | March 29, 2011 | Report

What’s new in District 122

After 11 hours of debate, the House finally passed the Voter ID measure. We started the day at 8:00 a.m. and weren’t finished until 3:00 the next morning. Earning $600 a month to work 19 hour days, my friends who question my sanity might have a point! In all seriousness, both sides presented very passionate and strong arguments and in the end, the bill passed 101-48. Requiring folks to present a photo ID at the polling place will undoubtedly ensure integrity in elections.

Last week, three of our bills were unanimously voted favorably out of committee. The bills include: HB 1499, which would designate a group of roads that were part of the Old Spanish Trail as the “Scenic Loop Road–Boerne Stage Road–Toutant Beauregard Road Historic Corridor.” HB 2340 would create a “Cyber Security, Education, and Economic Development Council.” The Council would create synergy between governmental agencies, businesses, and institutions of higher education to help Texas become a leader in cyber security technology. HB 1547 will provide guidelines for groundwater conservation districts that will have a major impact on groundwater planning in our state.

This week, 4 of our bills will be heard in committee. They include:

• HB 2349 which will allow public school districts to invest in corporate bonds to provide them with an additional tool to use in their investment strategy. This bill is permissive, it would only allow districts to use this method of investment if they choose to. This measure is already available to public universities.
• HB 1918 which would require the judge of a district court to appoint only one attorney to represent an indigent defendant in a capital murder case. Current law requires that judges must appoint two attorneys. This measure would save counties, and ultimately taxpayers, a lot of money.
• HB 2465 would allow commissioners courts to consider all funds received by the county in their budgeting process. Currently, county clerks, auditors and other county officials are able to use certain revenues they collect for their own purposes, independent of what they receive in their budget.
• HJR 44 and HB 431 which would allow San Antonio and Bexar County the option to consolidate. In a time of declining revenues when we’re all tightening our belts, city-county consolidation makes perfect sense. It will achieve efficiency, more accountable government and better delivery of services. This bill will be heard in the County Affairs Committee on March 31st. If you wish to testify in favor of this legislation, please contact my office as soon as possible at (512) 463-0646!

Also this week, the House will take up budget bills HB 4 and HB 275. These bills will make supplemental appropriations and authorize the use of $3.2 billion the “rainy day fund” to pay for budget overruns for the current biennium. This will not appropriate any of the “rainy day fund” for the next biennium, for which we anticipate up to a $27 billion shortfall. On Friday, we will take up HB 1, the budget bill. Friday will certainly be a very long day!

At the Capitol

We received lots of constituents this week, including representatives from the Texas Computer Education Association, Texas Job Order Contracting members, several retired teachers from District 122 with the Texas Retired Teachers Association, the leadership of Texas A&M San Antonio, and the Texas Association of Nurses. We thoroughly enjoy meeting with folks from District 122!

With Texas Retired Teachers Association members

With Bexar County Commissioners Tommy Adkisson and Chico Rodriguez

If we may be of assistance to you, please feel free to contact our Capitol office at (512) 463-0646 or lyle.larson@house.state.tx.us. Please continue to let us hear from you!

by Ken Brewer | March 29, 2011 | Opinion

The French were defeated in Viet-Nam by the Viet Minh at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Up to that point, the United States had been covertly aiding the French with logistical supplies and possibly other aid.

At the same time, the French were involved in another colonial conflict in Algeria. President Eisenhower reportedly entered into a secret agreement with Charles de Gaulle of France to take over the war in Viet-Nam if the French would agree to allow Algeria its independence. The goal was to open Algeria to American oil companies. After de Gaulle became President in 1959, Algeria did gain its independence, which came in 1962.

By this time, of course, John F. Kennedy was the President of the United States. He escalated the Second Indo-Chinese War, as the Viet-Nam War was then known, and introduced the concept of limited warfare. The best known instrument of this policy was his creation of Special Forces, commonly called Green Berets.

All of this prelude to the full blown war in Viet-Nam was done with the consultation of Congressional leaders, but with nothing approaching a formal Declaration of War. Lyndon Baines Johnson finally acquired Congressional authorization for a massive escalation with the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964.

In 1973 Congress enacted the War Powers Act, which authorized the President to send troops into areas where hostilities are imminent without Congressional approval for 60 days, 90 with an extension.

As I watched President Obama essentially issue a unilateral declaration of war on Monday night, I thought of the process begun at Dien Bien Phu. He said that he had informed Congressional leaders immediately prior to his action, but he was out of the country and on vacation at the time! There was no consultation and no approval. The President had completely ignored the Constitution but he had followed the letter of the law while consulting only with foreign nations, most notably the colonial powers of France and Britain.

The day before this Obama’s Secretary of Defense Robert Gates had stated that the United States had no vital interests at stake in Libya and that Libya does not pose any immediate threat to us. Libya does, however, supply a major part of the British and French oil supplies!

Has Obama involved us in a third war in the Middle East in the service of French financial interests for the second time in the last 60 years? Does he not know the results of that last disastrous policy in Viet-Nam?

President Obama justified our killing and bombing by citing a humanitarian emergency. It is undeniable that Khadaffi was about to slaughter his opposition. However, how would we have felt if Britain had intervened in Sherman’s bombardment of Atlanta? We have intervened in a civil war, a place where we have no business. With weapons like AC-130 gunships being deployed to Libya, any pretense of simply a no fly zone is abandoned. (Ibid.; The Blaze)

We have taken sides with in a tribal war with rebels who have a large contingent of Al Queda fighters among them. What does Obama plan to do if  they win and start slaughtering opposition civilians? Obviously, this war is counter to our national interests, as are most of President Obama’s policies.

Note: Someof the facts are from personal recollection, with some from my recollection of individuals directly involved in the operations of the 1950’s, especially concerning Eisenhower’s role.

By Peggy Venable, Director | March 29, 2011 | Americans for Prosperity-Texas

Everything’s bigger in Texas – so the saying goes. It especially rings true for super-sized public school superintendent salaries in the Lone Star State.

This week, hundreds of school board members and superintendents will rally in Austin opposing any cuts to education funding in Texas. The Texas Association of School Boards and the Texas Association of School Administrators are sponsoring the rally on March 30 at the Capitol. TASB has said that as many as 100,000 teaching jobs must be cut in order to make up for the $9 billion in proposed state education funding cuts.

We disagree. School districts have ample room to make cuts on spending outside of the classroom, without eliminating teaching positions or short-changing students.

In Texas, 214 superintendents take home an annual salary more than the Governor of Texas, whose salary is set at $150,000 a year. If superintendents in Texas were paid no more than the Governor, schools would save $20 million each biennium.

Unfortunately for Texas’ taxpayers, this issue of excessive salaries for superintendents only scratches the surface. Along with this generous base salary, the compensation package often includes lavish benefits and perks not often found in the private sector, like housing allowances, car allowances, and more. These perks, along with superintendents’ annual bonuses, figure into many more millions being spent on just the one position in Texas public education.

School districts often defend these high salaries as the cost of recruiting the best candidate to run their district. But it is disingenuous to put forward a free market defense for outrageous salaries as public schools still have a monopoly on education in this state.

If we want to see meaningful education reform in Texas, we must tackle the problem of escalating administrative and out-of-classroom costs in our public school system.

Texas has a 1:1 teacher to non-teacher ratio, with many non-teachers (school administrators and professional support staff) earning $9,000 – $38,000 more annually than teachers.

Beaumont ISD has less than 20,000 students enrolled in the district, yet is home to the highest-paid superintendent in the state. Dr. Carrol Thomas takes home an annual base salary of $347,834. That is two-and-a-half times more than what the governor of our state earns!

Texas is the economic leader of the U.S., and yet our state has not gone unscathed in the economic downturn. Our state leaders’ initiative to cut government, rather than raise taxes, to make up for the revenue shortfall is an example for the rest of the U.S. to follow.

But Texas has fallen behind other states in making sensible education cuts that protect classrooms. New Jersey, Michigan and New York have all taken steps to enact laws that would limit superintendents’ and administrators’ salaries.

Michigan lawmakers filed a bill this year that would cap superintendents’ salaries to 75 percent of the governor’s salary. Gov. Jennifer Granholm makes $177,000 annually, which would limit superintendent pay to $132,750 a year in her state.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has proposed limiting superintendent and administrator pay based on district size, with superintendents of the smallest districts capped at $120,000 per year, and those of the largest districts capped at $175,000.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a put a very similar proposal before his state legislature.

Our state legislators need to enact common-sense education reforms that will hold administrators accountable for their spending and ensure our tax dollars are used wisely.

We support the findings in the budget paper prepared by the Lone Star Foundation and believe that superintendent salaries be capped at the same level as the governor’s salary – $150,000 a year.

The governor manages a state population of 24.7million, a budget totaling around $80 billion a year, is responsible for the Texas National Guard, and dozens of agencies report to him. While the job of educating our children is a priority, it is hard to argue that a superintendent’s responsibilities are more challenging than that of the governor.

In Texas, cutting administrative salaries and positions alone won’t get the job done. We should also cut positions outside the classroom. Teaching positions don’t need to be eliminated to meet the education budget cuts.

The residents of Texas have a median household income of $50,000 and should not be required to pay exuberant salaries for school superintendents and spend precious education dollars on so many non-teaching staff. Taxpayers already provide school districts with the resources to succeed; now it is up to policy makers to ensure those resources are spent on educating our students.

# # #

Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is a nationwide organization of citizen leaders committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP believes reducing the size and scope of government is the best safeguard to ensuring individual productivity and prosperity for all Americans. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth, and returning government to its constitutional limits. AFP has more than 1.8 million members, including members in all 50 states, and 32 state chapters. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org

Keep the Teachers and Cut the Fat!

11:15am Wed March 30

807 Brazos Street ste. 210

512-476-5905

Tomorrow Superintendents from across the state will converge upon the state Capitol looking for a hand-out.  We need to make sure they hear the message loud and clear “Education Dollars Can be Cut without Cutting into Classrooms”!  Please bring a sign and meet at the AFP office at 11:15pm to walk to the Capitol together!

Just so that you know who has her finger in the Libyan pie. Future moves will make more sense after you watch this.

Uploaded by nobamaforus on Sep 7, 2008

Action: Please call your Legislator – see below

by Ken Mercer | March 29, 2011 | State Board of Education

This coming Thursday, April 1, 2011, while the Texas Legislature is voting on the new education budget, the entrenched political lobby of the Far Left is fighting to stop the funding of the new English Language Arts textbooks.

Why?  The new standards include a return to a strong emphasis on phonics, explicit grammar, spelling, and handwriting.   Texas’ employers will tell you that these English skills are critical for a student’s success.

The Far Left, however, wants to keep funding their decade’s old, political failure called “whole language” which includes holistic scoring of essays (scoring an essay with a 1, 2, 3, or 4), inventive spelling, and no direct systematic instruction of grammar/usage.

As a member of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), I can tell you that the results of whole language are devastating.  The Commission for a College Ready Texas reported that 50 % of college freshmen in Texas areunprepared and must enroll in remedial or developmental education.  Texas students consistently rank in the bottom ten percent of our nation in the language sections of the college ACT and SAT exams.

Taxpayers must not continue another decade of funding the political, education disaster of whole language.

In May 2008 the conservatives on the SBOE had the courage and the backbone to listen to their constituents’ cries to go “back to the basics.” Now our students need those new textbooks to help them learn the newly adopted standards.  Many of the current textbooks are 12-18 years old.

Phonics is a key plank of the conservative agenda for education reform.  We want our children to be successful. The ability of students in America to read and write English is critical to that success.

Of course the Far Left is stating that there are no funds for the new phonics-based curriculum.

That is a political lie.

The 2010 SBOE, led by Chairman Gail Lowe (R – Lampasas), voted to send the 2011 Texas Legislature $3 billion dollars of brand new funding for public education. That money is not from taxes or fees but is made possible through the careful management by the SBOE of the Permanent School Fund (PSF).  It is the PSF endowment that provides free textbooks to school children.

The Texas Constitution gives the SBOE the authority to fund the textbooks, but the Legislature has to agree to appropriate the money.   The cost to fund new phonics-based textbooks for our 4.8 million K-12 students over the next ten years is approximately $450 million, much cheaper than continuing to replace the expensive whole language textbooks.

Please call your State Legislators and ask them to vote for the children of Texas, not the self proclaimed “experts” of the whole language lobby. The SBOE provided $3 billion or six times the funding required to pay for new textbooks that will emphasize phonics and the other basic and important English skills. Texas must fully fund phonics.

Note: The SBOE requested that after purchasing the new textbooks, the Legislature dedicate the remaining $2.5 billion only to education!

-*-*-

Ken Mercer (R – Bexar)  is a current Member of the State Board of Education and a former State Representative.  Mercer now represents 1.7 million constituents in twelve counties including Blanco, Burnet, Caldwell, Comal, Gillespie, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Llano and parts of Bell, Bexar and Travis.

President Obama  Advocates Gun Control, Denies Role in Gun Running

by Ken Brewer | March 27, 2011 | Opinion

In early 2009, President Obama stated that he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons. Since it is not likely to pass Congress, he called for the Senate to ratify a decade-old hemispherewide treaty that would require nations to mark all weapons produced in the country and track them. He justified this by saying that the United States is to blame for much of Mexico’s drug violence.

As I have previously posted, his BATFE, then set out to make sure that
thousands of guns were smuggled into Mexico by supervising the sales and
tracking the smuggling of them into Mexico, to include the .50 Cal. Barrett
long range sniper weapons. These weapons have never been used in a crime in
this country, but they will now be used for murder in Mexico, and most likely
here also, giving Obama a rationale for banning them!

In a cynical shirking of responsibility, both the President and his Attorney
General, Eric, Holder, denied any knowledge of the operation. Do they expect us
to believe that they are actually this incompetent in their jobs, or to go with
the proven fact that President Obama is a liar and that they are both telling
yet another lie? This socialist tyrant will use any means necessary to disarm
the honest citizens of this nation!

The story is here at The Blaze. http://t.co/ehvTN0I vi

Uploaded by TexasInsiderTXTV on Mar 1, 2011

Uploaded by TexasInsiderTXTV on Mar 28, 2011

In response to this appeal to tea party activists we received this:

Subject: gasp! not gambling! AIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Really?  This is an issue worthy of the Tea Party?

If the Tea Party makes opposing gambling an issue, then you are not for individual freedom, you are for GOVERNMENT MANDATED religious tyranny of the mind and soul.  This is not what our framers had in mind.

There are other organizations for religious zealotry and self-righteousness.  It has no place in the Tea Party.

And I thought I was the only mind reader around here. I stand corrected. Anyway the group leader asked for opinions and, since I am also full of opinions, I wrote this:

Gambling is an addiction. It is only a choice the first time, like heroin. Why should we allow this to be easily available?
Have you not heard the song House of the Rising Sun? Gambling and intoxication downstairs, prostitution upstairs.

I have known of families that were destroyed by a son who was addicted to gambling. After bailing him out again and again the family rejected him. I have sat outside of courtrooms where the balif opened the door and called the name of the next defendant, and no one came in to stand by him.

Is this what some call liberty? To be enslaved to one’s uncontrolled senses is not liberty, friends, it is license. Freedom to throw one’s life away is a fool’s bargain. It costs the rest of society as well.

I say gambling should be resisted at all costs in the State of Texas if you want any shred of virtue to remain in this society.

I respectfully disagree with the gentleman. I am not the only one.

Sibyl West

It turns out the group leader resonated rather loudly with my view. Part of his comments:

Yes and it’s really frustrating. This whole thing makes me so angry I can barely get involved with it…

I lived in Houston for 21 years, and places like Houston don’t need any help expanding these elements of crime and destructive consequences always made worse by unrestricted gambling. That’s not even touching on the economic drain that gambling will be on Texas at a time when the world is bankrupt.  Besides the fact that gambling is a moral black hole run by people who feed on destroying other people’s lives, like Straus’s family, but given current global economic meltdown (no pun intended) which will be made worse by the disaster Japan is having to deal with, a state with basically the strongest economy in the nation introducing a massive gambling agenda would be economically disastrous. It’s done NOTHING to help states with fully legalized gambling, and the crime involved – considering the mob influences, drugs, prostitution and everything the three bring with them – that’s a massive burden on the criminal justice system. It adds to already overcrowded prisons and the massive expenses of all of these.

Las Vegas is the bane of Nevada’s existence not it’s savior, that should say it all, but some people still think it would be so great for Texas, and try to put on the cloak of patriotism that real freedom is a casino in every city, and screw the majority of people who don’t want it. And if people on food stamps and medicaid are gambling every week, oh well. The whole argument for it is just in flat defiance of reason and logic.

There is certainly nothing in the Constitution or the founders writings to suggest they would approve of unrestricted expanse of gambling in all States, flatly over the objections of a majority in a state like Texas that opposes it. In fact, look at the early days of the United States. There was gambling but it was very regulated and restricted as to how much it could expand, and what it could and could not do. And those restrictions were by the men who wrote the Constitution. So I refuse to hear any of this fiction that the founders would have us with a casino in every city in the country. That’s flat deception used by the liars of the nation like Straus who want to make millions in casinos on the backs of people who barely put food on the table for their kids. This cr*p about government oppression because gambling is not legal in all States is garbage. Someone explain to me why it’s oppressive to anyone that gambling is not legal in some states, and those like me who strongly oppose it should have it FORCED on them and there be no state to live in without gambling? How exactly is that FAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those who want gambling in Texas, fine! Move so you live close to Louisiana or Oklahoma, or move to another state outright. But don’t stomp on MY right to live in a state without gambling by forcing it on me and those who oppose it like I do! That is not freedom and liberty! Most people in Texas don’t want it, and if majority rule means anything, those who claim the Tea Party and Constitutional liberty will respect the rights of those who oppose gambling. Period.

Think about where you stand on this important issue because it is coming up next.