Feb 13: Michael Quinn Sullivan visits NE Tarrant Tea Party

On February 13, one of our favorite conservative watch dog groups in Texas will join us at our NETTP meeting.

NE Tarrant Tea Party meeting

Guest Speaker:  Michael Quinn Sullivan of Empower Texans

on the significance of the Primary Election vote for Texas

February 13, 2012, 6:30-8:00pm

$5 dinner served at 6pm (see below for info re: free dinner)

1060 E Highland, Southlake 76092

(bldg 1020 of Highland Meadow Montessori Academy)

Empower Texans will review with us what happened during the most recent session of the TX legislature and why it is so important to get conservatives on the ballot for November.

Did you receive one of these?

If so, please let us know that you’re planning to attend so we can make sure to save you a dinner!  Send an email to heyjuliesue@gmail.com to rsvp.

Thursday Night Debate Series

NE Tarrant Tea Party wants to give you every opportunity to cast an educated vote in the April 3 Primary Election.  We are thrilled to offer you our Thursday Night Debate Series.  We’re hosting debates in the hottest races in our area on Thursday nights in February and March.

Unfortunately, several incumbents have no interest in visiting with tea party folks.  This includes Vicki Truitt, Todd Smith and Kenny Marchant.  For those races, we’ll still do a Q&A with the challenger so that you can hear what the issues are and how the candidate plans to address them, but those will occur either during an NETTP monthly meeting or tacked onto a different debate.  Each event will include time for pre-written questions, as well as questions from the audience.

Events will last one hour from 7-8pm. Names in bold font below have confirmed participation.  Names in italics have directly stated they will not attend.  Names in just a regular font (except Senate candidates) have ignored us completely.

• Feb 13:  TX House, District 98 – Vicki Truitt (i) vs Giovanni Capriglione TX (Since Truitt has not even responded to our invitation, this will be an interview of Giovanni held during our monthly meeting).
• Feb 23: TX Senate, District 9 – Goodman vs Anderson vs Hancock (pending redistricting) (venue TBD) – These candidates have not yet been invited, but we’ll update attendance plans soon.
• Mar 8:  TX Senate, District 10 – Shelton vs Hancock (pending redistricting) (venue TBD) – These candidates have not yet been invited, but we’ll update attendance plans soon.  If it ends up due to redistricting that Shelton does not have an opponent, there will be no debate this night.
• Mar 15:  TX House, District 101 – Matt Krause vs Stephanie Klick (venue TBD) – Redistricting may change the names here, and it may become D93.
• Mar 15:  US Congress, District 24 – Kenny Marchant (i) vs Grant Stinchfield (since Marchant has declined to speak with the tea party, this will be an interview conducted at the end of the D101 debate listed above).
• Mar 15:  TX House, District 92 – Todd Smith (i) vs Jonathan Stickland (since Smith has not even responded to our invitation, this will be an interview conducted at the end of the D101 debate listed above).
• Mar 22:  TX House, District 91 – Nash (i) vs Thombs vs Sapp vs Scoma vs Carlson (venue TBD) – Redistricting may change the names here.

Vicki Truitt’s Classic Hits to the Texas Taxpayer

A Summary of Vicki Truitt’s Legislative Career

80^th Session (and prior)

• Vicki Truitt voted for HB 1403, a bill that provides in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants.  Supporters of the bill who spoke in favor of it at hearings included the ACLU, LULAC, National Council of La Raza, Texas Federation of Teachers, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. (77^th Session)

• Vicki Truitt voted for HB 3588, the 310-page bill with 95 amendments which created the underlying legal framework for the Trans Texas Corridor. (78^th Session)

• Vicki Truitt voted for HB 109. This legislation changed eligibility requirements for receiving the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and essentially unraveled the 2003 welfare reforms. The Legislature approved $2 billion in funding for the program, a $1 billion increase. This bill allowed people who are 200% above the federal poverty level to be eligible for coverage under the state-funded CHIP program.

• Vicki Truitt voted to table the Howard Amendment to HB 109, an amendment to prevent the loosening of asset eligibility calculations. The amendment was tabled, meaning it will be easier for those not truly needy to qualify for taxpayer-funded assistance.

• Vicki Truitt voted for HB 2237. This High School Completion and Success Initiative dedicates $120 million to dropout prevention. The 79th Legislature allocated $1 billion to the same purpose and the Texas Center for Education Policy and LULAC played an important part in the passage of this bill.

• Vicki Truitt voted for HB 3778. This bill levied a “Granny Tax” on nursing home residents. The “granny tax” or quality assurance fee, which was $5 per bed per day, was justified in that it would be matched by the federal government ($300 million) and returned to the State. “This is a tax on the people that could least afford it,” Senator Jane Nelson said of the bill. “It’s a tax on elderly people who are using their life savings to keep their loved one in a nursing home.”

• Vicki Truitt co-authored HB 2084. This bill would have used a sales tax increase to fund the Regional Rail Corridor (mass transit) while doing nothing to end the current gasoline tax diversions.

How Conservative Was Your State Representative in the Past Legislative Session?

Texas Legislature Still Using Gimmicks to Balance Budget

By Aman Batheja

abatheja@star-telegram.com

One in an occasional series examining the state’s economic record under Gov. Rick Perry.

Gimmicks. Shell games. Smoke and mirrors.

For more than 20 years, Texas lawmakers have had no trouble finding colorful words to convey their aversion to accounting tricks the state relies on to balance its books. Yet in recent years, use of the ploys has only accelerated as lawmakers have needed larger sleights of hand to avoid raising taxes or further cutting spending.

By delaying payments and effectively writing IOUs this year, lawmakers kicked billions of dollars in costs to the Legislature that will convene in 2013. At the same time, they arranged to collect hundreds of millions of dollars earlier than expected, preventing that money from being available in the next legislative session.

The financial maneuvers complicate assessments of the state’s economic picture. While Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign has repeatedly touted him as having six balanced budgets under his belt, others don’t agree, especially when looking at the current two-year budget.

[click MORE to continue reading]

Young Conservatives of Texas Rates the 82nd Texas Legislature

Message from Tony McDonald
Senior Vice Chairman

Thank you for viewing YCT’s 19th installment of our Ratings of the Texas Legislature. Young Conservatives of Texas have
produced these ratings since 1975 as a public service to Texas voters, and those past installments, along with a chart
showing each legislator’s score since 1975, are available on our website. We hope that this installment will continue the
tradition that has made our legislative ratings the most respected, thorough, and trusted in the State of Texas.

In producing our legislative ratings, YCT works to paint an accurate picture of each legislator’s adherence to conservative
principles. We do this by selecting votes which we believe offered a clear left/right public policy choice. Unlike some
organizations, we don’t limit ourselves to the highest profile bills, but rather we look for both large and small bills which
implicate conservative principles. Indeed, this session’s 56 votes scored in the House and 38 votes scored in the Senate
is the largest cross section of votes ever used by YCT.

The evaluation of each member is not limited to just this session’s votes, however. We also provide a career score
based on each member’s average rating over their entire career, since 1975. For example, Rep. Senfronia Thompson’s
career rating of 14 is based off of a total of 469 votes.

We urge you to read the descriptions of the bills selected to better understand not just how YCT would have voted on
each measure but why YCT feels so strongly about them.

A couple of notes about this session’s installment: Again this session, despite overwhelming support, Concealed Carry
on Campus, YCT’s number one legislative priority, was killed in the House through backroom chicanery. Because it did
not receive a floor vote, YCT has elected to score the list of authors and coauthors in the House, which provides a relatively
accurate picture of which members supported the bill. Also, by popular demand, we are again providing a comparison
of the scores of committee chairman from the 81st and 82nd legislatures. Committee chairmen truly dominate the
legislative process and control what pieces of legislation go forward. We hope the comparison will help illuminate
whether this session’s larger Republican and conservative majorities had a significant impact on whether conservative
legislation had a chance to move through the legislative process without interruption, and if not, why.
We hope that these ratings will be a useful guide in evaluating candidates. However, these ratings should not be construed
as an endorsement for or against any candidate.

These ratings are entirely a product of the volunteer efforts of students and young professionals busy with work and
school. I would like to thank the many members of Young Conservatives of Texas who helped bring this document together.
Special thanks to Michael Janusa, Jeff Morris, and Jenna White amongst other members for their extensive contributions.

Regards,
Tony McDonald
Senior Vice Chairman

Please open the full report here.

TURF Brings all Trans Texas Corridor Groups Together to Celebrate Victory

Judge gives city pension fund discretion on what information to release

Tuesday, Sep. 06, 2011

By Chris Vaughn

cvaughn@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — In the first legal test of a controversial new law, a state district judge in Austin has ruled that the City of Fort Worth Employees’ Retirement Fund has sole discretion to determine what information it will release to the public regarding those drawing a public pension.

The cut-and-dried ruling by Travis County District Judge Scott H. Jenkins overturned an attorney general’s opinion.

The Legislature this spring passed a bill, written by state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller, that took authority away from the Texas attorney general and courts to determine what records regarding members of municipal pension funds are open to public scrutiny and left the decisions to the funds themselves, granting the funds what appears to be more power than any other governmental agencies in the state.

A great deal of interest and attention have been focused on the health of public pension funds in recent years because many are underfunded and at risk of needing more taxpayer money to meet obligations.

“What Judge Jenkins ruled is exactly what we feared when this legislation was enacted,” said Houston media attorney Joseph Larsen, a board member of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. “The Legislature ought to be ashamed of itself for passing something like this. They need to turn around and get rid of it as fast as they can. I just don’t think you can give any agency sole discretion to decide what should be public.”

He said that managers of pension funds are “abusing” the discretion given them by withholding all information about retirees.

He also said that the Legislature has abdicated its role of public oversight involving tax money.

But the executive director of the fund, Ruth Ryerson, said she was pleased with the ruling.

“Although we understand the concern of some open-government advocates about decreased transparency in our retirement systems, we believe the new law reflects the desire of the Legislature to protect information that is of a highly personal nature, especially financial information,” she said in a statement.

The ruling came in a case involving a Public Information Act request by Star-Telegram columnist Mitchell Schnurman about lump sum payouts that were going to some recent city retirees. He said he believed there were vastly greater amounts than were being reported by the fund’s overseers as average.

The fund objected on privacy grounds and asked for an opinion from the office of Attorney General Greg Abbott.

“I didn’t realize this was going to be complicated,” Schnurman said. “Honestly, I thought it would be the same as looking up the salary for a public employee,” which can be disclosed.

Abbott agreed with the pension fund that individual names were confidential.

But he said the fund must release the employee’s age, department where the person worked, years of service and the amount of the payouts.

The fund again objected, arguing that the information “still identifies the person, especially to fellow co-workers” and that it was “intimate and highly embarrassing information.”

The fund sued the attorney general in December, asking the judge to declare the opinion wrong. The Star-Telegram filed a brief intervening in the case on the side of the attorney general.

In the ensuing months, the Texas Legislature passed Truitt’s bill, making changes to the Public Information Act that ensure that pension funds have to release aggregate, big-picture financial information to the public.

But the law, which took effect Sept. 1, also gives pension funds the sole discretion to determine whether any requested financial information can be denied because it may identify a person, and there is no way to appeal a denial.

Jenkins’ ruling says that the new law applies to the Star-Telegram request.

“This ruling is going to have an extremely detrimental effect on the public’s right to know what is going on with their tax dollars,” said Jim Witt, senior vice president and executive editor of the Star-Telegram. “To give pension funds the right to be their own judge and jury in deciding what records should be released is ludicrous. It totally subverts our system of checks and balances. I can’t believe this is what the Legislature intended.”

Truitt has defended the changes to the law in the past by saying that the language was included to prevent the attorney general’s office from receiving constant requests for opinions. She could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

It is the second legal dispute among a pension fund, the attorney general and the Star-Telegram.

After reporter Yamil Berard requested information from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and the attorney general ruled that it should be disclosed, the retirement system sued in district court in Travis County. That case is pending.

Chris Vaughn, 817-390-7547

Video: False Choices, The Story of Agenda 21

Here is a great 15 minute video that gives a concise explanation of Agenda 21.  We encourage all NETTP members, freedom lovers, and most importantly – candidates and office holders, to watch this so that we can all be educated on why this flies in the face of all things American.  And then pass it on to others so that they can be educated and stop it’s enforcement in their own towns and cities.

http://my.brainshark.com/False-Choices-The-Story-of-Agenda-21-713151488

WHY ARE AMERICANS IGNORANT OF ‘AGENDA 21′?

by:  Joyce Morrison, NewsWithViews.com

The United Nations Agenda 21 was signed by the United States in 1992 and 14 years later, people are still in the dark. If you were to ask at random the question, “Have you heard of Agenda 21?” the answer would be an over-whelming “No,” although it is being implemented in every local community.

Agenda 21 is a 40 chapter document listing goals to be achieved globally. It is the global plan to change the way we “live, eat, learn and communicate” because we must “save the earth.”

“Its regulation would severely limit water, electricity, and transportation – even deny human access to our most treasured wilderness areas, it would monitor all lands and people. No one would be free from the watchful eye of the new global tracking and information system,” according to Berit Kjos, author of Brave New Schools.

Maurice Strong, Secretary-general of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro said, “…[C]urrent lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat consumption and large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and workplace air-conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable. A shift is necessary which will require a vast strengthening of the multilateral system, including the United Nations.

In other words, the Global plan is for us to live on the level of third world nations. That means no box mixes or microwave meals, limited use of fuel of any kind, no air-conditioning and very little meat. When the cost of freon skyrocketed, when mad cow disease hit, the National Animal Identification System introduced, the price of fuel soared, it has become apparent that given time, these sustainable controls will be put into place – one way or another – and the Global Governance is powerful.

In 1992, Agenda 21 began to change our lives. In that same year, Al Gore wrote his book, Earth in the Balance. To advance his cause, he has now written another piece of fiction entitled, An Inconvenient Truth about global warming…..he even starred in the movie. He also thinks he invented the internet.

Although groundwork had been laid, it took a Bill Clinton to actually introduce something so invasive to our nation and get by with it without the public becoming aware. President Clinton appointed his “President’s Council on Sustainable Development” and he literally gave away the rights and freedoms the framers of the Constitution had provided.

People in the United States may not know about Agenda 21 and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, but people around the world do. They know that Chicago has one of the greatest numbers of activities existing at the local, neighborhood and/or microregional level. They also know that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors and promotes activities in this field through their Office for Sustainable Ecosystem and Communities.

Found on a Slovakian website: “To the leading countries in the field of development but especially of practical using of sustainable development indicators belong to the U.S.A. At the top level these activities are promoted by the President’s Council on Sustainable Development (1996), which defined a set of ten national goals toward sustainable development. These goals express in concrete terms the elements of sustainability. Alongside the goals are suggested indicators that can be used to help measure progress toward achieving them.”

Agenda 21 is certainly not a secret. The internet is full of how Agenda 21 has been fulfilled through Smart Growth planning, land use, sustainable development and extreme environmentalism. The so-called agenda is grant driven to your city council or county board in terms of sustainable, visioning, partners, tourism and stakeholders, along with consensus and other terms with the intent to make you believe we are running out of all our resources and we must do our part and “save for tomorrow. [See Agenda 21's Table of Contents.]

It has nothing to do about “saving anything” – it has everything to do with “control.” Sadly, very few congressmen even know Agenda 21 is actually running our country when they are voting to send grant money back home. Agenda 21 is incentive driven as the planners know that greed in the heart of man will be his downfall.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, better known as ANWR, has oil we need to be drilling for the security of our nation. Environmentalists don’t seem to understand we are dependent on foreign oil from nations who do not like us and our nation’s defense is at stake. The area where drilling would occur is just a dot in this vast land, yet they would gamble the strength of our nation in behalf of their favorite word –”pristine.”

At the same time, technology is advancing and we may not need the oil later. But we do need it now.

Henry Lamb of Eco-logic, Restructuring the U.N.,  The world changed on 9-11. No longer can the world tilt at the windmills of a fantasized “global village.” No longer can visions of “sustainable development” be justified in a world where “sustainable freedom” is the only possible solution to the economic and power vacuum that foments acts of terrorism.

There is a better way.

Nations can and, ultimately, must learn to live as neighbors, free from the web of “international laws” that dictate which activities are “sustainable” and which are xenophobic and unacceptable. Nation-to-nation relationships, just like neighbor-to-neighbor relationships, should be fashioned voluntarily, driven by mutual benefit. For the first time in a century, the United States may be exploring this possibility.

Henry Lamb is right. We can live as neighbors with other nations but we do not need to live under a “web of international law.” There are dedicated citizens in the United States who are wise enough to set our nation’s guidelines without following Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development as set forth by the United Nations.

To watch a 15 minute video that explains more on Agenda 21, please go to our link here:  http://www.netarrantteaparty.com/?p=5795&preview=true.