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.

THE YEAR OF THE TAKEOVER

Patriots,

It’s FULL of details you need to read.  Please take the time to do so.  The tea party is 100% volunteer, which means we are completely dependent on grassroots members to make things happen…

Whether you did or did not make it to our meeting on precinct activism, you’ll want to take a look at the two videos from the evening:

• Giovanni’s pep talk (10 min) – We started the evening off with examples of how precinct activism changes elections.  It is the one sure-fire way to affect the vote.
• Ken’s details (20 min) – We offered an overview on what precinct activism is.
• Raz’s new app – We don’t have a video of this because the app has not yet been officially launched, but we’ll teach you how to use it at our follow-up training on Oct 29.  I know I said the Sept 26 meeting was don’t-miss, but this Oct 29 meeting is 10x’s moreso.  You will walk away with the tools you need and hands-on experience in using them so that we can fully engage in precinct activism.

So here’s our plan…  Everyone needs to take note!

• now thru Oct 29 – we’ll be working behind the scenes to conduct surveys of every voter in our 14 cities to discover who is favorable to the tea party
• Oct 29 – precinct activism training focusing on how to walk your neighborhood using a really cool new survey tool that makes walking fun and easy for both you and the voter
• Oct 29 thru Thanksgiving – Precinct Walk #1 – take a few hours over a couple weekends to walk your neighborhood, utilizing the new survey tool and targeting houses we discovered are favorable to tea party values. We’ll have door hangers to pass out inviting folks to join the tea party, as well.  The data we gather on this first round of walks will be put into use for our second round of walks.
• Jan 29 – Candidate Fair & Forums (details to be announced soon)
• shortly after Jan 29 – the NETTP PAC will announce our endorsements for State House and State Senate
• Feb 1 – Mar 6 - Precinct Walk #2 – we’ll pay a second visit to houses in our neighborhoods utliizing the data we gathered in the first walk so that we can speak to people directly about the issues they say concern them the most and provide candidate responses that address them.  This is our big Get Out The Vote push.
• Feb 18 – NETTP members will caravan down to San Antonio to walk for Joe Straus’ opponent
• Mar 6 – Election Day

Folks, I have to say… this plan illustrates how far we’ve come and how much we’ve learned and grown in just 2-year’s time.  A whole lot of effort has gone on to put it together, and we can only pull it off with your help.  Without money, we cannot conduct the surveys nor print the door hangers.  Without you walking your precincts, the surveys and door hangers are worthless.  We need you to be involved in both aspects.

• You can donate to this effort by clicking here.
• RSVP for training on Oct 29 by sending an email to NETTPregistrar@gmail.com.
• Sign up to walk your precinct by clicking “update my profile” in the red box at the bottom any NETTP email.  Scroll down to the question “I will participate in walking my precinct.  Yes or No” and mark YES!  Make sure your precinct number is provided on your profile! If you don’t know your precinct number, a link is provided on the form to look it up.  (If you are not on the NETTP email list, click here to sign up).
• Order a tshirt to walk your neighborhood in!  It’s not required, but it is a lot fun!  Click here to order. Orders must be in by Oct 10.

The tea party is pointless if we don’t sacrifice to make a difference in the 2012 Elections.  I’m not asking you to do anything I haven’t already committed to myself, so please make your best effort.

In it together,
Julie McCarty

PS.  Did you catch all the aspects of your Elections 2012 homework assignment above?

• Attend the training on Oct 29.  RSVP to NETTPregistrar@gmail.com.
• Sign up to walk your neighborhood by updating your profile (in the red box at the bottom of any NETTP email).
• Donate if you can so we can pay for the surveys and door hangers.
• Buy a tshirt just for fun!
• Note the above calendar plan for this election.  We only get one shot at this!  Let’s put in the effort and do it right!

TURF Releases Report Card for 82nd Session of the Texas State Legislature in 2011

What is TURF?
Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the public on our government’s new shift to tolling using controversial financing methods called public-private partnerships (called Comprehensive Development Agreements or CDAs in Texas), the tolling of existing corridors, and the eminent domain abuse inherent in these plans (confiscating private land to give to a private company for commercial gain). TURF also educates the public about the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC), the first of the planned NAFTA Superhighways connected to the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and coming merger with Mexico and Canada through a North American Union (NAU). TURF is a grassroots group of Texans who are asking for reforms that require accountability and good public policy as well as promoting non-toll, sensible transportation solutions.  To find out more, please check out their website, here.

Many Texans asked TURF how their legislators did in regard to votes on transportation issues.  So, as a result, TURF has released a report card for Texas legislators on their votes on transportation, infrastructure, and eminent domain-related legislation in the 82nd legislative session in 2011. See if your Texas legislators voted pro-taxpayer, pro-property rights on transportation legislation.  Download the TURF Report Card here.