There is a lot of hype in the news about how Texas, especially compared to sinkholes like New Jersey and California, is a shining example of low-tax, limited government and regulation. This is bunk. Our
bureaucracies and public offices are packed as full of
incrementalists, regulators and tax-gobbling hack politicians as anywhere. Yesterday in an extremely thin voter turnout Texans approved all 11 Constitutional Amendments on the ballot. Several of them were bad ideas cooked up by state
bureaucracies and Appraisal Districts for the furtherance of their power and reach. Last year we added a taxing board to raise an entirely new funding mechanism for rural fire stations. You don't think that will grow into a wallet-emptying monster in the next decade?
The only reason Texas lags behind the rest of the country in government taxation and red tape is because our legislature only meets once every two years.
Update: Just to recap: We Texans are voting for bigger, more intrusive and expensive government nearly every time we get a chance. Believe it: we are going to get what we vote for.
5 comments:
Robert, Thanks for the reality check. We do hear a lot about the "Texas Miracle". Can you vote the money grubbers and Taxers out of office? How about an amendment so that the legislature meets only once every four years?
Lazarus Long
The rest of the country is so bad, and that is why Texas looks so good in comparison.
(I am married to a native Texan, and went to High School, College, and Grad School in the Lone Star state. One of these days I hope to return to Tejas, and possibly help with the secession.)
The limits put on government by the Constitution of 1876 are slowly being eroded. It took Edmund Davis and reconstruction for Texans to desire those limits the first time around. What's it going to take this time?
Yep. They say whatever they think it takes to get their pet projects passed by the electorate. Not much in the paper or on the news about the Texas referendums until they were over.
It doesnt seem like a good idea to let the Veterans Land Board issue bonds without some input from the voters, that's gone now. Letting appraisal district boards consolidate, again without the voters or the legislature have an input probably does away with local representation on the appraisal district review (appeal) boards.
Sometimes these state constitutional amendments are good but not all by any means are worthy of passage.
They ALL Passed!!!!
!#*&#%$^@*&!!!!!
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