As I wrote in a prior post, the Texas Municipal League is an educational and lobbying association of Texas city governments. This august body said in a recent legislative update:
FRINGE GROUP LAUNCHES ANTI-CITY JIHAD
A radical fringe group known as “Americans for Prosperity” (AFP) has embarked on an odyssey it calls the Taxpayer Trust Tour. Actually, the “tour” is nothing more than an opportunity to attack and ridicule city officials who have had the audacity to oppose AFP’s positions on legislative initiatives.
AFP has vigorously pursued legislation that would reduce the current appraisal cap, enact restrictions on local government revenue, and otherwise do serious harm to tax equity and local taxpayers. City officials, working individually and through TML, have opposed these misguided efforts. In response, AFP has launched an all-out attack on the hard-working volunteers who contribute their time and effort to improving communities across the state.
In a January 24 Quorum Report article, an AFP spokesperson said, “It’s time for local government officials to start representing their constituents.” The implication, of course, is that elected city officials aren’t representing their constituents, but instead are feathering their own nests or representing some unknown entities that exist only in the fevered minds of AFP employees.
In the San Antonio Express-News on January 25, another AFP spokesperson said the purpose of the statewide tour is to “highlight betrayals of taxpayer trust.” Baloney. Each city official undoubtedly knows much more about public trust than a truckload of AFP mouthpieces.
AFP resorts to these ludicrous attacks for only one reason: like all misguided extremists who are unable to foist their ideas on others, they wish to silence their critics.
My goodness. Radical…ludicrous…misguided extremists—on a Jihad. These AFP people are dangerous, no? They want to subvert our republic or incite violent revolution?
Not quite—their “all-out attack on the hard-working volunteers” is nothing more than a call to make taxpayer-funded lobbying illegal in Texas. Thomas Jefferson—himself a radical, ludicrous, misguided extremist to some—said, “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
The Texas House Committee ultimately recommended that taxpayer-funded lobbying should remain legal because of another bedrock principle of (Texas) government: when in doubt, local control is better than Austin control. In other words, if your city government is misusing your tax dollars, it is your duty to change its behavior. Or its leaders.
But with power comes responsibility; local control does not mean we do as we darn well please. Local control means self-control—if we wish to lobby Austin on behalf of our residents, we need to pass a resolution for each political point we want to make in the Legislature, and we need to disclose how much we’re spending in the process.
I like to watch the discovery channel and science channel and stuff like that. The other day, I saw a futuristic story about a car that drives itself. The Texas Municipal League is the political equivalent of that car.
It is unusual for a city councilman to publicly disagree with even the outrageous behavior of TML officials. Keller residents are fortunate to have an official willing to represent his constituents and not bigger government. My hat’s off to Jim Carson!
Between 1980 and 2004, local government spending grew 486% while local government debt grew a whopping 577%! Meanwhile, population plus inflation grew a “meager” 187%. Obviously, this is not sustainable in the long run (or even in the short run for all of the Texans who are being taxed out of the American Dream). City officials should recognize that this skewed ratio poses legitimate concerns and would be well served to respond to them in something other than a vitriolic childish screed.
I don’t care who you are, there is something wrong with the idea of city governments lobbying Austin for more taxpayer dollars, against the interest of Joe Sixpack who pays the taxes.
Real local control would mean that less tax revenue flows into Austin, and the cities would have more direct control over tax revenues collected in that city.
But then, the local politicians would have to become more directly accountable to their constituents. Can’t have that, can we?
Mr. Carson – Believing that elected officials know more about things going on than the people who elected them is referred to as “Potomac Syndrome” in political circles. Potomac Syndrome is not a good thing. I saw it in Keller several times over the past 10 years, and the syndrome is alive and well.
Here in Keller, perhaps we need to refer to it as “Developer Brain,” because it seems that our city government doesn’t have the ability to stand up to developers who want to overwhelm our infrastructure, overcrowd our schools and ignore protesting residents.