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On the eve of the “Tea Party” movement’s anniversary, conservative legislators in Texas have banded together to form a new organization – the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas. With conservative voters organizing like never before to protest the unprecedented overreaching intrusion of the federal government, voters need to know there are Republican legislators who share their beliefs and will uphold their principals.

The group was founded on five core principles each member has committed to uphold:

• Stand for conservative principals and to put people before Party.
• Fiscally accountable, limit the size of government, and fight for free market principles.
• Protect our borders and to support a strong military.
• Protect life, support strong family values, and uphold the Judeo-Christian beliefs our nation was founded upon.
• Honor the Constitution and protect the sovereign rights of Texas.

“We are all proud members of the Republican Party and will remain so. However, this organization provides us with accountability outside of our political party,” the group’s founder Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) remarked. “We recognize we are first and foremost accountable to the people who elected us. We have dedicated ourselves to these core principals and have said ‘this is who we are and this is how we will legislate,’” Sen. Patrick concluded.

“We’re joining together to say test us, try us, hold us accountable. We mean it when we pledge to defend limited government, individual liberties and free enterprise,” remarked Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford).

“The voters placed their trust in us because we share their values and priorities, and we have a responsibility to govern according to those principles,” Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville) added.

“With increased awareness of the citizens expressing their desire to be involved, it is exciting to be a part of this movement to accept the challenge of bringing our state and nation back to the conservative, godly heritage of our founding fathers,” Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) offered.

“Dedication to America’s founding principles, through our commitment to civic awareness and responsibility, is what the Independent Conservative Republicans will follow as our course of action,” Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano) observed.

Additional information may be found on the group’s website at www.ICRepublicans.com.

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The following statement may be attributed to State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford):

The Constitution was written to restrain our federal government. Last night the Democrats in Congress and President Obama basically threw our constitution out the window. That may sound strong, but friends, it is a steep and slippery slope when government ignores its most fundamental law.

Regardless of how you feel about the health care bill – which I believe to be terrible legislation – enacting it was a clear and brazen violation of our constitution. In other words, it was an illegal act! Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott announced last night that he is filing a suit against the federal government to try to stop the implementation of the health care bill. In the Texas Legislature, my conservative Republican colleagues and I are aggressively pursuing additional options.

I will keep you posted in the days to come. For now, speak out with a loud voice. Help friends and family understand the impact of last night’s vote. And, above all, pray faithfully for our nation.

Houston Chronicle

Attorney General Greg Abbott

The Environmental Protection Agency recently concluded that man-made greenhouse gas emissions — including carbon dioxide — are harmful pollutants and must be regulated. The lawsuit I filed challenging that finding does not address the disputed science surrounding global warming. Instead, it focuses on the indisputable fact that the EPA relied on information that has been discredited, manipulated, lost or destroyed, and sometimes evaded peer review. The lawsuit does not attempt to show that the globe is not warming. It does, however, show that the process used by the EPA in deciding to regulate greenhouse gases is riddled with errors that render its conclusion untrustworthy.

Before regulating man-made greenhouse gas emissions, the EPA was required to conduct a scientific assessment. Rather than conduct its own assessment, the EPA relied on reports by third parties. The EPA’s conclusions rest primarily on information gathered by a creation of the United Nations called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC — an organization that has become mired in scandal because the reliability, objectivity and scientific validity of its work has come under fire.

For example, the IPCC reported that glaciers in the Himalayas were rapidly melting and would disappear by 2035. However, after the EPA reached its conclusion, the IPCC had to reverse itself and acknowledge that the Himalayan glaciers claim was false. The IPCC’s chairman was informed of the problem months before the erroneous report was published, but he did nothing to correct the report. Why? Perhaps because the research institute the chairman runs was seeking millions in grant funding to study those very same not so rapidly declining Himalayan glaciers.

Weatherford Democrat

Greg Webb

Weatherford State Representative Phil King Wednesday urged cities in eastern Parker County to use new waste collection companies in the future, in an effort to halt the construction of a waste transfer station in Aledo.

King, one of about 50 concerned area residents, was allowed to speak prior to the beginning of Wednesday’s hearing contesting the approval of a 2008 permit application for Republic Waste’s planned waste transfer station in Aledo.

“I would strongly, strongly encourage the cities to exercise their authority outside the courtroom and outside this legal process,” King said. “The cities of Aledo, Willow Park and Hudson Oaks all have contracts with the parties represented here today for their waste delivery. It would be easy for them to say ‘We will never, ever renew our contracts with Republic again.”

Weatherford Democrat

Talmadge Heflin

If you’re a homeowner in Texas, hopefully you’ve already paid your property taxes. After Monday’s deadline, what was already a hefty and growing tax bill will become even larger.

The Texas Legislature and our last two governors have acted in good faith to reduce property taxes, but the combination of rising property valuations and local government excesses have caused property taxes to continue their surge. So what can our state do to relieve this burden?

Last spring, the Texas Public Policy Foundation asked Arduin, Laffer & Moore Econometrics, LLC to answer this question, “How can Texas eliminate the burden of property taxes and still meet the needs of Texans?” Their answer: a broad-based sales tax.

Texas Energy Report

John Moritz

The author of the bill passed last year to provide up to $100 million in tax breaks for companies that can develop carbon-capturing coal plants in Texas is taking a skeptical stance on President Obama’s formation of a task force to find ways to advance clean coal technologies on a national level.

“I guess I take a conspiratorial approach to this, but I think what he’s doing is looking for ways to develop a cap-and-trade system without going through the legislative process,” state Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) told the Texas Energy Report this afternoon.

When King pushed House Bill 469, the so-called “clean coal bill,” through both chambers and on to the governor’s desk last session he made no attempt to conceal the fact that he considered all the concern over global climate change much ado about very little.

But he did recognize that the prevailing political view that carbon-dioxide emissions from traditional coal-fired plants were contributing to climate change was making it impossible to get new coal plants approved. So King was happy to team up with such environmentally conscious Democratic lawmakers as Reps. Rafael Anchía of Dallas and Mark Strama of Austin to ensure that his measure would have broad bipartisan support and that it would result in an ample supply of comparatively low-cost electricity once the state-of-the-art plants came on line.

When he announced his plan to have his top cabinet officials appoint representatives to the administration’s Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage, the President said he was motivated by the need for reliable and affordable electric power. But he also made clear that he wants the United States to be a leader in the development of clean and renewable energy sources.

Be that as it may, replied King. But he added that Obama also realizes that his initiative to implement a cap-and-trade system that effectively taxes carbon emissions remains moribund in the U.S. Senate. King predicted that to achieve the president’s directive that the task force report back in 180 days with a 10-year plan to perfect capture and sequestration of carbon emissions and to have up to 10 commercial demonstration projects in place by 2016, its members will essentially impose something resembling cap and trade.

Laura Miller, the former Dallas mayor who was among the active proponents for King’s bill, had a far less dark view of the president’s motives for establishing the task force. Miller, the wife of former state Rep. Steve Wolens (D-Dallas), is now a project director for an energy company planning to build one of the world’s first carbon-capturing coal plants near Odessa. Groundbreaking is expected by year’s end and start-up is planned for 2014.

The company, Summit Power of Bainbridge Island, Wash., has been awarded a $350 million grant to help spur development on its West Texas plant. Miller endorsed putting the weight of the federal government behind developing the technology and would welcome the opportunity to serve on the president’s task force or to provide any assistance its members might need.

“As of today, there is no plant on line that is capturing and sequestering carbon,” she told the Energy Report. “Our plant will capture 90 percent. So we’re going from zero to 90 in four years. That’s pretty amazing.”

Scott Anderson, a senior policy adviser for Texas Environmental Defense, also embraced the president’s plan as a way to establish a market for the technology and to construct a regulatory framework that will guide companies entering the field.

“With a market driver and regulatory framework, we will have resolved the only two fundamental obstacles to widespread deployment of CCS (carbon capture and storage),” Anderson said on an EDF blog. “Subsequently, bringing five to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016 will definitely be achievable.”

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In light of ever-increasing deficit spending and repeated increases of the national debt ceiling, State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) joined other members of the Texas Conservative Coalition (TCC) in support of Governor Rick Perry’s call for a federal balanced budget amendment to the United States Constitution.

King stated, “While the national debt and deficit have been growing precipitously for years, the recent explosion of new spending has America on a perilous course. The current Administration and Congress are spending this nation deeper and deeper into debt without regard for the future generations of Americans who will have to pay the bill for Washington’s spending spree.”

In 1989, federal outlays totaled $1.1 trillion; in 2008, not even twenty years later, federal outlays nearly tripled to $2.97 trillion.

Just this month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected “that if current laws and policies remained unchanged, the federal budget would show a deficit of $1.3 trillion for fiscal year 2010.” The CBO also projected that the “budget picture remains daunting beyond this year, with deficits averaging about $600 billion annually from 2011 through 2020.”

As of January 20, 2010, the United States national debt stands in excess of $12.3 trillion, which is rapidly approaching the newly-raised debt limit of $12.39 trillion. Now, less than one month after the last increase in the debt limit, the United States Senate is currently considering another increase to $14.29 trillion.

King continued, “The federal government is squandering the prosperity of our nation and mortgaging the futures of our children and grandchildren. The spending and fiscal practices of Washington will bankrupt our nation unless decisive action is taken.”

In response to a letter that Gov. Perry sent to legislators calling for a balanced budget amendment, King and other TCC members stated:

“Federal spending is unsustainable, potentially ruining the country’s long-term fiscal stability and weakening our economy. Yet, President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will continue with their profligacy until the Constitution clearly and directly mandates a balanced budget.”

King continued, “Amending the Constitution for this reason is a serious step, but it is imperative. A balanced budget amendment to the Constitution is the best recourse we have to force fiscal responsibility on the part of the federal government.”

He concluded, “The federal government has proven that it cannot be trusted to be wise and prudent stewards of our tax dollars. It is time that citizens take away the credit card and constitutionally require that each year of federal spending be limited to that year’s estimated revenue.”

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The National Rifle Association (NRA) announced this week that State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) has earned an ‘A+’ rating, the organization’s highest score, on their legislative scorecard, as well as the organization’s endorsement for the 2010 election cycle.

“Representative King’s high rating and endorsement is based on his strong and tireless support for Second Amendment issues in the Texas Legislature,” said NRA spokeswoman Tara Reilly Mica.

“Protecting the Second Amendment is more important today than ever before as our right to bear arms faces constant threat from the left,” commented King, “This is an issue that is extremely important to both my constituents and conservatives across the state, and I look forward to continuing to fight to preserve our Second Amendment rights in the coming legislative session.”

King has been a strong supporter of Second Amendment rights throughout his tenure in the Texas Legislature. Over the past few legislative sessions he has authored several significant pieces of legislation, including a bill to allow employees with their concealed handgun permit to store firearms in their car while parked on company property. In November, King and several other legislators filed an amicus brief supporting the NRA’s stance in the pivotal Supreme Court case of McDonald v. City of Chicago in an effort to have Chicago’s ban on handguns declared unconstitutional.

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This week Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio) announced his appointment of State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) to the House Select Committee on Fiscal Stability. King has served on the House Committee on Ways and Means since January of 2009 and brings a free-market, fiscally-conservative viewpoint to the panel.

King stated, “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House to ensure the fiscal stability of our great state for years to come. I will fight for Texas to continue down the path of lower taxes and fewer regulations on business that has seen our state flourish amidst the recession, while other states like California are floundering.”

The select committee will assess Texas’ ability to meet its current and future budget obligations and analyze whether any possible budget shortfalls are due to the current recession alone or more systemic problems.

Dallas Morning News

Robert T. Garrett

AUSTIN – Control of the Texas House is up for grabs and will be decided this fall in a handful of districts, many of them in Dallas County.

Both parties have challenges but reasons for high hopes, too.

Republicans, who hold a 77-73 edge, need to squelch potential fallout from an unusually large number of primary challenges.

And they’ll be campaigning against incumbent Democrats without help from their fundraising whiz of the past two decades, former Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland.

Democrats probably lack a ticket-topper who can fire up young and minority voters the way Barack Obama did in 2008.

They also must interrupt a raucous national political conversation to bring a message to suburban independents that Republicans who run state government have harmed students, commuters and families.