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Against the backdrop of a bleak fiscal picture in California, the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute (TCCRI) announced nine issue-specific Task Forces to examine the unfolding disaster in California and to build on the success of state polices in Texas. State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) has been named as the Co-Chair of the School Finance Task Force.

King, who also sits on the board of the Texas Conservative Coalition, the Conservative Caucus of the Texas House of Representatives, explained, “The School Finance Task Force will focus on the current school finance structure in Texas and how to improve the current system. We will specifically be looking at the property tax system which is the main source of funding for our public schools and how to make the system better.”

“The property tax system has led to three decades of school finance litigation in which the Supreme Court has repeatedly declared the system unconstitutional and has urged the legislature to ‘choose a new path’ of revenue for public schools,” King stated, “Our current property tax system cannot properly fund public schools, and it is overly burdensome on property owners – 17 percent of an average home mortgage is paid to property tax. Our task force is committed to coming up with a feasible and workable solution to this huge issue that faces Texas.”

Task Forces are the backbone of the Institute’s research and education efforts. Based on the conservative principles that underpin TCCRI, the Task Forces will develop legislative leaders and sound public policy ideas to assist the Legislature in keeping Texas an example of success for the rest of the nation to follow. The 2009-2010 TCCRI Task Forces include: State Budget, Property Tax & School Finance, Economic & Workforce Development, and Insurance. Each Task Force will be co-chaired by Senators and Representatives who have the insight and leadership skills in their respective areas of expertise to keep Texas on the right path.

State Representative Phil King

I wanted to bring something important to your attention that may potentially save your family thousands of dollars for your children’s education.

Nine years ago my father bought each of his grandchildren a Texas Tomorrow Fund grant. Since it’s beginning in 1995 as the Texas Tomorrow Fund, the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan has been an important educational resource for many Texans, including my family. On August 24, 2009, I received a letter, as did the thousands of other families regarding the Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Board’s decision to change the refund rule for unused tuition hours when a contract with the fund is canceled or a refund is requested.

The board’s decision has triggered two possible options for all plan purchasers in Texas:

1) Keep the contract in the Texas Tomorrow Fund, and plan benefits may be used 10 years after high school, and unused credit hours to apply to a graduate or professional degree if used within the 10-year period.

2) Determine the value of your current contract and decide whether or not to cancel it before the cancellation deadline under the current refund rule. This ultimately means that if you cancel your contract before the November 30, 2009 deadline, you will be able to withdraw the funds with the interest accrued. There are federal income tax implications for the refund payments with earnings and a tax advisor should be consulted. There is also the possibility to roll the funds over into a private 529 account.

The Texas Tomorrow Fund is still constitutionally guaranteed and payment of the tuition and required fees is not subject to change under any decision. A constitutional amendment was passed in 1997 to ensure the fund is fully funded and protected.

Let me encourage you to take the time to run the numbers if you have invested in the Texas Tomorrow Fund. Every situation is different, and it is key as to whether your students will end up attending a state or private university.

Specific questions about your individual situation can be addressed by visiting the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan Web site at www.tgtp.org or by calling their support line at (800) 445-4723.

State Representatives Phil King, Dan Flynn, Aaron Pena and Ryan Guillen

The purpose of Proposition 7 is simply to conform the Texas Constitution to the current structure of the Texas Military Forces: the Texas Army National Guard, the Texas Air National Guard and the Texas State Guard.

The Texas State Guard is a volunteer force of about 1,800 guardsmen from all across the State of Texas and is a “first responder” to natural disasters and other emergencies. Over the past two years members of the Texas State Guard have volunteered over 42,000 working days supporting local and state authorities responding to hurricanes, fires, floods and other state declared emergencies.

Article 16, Section 40 of the Texas Constitution was originally written to prohibit civil servants (elected officials and government employees) from holding two different positions with the government at the same time. However, the Constitution also provides several exceptions to this rule – most notably for military service. For instance, if a school teacher, city councilman or police officer serves in the Texas National Guard or the Naval Reserves, there are exceptions for that military service.

The role of the Texas State Guard, first organized during WWII, has grown dramatically over the last eight years and it has become vital to emergency response in Texas. Guardsmen, among other functions, provide shelter management, medical support, assist in evacuations, communications and damage assessment. Most recently, an engineering detachment was organized to assist small communities in reestablishing critical services, such as water and wastewater, after natural disasters such as a hurricane or flood. Recruitment efforts are underway to reflect the fast growing missions of the Texas State Guard.

Many of our guardsmen have jobs with various local, state and even federal government entities. They are teachers, judges, police officers, firefighters who are committed to the State Guard’s motto of Texans Serving Texans. Proposition 7 is simply clean up language to clarify that all Texans are eligible to serve regardless of their employment.

Please join us in supporting the Texas State Guard in its vital service to our state by voting YES on Proposition 7.

Learn more about the Texas State Guard at www.txsg.state.tx.us Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) represents House District 61, Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) represents House District 2, Rep. Aaron Pena (D-Edinburg) represents House District 40, and Rep. Ryan Guillen (D-Rio Grande City) represents District 31 in the Texas House of Representatives. All are officers in the Texas State Guard.

KVUE News Austin

Quita Culpepper

The Texas State Guard is there to deal with hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters. The all-volunteer force helps fire and rescue crews in the field and take care of natural disaster victims. KVUE’s Quita Culpepper reports.

Click here to watch the news clip.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Jack Z. Smith

Retail electric providers in Texas’ deregulated market are offering residential rates that in many instances are lower than those of some municipal power companies, electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities that are still under rate regulation, a Star-Telegram survey shows.

A decade after the Texas Legislature passed a law authorizing deregulation, retail electric providers compete intensely to win new customers. They have sharply lowered rates in response to a plunge in prices for natural gas, which is burned to generate much of the electricity produced in Texas.

Deregulation critics have frequently noted in the past that residential electric rates in the deregulated market were considerably higher than those charged by municipal power companies, called “munis,” rural and suburban electric cooperatives and investor-owned utilities, or IOUs, in areas such as the Texas Panhandle and East Texas that are outside the deregulated market. But that price gap appears to be narrowing, the Star-Telegram analysis shows.

San Antonio Express-News

Arlene Wohlgemuth

As Congress continues its health care debate, the American public is focused squarely on the implications that current federal proposals will have on our nation’s economy, health-care system and fiscal future.

“The Prognosis for National Health Insurance: A Texas Perspective,” the recent report by internationally renowned economist Arthur Laffer for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, concluded that a reform based on President Barack Obama’s principles — including an estimated $1 trillion increase in federal government health subsidies over 10 years — will accelerate health-care inflation; slow our economy, cost every Texas resident an additional $4,265, and still leave about 30 million Americans uninsured.

But Laffer’s report also addresses a critical angle that has been largely missing from the debate so far: what effect these proposals would have on the various states. As his research found, a larger government role in health care would impose a huge budget burden on Texas.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Jack Z. Smith

There’s a new Texas two-step.

Natural gas prices and retail electric rates are moving in tandem — steadily downward — a trend that could leave many energy consumers dancing with delight.

As of Thursday afternoon, powertochoose.com, the comparison shopping site overseen by the Texas Public Utility Commission, showed 31 retail electric-rate plans priced below 10 cents per kilowatt-hour in the Oncor Electric Delivery service area that includes North Texas.

There were 33 plans priced from 10 cents to 10.9 cents per kwh.

Thanks to plunging natural gas prices, many Texans can secure electric rates that are 25 to 40 percent lower than what they were paying last summer. Rates had soared as a result of spiraling prices for natural gas, which is burned to generate much of Texas’ electricity.

Financial Times

Newt Gingrich

California is in bad shape. It is likely to get worse. As America’s most populous state faces a $26.3 bn budget gap, lawmakers in Sacramento have had no choice but to make desperate spending cuts. Their latest solution? The legislature is debating a plan to release 27,000 prisoners early to save money on correctional facilities.

California, like so many other states facing budget shortfalls, is a victim of decades of reckless spending and unsustainable budgets. It was not always like this. The Golden State’s government services and public institutions – including its prisons – were models for the country in the 1960s and 1970s. But Californian policymakers stopped planning for the future. The state’s population ballooned from 23m in 1980 to 36m in 2008, and demographics shifted dramatically due to immigration. Roads, schools and prisons built with 1975 in mind are now crumbling and overcrowded.

Albany is just as paralysed as Sacramento. New York State legislators, both Republican and Democrat, avoided difficult decisions and kept spending unsustainably high for years. In New York, per capita Medicaid spending is double the national average. New York also has the highest per-pupil spending in the country, but ranked only 22nd in academic achievement in a US Chamber of Commerce state-by-state study of school systems. Even as private sector jobs evaporated, the state awarded 160,000 public sector employees a 3 per cent pay raise this spring. In the face of falling tax revenues because of last year’s crash on Wall Street, legislators increased total spending by 9 per cent. The result: a $17bn deficit in 2009.

Contact Information:
(817)596-8100

Today, State Representative Phil King (R-Weatherford) announced that veterans with a service-connected disability may reduce their property taxes in 2009 by filling out a simple exemption form at the Parker or Wise County Appraisal District office.

“This exemption has been a long time coming and is going to give veterans an exemption that they so greatly deserve.” King stated, “It is my hope that the State of Texas will continue to find ways to give back to those who have done so much for us.”

A veteran’s percentage of service-connected disability determines the amount of the exemption – from a $5,000 to a $12,000 deduction from the veteran’s property value.

The disabled veteran exemption is available to:
• a disabled veteran;
• a surviving spouse of a deceased disabled veteran, as long as the spouse remains unmarried;
• a surviving minor child of a disabled veteran, if the veteran’s spouse is deceased and if the child is both under 18 and unmarried;
• a surviving spouse of a person killed while on active duty, whether the spouse has remarried or not at application time; and
• a surviving minor child of a person killed while on active duty, if the child is both under 18 and unmarried.

Any eligible person who has not received this exemption should apply by April 30 of the year in question. An applicant may claim the exemption on only one piece of property, such as a home or any other property the applicant owned on January 1. The applicant must be a Texas resident to qualify.

The appraisal district may require proof of the disability, such as documentation from the Veterans Administration or the branch of the armed services in which the veteran served. Applicants may need proof of marriage, age or spouse’s or parent’s death.

For more information about the property tax exemption for disabled veterans, contact the Parker County Appraisal District at (817) 596-0078 or the Wise County Appraisal District at (940) 627-3081. More information is also available from the state Comptroller’s Property Tax Assistance Division at (800) 252-9121.

Dear Friend,

As you know, I’ve been very outspoken in my opposition to the healthcare plan that the Democrats and President Obama have been propagating in Washington. A couple of weeks ago I joined several of my colleagues in the Texas Legislature in sending a letter to the Texas Congressional delegation urging them to oppose the plan as well.

Yesterday I came across this organizational chart (please find link below) of how the healthcare plan will work if it is passed. I hope it scares you as much as it did me. Please take a look at this chart and share it with all of your friends. The federal government has shown that they are unable to run Social Security, Medicare, and many other programs, so why do they now think they can create the largest government program in our nation’s history and have it work properly?

Please join me in voicing your opposition to this plan to your congressional representatives today. It’s a pleasure to serve you in the Texas Legislature.

Sincerely,

Phil King