04/06/2007
Fifty days out
The 80th Texas Legislature is nearing the end of its run for this session with a mere seven weeks left. The House passed and sent to the Senate an appropriations bill that moderates spending and holds growth in government to a more manageable level. It's now up to the Senate to hold the line on the state's spending and keep a vigil on unnecessary expenditures and the creation of new government programs. We must call our state senators and ask them to show the same discipline in their budget. Remind them that it's your money they're spending.
Lawmakers' attention has been directed at issues such as the scandal at certain Texas Youth Commission facilities and expanding the CHIP program to relax some good, solidly conservative reforms they put into place in 2003 when Texas was faced with a $10 billion budget shortfall. The CHIP program is a wonderful and much needed program in which the state collected approximately three dollars in matching funds for every one dollar in state money we spend. The program is designed to help low income families purchase health insurance at a no-cost or low-cost rate. A major benefit, other than getting necessary health care to our poor, is that this program also allows families to seek medical care through a family physician instead of your local hospital emergency room, saving millions of dollars for our local community hospitals.
Special thank yous
Thank yous go to Kurt Summers (Austin Generator Service, Austin), Joe Mack Hilliard (Fencing Incorporated, Corpus Christi), and Robert Mayfield (RUM Enterprises, Austin) for attending committee hearings last week in House committees on Ways and Means and Local Government Ways and Means. They worked to ensure that small-business owners' key issues were heard in the state capitol and that your message remains a driving force in public policy. They worked late into the night, and their work is important and appreciated. Thank you Kurt, Joe Mack and Robert for always being there for your fellow small-business owners!
New concerns over business tax
Our new gross receipts-based business tax is likely to go into effect and penalize small-business owners because our leaders don't have the political courage or basic understanding of how to fix this major problem.
We are receiving calls on a daily basis about how this new tax is increasing tax liabilities to the tune of 100 to 1,000 percent over your historic highs. We have proposed various reforms that help remedy some of the more devastating provisions with this new tax. These include: eliminating the business tax for firms losing money or just marginally profitable; lowering the tax rate; raising the small-business exemption from $300,000 to well over $1 million; and limiting the increase in your business tax to 100 percent over your 2006 franchise tax level. Believe it or not, your elected officials think that is too much to ask. If they don't enact these reforms, we'll remind them during the next primary election season.
Lawmakers shock business community, trash basic free-market principles
Predictably, power-hungry politicians have been posturing about the purchase of a power company by a private party whose principal purpose is to profit from the proceeds of the pact. Partisanship, pettiness, and a lack of perspicacity have enraged their primal instincts and moved them to precariously postpone this private procurement.
Got your attention? It should. Lawmakers are questioning the sale of TXU, one of the state's largest power companies, to a privately held firm. The $30-plus billion transaction would mark one of the largest private sales in history. Most free-enterprise, free-thinking people would argue that the state of Texas has no business inserting itself in a business transaction between a willing seller and a willing buyer. Unfortunately, your elected officials believe that they are more important than these basic free-market principles. It is unfortunate that they show such a lack of control and a lack of understanding in the role of government.
More to the story. In the dark of night, in a lightly attended hearing and without debate or conversation -- House Regulated Industries Chairman Phil King (Weatherford) inserted language into SB 482 that takes away your right to appeal to the Texas Public Utility Commission when you have a valid complaint with your service provider. This is a right you've enjoyed and may need if you have a problem with your electric or telephone service company. If this passes, your only option will be to spend thousands of dollars engaging legal counsel and taking your fight to state court – even if you're contesting a few measly dollars.
This is a perfect example of your state officials -- certainly, in this case, the author of the bill -- not understanding or caring about the issues that can harm their local mom-and-pop operations.
What are we doing about it? We have engaged the entire Texas House of Representatives and asked them to repeal this harmful provision in SB 482. Chairman King refuses to relent and remains unwilling to provide small-business owners with access to the very government services they've been paying for. Next week, we will launch a full-throttle, coordinated legislative media campaign to point out the harm they are doing to the state's job creators. This will be a Key Vote for NFIB/Texas, and we will make sure your legislators know we're serious about keeping this basic right for all small-business owners.
What can you do? Simple: Call, fax and email your state representative and tell them that you want them to preserve your right to access the PUC as a small-business owner! Call today as they are voting on this bill during the week of April 9.
You can find your state representative here: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/
NFIB president and CEO coming to Texas: Save the date
Please save the date of Wednesday, May 2, to meet and have lunch with our NFIB President and CEO Todd Stottlemyer. Stottlemyer will be traveling from Washington, D.C., to Austin to meet with our NFIB/Texas members. We will have a legislative luncheon with members and non-members and then head to the Capitol for legislative visits and hearings if the schedule permits. The luncheon will take place at Carmelo's Restaurant from 11:45 a.m. - 1 p.m. Carmelo's is located at 504 East 5th Street and complimentary valet parking is available. More details will follow soon, but please mark May 2, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., on your calendar.
Also, we are always looking to build our NFIB/Texas activist army. If you want to get more involved in the legislative process and help fight the fight for small business during this session, please fill out our activism survey and return back to us via fax or e-mail. You can find the survey online or contact Malaise Murphy, NFIB/Texas member support manager.
