Texans For Fiscal Responsibility

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Matthew Charles
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Texans For Fiscal Responsibility 2016 Texas Senate Questionnaire For Endorsement Consideration FIRST NAME Senate District #: LAST NAME E-Mail: Phone: ( ) Campaign Manager: Consultant: INTRODUCTION

We will not consider for endorsement any candidate who does not complete this questionnaire. The questionnaire is the first step in our endorsement process.

1 Texans For Fiscal Responsibility 2016 Texas Senate Questionnaire For Endorsement Consideration FIRST NAME Senate District #: LAST NAME Phone: ( ) Campaign Manager: Consultant: INTRODUCTION Texans for Fiscal Responsibility will make endorsements during the 2016 election cycle, in both the primary and general elections. We will not necessarily endorse a candidate in every race. We will not consider for endorsement any candidate who does not complete this questionnaire. The questionnaire is the first step in our endorsement process. It is followed by an in-person interview and a survey of our subscribers in the district sought. Our endorsement of a candidate is based on our belief that the candidate will adhere to the best practices and highest principles of conservatism and stewardship of the taxpayers resources. Our endorsement of any particular candidate does not represent a criticism of any other candidate in the race. Men and women of goodwill can and often will disagree on the solutions to the issues facing Texas; that debate is healthy and necessary in a democratic republic. Political races are important because they affect and influence public policy. We pursue policy outcomes that are practical in the context of protecting taxpayers, stewarding the people s resources, limiting the size of government, promoting individual liberty, encouraging freedom in the marketplace, and meeting public needs with greater efficiency and accountability. We welcome your comments, questions and thoughts on these and other issues. Topics covered in the questionnaire:! Reforming the Budget! Taxes and Revenues! Local Debt! Government Transparency! Transportation! Government Reform

2 Page 2 of 9 REFORMING THE BUDGET 1. STATEMENT: To control government spending at the state and local level, Texas should reform the current constitutional spending limit. Lawmakers should biennially be required to adopt the lower of either the sum of inflation and population-growth, or the change in the gross state product. Agree: Disagree: See Comments: Clarifying/related issues. A. STATEMENT: Such a spending limit should only be exceeded at the state level by a 3/4 th super-majority, recorded vote of both bodies, and the approval of the governor. Agree: Disagree: See Comments: B. STATEMENT: Such a spending limit should only be exceeded at the local level through a majority vote in an election held on one of the state s uniform election dates. 2. STATEMENT: All state agencies should be required to regularly begin their budgets with a zero base rather than additional growth over the previous biennial budget. 3. STATEMENT: Every expenditure category should include a clear taxpayer impact statement that includes the intended outcomes expected to be attained. When those goals are not met, then the legislature should eliminate those expenditures. 4. QUESTION: Would you support or oppose a constitutional amendment requiring the Economic Stabilization Fund (or the rainy day fund) be maintained at a certain percentage of the state s General Revenue budget, with excess dollars returned as tax relief?

3 Page 3 of 9 5. STATEMENT: While governors in Texas have long had the line-item veto as a way to control pork-barrel spending, the Legislature has developed a process to circumvent this important check on spending by combining large programs into a single lineitem. The budget should be presented in a more transparent way that provides more information to the public and ensures future governors can fully exercise the line-item veto. 6. Please recommend a program, commission or agency you might be willing to cut or eliminate. If you cannot, please explain why: 7. Mandates from Washington, DC, have begun driving the state budget, mainly through Medicaid and other health care spending. What efforts will you support to bring about greater state and individual control in health care decision-making? 5 STATEMENT: In order to eliminate a conflict of interest and increase transparency in government, if legislators are to continue to receive public pensions, those pensions should be decoupled from the salary of state district court judges.

4 Page 4 of 9 TAXES AND REVENUES 1. QUESTION: Will you oppose every effort to increase the overall tax burden in Texas? Yes: No: See Comments: 2. STATEMENT: The method by which property taxes are calculated and levied should be reformed. Support: Oppose: See Comments: Clarifying/related issues A. QUESTION: Would you support or oppose limiting the revenue growth that could be generated from any single piece of property year-over-year? Support: Oppose: See Comments: B. QUESTION: Would you support or oppose making members of appraisal review boards answerable to the public through direct election rather than letting the taxing entities continue to appoint them? Support: Oppose: See Comments: 3. STATEMENT: The gross margins tax on Texas business, which has been labeled a business income tax by the Federal Accounting Standards Board, should be eliminated. 4. QUESTION: End-user consumption taxes have been demonstrated to be the least economically harmful, and most efficient and transparent way to generate government revenue. Tax incidence analysis by the Office of the Comptroller and others demonstrate that consumption taxes are also fairer than the other forms of taxation. Would you support or oppose moving Texas away from property taxes in favor of the existing sales and use tax? NOTE: Tax swaps, phase-outs or trade-offs are not considered tax increases by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility unless the total tax burden is increased. 5. STATEMENT. Texas should phase out property taxes in favor of end-user consumption taxes.

5 Page 5 of 9 6. QUESTION: Would you support or oppose a constitutional amendment requiring a three-fourths vote of the Legislature before state tax rates could be raised in Texas? 7. QUESTION: Some have proposed expanding the footprint of legalized gambling with the claim that it will generate new revenues into state government. Others, however, note that states with legalized gambling have much higher costs-of-government, larger economic problems, and that gambling has not actually brought in the revenues to off-set the higher costs of law enforcement, social services and regulation. Would you support or oppose the expansion of gambling in Texas? Support expanded gambling: Oppose expanded gambling: See Comments: LOCAL DEBT Texas is 2nd only to New York in local debt per capita. 1. QUESTION: Should the use of bonds to finance local spending projects be curtailed? Yes: No: See Comments: 2. STATEMENT: Voter participation keeps elected officials accountable and promotes good governance. Therefore, voter participation should be increased by holding all local elections for public office on the same day as the state s uniform election date in November. 3. STATEMENT: In order to promote transparency and to practice good governance, cities, counties, school boards and other local taxing entities seeking to pass tax ratifications or bond packages should set their elections on the same day as the state s uniform election date in November. 4. QUESTION: Would you support or oppose a measure requiring local government entities, when offering bond proposals, to make clear in language included on the ballot what voters are deciding on, what the entity s current debt obligation is, and any additional tax increase that is expected if the bond were to pass?

6 Page 6 of 9 5. STATEMENT: Local taxing entities have the power to issue certificates of obligation to leverage debt that are secured by ad valorem taxes. The only method for taxpayers to stop the issuance of a Certificate of Obligation is to submit a petition signed by 5% of all registered voters prior to the passage of the local ordinance authorizing the certificate. The issuance of certificates of obligation is no different than issuing bonds without voter approval. It is an abuse of taxpayers and the practice should be reformed or eliminated. 6. STATEMENT: Capital Appreciation Bonds (CABs) are bonds issued by local governments in which payments on the bond s principal are put off until the maturity date. CABs are an irresponsible method of financing local spending and the legislature should pass a measure preventing local taxing entities from issuing them. GOVERNMENT TRANSPARENCY Transparency, rightly understood, means citizens having more information about their government and the individuals holding offices of public trust. 1. STATEMENT: The Texas Legislature has mandated that all state expenditures, contracts and grants be made available to the public in a single online database. This provides taxpayers with the ability to hold their elected officials accountable. In the next legislative session, this law should be expanded to include all counties, cities and schools. 2. STATEMENT: Some specific state taxes and fees are diverted from their intended purpose. A levy should either be used for its intended purpose or abolished. 3. STATEMENT: Appropriate ethics reforms should focus light on public officials so citizens can see more clearly might be abusing the public trust. Regulations that allow government officials to invade the privacy of citizens and their associations necessarily chill political speech and accountability. Such regulations are inherently unethical.

7 Page 7 of 9 TRANSPORTATION Texas transportation funding systems are antiquated and over-congestion represents a threat to our economic competitiveness. At the same time, light rail and similar masstransit programs have neither reduced congestion nor been operated profitably, and they continue to require further subsidization. 1. QUESTION: Would you support or oppose increasing the fiscal transparency of local and regional transit agencies receiving state transportation dollars by requiring them to post their expenditures online in real-time, in the same fashion that every state agency currently does? 2. QUESTION: Currently, transportation dollars do not necessarily have to be used for projects that demonstrably reduce congestion or enhance safety. Would you support or oppose efforts to require greater accountability in the use of state tax dollars to ensure maximum congestion relief or demonstrable safety improvement, rather than the allocation of road projects politically? GOVERNMENT REFORM 1. QUESTION: Texas constitution requires an efficient system of public education. Free markets have demonstrated that monopolies are inefficient, and that competition drives efficiencies. Would you support or oppose competition in public education? 2. STATEMENT: Taxing entities in Texas spend millions of dollars on hired lobbyists, often working to oppose taxpayer-led efforts at reform and burden relief. State law should directly prohibit all taxing entities from using tax dollars to hire lobbyists. 3. QUESTION: Texas currently regulates and licenses more than one-third of our workforce higher than the national average. Very often, trade associations and others argue for these licenses as a way to limit competition by raising barriers to entry into the profession or trade. For example, the Legislature recently ignored sunset commission recommendations that interior designers be deregulated because interior design

8 Page 8 of 9 associations requested that the regulation continue. Would you restrict new licensing only to occupations that have a direct, demonstrable impact on public health and physical safety? YES: NO: See Comments: 4. QUESTION: Would you support a law requiring all elected officials to disclose the contracts they, their businesses, immediate families, and businesses of immediate families, have with state and local governments entities in Texas? YES: NO: See Comments: 5. QUESTION: Would you support a law prohibiting governmental entities in Texas from collecting labor union dues? YES: NO: See Comments: 6. QUESTION: When is it acceptable for elected officials to use their office to benefit or promote a private individual before governmental entities?

9 Page 9 of 9 Please sign the completed questionnaire and return ALL 10 PAGES, along with any comments, as quickly as possible. We will not schedule a candidate interview until we have received this questionnaire. Signature of Candidate Date PRINT Candidate Name and District Phone Campaign Mailing Address (Street) Campaign Mailing Address (City, State, Zip) We will not consider for endorsement any candidate who does not complete this questionnaire. Mail: Texans for Fiscal Responsibility PO Box Austin, TX Fax: (512) endorsement@empowertexans.com

Texas Budget Policy Part I Texas is where the modern conservative theory of budgeting - the belief that you should never raise taxes under any

Texas Budget Policy Part I Texas is where the modern conservative theory of budgeting - the belief that you should never raise taxes under any circumstances, that you can always balance the budget by cutting