Lobby Pay Day

Submitted by TCollins on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 1:22pm.

What does it cost to get legislators to betray their taxpayers and hike taxes in an economic downturn? Just ask the lobbyists at HillCo, who seem to have made about $17,800 per legislator voting against Texans.

According to Ethics filings, HillCo is getting something on the order of $1.3 million from governmental entities to lobby for new gas taxes and fees. In fact, HillCo has been the driving force behind the scenes.

What'd they do with the money? So far, they got 59 House votes and 24 Senate votes -- all to raise taxes and impose new fees.

So a $1.3 million contract, divided by 73 votes, equals $17,800 per vote for HillCo.

That's probably a pretty good deal for HillCo.

It's a bad deal for families struggling to make ends meet. We pay the taxes, and we pay the lobbyists working against us to increase our taxes.

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Exactly which government

Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 05/28/2009 - 3:07pm.

Exactly which government entities does Hillco get their money from?

A sample

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 05/29/2009 - 4:05pm.

The City of Fort Worth, the City of Dallas, City of Burleson, City of Arlington, City of Corpus Christi, City of Denton.....

Just look up Snapper Carr, one of HillCo's major lobbyists, on the Texas Ethics Commission website.

Birds of a feather

Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 06/13/2009 - 9:00pm.

Let's see ... pay more in taxes ... pay a higher monthly electricty bill ... which is worse?

The two giant power generating companies and their tiny friends spend close to $13 million during the 2007 session, using over 100 lobbyists to twist arms and throw around money. The results? They got everything they wanted.

They were at it again this last session, and the hell of it is, they used many of the people on Empower Texans "best" list to carry the water for them. Fraser, P.King, T.Parker, S. Miller and others. Check it out. They killed over 1/2 dz. bills that would have protected consumers, and submitted two that would give away well over $100 million in tax abatements to these companies.

Ask them about it. Ask them to give you a straight answer; not the verbal Swiss cheese we have come to expect: not the "we needed to give it to them so they would build them" mularky. Check it out.