Rating your legislator: The B, C, Ds of the Permian Basin

It wasn’t pretty, but the Texas Legislature finally concluded its work. Taxpayers are safe for another 18 months.

Unfortunately, it was a reactive legislative session, when 101 Republicans in the Texas House should have been on offense, putting the conservative agenda on the fast-track. They accomplished the bare fiscal minimum but did little to control future government growth or implement long-term reforms. This is reflected on the 2011 Fiscal Responsibility Index, with legislators averaging a paltry 61 percent.

The Fiscal Responsibility Index rates lawmakers on their votes. In the House, more than 40 votes were used this year; 21 in the Senate. It focuses on the size and cost of government, providing voters with a measure of which lawmakers are working to protect Texas’ taxpayers. While some ratings focus on personalities or process, the ratings on the Fiscal Responsibility Index rest solely on public policy outcomes.

Individual legislator ratings are reported as “A+,” “A,” “B+” and so on to “D” and finally “F.” Based on their 2011 rating, more than 60 legislators this year earned either the “Taxpayer Champion” or “Taxpayer Advocate” award.

Despite the region’s conservative reputation, the Permian Basin’s are a representational mixed-bag. On the one hand is the state’s longest-serving House member, Tom Craddick (R-Midland) who earned a high B+ and will be awarded the “Taxpayer Advocate Award.”

On the other hand, serving in the state senate is Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo) who earned a high D.

Caught in between is State Rep. Tryon Lewis (R-Odessa) who earned a passing C+ rating.

The average score for a Republican House member was a respectable B. Craddick out-performed his caucus, while Lewis under-performed. (We endorsed both men in 2010.)

The differences between a C+ and being a Taxpayer Advocate are significant. For example, during the regular session Craddick was far more reliable in protecting the state’s rainy day fund from abuse than Lewis, who twice sided with Democrats in looking for ways to tap it. (In the special session, Lewis correctly voted to protect the fund.) 

Lewis was also among a handful of legislators to oppose a couple meaningful property rights protections championed by the conservative movement.

The GOP average in the Senate was a disappointing “C,” meaning Seliger (whom we have never endorsed) under-performed his Republican colleagues with his D-rating.

Seliger voted against several timely conservative budget reforms, like suspending longevity-pay-increases in state agencies or cutting the pay of the highest paid (more than $200,000) state employees. He also voted to “speed up” the taxes businesses pay (and cannot afford) under the state’s Gross Margins Tax.

Worst, though, was the overall performance of the “leadership” in the legislature. They may have responded to the state’s fiscal crisis by not raising taxes -- but they didn’t do much to make long-term reforms to government growth.

Perhaps the principle reason is too few in legislative leadership are strong and disciplined fiscal conservatives. That is the only explanation for why -- when holding a super-majority -- there was no significant reform of the business tax, no reform of the property tax system, no strengthening of the state spending limit, and no improvement to government transparency or accountability.

Legislation was filed to do these things and more, but the leadership failed to act.

In both bodies of the legislature, the House and the Senate, the committee chairmen rule supreme. Especially in the House, they control the calendar -- what does and doesn’t move, what gets a hearing and what dies without a floor fight.

House committee chairmen averaged only a 63.3 on the Index. The House’s Republican committee chairmen averaged a 76.7, greatly under-performing their caucus’ rating (82.5). In the Senate, committee chairs averaged a 62.5; Republican chairs in that chamber averaged a 70.3, also underperforming their caucus with an average (73.2).

The lackluster performance by the committee chairs, coupled with their unwillingness to pass substantive reforms, stands in stark contrast to the sheer number of right-thinking legislators who tried to promote proactive fiscal policies.

Over the next 18 months, as we unpack the effects of this legislative session on our families, businesses and the state, it’s important that voters arm themselves with facts and demand that lawmakers account for their performance. Taxpayers simply cannot afford many more legislative sessions that squander as many opportunities for reform as this one.

Michael Quinn Sullivan is the president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (www.EmpowerTexans.com).