A boo from the balcony

While the top three state leaders have generally claimed victory for accomplishing many of their stated goals in this legislative session and have received generally positive feedback from the GOP faithful (see here, here, and here for coverage), at least one Republican didn't much care for their performance:

Here are some of the rights lost and promises not kept in the 78th Texas Legislature:

· Despite what some are saying, there will be no relief or reduction in your homeowners insurance premiums (or any insurance premiums).

· Taxes will be higher, but disguised as increased and new fees for permits, licenses, etc.

· As a juror, you cannot be trusted to decide the level of damages in a trial; you now have a government-imposed cap on what you can award in certain cases.

· You no longer have the legal right to bring certain warranty claims against your homebuilder (as your house sits there dripping in mold, shifting, leaking, etc.).

· No court access; more big government. If you do assert a claim of some sort against your homebuilder, it will now be managed by a newly created governmental entity called a commission and ultimately arbitration if the former fails.

But wait, you did get:

· Powerball!

Is this why you voted Republican?

Funnily enough, most of these items are in agreement with the Democrats' positions. The author is a GOP precinct chair, according to his byline (a Google search on his name yielded an endorsement for a Republican candidate for the state Board of Education, so at least he's not an obvious phony). Maybe he ought to be asking himself why he votes Republican.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 04, 2003 to Budget ballyhoo | TrackBack