September 16, 2011 

Contact:  JoAnn Fleming, 903-360-2858, Chair of the Texas Legislature’s TEA Party Caucus Advisory Committee and volunteer  begin_of_the_skype_highlightingExecutive Director, Grassroots America – We the People  

What: News Conference – Texas Grassroots Leaders Deliver “Open Letter to Governor Rick Perry” 

Subject: Governor Perry and the Unfinished Business of the Texas Legislature:  Interior Enforcement of Illegal Immigration Laws and Ending Sanctuary Cities 

Where:  Texas State Capitol, Speaker’s Press Room 

When:  Monday, September 19th, 11:00 am  

Details:

At the close of the 2011 regular and special legislative sessions, a broad coalition of local grassroots organizations in Texas signed an open letter calling on Texas Governor Rick Perry to address the urgent unfinished business of emergency legislation personally identified by Governor Perry at the beginning of the 82nd legislative session – namely, a ban on “sanctuary city” policies in Texas.  Since the letter was posted, over 3,000 local activists have signed on to the letter, including representatives of over 100 local tea party, 9-12 and related grassroots groups.  Some of the signers will be present to address media questions before personally delivering the letters to Governor Perry’s office.  A copy of the letter will also be forwarded to his campaign for President. 

Two of the leaders who will speak at the news conference: 

“My father migrated from Mexico, legally, and became a U.S. citizen.  He came to the US because he knew the great opportunities America offered.   Today, things are very wrong in Texas!  Our elected officials have failed to serve and protect citizens and legal residents of Texas.  They have failed to remove sanctuary city policies throughout Texas.  They have failed to enforce the law.  They should protect our Texas families and those who protect us – law enforcement officers.  Sanctuary city policies have cost the lives of five Houston police officers and left another officer seriously impaired.   It is time our state officials took care of this unfinished business.”  Maria Espinoza, Co-Founder of The Remembrance Project

“As legal immigrants in the late 1960’s, my family and I fled communism.  We came here with the mission to become “Americans,” and we did so to become part of all that makes this country great. We cannot sit by and have our laws ignored by politicians who take an oath to uphold the rule of law and then proceed to choose the laws they want to ignore.  We cannot afford the burden of paying the tax liabilities for those who cross the border, remain “under the radar” and use this country for their purposes without any responsibility whatsoever.   I am here today to say that our Texas elected officials need to do their job and quit playing games with our security and financial future.”   Roberto Gonzalez, Clear Lake TEA Party

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Continue reading on Examiner.com North Carolina governor suspends gun rights – Charlotte gun rights www.examiner.com/gun-rights-in-charlotte/north-carolina-governor-suspends-gun-right

Smith County voters:  Everybody call all three senators who represent parts of Smith County!   Call their Austin offices AND the District offices AND fax! 

Kevin Eltife – Senate District One
Capitol Address
The Honorable Kevin Eltife
(512) 463-0101
(512) 475-3751 (Fax)

District Address
Tyler, Texas
(903) 596-9122
(903) 596-9189 (Fax) 

Bob Deuell – Senate District Two 
 Capitol Address
The Honorable Bob Deuell
(512) 463-0102
(512) 463-7202 fax

District Address
Mesquite, Texas
(972) 279-1800
fax (972) 279-1065 

Robert Nichols – Senate District Three
Capitol Address
The Honorable Robert Nichols
(512) 463-0103
1-800-959-8633 (toll-free) 

District Address
Jacksonville, Texas
(903) 589-3003
(903) 589-0203 fax 

Here’s the message in three quick points: 

1.  Do not add spending to the House Budget!  Balance the budget with cuts to spending that is beyond state constitutional priorities.  It is time the state cut back like we have had to do in our homes & businesses!

2.  Do not raise taxes, add new fees, or new taxes.  We cannot afford it!

3.  Stay out of the Rainy Day Fund!  There are $14 Billion reasons to not to spend down this fund – $14 Billion in new Medicaid costs for 2014-2015!   Higher gas and food prices will challenge the economy!  The feds are still spending!  The state of Texas must not become California! 

I will be working the legislators tomorrow along with the statewide conservative leaders.  We need their phone calls! 

Please, please rally the troops!   We are counting on YOU! 

JoAnn

Details:  Dynamic documentarian Davis Guggenheim weaves together the stories of students, families, educators and reformers to shed light on the failing public school system and its consequences on the future of the United States. In this Sundance Audience Award winner for Best Documentary, Guggenheim deftly examines the options to improve public education and provide America’s teachers and students with the help they need.  Features Michele Rhee, former chancellor of the District of Columbia Public School System and founder and CEO of StudentsFirst, a 501(c)(4) political advocacy organization which works on education reform issues. Location:  Lakeview Church of the Nazarene - 10818 University Boulevard (Spur 248), two miles from Loop 323 intersection, Tyler

ALSO, there will be an EVENING showing on Thursday evening April 7 (time/location to be announced soon)

On Tuesday an apparent deal was struck between TX House Appropriations Chair Jim Pitts and Governor Perry to tap the Rainy Day Fund for approximately $3.2 billion in order to cover the current biennium shortfall.  “Approximately” is the best I can report at this time since the numbers bounce around in Austin like ping-pong balls. 

I spent all day Wednesday trying to get information regarding the “deal” struck between Pitts and Governor Perry, which was backed by Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, Comptroller Combs, and House Speaker Straus.  No details of the deal were available on the State’s website.  I contacted Senator Dan Patrick, chair of the Legislature’s Tea Party Caucus to request any information he could provide and to let him know we (members of the TP Caucus Advisory Committee) wanted a line item list of detailed spending cuts included in the deal.  I asked him (as the presiding TP Caucus Chair) to request the information from House members of the TP Caucus, and in particular the Tea Party Caucus Vice-Chair Phil King.  Representative King called late afternoon to confirm that no details of the deal had been distributed by the House Appropriations Committee, but he promised to get a line item list of cuts to us today, if at all possible. 

Once we receive the list of documented cuts for the current biennium, we will match those cuts with those proposed by the TX Conservative Coalition Research Institute and the “Fourteen Point Plan to Cut State Spending” which I authored for the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee.  These Fourteen Points were distributed to all state officials; the message to make every reasonable cut possible before approving a “smash and grab” of the Rainy Day Fund could not have been clearer!

I remain highly skeptical that every possible solution to reduce spending in the current biennium was fully explored and exercised before grabbing the Rainy Day Fund umbrella.  Because there is a literal tsunami of exploding costs of Medicaid coming to Texas, the rising cost of fuel that will surely have a depressive impact on the economy, the financial crisis ahead for our nation caused by obscene waste, insane spending, and cowardice in DC, and the added economic stress due to global unrest and natural disasters, I am pretty sure we will all rue the day any money was used from the RDF. 

As soon as we receive the list of spending cuts for the current budget shortfall and match those against the well-researched opportunities to cut state spending, I will issue a statement to you and to the media.  I will also be working with my colleagues on the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee on a statement which will have statewide release.  

Bottom line:  if Formula 1 Racetrack event funding, non-essential spending outside of core constitutional functions, duplicated agencies and programs, a pay cut for all but the lowest paid of state employees, and a pay cut for statewide elected officials are not included in the list of cuts, the use of the Rainy Day Fund will be declared as unacceptable.  The prevailing question is this:  Why should the state be exempt from the hardest choices families and businesses have to make?  We’ll keep calling on elected officials for an answer.  Texas must not become California.

Advancing Freedom,

JoAnn   

JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director (volunteer)
Grassroots America – We the People  www.gawtp.com
(903) 894-7204 home office or (903) 360-2858 cell

 “If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”

Samuel Adams, Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776

  VISIT www.GAWTP.com to learn more about Grassroots America We the People

Where applicable, a political advertisement paid for by the GAWTP PAC, PO Box 130012,Tyler, TX 75713, Jimmie Taylor, PAC Treasurer.

Citizen Advisory Committee Issues
Reality Check for House Appropriations Chair Pitts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 9, 2011

Contact:  JoAnn Fleming, TPCAC member, Tyler area (903.894.7204)

House Appropriations Chair Jim Pitts just doesn’t get it.  While he dismisses Governor Perry’s call for spending cuts instead of a raid on the Rainy Day Fund, Chairman Pitts insists he’ll push for a committee vote soon on a bill to spend $4.3 billion of the People’s Savings Account instead.   In some news reports, Pitts has likened the state’s budget situation to a family facing the loss of its home due to a sudden drop in household income.  Pitts concludes that the family has two options – either tell the bank to take the house or take money out of the family’s savings account.  It is also reported that Pitts believes anyone who doesn’t see it his way needs a “reality check.”  Such an outrageous statement deserves a reality check from citizens who see the matter quite differently.

“The loss of state revenue was not sudden, nor was it a surprise.  Chairman Pitts knows better,” says Tea Party Advisory Committee member Sharon Hall (San Antonio).   “The legislature has known the economy was slowing since 2008.  They could have taken more aggressive cost-containment measures in the 81^st legislative session, but did not.  Now we expect them to cut – not take the easy way out.”

Tony Corsaut, TP Advisory Committee member from Wichita Falls, agrees.  “When families and businesses see a reduction of income or revenue coming, they prepare.  They look at all expenses and cut out wants to get down to needs.  The state has a way to go to get down to basic needs. After all, we still have an arts and film commission.  The legislature is still underwriting a Formula 1 race track for some $25 million, and there’s been no move to furlough non-essential state employees to save money.  Why should government be exempt from the cuts families and businesses have had to make and are still making?”

Between fiscal years 1990 and 2010, All Funds appropriations for Texas state government increased from $23.3 billion to $92.7 billion, a growth of nearly 300 percent. By contrast, the rate of population growth plus inflation increased only 115.5 percent over the same period. (Source:  Legislative Budget Board, Texas Public Policy Foundation)  This clearly demonstrates that state government has grown to unsustainable levels.  The Tea Party Advisory Committee insists it is time for state leaders to do the hard work required to get spending under control and balance the state budget without raising taxes, instituting new taxes, putting the state further into debt, or raiding the Rainy Day Fund.

In an effort to give Committee Chairman Pitts and his colleagues in the State Legislature a helping hand, the Tea Party Caucus Advisory Committee advances the following “Fourteen Point Plan to Cut Spending to Balance the State Budget” as authored by Tea Party Advisory Committee Member JoAnn Fleming (Tyler area):

Fourteen Point Plan to Cut Spending to Balance the State Budget:  Across-the-board cuts do not get to the root of the over-spending, over-regulating problem.  Cutting 2.5%, 5% or 10% of a department, agency, or program that is outside basic constitutional authority does not go far enough to solve the spending problem.  It is time to get state government spending under control by: 

1) focusing on the basic constitutional duties of state government, making those the top budget priorities; 

2) employing zero-based budgeting for every agency, department, and program; 

3) asserting constitutional and moral duty to first protect and preserve the interests of the citizens and legal residents of Texas by requiring all public service providers to verify and report the citizenship/legal residency of those they serve to the State and to the People of Texas, thereby ensuring appropriate budget allocations can be made for legal Texas residents, versus those from other States (both foreign and domestic); 

4) eliminating overlapping, duplicated agencies, departments, and programs (example, the natural resource agencies: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Rail Road Commission, Public Utility Commission, General Land Office, Agriculture Commission, Parks & Wildlife); 

5) injecting competition into the delivery of services for improved service quality and lower costs (outsourcing, improved centralized procurement for volume purchasing discounts, and efficient contract management); 

6) determining feasibility of purchase deferrals for all unspent appropriations in current budget and for new budget requests for capital assets (vehicles, equipment, technology, new facilities/upgrades/remodels); 

7) instituting an immediate hiring freeze and review of all state government positions, all personnel policies, and all benefits; review solvency of benefit funding for state employees; end longevity pay for state employees; increase contribution levels for state employees toward their own pension and insurance benefits; 

cutting pay for state employees, including statewide officials. Top officials should lead by cutting their pay first. (No public employee should make more than the Governor, including school superintendents.) Care should be taken not to reduce lowest paid state workers to the point of making them eligible for social services, thereby driving up state costs. 

9) ending the practice of diverting funds from the originally-intended purpose to other uses (for example, the state motor fuels tax of which 47% is diverted to non-transportation fund use); 

10) mandating review of all agencies, departments, and programs to match funding with originally-intended mission and to determine whether or not the agency/department/program is producing measurable results; although this is the purpose of the Sunset Commission, the Sunset Commission needs to be revamped with more private citizen representation on the review board; 

11) reviewing state debt for savings through debt consolidation, lower interest rates; 

12) suspending funding of parks, bike and walking trails, renovations of historical properties; 

13) reviewing and curtailing in many cases state economic incentives and subsidies (our low taxes, limited regulations, right to work laws, and civil justice system provide plenty of incentives for companies to come to Texas, when compared to other states);  

14) reasserting State Sovereignty under the 10^th Amendment of the US Constitution. Too much state spending is driven by accepting unconstitutional federal funding with strings

This will not be the state’s last difficult budgeting cycle in the near term.  According to Texas Public Policy Foundation, “Medicaid costs before ObamaCare will double every 10 years through the next three decades. ObamaCare adds 3.1 million people to Texas’ Medicaid rolls by 2014, and Texas will need an additional $10 to $15 billion in the next budget to meet those costs.”  In addition, rising fuel costs, unrest around the globe, and uncertainty caused by suffocating federal debt and onerous regulations affirm that it is a wholly reasonable and prudent expectation that the 82^nd Texas Legislature would exhaust all fiscally-responsible cost-cutting remedies before ever thinking about raiding the People’s Rainy Day Fund. 

Governor Rick Perry expressed support for citizen involvement in the state budget process: “Ever since they burst onto the national consciousness in April of 2009, the TEA Parties have been waking people up with their fundamentally American message of fiscal discipline and accountability for elected leaders. The Texas TEA Parties have remained in the vanguard of the movement and I’m honored to have their support. You can trust that I’ll stand my ground on our core principles and continue our efforts to balance the budget without raising taxes or touching the Rainy Day Fund. Only through continued TEA Party engagement can we hold elected officials’ feet to the fire and ensure they deliver on their promises from last November.”  [Statement provided to Katrina Pierson, TPCAC member, Garland]      

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To learn more about Grassroots America We the People in Tyler, TX please visit www.gawtp.com

I whole-heartily encourage Tylerites to vote for Jason…he’s a good man who will serve our community well.  

Check out this great video on youtube.com   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCcxowAt6pE

Visit his website to see more about him at http://www.votewright.us/

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7272553

Listening to it gave me the impression that she has heard some of the evidence and believes it’s a possibility.  But on her website she posted a follow-up response denying it…so I’m also pasting that here as well as a link.

GLENN: Right. Here’s then let me be more frank and ask you the question: Do you believe the government was any way involved with the bringing down of the World Trade Centers on 9/11?

MEDINA: I don’t, I don’t have all of the evidence there, Glenn. So I don’t I’m not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that. I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard. There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all of the evidence there. So I’ve not taken a position on that.

GLENN: I think the people of America might think that might be a yes.

MEDINA: Well

GLENN: Do you have advisors, do you have advisor

MEDINA: I’m not going to take a position.

GLENN: That’s fine.

MEDINA: These questions have been raised and they are not answered.

LINK to hear for yourself:  http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/196/36197/

Medina’s website statement  http://www.medinafortexas.com/getPost?p=272