After three days of forced silence on the micro-blogging site, today Twitter has apologized and fully reinstated Empower Texans’ (@EmpowerTexans) feed and the personal accounts of the Empower Texans team (@mqsullivan, @A_Kerr, and @DustinMatocha).
Without warning or notification, social media mini-blog site Twitter on Monday simultaneously “suspended” the main Empower Texans feed along with the personal accounts of all staff.
In a legislative session controlled by a rhetorically conservative super-majority, they accomplished the bare fiscal minimum but did little to control future government growth. This is reflected on the 2011 Fiscal Responsibility Index, with legislators averaging a paltry 61 percent.
More than 5,000 letters are being delivered from taxpayers living around the state to their legislators. They are asking lawmakers to adopt a 2012-2013 budget that does not spend beyond the state’s fiscal means, raise taxes, or use the state’s Rainy Day Fund.
Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden announced on the chamber’s floor today he would remove use of the Rainy Day Fund as an automatic financing method for the 2012-2013 budget.
Listen to the March 10 statewide conference call with Texas Gov. Rick Perry. The call focused primarily on fiscal issues, with an emphasis on the state budget, taxes and rainy day fund.
Responding to school administrators around the state threatening to fire teachers in tight budget times, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility is launching a television advertising campaign. The ads are part of the "ProtectTheClassroom.com" project.
Legislation filed in both chambers of the Texas Legislature would move authority, responsibility, and control over funding for the health care system to the states through a new interstate compact.
Legislators working to reduce spending have strong re-election support from voters in both parties, while tax-hikers are strongly opposed. The results underscore November’s election, in which voters demanded fiscal responsibility.
Texas voters say that raising taxes and increasing government spending will harm job growth, and they want lawmakers to tackle reforms in government spending. Strong support for spending reform, instead of taxes, extends even to Medicaid.