Leave it to reliable lefty (on the weekends *wink wink* — he’s an objective news bureau head the rest of the time!) Clay Robison to beat up Chronicle “bad guy” Rick Perry (R), who got a bit of indirect, positive press from the Wall Street Journal this week in a story more directly aimed at Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (R):
THE myth that Texas leaders bridged a $10 billion revenue shortfall two years ago without an assault on taxpayers’ pocketbooks continues to be perpetuated, most recently — and on a national scale — by The Wall Street Journal.
An editorial in The Journal last week applauded Gov. Rick Perry for “heroically” closing the gap “without a penny of new taxes.”
Nonsense.
The paper overlooked, of course, all the increases in local school taxes that have helped keep the public schools open since then.
No, not nonsense. A bit of hyperbole perhaps, since user fees (and tuition is a user fee) increased on some items, but the Chronicle is certainly guilty of hyperbole on its editorial pages from time to time (not to mention outright distortion and error).
Governor Perry did hold the line on major new taxes at a time when leaders in some states — Republicans and Democrats alike — showed no such restraints, and at a time when Texas liberals like Clay Robison were almost giddy with the thought that Texas might finally institute an income tax. No nonsense there, just fact.
Perry never has gotten much mileage out of that act of fiscal restraint — especially since major editorial boards in the state have blasted away ever since at him for resulting cuts in “services” (otherwise known as wealth redistribution) — and that’s bad news for the Governor, because he will need to use the issue effectively if he faces a serious primary challenge.
