State Representative Jim Murphy HD133 has outdone himself and it’s hard to tell which accomplishment garnered him this special award. One of this year’s recipients of the Texas Municipal League (TML) “Legislator of the Year” award is Jim Murphy. Fiscal conservatives call this award the “Anti-Taxpayer MVP Legislator of the Year” award – and rightfully so. Past recipients include Wendy Davis, Joe Straus, Carol Alvarado, John Carona, and many others whose sole existence in the Texas Legislature was to separate you from your money, expand government, and erode your liberty. The Texas Municipal League is the bane of every Texas conservative. Once upon a time, Lt. Dan and Senator Paul Bettencourt complained vociferously about the taxpayer funded TML activities.
TML legislates for higher taxes and bigger government every legislative session in Austin. TML sometimes broadens their horizons and lobbies for annexations, management districts, TIRZs, eminent domain, governmental immunity, and generally big, expansive government wherever you can find it. The worst thing about this organization is that it uses your tax dollars to accomplish these goals. The lobbyists for TML are the best and most highly paid in Austin and they use your tax money to work against you. TML’s number one target this session was SB2, the property tax reform bill. TML has an entire webpage on the talking points against property tax reform. Remember that your taxes fund this organization.
TML gives this money to lobbyists who blow smoke up the butts of legislators like Jim Murphy. Jim is then tasked to promote legislation to raise your taxes and expand government in many ways most just cannot fathom, including the creation of TIRZs, (Tax Incremental Reinvestment Zones). Jim Murphy is paid to manage a TIRZ and distribute tax dollars to special interests. Jim Murphy has a contract through District Management Services to manage the Westchase District – legally questionable, at best. The Westchase District was created by the legislature to siphon off dollars from the City of Houston and business owners.
Most TIRZs come with a management district to augment revenue and operate as another taxing authority designed to take funds from business owners. Management districts tax business owners on a square foot basis. TML magicians, lawyers, and legislators survive by figuring out how to separate you from your money. These districts have been criticized as of late by Governor Abbott and Senator Bettencourt because Mayor Sly Turner refused to take money from the management districts for Hurricane Harvey cleanup. Ole Sly argued that TIRZ funds couldn’t be used for disaster relief services. Sly thinks we forgot when he raided these very funds to augment the City of Houston budget last year. Abbott certainly should have screamed “liar, liar pants on fire!” Instead, Abbott gave Turner a check for $50 million so Turner would say nice things about the Governor. Again, this was your money too. Notice that I didn’t say balance the budget because the City of Houston has not balanced its budget in 20 years. The City of Houston has been borrowing billions from employee pension fund to create the appearance of being balanced.
Giving this award to State Representative Jim Murphy (District 133) this year is fitting and proper. Jim was a sponsor of Mayor Sly’s billion dollar pension bill (SB2190) this session. Representative Murphy could be seen standing next to Dan Flynn, chairman of the house pension committee, on the House floor as the bill was being debated by (generally) Allen Blakemore clients. Jim’s recognition should not be limited to what will amount to Houston’s largest property tax increase, which will follow the passage of this horrendous bond proposal. Murphy, I am sure, got credit for killing property tax reform (SB2) in the House. And, God only knows what else TML deemed meritorious. I am sure that Allen Blakemore received an “attaboy” for the “Anti-Taxpayer MVP Political Consultant of the Year” award,
Congratulations to Jim Murphy for his victory as “Anti-Taxpayer MVP Legislator of the Year!”
Dude, did Allen Blakemore stand you up on a date or something? His clients aren’t automatically bad.
I get your point on TIRZ’s. They need to go away. But Murphy isn’t “anti-taxpayer”. He’s a traditional Republican, for good government at the lowest cost. We do actually have to pay for good government and I think Murphy has proven through the years that he understands that.
David,
I’m confused. The column above didn’t even mention Allen Blakemore. As for “. . good government at the lowest cost.” Well, I guess that all depends on what you consider to be good government and what you consider to be a reasonably low cost. In my opinion Texas Republicans just haven’t done a very good job, especially on a municipal level.
I also agree with Don about the TML. There is nothing about this organization that is either fiscally conservative or dedicated to small government. If they are applauding Jim Murphy for what he’s doing, then he’s doing the wrong thing.
Fat Albert, perhaps there are two versions of this post. The one that I can read mentions him twice.
My apologies David, so it does. The remainder of my comments stand unchallenged.
As for Allen Blakemore’s clients. They may not all be bad, But I’m beginning to wonder why a true, fiscally conservative, small government Republican (assuming there are any left) would choose him as a consultant.
David,
I watch what he does in person at the legislature. I don’t listen to what Jim says he did.
Carona does not belong in this group. He was the driving force that helped kill Rick Perry’s trans texas corridor, and he killed toll road give-aways to private, foreign companies. He got a lot of unfair press for working across the aisle but was very effective for good government issues.
Voter,
I was in a hearing some years ago and I heard Carona say to a fellow senator before they started calling up the bills that “the house will never agree to raise taxes….” another Senator responded with “that is because they don’t want to lose their job”. Carona then said “yes…but that is bad statesmanship”. From my perspective I am glad he is gone.
Paul, was he talking about gasoline taxes? I believe he was on record of supporting gas taxes to a highway fund (with protections against being raided) as opposed to toll roads which end up being multi-billion dollar give-aways in year 20 (or whenever) and are often operated by foreign companies. A 10 cent or so gas tax increase and vastly improved public roadways is a big win for the consumer vs. toll roads which are a rip-off. But, hey, who needs real solutions to problems? No one at the legislature has ever advocated European level gasoline taxes, just a super minor increase to pay for the roads that gasoline buyers drive on.
Voter,
He lost me not because he was for a tax increase. He lost me because he said good statesmanship.
I guess I don’t understand the semantics. I know carona was a good public servant but he isn’t in office so I won’t argue the point anymore.
Anyhow, I agree with the general thrust of the article that there is a crooked syndicate of officials who manage the tirz’s and management districts to benefit themselves and their cronies. It’s all really disgusting. The money associated with these entities have gotten so out of hand that it has turned people corrupt or given corrupt people more access to money.
Voter,
I use to go round and round with Senator Corona on a number of different issues. When I saw his name I included him. You are right and he is gone now.
I believe Don has convinced me they are all in the same club on both sides. The session before last Jim Murphy could not get a bill he sponsored to return local control to tax payers regarding the pension deal out of committee. Dan Flynn’s committee.
Dan Flynn’s spokesman told me the pension issues were the problem of the big cities and he wanted nothing to do with them. At all.
And now Jim Murphy and Dan Flynn are on the same page when it comes to passing pension bonds?
And if I catch wind of any candidate I can vote for supporting the national CofC, TML or Texas Association of Countird (same thing at TML for counties) they will get as much bad publicity as I can put out there.
The reason that TML recognized Jim Murphy is he carried HB 1111 which was important to small cities across the State of Texas.
I personally asked Jim Murphy to sponsor a bill allowing my city Bunker Hill to pass laws to protect our children from registered sexual offenders. Previous to Rep. Murphy’s legislation, only large cities were allowed to pass such laws.
After Jim agreed to carry the legislation, I reached out to TML for their support in getting it passed and they agreed to join our effort. Other small cities joined as well.
I am glad that Jim’s work made this possible, now every child that lives in a small city is a little safer than they were before. His recognition is well-deserved.
Jay Williams, Mayor of Bunker Hill
Jay Williams,
I had no idea Bunker Hill had a problem with sexual predators. I can see why you thought this was very important.
We actually had two registered sex offenders in our city (one was a repeat offender who spent 10 years in the state penitentiary) at the time we requested the legislation, We currently have one living in our city and one living very close by. The sex offender that lives close by showed up at the temporary shelter we set up at MDPC during Harvey, So this is very important to us, as I am sure it is in other cities who have registered sex offenders living in their communities.
Jay,
Are we talking about the same HB1111 that took effect September 1, 2017? HB1111 was carried by Senfronia Thompson. The house sponsor was Rodriguez. I cannot see where Jim Murphy had anything to do with it at all. He may have voted for it. All of this information is online. and can be found right here. http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=HB1111
Now if you watch the video for the house debate on SB2190 you can see Murphy doing what he does best. Jim creates really big government and carries out liberal policies of the House Speaker. We may not be speaking about the same bill but the newest member of the House lowliest staff member could have gotten this bill passed. You might be joking about Murphy’s abilities though?
Btw, next time you need to pass a bill of this nature I can put you in touch with the Chairman of Criminal Jurisprudence. I won’t ask TML to name me legislator of the year. If Jim thinks you owe him a favor for this have him call me.
I also thought such legislation would be easy, but actually it wasn’t close to being easy, I was at the state capital twice during hearings on the legislation (2015 and 2017) and the lobby that fights for the rights of registered sex offenders came out in force., I was surprised how organized this group was and still is. In 2015, we did not get out of committee because we (my role was cheering from the sidelines, so I say “we” loosely) were overwhelmed by the number of people who testified against the bill. The same thing happened in 2017, but Jim was able to get the bill into calendars after refuting some of the testimony heard at the committee hearing. It subsequently died in calendars, The bill was HB 387. Jim then attached HB 387 to HB 1111, a bill being carried by Senfronia Thompson. The topic of HB 1111 was much different than 387, I believe it dealt with registered sex offenders being able to drive through school zones (again the lobby group representing registered sex offenders is very organized) Jim successfully attached 387 to 1111, and I know Rep. Thompson opposed this. So having it attached to HB 1111 was no small feat. It’s all in the record.
This was my first time to be involved in legislation at the state level, I was told by many that it usually takes several sessions to get legislation passed. I was impressed that Jim was able to get this passed in the second session he took it to.
Jim Murphy is a conservative who does a great job representing us. On the two major issues that TML opposed, Jim voted consistently AGAINST their position, voting to support both tav caps and revenue limits (SB 1 / HB 32) and he voted to limit the annexation power of cities (SB 715 & SB 6). All of this can be easily confirmed online.