House Republican broke pledge to sit out school finance vote

[tibbir]

A House Republican who told Rep. Dawnna Dukes before she left for France that he would not vote on a major piece of legislation changed his mind and cast the deciding vote anyway.

Dukes, D-Austin, missed the tax vote Wednesday because she was in France. Before she left, she made an agreement with Rep. Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, that Pitts would register "present not voting." Since Dukes would have voted "no" and Pitts would have voted "yes" if both had been present, a decision by Pitts not to vote would have had the same effect - the two members would have canceled each other out.

But Pitts said he changed his mind after talking to his constituents over the weekend. He went ahead and voted yes, and the tax bill passed 73-72.

It still must pass the House one more time before it is sent to the Senate. The bill cuts billions of dollars in school property taxes but balances out those cuts by raising other taxes, primarily consumption taxes such as the sales tax and the cigarette tax.



<www.statesman.com/news/content/shared/tx/legislature/st... >



Note: House rules allow "pairing and there is a copy of the written documentation in the article. Repukes will do anything no matter how unethical or illegal to get their way.

[sonias]

1. Pitts is a backstabbing repuke

He obviously is not a man of his word. Dawnna should never have trusted him though.

Sonia

[Lord_StarFyre]

2. Has a Republican EVER kept his word?

Seriously...

Dukes was a MORON for trusting ANY Republican...

RULE #1 - Republicans are Liars.

RULE #2 - You can't spell Republican without L, I, A, or R

RULE #3 - If there is any doubt, refer to RULE #1

[tibbir]

4. You're right about that.

She trusted him because she had a written agreement and they even work together on the budget committee or something. DUMB. Those assholes can't be trusted under any circumstances.

[crispini]

3. You can't trust these people.

Dukes should have known that.

[merci_me]

5. Well, DUH!!!

Why is Dukes in France? We've known for a long time that a special session was eminent.

Mary

[NoPasaran]

6. Apparently it was a family trip

Given that it's about a million degrees in Austin, I wouldn't mind being in France myself.

[merci_me]

7. She knew the division

Lots of us have to reschedule because of business commitments. Our family has missed summer vacations a number of times, because the company had a conference, people coming in for company business, new software that needs some babysitting, a well that was a priority, until the first thing you know it was the end of August and the kids had to go back to school. We ended up buying a motorhome that was ready to go, whenever, cause we couldn't make reservations.

At least she has an advantage over other legislators who have to pick up and leave their family and make out of town living arrangements at the governor's whim. She had to know, in a legislative year in particular and with school funding needing to be in place for August, that this summer was not a good time to "make plans".

And I say that not just because of the yahoo who lied, but because a number of our own party, have walked. And was that in writing and is there any sort of legal ramifications? I'm sorry, but I'm pissed and getting ready to go to Cy-Fair Dems and hear Chris Bell talk about ethics in government. Damn friggin' REPUKES!!!

It's time for elected officials to honor commitments!!!

Mary

[sonias]

8. One more small point in her defense

If Pitts had sat out the vote like he promised the vote would have been 72-72 and crack whore Craddick would have broken the tie anyway. That's essentially what he's done many, many times. The only point here is that Pitts broke a contract, a promise and the educational future of millions of Texas children. That's who needs to be held accountable.

Sonia