| Empower Texas -- a staunchly conservative group run by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility -- has released their bi-annual Fiscal Responsiblity Index. From the group's website, they describe the purpose and practice of their ratings: The Fiscal Responsibility Index is a measurement of how lawmakers perform on size and role of government issues. We use exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues. We look for clean votes that go to governing philosophy. In the Texas House, there are dozens of additional votes that might have been used in the measure, but without substantially affecting the ratings or the rankings. Lawmakers and their offices knew in advance of TFR’s position on the issues rated. Lawmakers also received extra weighting (positive or negative) on their rating for sponsoring targeted legislation.
Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac, who represents House District 138 in northwest Houston, did not fair well in the group's ratings. Rep. Bohac was one of only nine House members in the entire state to not receive a passing grade from the group. Here was their remarks about how Rep. Bohac is not a fiscal conservative: Failing Republicans? Given the emphasis of the rating on limited government and low taxes, the most commonly asked question is, "Which Republicans rated below 70 percent?" Only nine had that distinction in the Texas House. They are: Jim Jackson (R-Carrollton), Will Hartnett (R-Dallas), Todd Smith (R-Bedford), Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston), Tommy Merritt (R-Longview), Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth), Brian McCall (R-Plano), Susan King (R-Abilene) and Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie).
You can click here and browse the index of legislation that Empower Texas said Rep. Bohac failed to work on during the 81st Regular Session. |
