Peggy Venable at the CTRA Meeting

On Tuesday, April 15, Peggy Venable spoke at the Central Texas Republican Assembly. Peggy is the State Director of Americans for Prosperity, an organization that works to lower taxes and spending in Texas.

One of the highlights of Peggy's talk was the fact that local governments have paid over $16 million to the Texas Association of Counties to lobby additional government spending, fight tax limitations, and fight against appraisal reform. The Texas Association of Counties is funded by the individual counties who collect their revenues from taxpayers. Thus, we have taxpayer funded lobbyists that are working to raise taxes and keep spending high in the name of "local control." Peggy Venable has won a lawsuit in Williamson County citing a statute that dissallows taxpayer funded lobbying.

Americans for Prosperity is hosting a national blogger conference in Austin on July 18-19 called the "Defending the American Dream Summit, the CyberCity on the Hill." Bloggers from around the country are invited to listen to a wide range of speakers and organize our ideas to affect change in politics. For more details on the convention, visit the website at http://www.afptx.org/. Some of the rumored speakers are Michael Reagan, Barry Goldwater Jr, and Michele Malkin. None of these are confirmed yet.