An opinion-editorial by State Senators Craig Estes, Dan Patrick, and Tommy Williams; and State Representatives Charles "Doc" Anderson, Bill Callegari, Warren Chisum, Myra Crownover, Kelly Hancock, Linda Harper-Brown, Phil King, Lois Kolkhorst, Larry Taylor, and Beverly Woolley

In 2010, Governor Rick Perry, Comptroller Susan Combs, nine members of the Texas Senate, and 70 members of the Texas House of Representatives signed the Texas Conservative Coalition's "Pledge with Texans," promising to balance the state budget without raising taxes, secure our elections from fraud, push back against federal intrusion, encourage the free market, and protect our border.   

We succeeded in keeping our Pledge.  As of September 1, most of our agenda is now state law.  We balanced the budget without raising taxes and cut $1.6 billion from the state's general revenue spending compared to the previous budget cycle.  Significantly, we did not replace the federal stimulus funds which all government agencies were told in 2009 would be one-time appropriations.

However, the real budget battle was to resist attempts to increase spending even as revenue projections showed that tax receipts would fall short.  When the Legislature convened in January, there was tremendous pressure to raise new revenue in order to avoid having to make some of the tough budget decisions that were necessary. As the recent debate over the national debt ceiling underscores, conservatives need to hold steadfastly to their principles in order to reverse the unsustainable growth of government.

Conservatives in Texas held the line and voted for a balanced budget without tax increases. In turn, we will maintain our relatively low unemployment and can lead the nation out of the current economic crisis through our example of fiscal discipline and our small government footprint.

We kept our pledge to cut taxes by extending the small business franchise tax exemption that would otherwise have expired. In addition, we passed "loser pays" tort reforms that were signed into law by Governor Perry, which will protect both large and small businesses from frivolous lawsuits.  The impact of this lawsuit reform has the potential to be significant: Texas already has one of the strongest business climates in the nation and is home to 51 Fortune 500 companies; "loser pays" will make Texas an even more attractive place for businesses to call home.

We also enacted other measures to free up the economy, including legislation to put cable and satellite service providers on an equal regulatory framework; a bill to ensure that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services are not regulated by the state; and legislation to put construction contractors and subcontractors on a more even playing field.

Our belief in small, effective, constitutional government underpinned our pledge to resist federal intrusion in Texas. Conservatives took decisive action in a number of areas: we passed an interstate health care compact that will allow the state to take control of its health care system if Congress approves it; we passed legislation urging Congress to enact a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution; and we pushed back against over-zealous regulation by exempting incandescent light bulbs from federal regulation if they are manufactured and retained in Texas.

However, while the federal government has been exceeding its constitutional boundaries in a range of areas, it has been largely failing to meet one of its primary responsibilities: protecting our borders. Because of this failure, we pledged to our voters that we would take action to secure Texas' international border. Conservatives voted to devote more than $87 million to state-level border security efforts, including more than $50 million for capital equipment items such as border security vehicles and fiber optic scopes that will help law enforcement agents in our border counties.

Through our "Pledge with Texans," conservatives also passed landmark voter identification legislation into law that will require voters to present a government-issued photo-ID before being permitted to vote in Texas. This measure alone will go a long way toward securing our elections from fraud, but we also passed legislation to improve mail-in ballot security and to ensure that non-citizens and deceased voters are removed from the voter registration rolls.

The 82nd Legislature was quite successful for conservatives.  While our work is far from finished, transformative reforms like "loser pays" tort reform, requesting a health care compact, and voter ID reflect significant gains for our common-sense conservative proposals.

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Each of the authors signed the Texas Conservative Coalition "Pledge with Texans".  TCC is the conservative caucus of the Texas Legislature.  
Sen. Craig Estes (Senate District 30, Wichita Falls); Sen. Dan Patrick (Senate District 7, Houston); Sen. Tommy Williams (Senate District 4, The Woodlands); Rep. Charles "Doc" Anderson (House District 56, Waco); Rep. Bill Callegari (House District 132, Katy); Rep. Warren Chisum (House District 88, Pampa);  Rep. Myra Crownover (House District 64, Denton); Rep. Kelly Hancock (House District 91, Fort Worth);  Rep. Linda Harper-Brown (House District 105, Irving); Rep. Phil King (House District 61, Weatherford); Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (House District 13, Brenham); Rep. Larry Taylor (House District 24, Friendswood); and Rep. Beverly Woolley (House District 136, Houston)