Sunday, July 3, 2011

Texas court prevents disclosure of governor's travel vouchers

Rick Perry is the governor of Texas. He is the chief executive (a weak one thanks to the drafters of the Texas Constitution) of the state.

But, Gov. Perry likes to take out-of-state trips. When he travels out of the state he is accompanied by officers of the Texas Department of Public Safety. Some of these trips have something to do with governing the State of Texas while others are just junkets. More and more of Gov. Goodhair's trips are tied to his campaign for the Republican nomination for President.

But, whether a trip is necessary for the carrying out of his duties as chief executive or whether it's just an excuse to take a vacation, the taxpayers of Texas foot the bill. We foot the bill for travel. We foot the bill for security. And, during a time of austerity - when we are whacking billions of dollars from education - doesn't the public deserve to know where their hard earned dollars are going?

Two newspaper conglomerates thought we did and filed Open Records requests for travel vouchers for the governor's security detail.

Now I understand that some security is necessary -- but, for the most part, the security provided for the governor of Texas is just an exercise in ego-massaging. As important as Gov. Perry may think he is - most folks outside the state don't give a rat's ass who he is. But, in order to prove that he is a Very Important Person, the governor, and his wife, are always surrounded by a security detail. Think about that while your children sit in classrooms with 30 or more students for each teacher.

The Attorney General told the newspapers to take a hike because the information they requested was too sensitive and, if it fell into the wrong hands, harm could befall the Fair-haired one. The newspapers then took the matter to a judge who decided that the AG was wrong and that the information was subject to disclosure. An appeals court upheld that ruling.

Not satisfied with having to explain the expenses, the state begged the Texas Supreme Court to protect them from the public. The AG announced that releasing the details of past security details would have a detrimental effect on future freeloading travel by the governor and his family.

On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the information requested was exempt from disclosure on the theory that disclosing travel vouchers for security details on past junkets trips would expose the governor to ridicule harm.

Let's be honest about this. The governor's reluctance to release the information had nothing to do with his safety (or that of his family). Gov. Perry didn't want the information released because he didn't want the taxpayers of Texas to know just how much of our money he spent making himself feel important.

Gov. Perry's all for limited government and reduced government spending -- as long as it doesn't affect him. Gov. Perry wants to keep his travel expenses secret at the same time he's telling the taxpayers that we can't afford to continue to fund education.

You see, that's Gov. Perry's idea of limited government -- we'll limit the services the government provides to the citizens of Texas while I travel around the world on the taxpayers' dime.

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