FRINGE GROUP LAUNCHES ANTI-CITY JIHAD
A radical fringe group known as “Americans for Prosperity” (AFP) has embarked on an odyssey it calls the Taxpayer Trust Tour. Actually, the “tour” is nothing more than an opportunity to attack and ridicule city officials who have had the audacity to oppose AFP’s positions on legislative initiatives.
AFP has vigorously pursued legislation that would reduce the current appraisal cap, enact restrictions on local government revenue, and otherwise do serious harm to tax equity and local taxpayers. City officials, working individually and through TML, have opposed these misguided efforts. In response, AFP has launched an all-out attack on the hard-working volunteers who contribute their time and effort to improving communities across the state.
In a January 24 Quorum Report article, an AFP spokesperson said, “It’s time for local government officials to start representing their constituents.” The implication, of course, is that elected city officials aren’t representing their constituents, but instead are feathering their own nests or representing some unknown entities that exist only in the fevered minds of AFP employees.
In the San Antonio Express-News on January 25, another AFP spokesperson said the purpose of the statewide tour is to “highlight betrayals of taxpayer trust.” Baloney. Each city official undoubtedly knows much more about public trust than a truckload of AFP mouthpieces.
AFP resorts to these ludicrous attacks for only one reason: like all misguided extremists who are unable to foist their ideas on others, they wish to silence their critics.