Texas Assoc. of Counties spokesperson attacks Governor Perry's appraisal reform efforts

After Tuesday's elections, it didn't take long for proponents of state interference in local government to misrepresent opponents' views when it comes to the local property tax appraisal system that Texas Governor Rick Perry hopes to rewrite from Austin.

Tom Pauken, chairman of Governor Rick Perry's committee on so-called property appraisal reform, in a Dallas Blog column, casts those with differing views as being against giving local voters a meaningful say in property tax policy. In truth, it's activists like Tom Pauken who are trying to force state government solutions on local government.

Local voters already have all the power they need to elect representatives who will be responsive to voters' wishes. Tuesday's huge reversal in political party control in Dallas County illustrates just how much power voters can wield when they decide they want change. Instead, Mr Pauken tries to impose change on how local communities govern themselves, not by putting changes to local charters before local voters, but through the machinations of an unelected commission appointed by an unpopular Governor whom a large majority of Texans rejected at the ballot box Tuesday.

Incredibly, Mr Pauken ignores the lessons of November 7 and tries to pretend that local voters need Governor Perry and Austin legislators to protect them from their own decisions at the ballot box in electing community leaders, friends and neighbors, to represent their interests on city councils and school boards. The display of local voter power on November 7 demolished Mr Pauken's premise that local citizens need help from outsiders in Austin. Let local issues be decided locally, Mr Pauken. Let Austin get its own house in order before it tries to impose more state solutions for local problems.