Great to see Texas Republicans Waking Up to Perry's Spinning !

Republicans give the governor pennies as their thoughts
Web Posted: 06/16/2006 12:00 AM CDT

Gary Scharrer
Express-News Austin bureau

AUSTIN — Some longtime Texas Republicans are expressing displeasure with Gov. Rick Perry by literally giving him their 2 cents' worth in campaign contributions.
More than a dozen have opened their checkbooks to make contributions of less than a nickel and in some cases, only a penny.
They want their small donations to make a big statement.
"The whole country is waking up. I really think there's going to be a revolution because people are sick and tired," Mary Bean of Rosenberg said. "People are sick and tired of all this bickering and not getting a damn thing done."
Perry did push a school funding reform bill through the Legislature last month that kept the Texas Supreme Court from closing public schools after June 1. But some of Perry's fellow Republicans are miffed he supported a new business tax to make it happen.
"I was really mad that he started this new business tax," Bean said after sending a contribution check for 1 cent.
A lifelong Republican, Bean said she'll vote for maverick independent Kinky Friedman.
Perry's latest campaign contribution report filed this week listed 15 Houston-area donors who gave 5 cents or less. Some said they got the idea from radio talk show host Edd Hendee, who is part of KSEV's lineup. The station owner is Dan Patrick, who also has fired up listeners against the governor's school and tax reform plan. Patrick won the GOP nomination this spring for a Houston-area state Senate seat.
Perry's campaign put the best possible spin on the unusual political contributions.
"The governor appreciates every contribution — large and small," Perry spokesman Robert Black said, declining further comment.
The miniscule protest contributions will end up costing the Perry campaign as those checks have automatically landed the contributors on a mailing list for campaign literature they're now receiving.Most Texas businesses will face new taxes on gross receipts with deductions for either the cost of goods purchased for resale or for payroll expenses, including employee benefits.
"This business tax is an abomination," said Claire Ronneburger of Houston. "It's very wrong to tax businesses on their gross numbers when they may not make a profit at all. It's going to put people out of business."
She also sent Perry 1 cent. She said she might skip voting in the gubernatorial race. Voting for Friedman was not an option for her.
"That's just too far in some direction — I'm not sure what direction," she said.
Perry and his supporters argue the new business tax is not a net tax increase because it will help pay for $15.7 billion worth of cuts in school property taxes over the next three years.
But that message didn't mollify retiree Sam Haskett of Simonton, who reacted in an extreme way when the governor spoke to him via a TV commercial that touted new law.
"I threw a shoe at my TV, and my wife got mad at me," he said. "But it was an old TV, and it's terrible what he's doing."
Haskett, also a 1-cent contributor, described himself as a conservative and complained, "the Republican Party is not conservative anymore."
Perry has an outside chance of regaining Haskett's support if "the governor makes some amends of some sort."
Lisa Stapp of Spring said those trying to make a statement with tiny campaign contributions can be described either as "a den of malcontents" or "people who care about the state of the state."
"We're not idiots. We can see the games that they are playing," she said.
The new tax on businesses will reach into people's pockets, Stapp said. "Businesses don't get their money from UFO's that I know of."
The GOP-leaning voter said she has no idea who to support in November: "At this point, I'm ready to vote for myself."
Rhonda Arcemont, of Hockley, said she wrote letters and made phone calls in a futile effort to keep the governor from signing the new tax bill into law.
"What my 2 cents is trying to say to Gov. Rick Perry is to vote "No" on the business tax. It's a bad thing for Texas," she said. "I felt that my hands were tied so this was a last-ditch effort" to get attention.
Another Friedman-leaning supporter, Arcemont said she still would vote for Republicans "except for Perry."

gscharrer@express-news.net
source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA061606.01A.small_money.1a28539.html