Hill, Sturzl, Boone, DeLay, Finkelstein, Polinard, and MillerRep. Fred Hill, R-Richardson, urging his colleagues to finish off a property tax bill: "The time to kill a snake is when you've got the hoe in your hand." Frank Sturzl with the Texas Municipal League, on legislative efforts to limit property tax growth: "Clearly, the goal of this Legislature is to cut taxes, but somebody else's taxes. There's never a rollback of state budgetary actions." Dallas lawyer Mike Boone, quoted in the Houston Chronicle: "We're headed down the road in Texas where if the anti-tax forces prevail, it will be to the detriment of the long-term future of Texas. I'm afraid the leadership we have right now is taking us down that road." U.S. Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, quoted in The New York Times (he later apologized): "I believe the judiciary branch of our government has overstepped its authority on countless occasions, overturning and in some cases just ignoring the legitimate will of the people. Legislatures for too long have in effect washed our hands on controversial issues from abortion to religious expression to racial prejudice, leaving them to judges who we then excoriate for legislating from the bench. This era of constitutional cowardice must end." Republican political consultant Arthur Finkelstein, quoted in The New York Times on the occasion of his marriage to another man: "I believe that visitation rights, health care benefits and other human relationship contracts that are taken for granted by all married people should be available to partners." Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, telling the Associated Press where to find Democrats running for governor: "You have to go look under 'sacrificial lambs' in the Yellow Pages." Houston financier Charles Miller, quoted in the Houston Chronicle on complaints that a contested GOP gubernatorial primary will cost a lot: "Grow up. It's a big state. It's going to be expensive. If you're going to be a player, you can't ask for comfort."