Pitts, Gallego, Shapiro, King, Hardcastle, Hartnett, Walt, Hartnett, McClendon, Haggerty, Ellis, Adams, Hutchison, and McCallHouse Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts, R-Waxahachie, in a Houston Chronicle story on Gov. Rick Perry's concern that the increase in state spending this year will set a record: "It's kind of late... the first time I heard that was last week." Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, after House Speaker Tom Craddick named all-GOP conference committees on taxes and school finance: "In terms of politics, he made it very clear it's a Republican tax bill." Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, shutting down a public hearing and telling members of the conference committee on public education that deliberations would continue backstage: "Let's adjourn, and get to work!" Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story on his committee holding their end-of-session dinner at the home of a lobbyist and paid for by companies the committee regulates: "It's just the custom around here." Rep. Rick Hardcastle, R-Vernon, telling The Dallas Morning News that "the ag boys" were paying for the end-of-session steak dinner for members of his Agriculture and Livestock Committee: "We are the agriculture committee, and they are the agriculture lobby, so of course they want to take care of us... If I were paying for it, we'd be eating bologna sandwiches in my office." Rep. Will Hartnett, quoted in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after the House voted to raise judge's salaries and, because they're linked, legislator pensions: "We all work very hard, and we're underpaid. We're all losing money that we could earn in our own professions, and I think it's very appropriate. We work extremely hard for basically food-stamp pay." Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, on whether her boss, a former legislator, favors the bill: "Retirement is not a though in the governor's mind right now. This is not something the governor sought, asked for, or urged. If it had been a priority of the governor's, you would have heard him talking about it." Hartnett again, this time during a floor debate on whether to restrict certain late-term abortions: "The bottom line is we're talking about murdering a perfectly viable functioning person. I don't think the risk of damage to a vital organ [of the mother] justifies reaching that level." Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, addressing the members around the front microphone during that debate: "Do you know how many gentlemen up there have given birth?" Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, quoted in the San Antonio Express-News on the ineffectiveness of the state's DWI treatment programs: "All we do is drag them in once a month, take their $60, make them pee in a cup and send them home. And some of them don't even show up and nobody goes out to find them." Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, in a statement following threats he received after putting a temporary hold on a constitutional amendment that mirrors an existing state law that outlaws gay marriage: "While everyone who favors this is not a bigot, there clearly are those supporters who are." Cathie Adams, head of the Texas Eagle Forum, giving the Austin American-Statesman her view on Ellis' block: "It's a last-gasp, desperate attempt to keep the voters of Texas from expressing their will on this issue. I don't think it's a controversial issue." U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, quoted by the Associated Press on her efforts to change a Washington, D.C., law that prevents residents from keeping fully assembled handguns in their homes: "I have always had a handgun in the drawer next to my bed, and I would certainly again have one if it were legal in D.C." Rep. Brian McCall, R-Plano, talking to The Dallas Morning News about legislation dying because of deadlines: "This process was meant to be difficult, and I have no problem with that. Except on my bills."