Quotes of the Week

Hupp, Craddick, Strayhorn, Perry, Lavigne, Casteel, Hochberg, Craddick, Goodson, Buser, and ShumakeSuzanna Gratia Hupp, R-Lampasas, telling other lawmakers she'll remember them when her term is up at the end of the year: "When I'm cleaning my horses' stalls, I'll be thinking of you." House Speaker Tom Craddick, adjourning sine die: "It is the chair's hope that we do not see you in session again for the rest of the year." Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, saying the new school tax package doesn't balance: "Rick Perry's so-called property tax cuts are going to go poof." Gov. Rick Perry, on criticism from his gubernatorial rivals: "When you talk about leadership, you don't just sit around on the sidelines and criticize. You come up with a plan, you lay that plan out and you work diligently to see that plan pass. You don't just sit around and complain and gripe and bellyache without laying a plan out of your own." Democratic consultant Mike Lavigne, on the tax plan's effect on Strayhorn, quoted by the Associated Press: "Strayhorn was definitely banking on nothing passing the Legislature and was hoping to run on a train wreck. She's in a tough spot." Rep. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels, telling the San Antonio Express-News that the new school finance package doesn't balance over time: "We are just so lied to. We're being told, 'I'm going to fill your left pocket' and while you're sitting there asleep, they're going to take it out of your right pocket." Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, on the special session: "We have not changed anything in that regard except to take the promise of a long-term funding source and dedicate it to tax relief in a way that prevents it from being used for schools." House Speaker Tom Craddick, telling the Midland Reporter-Telegram he thinks the courts will approve of what lawmakers did in special session and let the state out of the school finance lawsuit: "If it doesn't pass, we need a new attorney general because he told us this would work." Beaumont Mayor Guy Goodson, talking in the San Antonio Express-News about gasoline-boom-fueled construction there: "People in Southeast Texas want these plants. They want these expansions. This is not the Silicon Valley. I won't be able to get Microsoft to move here. We need to work with what we've got, and we've got refineries." Steve Buser, CEO of the Partnership of Southeast Texas, in that same Express-News story: "If you can walk and chew gum at the same time, you can get a job at $12 to $15 an hour in Southeast Texas." Max Shumake, part of a family that owns farmland in Red River County that would be flooded by the proposed Marvin Nichols reservoir, in the Houston Chronicle: "I don't know why I should lose my heritage so Dallas can have St. Augustine lawns."