Dear Editor:

I heard a shocking statistic a few weeks ago about how the Texas budget has changed over the last few years.

In January, lawmakers went to Austin with an extra $14 Billion of our money -- an historic surplus. Like most conservatives, I watched in amazement as the Legislature decided to keep the money instead of return it to its rightful owners -- the taxpayers.

But the most ghastly revelation was not that they kept the surplus. It was that the amount of the surplus -- $14 Billion - - was more than the entire state budget for 1985. The current budget tops $150 Billion. How many Texans who were working in 1985 have received a 900-percent raise since then?

That's the raise Austin has given themselves in the past 22 years at our expense. Even more startling is that we continue to allow ourselves to be fooled by the rhetoric they feed us about their socalled fiscal restraint, while under our noses they hike our taxes to support their spending spree, generally to benefit their favorite lobbyists and special interests.

Since 1998, while most of us were pinching pennies at home, our Representatives increased spending from $87 Billion to the current $150 Billion -- almost doubling in just 9 years!

Austin spending is out of control. Government waste is out of control. We need to let our Representatives know that we will not stand for legalized theft of our money and our trust, and remind them that they still work for the people.

Wade Gent, Forney, Texas