Carrollton lawmaker receives apology
Rep. Jim Jackson, R-Carrollton, who on Tuesday was pilloried by a GOP colleague during House debate of a bill to fix the new business tax, received an apology Wednesday.
Rep. Pat Haggerty, R-El Paso, told the entire chamber that he regrets "getting personal" in debate of Mr. Jackson's amendment that would stop Sprint from collecting a 1 percent surcharge and describing that on bills as the new Texas tax.
Mr. Haggerty had said Mr. Jackson, a long-time Dallas County commissioner, had been "sucking off the public teat for 30 years." The next day, Mr. Haggerty attributed his anger to suggestions that telecom companies are "bad people" for trying to pass along the tax's cost. "The bad people in this debate were us," he said.