Texas Association of Business

(AUSTIN) — The Texas Association of Business (TAB) today released For the Record, the Association’s biennial lawmaker scorecard rating on how legislators voted on critical business issues. The scorecard used twelve votes to score state senators and eleven votes to score state representatives.

“Despite an altered partisan composition in the House and Senate, the 81^st Legislative Session was a true victory for the Texas business community,” said TAB President Bill Hammond. “In the midst of unprecedented economic turmoil, Texas made the tough decisions necessary to lower taxes for small businesses, to improve and innovate the way we educate our students, to stop increases in health insurance premiums, to shut the door on lawsuit abuse, and stop a $75 million dollar tax on Texas employers. This was a banner session for those employers who are helping to keep so many families afloat during these tough economic times.”

Legislators depend on For the Record to reflect their actions during the legislative session. Constituents rely on For the Record to know if their lawmakers are doing the job they were elected to do. And the business community counts on For the Record to assess which officeholders bring jobs to Texas, promote economic prosperity, and create a thriving workforce as part of their legislative priorities.

The For the Record scorecard is based on a 0-100 scale. Legislators who scored 80-89 in either the 2009 Session or their cumulative legislative career are recognized as “Fighters for Free Enterprise”. Those legislators scoring 90-100 in either the 2009 Session or their cumulative legislative career are recognized as “Champions for Free Enterprise”, TAB’s highest legislative distinction.

For the Record is available to the public and can be viewed online at www.txbiz.org.