State Representative Angie Chen Button (R-Richardson) was first elected to the Texas House in 2008 as a Tea Party conservative, has strayed from her grassroots supporters and become a big government advocate.
Special interests and big donors give money to candidates and expect support for policies which benefit their industries. While it’s difficult to trace, there are resources where taxpayers can review who’s funding their representatives.
For example, according to the National Institute on Money in Politics, a non-partisan organization which tracks campaign contributions to federal, state and local candidates across the country, Button received over $179,000 from the real estate industry and over $140,000 from Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a pro-business tort reform lobby who seek to shape legislation in favor of big business. With Button, however, the largest contributions have come from the communications and computer industry, which has donated more than $200,000 of the $2.9 million in contributions she has received over the course of her political career.
When it comes to state spending, Button seems to have turned her back on small government principles and supports millions of dollars in corporate tax breaks for massive companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon.
In 2015, Button filed legislation to give sales tax exemptions to multi-user data centers. HB 2096, which failed to pass, is reported to have been filed to benefit a specific company which had already agreed to relocate to Button’s district. This type of retroactive tax benefit caused the conservative watchdog group Texans for Fiscal Responsibility to give her a career rating of “F” for failing to meet their conservative criteria.
Separately, the public relations firm, Ryan, LLC, a top site selection consultant based in Dallas, donated over $21,000 to Button with its CEO, Brint Ryan personally donating $15,365. At the time, Button chaired the House Select Committee on Economic Development Incentives which held six hearings to discuss the use of incentives as an economic development tool. Ryan, LLC, at the time was the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of California, who had recently banned the practice of paying “relocation consultants” the equivalent of a bounty for the successful landing of tax incentives. Texas has not changed the model by which these consultants can be paid and is considered one of the most generous in terms of granting incentives.
As one of the biggest fundraisers in the Texas House, Button has received a large share of special interest money. Through her fundraising and her votes, she has shown taxpayers her loyalties lie, not with them, but with the big businesses and special interests who fund her campaign and who get a great return on their political investments.
