Austen Furse Announces Candidacy for Senate District 17

HOUSTON – Following the resignation of Senator Kyle Janek, conservative businessman Austen Furse formally announced his candidacy for Texas Senate District 17. “Since Senator Janek announced he was going to resign, I have been crisscrossing the district speaking to grassroots leaders, elected officials and community activists. Their support and encouragement are the driving force behind my announcement.”

Furse laid out his platform for common sense conservative solutions for the problems real Texans face every day. “We must rein in runaway property taxes, protect our private property rights by restricting the use of eminent domain and institute common sense measures to fix the illegal immigration problem.”

Furse put forward his solution for skyrocketing government spending. “I have faith that taxpayers know what they want. I propose moving to a new model of government where the taxpayers tell government how much we are willing to spend, and then if government needs more than that, they must get approval from the voters”, Furse said.
“Government should have to go to the voters any time a new tax is created. Tax revenues that increase more than the rate of population growth plus inflation should be returned to the taxpayers who paid them. The only time it shouldn’t be returned is when the voters tell government to keep it.” Furse went on to say this sort of taxpayer protection is the only long term way to ensure tax increases do not continue to outpace the paychecks of working Texans.

Furse spoke of his leadership ability on the issue: “I helped pioneer the idea of a taxpayer protection policy in Houston. The grassroots support I cultivated demonstrates my ability to build broad support in order to bring about positive change.
“Not only do we need to rein in taxes to make sure we aren’t taxing hard-working people out of their homes, we need to protect property owners by restricting the use of eminent domain to take our land.” Furse pointed out recent examples in
Freeport and other sites around the state where property owners are battling government trying to unjustly take private land. “It’s not fair for government to come in and take your land and turn around and sell it to the highest bidder. As a lifelong Texan, I hold property rights dear. I pledge to strengthen eminent domain laws to prevent abuse.”

Furse also spoke about his commitment to ethics and personal responsibility: “The people have lost faith in government, and rightly so. I commit to campaigning with integrity and governing responsibly. I will rigorously follow every law – even the ones some folks dismiss as “technicalities.”

“Speaking of following the law, I believe we should require that all users of government services are doing just that. That’s why I propose that we should require state and local government agencies to inquire about a person’s citizenship status when they apply for public services. I think it is our right to know how much illegal immigrants cost us in services each year, and how many illegal immigrants live among us.”
Furse directed voters to his website: www.AustenFurse.com. “I encourage you to visit my website to learn more about me and where I stand on the issues, and to get involved in the campaign.”

Austen Furse grew up in Matagorda County, where he attended public schools. He was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as White House Director of Policy Planning. He served in this position until the end of the Bush Presidency when he returned to Texas.

Since then Furse has founded Texans For Tax Limits, which instituted the no-new-tax pledge among Texas legislators. Locally, he led an effort opposing a taxpayer-funded sports stadium. He was a co-founder of Let the People Vote, a grass-roots citizen’s effort that sought an election on the Main Street Light Rail line, and succeeded in passing a tax limitation measure for Houstonians, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Furse has been a board member for causes including Texas Right to Life and the Houston Property Rights Association. Furse worships at St. John the Divine and St. Anne’s Churches in Houston.

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