Today, everyone’s favorite double-dipping Texas politician, Rep. Joe Driver of Garland, announced his decision not to take another crack at helping himself to our taxpayer dollars. At a time when the Texas budget cannot even meet essential services, we salute Rep. Driver’s decision to not seek re-election as a selfless move to no longer subsidize his lavish lifestyle with public money.

Or is there something else going on? We know that Driver was under criminal investigation by the Travis County  District Attorney ‘s Office, which investigates public corruption. As Back to Basics has chronicled, Joe Driver billed his campaign for thousands in expenses: trips all over the country, luxury hotels, bar tabs and fancy restaurants. After getting reimbursed from the state, he pocketed the cash, a total of at least $17,431.55. Driver maintains that he didn’t know that he was doing anything wrong, but does the Travis County DA disagree? 

Joe Driver wouldn’t be the first politician under investigation to step down or agree not to run for re-election in attempt to get the authorities to take it easy on him.  But whether he’s looking out for himself, or looking to save the taxpayers a little money (since we’ll no longer be paying him to double dip taxpayer dollars for travel and meals his campaign already paid for), we hope Joe’s tale will be a lesson for politicians of both parties and at every level of office: keep your hands out of the taxpayer-funded cookie jar.  Politicians work hard and many of them make sacrifices to serve, we know that.  But holding elected office is a privilege the voters award our elected officials every two years. It shouldn’t be an all-you-can-eat coupon to the gravy train.

—The Back To Basics Team