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AUSTIN – Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, was named to the No. 2 spot in the House Democratic leadership on Tuesday, vowing to reverse the “harmful budget policies” of the Republican majority.

Turner, 40, a Grand Prairie public relations consultant, was unanimously elected as chairman of the Democratic House Caucus and will help shape Democratic policy in the Republican-led House.

“As a caucus, we will continue the fight for more funding for our public schools, increased access to affordable health care and ensuring that our elected officials play by the rules,” Turner declared.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram | Thursday, Jan. 24, 2013

… It can’t be emphasized enough that taxpayers learned they are footing Perry’s double-dipping in collecting a monthly retirement annuity as well as his annual salary of almost $133,000 only because he had to report those sources of income, along with amounts, on federal documents when he ran for president in 2011. …

Rep. Chris Turner, R-Grand Prairie, already has filed HB 413, which would bar elected officials from simultaneously collecting a state salary and a pension resulting from that service.

That would be preferable. But if the Legislature doesn’t outlaw the practice, the public is at least entitled to know who’s doing it, in case voters want to unelect any elected officials who are overindulging at the public trough. …

Texas voters finally got a real peek at the personal finances of their governor and lieutenant governor — after the two men decided to run for high federal office.

It was during his presidential campaign in 2011 that Gov. Rick Perry broke up a blind trust and revealed that he was double-dipping — collecting both his salary and a state pension. And Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had to expose the details of his vast wealth, estimated at around $200 million, when he was striving to become a U.S. senator.

Two Democratic lawmakers, Reps. Donna Howard of Austin and Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, are proposing legislation that would incorporate some of the elements of the federal requirements into the state’s disclosure law.

Perry didn’t have to tell the Texas Ethics Commission about his pension, but in December 2011 he was required to disclose it to the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C., as part of his run for president.

“That’s a great illustration of the fact that our disclosure reports have a lot of loopholes in them,” Turner said. “It’s obviously of interest to the public, but was not required to have been disclosed.” Turner has filed separate legislation that would ban double-dipping by elected officials.

By Beaumont Enterprise editorial staff | January 19, 2013

You can file this one under legislation that really shouldn’t have to be filed: State Rep. Chris Turner, a Grand Prairie Democrat, has introduced a bill that would prohibit newly elected state officials from collecting a pension from one public job and a salary from another at the same time.

The top example here is, ironically, the state’s top official. Gov. Rick Perry collects a pension of $92,000 per year at the same time he is being paid $133,000 per year for serving as governor.

Perry’s pension comes from his five years in the U.S. Air Force and 20 years as a state representative, ag commissioner and lieutenant governor.

Yet Perry never really “retired” in that last post, lieutenant governor. He just shifted to governor when George W. Bush became president.

Most Texans understand that a pension is collected after you quit working, not while you’re still putting in 40 hours. This bill would finally clarify that.

State Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, says he’s found the perfect way for elected officials to practice what they’re preaching about the need for fiscal restraint: ban “double-dipping” by politicians.

The lucrative perk was thrust into the spotlight a year ago when Gov. Rick Perry disclosed during his presidential campaign that he was collecting both his $150,000-a-year salary and an annual pension of more than $90,000. State ethics forms don’t require the disclosure of pension income, but federal forms do, so the governor had to reveal it.