The Texas Minute
https://email.empowertexans.com/t/ViewEmail/d/C06A69CABC0B9B8E2540EF23F30FEDED/DC830EE63F8C77AA9A8E73400EDACAB4Good morning!
Only 18 days remain for the Republican-dominated House to deliver on key reforms like spending limits, property tax relief, and a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying.
And, yes, the Alamo is again under siege.
Here is today's Texas Minute. – Michael Quinn Sullivan
• “I hate America and everything it stands for - vote for me!†-
Every Democrat currently running for President• Despite progressive and liberal legislators threatening to impose an income tax on Texans should they ever take the majority, legislation scheduled for a vote on Thursday in the Texas House could make it a taller task for them to achieve going forward.
As Brandon Waltens reports, House Joint Resolution 38 by State Rep. Jeff Leach (R–Plano) would amend the state’s constitution to strength the ban a state income tax.
• As a constitutional amendment, passage requires two-thirds approval from both the House and Senate. Democrats must either support the constitutional amendment, or be seen as publicly supporting an income tax on Texans going forward.
• No legislative initiative is more important to ensuring long-term property tax relief than State Sen. Kelly Hancock’s Senate Bill 1891 to limit the growth of government. It passed the Texas Senate a month ago today, but has been languishing in the House ever since.
• Every member of the Texas House – including Garnet Coleman – needs to hear from taxpayers demanding that SB 1891 get a vote on the floor of the Texas House. Call the Texas Capitol at (512) 463-0524.
• A very close second is a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying by governmental entities. As Brandon Waltens reports, the only legislative vehicle available for accomplishing this priority for the Republican Party of Texas is SB 29 by State Sen. Bob Hall (R–Edgewood). (While the House leadership made a show of passing a version out of committee in late March, it can now be considered dead thanks to the policy maneuvering of House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s leadership team.)
• Republican House members unanimously supported Bonnen’s rise to the speakership on the premise he would let them advance the priorities of their party. In the 18 days that remain, Republican lawmakers will decide if they will (A) look complicit, (B) look like fools, or (C) deliver big for Texans.
• Everyone is really hoping for “C.â€
• Leftists seeking to rewrite the history of the Alamo are trying again to water down the history of the 1836 battle. The Texas Historical Commission will meet this Friday to entertain a proposal which the CEO of the Alamo Trust calls disrespectful to the memory of the men who gave their lives for the cause of liberty in the Lone State State. The commission will either impose a questionable history on the Alamo site, or keep the 1836 battle front and center.
• State Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R–Odessa) says a controversial amendment to his human trafficking bill should be removed by the Senate. Matt Stringer reports Landgraf – as the bill’s author – accepted an amendment by State Rep. Terry Canales (D–Edinburg) granting Medicaid benefits to children illegally trafficked across the border, but then later joined other Republicans in registering opposition to it in the House Journal. He and his colleagues initially offered varying justifications for taking the amendment, but now wants the Senate to fix it.
• Landgraf’s original legislation is critically important in addressing the humanitarian crisis at the border. It’s shameful that the Democrats hijacked it.
• Think a single vote doesn’t matter? In Saturday’s election for the Williamson County Municipal Utility District No. 19B, Jacob Asmussen notes only one vote was cast – thereby creating a new property tax and $255 million of debt.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.â€
Today in History
On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first Mother’s Day observance.
Mother’s Day 2019 is this Sunday, May 12. You have been warned.
Quote-Unquote
“The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.â€
– Ronald Reagan
