The news of Texas covered today includes:
Our Lone Star story of the day: Did the Legislative Budget Board set up legislative leaders to have an excuse to ignore Governor Abbott’s campaign pledge of using half of the projected surplus for serious, historic tax cuts? Sadly it looks as if that may have been the case. A bit of press coverage on Lt. Gov. Patrick’s press conference:
- Lt. Governor Unveils Broad 2023 Priorities, Constitutional Amendment Maneuver to Avoid Busting Spending Cap – by far the best coverage
- Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Previews Priorities Ahead of Legislature’s Return
- 4 things to know about Dan Patrick’s plans for the Texas Legislature
Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.
Yesterday I spoke at length explaining how CRT and it’s associated canon of thought, of which Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is a part, openly seeks to right past injustices, whether real or imagined, with planned and government enforced current and future injustice. I explained how our state colleges and universities, as institutions, are adopting the Marxist Critical Theory positions and advocating, even forcibly, for such with taxpayer money.
Critical Race Theory, CRT, is a pro-discrimination derivative of Marxist Theory and part of a subset called Critical Theory. It is inherently political thought and it, along with the other items in the related canon of ideas, surrounds us in our institutions.
Today, quite presciently and on-cue, political strategist Sherry Sylvester of the Texas Public Policy Foundation published this piece that is a perfect follow-up: What Would Gavin Newsom Do? It’s Time to Stop DEI on Campus.
I’m sadly not convinced we have enough legislators willing to act meaningful on this issue. Regents of our systems have done nothing to stop such. In fact, Regents have allowed all of this to go forward – all regents are Republican gubernatorial appointees!
Kelly Stovall talks about her family’s long association with the Texas Cowboys’ Christmas Ball.
And, other news of Texas.
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After speaking with our state representative recently, it was blatantly obvious the house is not going to relinquish any of the surplus to the taxpayers. His reasoning? I am not kidding when I say this either. His response is that the surplus was generated through sales tax, not property tax. Ergo, the taxpayers should not expect to receive any property tax relief since the surplus didn’t come from property taxes.
Additionally, I asked him about selecting Democrats as committee chairs and letting them dictate to the Republicans what gets an opportunity for a vote. He actually got (for a lack of a more colorful word) passionate and challenged me and say that none of the Republicans agenda never got rejected and everything the Republicans wanted was voted on. And, oh by the way, if the Republicans did remove the Democratic Chairs, then they’d all run to DC again, and nothing would get done (bad thing?). Furthermore, if the Republicans did this to the Democrats, then one day the roles would be switched.
I would like to say I was taken aback by the response, but I wasn’t, and figured he’s a Phelan follower. I don’t hold out much hope for the taxpayers this coming session.