The Texas Insider

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Happy Monday!

Written by: Jay Williamson

Statewide News Round-Up

Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, has agreed to pay $3.3 million in a settlement with four former aides who claimed he retaliated against them after they accused him of corruption and other crimes. Paxton also agreed to issue a statement saying he "accepts that plaintiffs acted in a manner that they thought was right and (he) apologizes for referring to them as rouge employees.

The payment for this settlement will have to come out of state funds and be approved by the Legislature. Representative Jeff Leach, chair of the House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee (R-Plano), said he was "troubled that hardworking taxpayers might be on the hook for the settlement between the Attorney General and former employees of his office." This will be something to watch as the House Committee on Appropriations and Senate Finance will have some serious questions for the Attorney General.

Saturday, Fischer posted on social media regarding his constituent's response to Ken Paxton's settlement. (Official post)

Wednesday, the Texas House Democratic Caucus met to discuss vouchers in Texas. Caucus Chair Trey Martinez Fischer (D-San Antonio) said, "It's a non-starter for this caucus." "We will lead with our values, and we will talk about our priorities." (More here)

The Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) reversed course recently regarding its stance on school vouchers. A few months ago, in their legislative priorities, the SBOE said it would call on the Texas Legislature to reject all attempts to divert public dollars away from public schools. That item has been struck from their priorities document, and there is no mention of vouchers or anything related. The decision to come out against vouchers was months ago before a new group of board members took their positions earlier this month. (New updated priorities)

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar released a statement Friday, designating Harris County as "defunding the police." The Comptroller's office received a request on December 14th, 2022, from Governor Greg Abbott's Criminal Justice division to investigate a complaint from Constable Ted Heap of Harris County Constable Office Precinct 5. The complaint is summarized below: "The Harris County 2023 fiscal year adopted budget reduced the resources available to Precinct 5 by $2,367,444 compared to the previous year's annualized budget." Hegar said his office reviewed the complaint, and "the funding shortfall is $2,367,444.86," therefore Harris County may not adopt an ad valorem tax rate exceeding the county's no-new-revenue tax rate until the earliest of the following:

• My office issues a written determination

• The county has resolved the funding reduction

• Or the funding reduction has been approved in an election.

Last session, the 87th Legislature passed SB 23, preventing local governments from defunding law enforcement unless approved by an election. Local Governments deemed guilty of "defunding" are unable to adopt property tax rates that exceed the county's no-new-revenue tax rate. (Full statement from the Comptroller)

Harris County Judge Hidalgo responded on Twitter, saying: "Comptroller Hegar & his allies seem to be struggling with basic accounting. I look forward to working with the County Attorney to fight this in court." She also included a report from her office on why the "defunding claim" is inaccurate. (Lina Hidalgo statement) (Report)

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is scrapping its $1.2 billion proposal for a state-of-the-art active shooter training facility, instead looking to receive $381.5 million to update its current campus in Waco with housing and renovated buildings.

Thursday during Senate Finance, McCraw confirmed that the larger project was off the table; instead, the new plan would include upgrades for dorms, a cafeteria, technology improvements for classrooms, and other facilities for troopers, sheriff's deputies, local police, and any other responders seeking training. Currently, officers have to stay at nearby hotels, and this would drastically lower lodging costs. (More here)

McCraw statement: "We're just looking in terms of across the board — what are we focused on? The problem with the phased approach that focuses on a reality-based training facility [is] … we still don't have any place to put people. You've got to have a place to sleep. You've got to have a place to eat."

The Governor's State of the State is this Thursday, February 16th, at 7:00 PM CT. The speech is hosted by the Greater San Marcos Partnership and San Marcos Area Chamber of Commerce. (Link for more details and streaming information)

The Texas Tribune released campaign finance data from the 2022 Gubernatorial election detailing how much Governor Abbott and Beto O'Rourke raised and spent. (Link to full report) Some of the highlights: 

• Abbott raised $78.5 million and spent $130.9 million

• O'Rourke raised $81.6 million and spent $81.1 million

• O'Rourke outraised Abbott by about $3 million by the end of 2022.

• 78% of Abbott's donors were instate compared to 61% for O'Rourke

• Abbott raised $78.5 million and spent $130.9 million

• O'Rourke raised $81.6 million and spent $81.1 million

• O'Rourke outraised Abbott by about $3 million by the end of 2022.

• 78% of Abbott's donors were instate compared to 61% for O'Rourke

• Abbott's largest donor gave $2.8 million, while O'Rourke's gave $2 million.

Legislative Report

Over 3,047 bills have been filed as of 2/13/23.

105 days till Sine Die (Last day of the legislative session)

25 days till bill filing deadline

State Budget 

Senate Finance will continue to meet this week on the budget, starting with Artice VI (Natural Resources) on Monday. Included under Article VI is the Department of Agriculture, Railroad Commission, Commission on Environmental Quality, and more. The Senate Finance Committee will divide into workgroups over the next couple of weeks to deep dive into specific budget articles.

We're still waiting for the House to begin scheduling hearings, but that should happen soon.

Economic Development

HB 2175 by Representative Sheryl Cole (D-Austin) would require employers to pay tipped employees the federal minimum wage without reducing the wage through a tip credit. 

Elections

HB 2192 by Representative Andrew Murr (R-) would raise the penalty for election fraud from a Class A misdemeanor, to a state jail felony. 

HJR 110 by Representative Carrie Isaac (R-New Braunfels) would propose a constitutional amendment to allow the Attorney General to have concurrent jurisdiction with each county or district attorney for prosecuting criminal offenses under the state's election laws. 

SB 823 by Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston) establishes a process for the Secretary of State (SOS) to suspend county elections administrators, at any time if an administrative election complaint is filed with the SOS and they have good cause to believe that a recurring pattern of problems with election administration exists in the county served by the administrator. 

Education

HB 2158 by Representative Trent Ashby (R-Lufkin) would exempt members in good standing of a volunteer fire department registered with the Texas A&M system from paying fees to higher education institutions for courses in fire science curriculum. 

Energy

SB 837 and SJR 43 by Senator Perry (R-Lubbock) would establish and propose a constitutional amendment for the "Water for Texas Fund." The fund will promote water infrastructure projects for rural political subdivisions and municipalities with populations below 150,000. Projects funded by this program may include acquiring water rights from another state, developing infrastructure to transport water from other state-produced water treatment plants, and more. These bills would create an advisory committee and board to manage the implementation and coordination of the program. 

Military

HB 2148 by Representative Ray Lopez (D-San Antonio) would require the Texas Veterans Commission to perform a study evaluating veteran suicides over the last five years. The study would include among other things, the total number of veterans whose death was caused by suicide, summary of the age, gender, and race of each veteran, a comprehensive list of the medications prescribed for each veteran and more. 

Social Media

HB 2155 by Representative Jared Patterson (R-Frisco) would make social media platforms liable if they create user-generated content through algorithms for users that are minors. Social media platforms would be liable for actual damages and $1,000 for each violation of this section. 

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