The Texas Report 6/16

What’s Happening:

• Governor Abbott begins busing migrants to Los Angeles (More here)

• Governor Abbott has started to veto large numbers of bills in the absence of a House-Senate compromise on property taxes

• Background on the impeachment allegations against Ken Paxton (More here)

• Tornadoes strike Perryton leaving three dead (More here)

• Texas smashes total jobs record for 20 Months in a row, leads nation in job growth. (More here)

Update on property taxes, information on the allegations against impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton, and significant storms hitting across the country. Next week will be doing a full coverage oofn all the bills signed by the Governor.

Governor Abbott Announces First Bus Of Migrants Arrived In Los Angeles

Wednesday, Governor Abbott announced the arrival of the first group of migrants bused to Los Angeles, California, from Texas.

Forty-two migrants were dropped off in downtown Los Angeles after a nearly 24-hour bus ride from Texas. In his press release, Governor Abbott said, "Texas' small border towns remain overwhelmed and overrun by the thousands of people illegally crossing into Texas from Mexico because of President Biden's refusal to secure the border."

He added that "Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status. Our border communities are on the frontlines of President Biden's border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border."

In April 2022, the Governor directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to charter buses to transport migrants from Texas to Washington, DC. Abbott later added New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, and now Los Angeles. Since the beginning of the migrant busing strategy, more than 21,600 have been transported across the country.

The mayor of Los Angeles decried the move as a "despicable stunt," as some advocates reported the group was not offered food during the 23-hour trip. Mayor Karen Bass added that after taking office last year, she directed city agencies to plan for possible scenarios where LA "was on the receiving end of a despicable stunt that Republican governors have grown so fond of."

The travelers were from all over the world, including Venezuela, Guatemala, Haiti, and China.

Yesterday, Governor Abbott doubled down on the busing strategy and said on social media, "Texas border towns are overwhelmed & overrun because of Biden's open border policies. Texas buses migrants to self-declared sanctuary cities like LA to provide relief to our border communities. We will continue this effort until Biden secures the border." (More here)

Governor Abbott begins vetoing legislation to try and force an agreement between the House & Senate on property tax relief.

Governor Abbott has threatened to veto a signficant amount of bills unless the House-Senate compromise on property taxes.

He has been following through with this promise and recently vetoed three bills by Senator Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston), the Senate's leader on property taxes. In his reasoning for the vetoes, Abbott said other issues are off the table until the House and Senate come to an agreement.

The last day for the Governor to take action on legislation is this Sunday, and if a bill needs to be signed or vetoed, then it becomes law without his signature.

"This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed," Abbott wrote in his Thursday veto proclamation for three bills, including Senate Bill 1998, an uncontroversial piece of legislation that would have made changes to tax rate calculation forms for property taxes.

Abbott included the same message — “this bill can wait” — in his seven other vetoes since Tuesday.

These vetoes further proved Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who said in a press conference, "This is targeted vetoing of bills that have nothing to do with the issue at hand except Paul Bettencourt is the author of those bills. It's not a very good image to veto bills for no reason other than he didn't get the property tax bill he wants."

Abbott and Patrick are in the midst of their most public conflict since the two politicians began leading the state, and Patrick has routinely called the Governor out via social media.

At this point, it doesn't look like we are any closer to a compromise, and it's hard to see a solution by the end of the current special session. Both the Speaker and Lt. Governor have been spending campaign funds to message Republican voters across the state to build support for their property tax plans.

Abbott has until Sunday to decide on the legislation sent to him, so we will likely see several more vetoes over the next couple of days.

Here's why this matters:

• The Governor is vetoing legislation to try and force a compromise between the House & Senate on property tax reform.

• The House is currently adjourned and can't take any more action while the Senate is still in session, but it seems willing to pass any bill that doesn't include a homestead exemption.

• $17.6 billion hangs in the balance for property tax relief.

• As things currently stand, the Governor & Speaker are allied against the Lt. Governor.

More on the allegations by the 4 whistleblowers behind the impeachment against Ken Paxton (More at the Texas Tribune)

The articles below highlight Paxton's former top deputies, who are at the center of many of the impeachment allegations against him and provide detailed context on the allegations.

Some of the major allegations include:

• Releasing law enforcement documents to benefit Nate Paul, a friend, donor, and personal associate of Ken Paxton, to subvert an FBI and Texas Department of Public Safety investigation.

• Hiring an outside lawyer at the behest of Paul who would go on to issue thirty-nine subpoenas for financial institutions that had done business with Paul, law enforcement personnel involved in a 2019 search of Paul's home and businesses, and for others involved in a separate unrelated legal fight between Paul and a charity. Many of the attorney's involved in the whistleblower lawsuit against Paxton had routinely expressed hiring the outside lawyer was a terrible idea.

• Paxton issued a legal opinion on foreclosure sales with a deadline that "completely thwarted" the established process for issuing legal opinions on public matters, said Donnelly, one of the House committee's investigators. Lawyers for Paul used the opinion to halt a foreclosure sale on several Paul-controlled properties the following Tuesday and later that month.

The Texas Tribune has done a good job illustrating and providing context around the major allegations.

Tornado hits Perryton leaving three dead.

Across the United States, more than 50 million people were under a severe weather threat one day after storms cut a path across Texas and Florida.

Three people died in Perryton when a tornado hit the town Thursday. The storm sent approximately 100 people to the hospital with injuries ranging from head wounds to abrasions.

The storm that swept through Perryton damaged homes and businesses in the town of some 8,000 residents, including the local fire department and EMS, as well as multiple mobile homes, Fire Chief Paul Dutcher said, noting many of the department's trucks were damaged.

"A tornado formed, and it just dropped on us. It came out of nowhere. There were no sirens, no time to get to a shelter," Perryton resident Jamie James said, telling CNN she had to ride out the storm in her truck.

"There was a time I thought I was going to die," she said. "Everything went crazy. Dumpsters were flying, hailstones hitting the car." (More here)

Due to the storm, more than 220,000 homes and businesses across Texas were in the dark, and 130,000 were without power in Louisiana.

Governor Abbott released a statement directing the Texas Division of Emergency Management to deploy state emergency resources to meet the needs in Perryton. He added, "I encourage all Texans to heed the guidance of state and local officials and to take all necessary precautions to protect yourselves and your loved ones.”

At the Governor’s direction, TDEM has deployed the following state resources to support tornado response operations:

• Texas Department of Transportation: Road crews to support traffic control and monitor road conditions

• Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (Texas A&M Public Works Response Team): Personnel and equipment to help restore water, wastewater and other utilities

• Texas A&M Forest Service: Saw Crews and Incident Management Teams

• Texas Department of State Health Services: Emergency Medical Task Force ambulance buses, ambulance strike teams

• Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (Texas A&M Task Force 1 and Texas Task Force 2): Urban Search and Rescue teams

• Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Game Wardens

• Texas Commission on Environmental Quality: Crews to monitor and respond to air, water and wastewater needs

• Texas Department of Public Safety: Texas Highway Patrol

Once it is safe to do so, Texans are encouraged to self-report damage assessment surveys using the Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT): damage.tdem.texas.gov. The survey can be filled out in English and Spanish.

Texas leads nation in jobs growth, with a total jobs record of 20 months in a row.

May employment data released by the Texas Workforce Commission and Bureau of Labor Statistics shows Texas setting record highs for job growth:

• Texas reached a new high for total jobs at 13,918,700 as employers added 51,000 nonfarm jobs over the month.

• Texas reached a new high for Texans working, including employed and self-employed, at 14,393,000.

• Texas reaches a new high with the largest labor force ever in the state's history at 15,009,300.

• Texas again leads the nation for job creation over the last 12 months, adding 529,800 jobs and growing at a 4.0% annual rate, well above the annual growth rate for the nation of 2.7%.

In his statement, Governor Abbott celebrated the report and said 2.1 million jobs had been added under his leadership. He also said, "the Texas labor force now surpasses 15 million people and is larger than the population in 46 states. We truly are building an even stronger Texas of tomorrow."