Good morning, 

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, April 20, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

UPFRONT: With the Texas House and Senate feuding over what kind of meager property tax relief to give, I would like to propose a compromise: eliminate school property taxes.

There is plenty of money available, and no new taxes are required – just fiscal discipline. The folks at Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, the Huffines Liberty Foundation, and the Texas Public Policy Foundation have all shown how it is possible.

The cancer of property taxes is killing Texans, and everyone in the Legislature seems to be telling us to take two aspirin and check back in two years.

House Votes To Stop 'Patchwork' Of Local Ordinances

• Legislation that would roll back a “patchwork” of county and municipal ordinances in multiple areas of policy passed the Texas House this week. Darrell Frost explains what lawmakers are trying to do.
       
• The Texas Regulatory Consistency Act essentially repeals any local ordinance that conflicts with state law and prohibits any attempt to enact or enforce such an ordinance. The legislation, which passed the House by a vote of 92-55, allows those harmed by such ordinances to sue the governmental entity – though only for injunctive relief and the recovery of attorney fees but not damages.
       
• The legislation's author, State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), told his colleagues that businesses in Texas currently have to “navigate a Byzantine array of local regulations that twist and turn every time they cross a city limit sign.”
    
• For those who argued that the measure violates cities' "autonomy," Burrows noted cities "are a creation of the state and enshrined in the Texas Constitution" and therefore exist under state law and not independent of it. Cities and counties would still be able to enact ordinances regarding anything the state doesn’t regulate.

Lawmakers Block Sexually Explicit Books For Texas Schools

• Legislation to remove sexually explicit material from public school libraries received initial approval in the Texas House yesterday, marking the first Republican priority to pass the chamber since the session began. The measure passed with bipartisan support by a vote of 95-53.
       
• Authored by State Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), the legislation requires library material vendors to rate content as “sexually explicit” or “sexually relevant” if warranted, and it prohibits school libraries from holding, acquiring, or purchasing “sexually explicit” material. Schools will be required to obtain a parent’s written consent before allowing a child to check out a book marked as “sexually relevant.”
     
• Democrats offered token opposition, falsely claiming the measure was a "book ban." They also claimed the legislation was part of an effort to “lock up librarians” and “silence minority voices.”
       
• “This bill does one thing and one thing only—restricts explicit books from unaccompanied minors and Texas public schools,” said Patterson.
       
• Looks like the Groomer Caucus in the Texas House has 53 members...

Schools Propose $25 Billion In New Debt, Higher Taxes

• More than 100 Texas school districts have put a combined $25 billion in school bond debt on the May 6 ballot. As Erin Anderson reports, all of the debt would have to be repaid – with interest – by local property taxpayers.
     

• Some school officials claim their new bond debt won’t raise taxes because the school district doesn’t plan to increase its property tax rate right away. Yet as property values rise, property owners’ tax bills will increase even if the rate stays the same—which is a tax increase.
     

• Is your school district one of those pushing more debt? Find out...

‘Got-aways’ Increase Danger for Border Residents

• As the border crisis continues, with 84 percent of illegal aliens crossing into the U.S. outside the legal ports of entry, citizens living along the border are fed up with the dangerous conditions. Sydnie Henry has the details.

      
• “We have seen nothing but a constant and steadily increasing flow of groups of illegals cutting through our properties since this administration took office,” said Alison Anderson, a border resident. “We have groups of illegals loading out of our property regularly, and the amount of dangerous smuggling pursuits in our area has also skyrocketed.”  

Banning Red-Flag Laws

• Local, state, and federal government officials would be prohibited from enforcing "red-flag" laws in Texas under legislation considered this week in the Texas House Select Committee on Community Safety.
       

• Red-flag laws allow law enforcement, under a judge’s order, to confiscate firearms from anyone they believe is at risk of committing a crime. The laws, definitionally, deny citizens the right of due process involved in abridging their civil liberties.

     
• “There doesn’t have to be any evidence of you making any threats, and of course, you don’t even have to have committed a crime,” said Chris McNutt, president of Texas Gun Rights. 
     
• U.S. Navy Veteran Kimberly Moyers told lawmakers that an anonymous complaint was filed by someone jealous of Moyers' pregnancy. Without evidence, and without being given the opportunity to defend herself, Moyer said her life was turned upside down – and remains so to this day.
      
• Gun control advocates turned out against the legislation, saying government officials should have the ability to violate citizens' Second Amendment rights.

Why The House Leadership Is Confused On Transgender Grooming

• In the latest edition of his show, Luke Macias talks about the week's goings on at the Texas Capitol – and uses the "flip-flop" of State Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine) to explain how lawmakers have tied themselves up on the issue of protecting children from sexual grooming.
     
• Watch the Luke Macias Show on either the Texas Scorecard website or YouTube channel, or using the free Texas Scorecard apps on Apple TV and Roku devices.

Group Publishes 2023 School Board Candidate Evaluations

• With school board elections beginning in less than a week, iVoterGuide is providing voters with candidate evaluations. Soli Rice has the story.
      

• The site grades candidates using a political ideology scale based on their answers to a questionnaire provided by iVoterGuide, as well as documented political scorecards, contributions, and endorsements. iVoterGuide includes evaluations of nearly 300 candidates across more than 140 races in 58 Texas school districts.

      
• “Some of the candidates we have evaluated should be nowhere near children or have any influence on policy impacting students,” said Don Stroud,  iVoterGuide’s director of strategic operation. “Unfortunately, they are likely to be elected because they have the best ‘ballot name’—unless enough parents and taxpayers take the time to get informed and then go vote.”
      
• Stroud described school board elections as having a “low turnout of responsible citizens, but high turnout of those advocating agendas hostile to families.”
     

• Early voting in Texas’ local government elections runs from April 24 through May 2. Election Day is May 6. Not all school districts have elections this year, and some school districts have their elections in November.

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