Good morning, 

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, June 8, 2023. 

– Brandon Waltens 

Lawyers Blast House’s Political Assassination of AG Ken Paxton

• Ken Paxton’s legal team says the Texas House’s impeachment of the Texas Attorney General amounts to little more than a “drive-by shooting on a holiday weekend to politically assassinate one of the leading conservative voices, not only in Texas, but also in the United States.”
   

• At a packed press conference in the Republican Party of Texas’ headquarters in Austin on Wednesday, high-profile Houston attorneys Tony Buzbee and Dan Cogdell previewed the upcoming Senate trial against Paxton, who was impeached last month by the Texas House. Both attorneys are part of his legal team. 
   

• “The impeachment articles that have been laid out by the House are baloney. Just so we’re clear, the allegations are untrue. They are false,” Buzbee asserted.
   

• Like Buzbee, Cogdell also did not mince words when it came to criticizing the House’s impeachment, calling it a “a sham and a mockery of a proceeding.” 
   

• “To say this case is not about politics has the credibility, the believability, and the sincerity of the fellow that’s trying to convince his wife that he goes to the strip joint for the food,” said Cogdell.
   

• Leading the prosecution against Paxton are two other prominent Houston attorneys, Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin. The Senate trial will require a two-thirds majority vote for conviction in order to remove Paxton from office.

Abbott Signs New Corporate Welfare Scheme into Law

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new corporate welfare scheme, masquerading as “economic incentives,” into law during a private signing ceremony on Wednesday. Sydnie Henry has the details. 
   
• House Bill 5, which author State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi) calls the “Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation Act,” would create a new statewide economic incentive program to replace the state’s controversial Chapter 313 program, which ended after lawmakers declined to renew it during the 2021 legislative session.
   
• Like Chapter 313, HB 5 allows businesses to apply for a 10-year abatement—or reduction—of school district property taxes, which the state pays instead. To receive an abatement, the business would have to show it plans to hire a certain number of employees earning above-average wages for its particular industry.
   
• Both the Republican Party of Texas and the Democrat Party of Texas oppose corporate handouts in their platforms.
   
• “If the governor truly wants to provide maximum relief and economic prosperity, he would do so for everyone, and not be in the business of picking winners over losers." –Jeramy Kitchen, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility 

Phelan Receives First Challenger in GOP Primary

• With campaign season kicking off, House Speaker Dade Phelan has earned his first challenger in the Republican primary.
   

• Shilo Platts, a petrochemical technical services account manager, and Jefferson County GOP Precinct Chair, is slated to officially launch his campaign this Saturday in Beaumont. 
   

• “Southeast Texans not only deserve to have a choice in their State Representative, something we haven’t had here in District 21 for years, but the voters deserve a true Texan who is not for sale, and will not be purchased by the woke, liberal special interest groups seeking to control Texas,” said Platts.
   

• First elected to the legislature in 2014, Phelan has gone unchallenged in his recent elections. 
   

• Recent polling, however, has shown that Phelan’s popularity has taken a dive during the most recent legislative session. A poll of Republican voters in Phelan’s legislative district commissioned by the Defend Texas Liberty PAC shows that 48 percent would vote for a conservative challenger to the speaker, with only 24 percent saying they would stick with Phelan.

Houston Teacher Charged with 6 Felonies for Sexually Abusing Students

• A now-former teacher in Houston Independent School District who is accused of “touching and looking at several girl students in their private parts” received an additional felony charge during a court appearance on Monday. 
   

• Erin Anderson reports Manuel Edgardo Ponce, 45, who taught at Sutton Elementary School, now faces six felony charges for sexually abusing several young students.
   

• The charges include three first-degree felonies for continuous sexual abuse of a child, each punishable by five to 99 years in prison.
   

• One victim told police that Ponce would “look down her pants almost every day in school” during 2019 and 2020, when she was in his second-grade class.
   

• His attorney said Monday that Ponce is “presumed innocent,” adding “there is a lot of trouble apparently with the DA’s case,” though she did not elaborate. Ponce is free on a $205,000 bond.
   

• He is one of dozens of Texas teachers accused of sex crimes involving students and other minors in recent months.

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