Dear TTP Citizen Advocates,

The drama just keeps on coming in our Texas Legislature!  Here's a summary of this weeks' action.

The Senate has set rules for the impeachment trial of Ken Paxton.  In a vote of 25-3,  SR35 was adopted for the trial which will begin on Sept. 5th.  The SREC and multiple County GOP's have passed resolutions condemning the impeachment process.

The Senate passed SB26, it's latest revised, new and improved tax relief bill.  It's not a whole lot different than the other ones, but LG Patrick is touting it as "The biggest tax relief bill in Texas history".  Ok, if you say so, Lt. Dan!

The House is still adjourned Sine Die.  I have no idea if or when or how the House might be called back into session to take up the Senate's new and improved property tax relief bill.  If any of you know how that works, please share.

Governor Abbott has vetoed 76 bills, which he believes are good bills and should be brought back later in a special session, but he will not sign them until property tax relief is resolved.  His comment on most of the vetoes was:

"Senate Bill/House Bill No. XXX is important, it is simply not as important as cutting property taxes. At this time, the legislature must concentrate on delivering property tax cuts to Texans. This bill can be reconsidered at a future special session only after property tax relief is passed.”

The irony of all this bickering about the relief bills is that none of them offer significant or lasting relief.  They are sitting on a 32Billion dollar surplus and they are arguing about the method of returning about 12 Billion of it to the taxpayers.   The Texan did a good report on all the vetoed bills if you want to see the list.  Pathetic!

If you live in House District 33, you might be interested in what your Rep. Justin Holland thinks of you.  But actually, no matter where you live, most reps share his opinion.  Holland already has a challenger, TTP supporter from our Rockwall/Kaufman group, Dennis London.  It's up to us to prove Rep. Holland wrong, and show him he really can't win without us.  (see you at the primaries in 2024?)

The evil corruption of our culture and our children continues.  I can't even count high enough to tell you about the number of stories I've seen in the news about drag shows, pride events, sex perverts in schools, witchcraft courses in universities, and general perversion. Someone should really keep a tally of the number of news stories each day on these issues. (not me - I don't do math!)  We managed to convince the TX Lege to do the right thing on a number of protect children issues, but we have a long way to go still, and the laws that recently passed need to be enforced!  Parents and grandparents must be diligent!  Here's just one story from the Texas Scorecard.  Is this something you want your kids to see in their public schools?

Texans for Fiscal Responsibility released their 2023 Scorecard.  It's interesting reading.  Check it out here and see how YOUR lawmaker scored on the fiscal index.  And don't miss the cute little booklet they put together of interesting and amusing data and "awards".  Remember - this is only one of many scoring reports that will come out.  Read all of them, and get a pretty good picture of how your rep or senator did in this session.

If you missed our 88th Regular Session wrap up report a couple weeks ago, please check it out on our Website News. We report on wins and losses in each of our lege priority categories.

That's all for now, folks!  Our Citizen Advocate mission at the legislature will continue if the two chambers ever decide to do something worth paying attention to.  The current special session ends on Wednesday, and we assume the Governor will call another special immediately thereafter.  So stay tuned!

For Texas,

Fran Rhodes, President

PS:  If you've missed previous Certified True Texan workshops, we still have a few for this year.  CTT Weekend Workshops with 6 classes will take place on July 21 and 22 in Granbury.  We encourage our friends in Johnson, Hood, and Erath counties to take advantage of this workshop event close to you.  For friends in other parts of the State - it's worth the trip!

We will also be hosting Constitution Boot Camp at 6 different locations and dates in September.  For all the details, registration links, and schedules, visit our website CTT page.