Good morning, 

With the Lone Star State facing a severe economic downturn, today’s question asks how policymakers at the state and local level should deal with the budgetary consequences. I’ll share the results on Monday.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, April 2, 2020
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• As our state and nation remain locked down, local business owners shared with Texas Scorecard’s Robert Montoya their struggles. They also offered some ideas on how citizens can support local businesses.
      
• Most important: don’t assume the businesses you frequent are actually closed. Many remain open even if they cannot have in-person customers.
       
• Over at Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz writes that it is time for state and local governments to feel the pain and consequences of the disproportionate shutdown of America. “So far, all the damage to our liberty and economy is being pushed by state and local governments, not the feds.”
      
• State District Judge Jill Willis ruled against a McKinney resident’s legal challenge to the mayor’s “stay-at-home” order imposed in response to the coronavirus outbreak. But, Erin Anderson reports, the ruling came because the city council passed an ordinance that replaced the mayor’s order.
   
• Activist and small business owner Derek Baker had challenged the mayor’s order because it conflicted with countywide directives issued by Collin County Judge Chris Hill. After the ruling, Baker said McKinney Mayor George Fuller has agreed to work with him in ensuring future orders are less restrictive and put more people back to work.
       
• Derek Baker’s action is a good reminder that success doesn’t always hinge on winning... but it always requires fighting.
    
• A coalition of more than a dozen policy and grassroots leaders are urging the Texas Department of Family and Public Services to protect the rights of parents and children during the coronavirus pandemic. Their open letter contains nine specific recommendations for the agency to follow.
   
• “It is during times of uncertainty and crisis when children most need the love and security that can only be provided by family.” – coalition letter
      
• The latest edition of Texas Scorecard Radio is coming out this morning! This week, your affable host Tony McDonald talks with Rob Henneke of the Texas Public Policy Foundation about the nonsensical coronavirus orders from the City of Austin and Travis County. They also discuss the legality of such orders in the first place.
     
• Even if Texas Scorecard Radio isn’t broadcast locally, you can catch every edition on Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, or Stitcher.
          
• You won’t want to miss today’s edition of the Jim & Michael Show. It starts at 3pm today on Facebook Live. Recordings are available for playback almost immediately on our YouTube channel.

• I’m sure you have seen it too... A growing theme on social media from folks claiming everything right now is a media hoax. Ok. I cannot speak to the epidemiological science, though the data shows it is increasingly looking like the “civilization is ending” screeds from the establishment media and entrenched bureaucracies was – at best – needless fear-mongering.
       
• The fact is a global health scare triggered a panic-sell in the stock market. Coupled with the bottoming out of oil prices, plus government orders shuttering businesses, has all resulted in real hardship for a lot of people. We must first pray for, and offer aid to, them.
      
• Next, we must thoughtfully and carefully ensure we do not allow government officials to exploit the crisis by extending their powers or overburdening taxpayers.
      
• We must each step up as citizen-leaders; we mustn’t wait for others to do the right thing.
      
• Self-governance isn’t some high-minded principle regarding the manner of elections and ordering of sovereignty. Well, it is those things. But, more importantly, self-governance is at its root an attitude towards life. It is a rejection of victimhood, and an active embrace of personal responsibility for the things we can do in our lives.
       
• We must demand more responsibility from our federal, state, and locally elected servants. How much more “stimulus debt” will we allow the federal government to spend? Will state legislators cut wasteful spending? And where is the property tax relief we’ve been promised for so long? Citizens must stop waiting and start demanding.
      
• Leading up to the War of Independence in 1836, Texans didn’t wait for Santa Ana to be nice to them (or the U.S. government to come rescue them), but instead stood up for themselves. That’s our self-governing legacy in the Lone Star State. Let’s keep it going!

ONE CLICK SURVEY

How should state and local governments in Texas make up for a looming budget shortfall?