Good morning! 

When politicians brag about playing 3-D chess, what they are really doing is playing Tic-Tac-Toe... with an imaginary friend.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, August 20, 2019
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• As your local governments begin setting property tax rates, check out the Q&A put together by our Texas Scorecard staff about what you need to know.
      
• Speaking of property taxes, the president of the True Texas Project wants Texans to know the truth about property taxes. In a new commentary, Fran Rhodes writes citizens must “start paying more attention to municipal government spending. That’s what drives our property taxes, and the only thing that will lower our taxes is decreased municipal budgets.” 
      
• Democratic State Rep. Jessica Farrar is retiring from the Texas Legislature after holding her Houston-area House seat for more than 25 years. Destin Sensky has the details.
     
• No sooner had Republican State Rep. Mike Lang of Granbury announced his re-election bid on Monday, he found himself with a GOP primary opponent. Destin Sensky reports public records show the opponent, lawyer Kellye SoRelle, has voted in three of the last four Democrat primaries, skipping the 2018 primary elections altogether. (SoRelle’s husband is the city attorney for Granbury and a member of the taxpayer-funded lobbying giant, the Texas Municipal League.)
       
• In conservative Collin County, Mark Reid stands out as a top grassroots leader. Erin Anderson profiles Reid’s service to his neighbors and friends. A small business owner, community leader, and former Collin County commissioner, Reid has lent both his conservative principles and financial acumen to local grassroots activities for years. He now leads the Collin County GOP.
        
• “I want smaller government focused on its core functions at every level.” – Mark Reid

• Since publicly blowing the whistle on House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s unethical proposal of a quid pro quo arrangement trading official government actions for political activity, it has been been mildly unsettling for me to see so much moral cowardice on display by men who campaign as champions of integrity and virtue. It seems far too many politicians would rather hide behind the skirt of public opinion than actually be the proactive "leaders" they claim to be.
     
• Even more sickening is the number of Texas politicians and observers (including some “Republicans”) who are willing to excuse public corruption and unethical proposals as “hard-ball” politics – as though it were all a game played for their own amusement with the liberties and money of Texans on the line. 
     
• Texas’ Capitol culture is a sewer; will our elected officials continue swimming in it, or get to work cleaning things up?

Quote-Unquote

“It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” – Mark Twain