Good morning! 

Here is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, August 21, 2019.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

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• Grassroots activists are being told by GOP lawmakers the Texas House would be stuck with a Democrat speaker should the incumbent choose to resign. That’s simply not the case, writes Ross Kecseg. 
   

• House Speaker Dennis Bonnen appointed State Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) to the post in January, but the Rules of the Texas House allow that appointment to be changed by the speaker at any time. The only scenario in which Moody would assume the role as speaker is if Bonnen refuses to appoint a Republican successor prior to a resignation.
                 

• Fox News reports San Francisco’s failure to appropriately address homelessness is having devastating consequences for the Golden Gate City. And they quote one resident as saying that’s reason enough to move to Austin.

      
• Better put that U-Haul on hold... Our man in Central Texas, Jacob Asmussen, has been writing recently about Austin’s own homelessness crisis. The problem, he finds, is that the Austin city council has modeled their approach after San Francisco. For years, both Austin and San Francisco city councils have enacted fees to make construction costly, and now housing prices are out of reach for many people.
      
• Big government creates the problem, then proposes bigger government to fix it.
     
• Destin Sensky reports Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn will be challenged in the 2020 Republican Primary by Dwayne Stovall, who has scrapped a publicized Independent run for the seat. According to Ballotpedia, this would be Stovall’s third run for office. In 2012, he ran for the Texas House, and then two years later came in third in the U.S. Senate race against Cornyn in a field of eight. In 2016, Stovall announced a challenge to U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, but withdrew before filing.
       
• So far, eight Democrats have announced their primary campaigns for the seat.
     
• The official filing period for places on the March 2020 Republican and Democratic primaries occurs from Nov. 9 through Dec. 9.

• Ahead of Senate Bill 2’s mandated limit on property taxes, local governments are hiking property tax burdens to rake in as much revenue as possible.
    
• Sam Samson reports Conroe joins a long list of Texas cities attempting to raise rates before the law goes into effect. Same goes for the cities of Waco, Frisco, and Harlingen; they are also looking to raise property taxes.
      
• Erin Anderson reports Frisco’s proposed 2019-20 budget is based on adopting a property tax rate that raises the average homeowner’s property tax bill. David Vasquez writes about Harlingen officials seeking to raise property taxes by 4 cents, while the Waco City Council – notes Grant Hillman – is hiking their rate 3.5 cents.
           
• Cities really are shaking the money tree.
        
• But it’s not all doom-and-gloom. Robert Montoya reports the City of Keller’s proposed budget and tax rate would make the average homeowner’s city property tax bills lower than last year.
     
• Ruth Ruggero Hughs has been appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott as Texas’ new Secretary of State. Most notably, the Secretary of State is the chief elections officer in Texas, assisting in the administration of elections and the enforcement of the Texas Election Code. Destin Sensky reports Hughs is an attorney who worked in private practice and the Texas Attorney General’s office as director of defense litigation before being appointed to the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) in 2015.
      
• Three special elections have been called by Gov. Abbott for Nov. 5 to replace lawmakers who have resigned their offices. Those seats are Texas House District 28 (Richmond), District 100 (Dallas), and District 148 (Houston) which had been held by John Zerwas (R), Eric Johnson (D), and Jessica Farrar (D), respectively. Those interested in running for one of those seats must file their candidacy by Sept. 4.
     
• In a new commentary, Jim Ellis looks at the “committed” Democrat voters and finds Bernie Sanders is still a major force in the party’s 2020 nomination race.