Good morning,

Here is a hard truth: Texans’ property tax burdens will never really go down until politicians start losing elections over the issue. I end the week reflecting on what that will require. 

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, June 20, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

NOTE: Monday's Texas Minute will be coming from Sydnie Henry; I'll be back for the Tuesday edition.

Hancock Leaves Senate, With Appointment Set to Upset Comptroller Race

• State Sen. Kelly Hancock has officially entered the race for Texas Comptroller with the backing of Gov. Greg Abbott, resigning from the Senate and being sworn in as chief clerk of the agency by outgoing Comptroller Glenn Hegar. As Brandon Waltens reports, this shakes up the field in the Texas GOP primary.
    
• The move is designed to sidestep a 2002 legal opinion from then-Attorney General Abbott, which held that a sitting state senator cannot be appointed to a position requiring Senate confirmation during the term for which they were elected. By resigning and taking on the role of “chief clerk,” Hancock avoids triggering the Senate confirmation process while still stepping into the agency’s top position for the remainder of Hegar’s term through January 2027.
      
• While Hancock's record has been generally conservative, some activists have raised concerns. For example, during this legislative session, Hancock voted for an amendment watering down a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying before it left the Senate on its way to be killed in the House. Back in 2023, Hanock was one of two Republican senators voting to remove Attorney General Ken Paxton from office.
     

• Hegar—who will officially take over as chancellor of the Texas A&M University System on July 1—praised Hancock's record. Same goes for the governor, who immediately announced his 2026 endorsement of Hancock.
      

• Already in the hunt for the GOP comptroller nomination were Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and former State Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas. Abbott used his endorsement of Hancock to take a shot at Huffines, who had a third-place finish against the governor in 2022. "I endorse Kelly Hancock because I want a candidate who will actually win the election, not someone who has already lost an election to a Democrat." (Huffines was defeated for re-election to the state senate in 2018.)

Shake Up for TLR After Political Stunts Led to Disastrous Session

• Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the once-powerful and well-funded tort reform group that has long played a major role in state politics, is undergoing internal leadership changes after a legislative session widely seen as a failure for the organization’s agenda.
    
• In a press release issued yesterday, TLR announced the retirement of longtime co-founder and leader Dick Trabulsi, a Democrat who served as one of the key architects of the organization’s decades-long existence. They also noted the departure of two board members, Joe Popolo and Alan Hassenflu.
      
• The internal shakeup follows a bruising year for TLR’s reputation politically and legislatively. During the recent session, the group backed several controversial proposals, most of which failed to make it to the governor’s desk.
      
• Beyond its legislative agenda, TLR also found itself in the crosshairs for its behind-the-scenes role in the failed impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton. (That involvement was the subject of the 2024 Texas Scorecard documentary Hubris: The Texas Kingmakers.)

Abbott Signs Legislation Expanding Funding  For Texas Water Infrastructure

• At an event in Lubbock this week, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law legislation that increases funding for the state's water infrastructure. Addie Hovland reports that the legislation is designed to simplify water transportation and create a framework for long-term spending through the Texas Water Fund.
    
• Abbott also used the event to promote a constitutional amendment that will be before voters in the fall. If the state's sales and use taxes exceed $48 billion in a year, up to $1 billion of the excess cash will be diverted into the Texas Water Fund. That funding provision will expire in 20 years if no further action is taken by the legislature to renew it.

High School Coach Arrested for Sexual Relationship With Student

• Erin Anderson reports that a teacher in Medina Independent School District is accused of having a sexual relationship with a student. 
      
• Bradley Thomas Love is a teacher and head high school boys’ basketball coach who was arrested last weekend for an offense that allegedly occurred on April 25.
      
• Medina ISD Superintendent Lindsey Kunz issued a statement acknowledging Love’s arrest and indicating that he began working for the district in August of 2024. The district has not yet confirmed Love’s current employment status, although his name no longer appears in Medina ISD’s online teacher directory.
       
• State records show Love does not hold a Texas teaching certificate.

Austin ISD To Reduce Headquarters Staff by Over 20 Percent

• As Adam Cahn reports, the Austin Independent School District is moving forward with several changes aimed at improving the district’s financial outlook. 
      
• The district's superintendent, Matias Segura, has written that the actions are being taken to produce savings of $9.6 million. This is being done through "a more than 20% reduction to Central Office staffing."
      
• AISD is facing a $110 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year. 
      
• "There’s a world of waste still ahead, thanks to the unions, radicals, and spendthrifts that have long dominated the district. Every dollar not spent by Austin ISD is one less dollar that property taxpayers have to cough up. So keep the cuts coming!" – James Quintero of the Texas Public Policy Foundation 

KP George Switches Parties as Legal Troubles Mount in Fort Bend County

• Fort Bend County Judge KP George has switched from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party amid legal scrutiny and felony charges, prompting critics to question whether the move is motivated by mere political expedience. Michael Wilson has the story.
    
• George is facing two third-degree felony counts of money laundering as well as a misdemeanor charge for misrepresentation of identity.
      
• Republicans, like U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Richmond), decried George's move as "desperation." 

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Friday Reflection

Don't Be An Idiot

In ancient Greek, there was a word used to describe individuals who didn’t participate in political affairs: ἰδιώτης (idiōtēs). If your ancient Greek is as bad as mine, maybe it would help to know the word we get from it: idiot.

It was not a derogatory term for the Greeks; it was simply a general description.

The Greeks had a high view of those who did participate in civic life, so it makes sense that the word took on the insulting definition we know today. But, frankly, those who don’t participate in political affairs might often be deserving of the scorn implied by the modern word.

Despite aping the philosophy of our founding fathers that the practical powers of government should reside closest to the citizenry, we as citizens do a very poor job of actually doing it. We demand that Washington or Austin be brought in to solve local problems, while ignoring the local offices that can address them most readily.

Take, for example, the perpetual complaint about property tax burdens in the Lone Star State. For almost 30 years, I have heard taxpayers (including myself) complain about the confiscatory nature of the levy. We are all renters from the government.

As the 2025 regular legislative session came to a close, I once again heard the old standby complaint that state lawmakers had not done either (a) enough or (b) anything to address property tax burdens.

That’s true enough.

Yet, neither have the citizens. Our property tax burdens are the result of two locally determined numbers: the rates voted on by our various local officials, multiplied by the assessed value assigned to the property by representatives of various local officials.

The outcry against lawmakers for not doing enough (or anything) to lower property taxes can be deafening at times. Sadly, everyone goes all but silent when it comes to the local elections for the offices most responsible for setting those burdens.

In fact, somewhere between 85 and 90-plus percent of Texas voters do not participate in those local elections. That is to say, a turnout of 15 percent is high—though it is usually more like 5 or 10 percent. Shameful!

We have chosen—to borrow from the Greeks—to be idiots.

“I’m too busy to vote in the school board elections,” some have told me, while doing nothing. Others say, “No one tells me who the good guys and bad guys are,” as if they are intellectually incapable of taking on the responsibility themselves.

Here is a hard truth: Texans’ property tax burdens will never go down until politicians start losing elections over the issue. By re-electing those who have contributed to the problem, by ignoring the elections where those problem-makers get their power, we tell a candid world that we don’t actually care about property tax burdens as much as we care about complaining about them.

If self-governance is to mean anything, it is to mean that we—at a bare minimum—should not be ἰδιώτης. We cannot intellectually claim to be put-upon, over-burdened taxpayers when we are not doing at least the bare minimum to address those burdens ourselves where we can.

Our property taxes will only go down when our local engagement as citizens and voters goes up.

Quote-Unquote

"No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our consent."

– John Jay