Giving Fake Republicans a dose of their own medicine – vote with Democrats!

Yesterday I posted on social media about SB10, an alleged property tax relief bill, and shared Bill Peacock’s article about it.  Bill and I were urging Republicans in the House to vote with Democrats to reject the conference committee report for SB10.  And guess what?  THEY DID!

SB10 was supposed to be the answer to the Governor’s special session call for “Legislation reducing the property tax burden on Texans and legislation imposing spending limits on entities authorized to impose property taxes.”.  However, the bill can barely be called relief, and barely limits some entities.  SB10 as written would have only slowed the growth of property taxes, by lowering the increase in revenue that taxing entities are allowed from 3.5 to 2.5 percent year over year.  But the bill only applied to large cities and counties.  Rep. Mitch Little calculates that the savings for people in his district would be about $12 per year with this legislation.  Some call that relief, but I call it insulting. 

The biggest problem with this bill, as we see it, is a statement from Committee Chair Morgan Meyer: “This is an agreed to bill. We have reached agreement, we have worked with the governor’s office, we worked with the Senate. This is where the agreement landed."

So apparently the Governor, the Speaker of the House, and Lt. Governor all agreed that this bill constitutes “reducing property taxes and limiting taxing entities”.  We agree to disagree!

During House debate on the bill, 3 amendments were added that at least made the bill better, increasing coverage to all municipalities and reducing the allowed percentage of revenue increase to 1%.  The Senate refused to accept the House version so it went to conference committee.  The conference committee removed all three of the amendments and sent it back to the House in its original form.

Fortunately, 24 members of the House decided that the “agreed” upon bill was just not agreeable, and they voted with Democrats to reject the conference committee report.  Sometimes voting with Democrats is the right thing to do.

While SB10 is not a great bill, as amended, it would have at least been a small step towards limiting local government spending.  But without the amendments, it’s practically worthless for taxpayers.

Please contact these Republican House Members and thank them for doing the right thing, standing up to leadership, and supporting all taxpayers (not just some).

Daniel Alders:  512-463-0584,  [email protected]

Ben Bumgarner:  512-463-0688, [email protected]

Drew Darby:  512-463-0331, [email protected]

Mark Dorazio:  512-463-0646, [email protected]

Brian Harrison:  512-463-0516, [email protected]

Andy Hopper:  512-463-0582, [email protected]

Marc LaHood:  512-463-0686, [email protected]

Mitch Little:  512-463-0478, [email protected]

AJ Louderback:  512-463-0456, [email protected]

David Lowe:  512-463-0599, [email protected]

Shelley Luther:  512-463-0297, [email protected]

Don McGlaughlin:  512-463-0194, [email protected]

Brent Money:  512-463-0880, [email protected]

Matt Morgan:  512-463-0710, [email protected]

Mike Olcott:  512-463-0656, [email protected]

Katrina Pierson:  512-463-0484, [email protected]

Keresa Richardson:  512-463-0738, [email protected]

Nate Schatzline:  512-463-0562, [email protected]

Alan Schoolcraft:  512-463-0602, [email protected]

Joanne Shofner:  512-463-0592, [email protected]

John Smithee:  512-463-0702, [email protected]

Tony Tinderholt:  512-43-0624, [email protected]

Steve Toth:  512-463-0797, [email protected]

Wes Virdell:  512-463-0536, [email protected]

The most important takeaway from this experience is not whether or not SB10 is a good bill, a bad bill, or whether the amendments were important.  The thing you should remember is that it was leadership that got together and “agreed” upon how this requirement to hold taxing entities accountable would work.  Long before the bill was debated in either chamber, leadership decided what was going to happen, and completely ignored the opinions of our duly elected representatives in the House and Senate.  This happens more often than you might think.  It's part of the games that are played in the legislature, and it’s refreshing to see people pushing back, at least in some small fashion.

It’s just as important to shower with praise for doing the right thing as it is to shower with criticism for doing the wrong thing.  These folks did the right thing yesterday.

Taxpayer Funded Lobbying Update:

Chairman of the House State Affairs Committee, Ken King, is still ignoring grassroots demands for a hearing on SB13 and/or HB186 (identical bills).  Even though the house bill now has over 70 co-authors, Mr. King refuses to hold a hearing or advance the bills.  Michael Quinn Sullivan has written a great article about how King is blocking this Republican priority - again.  We’ve had grassroots supporters calling and emailing King, the Governor, and the Speaker of the House for months.  But it looks like this issue is going to die once again this session on the trash heap of the State Affairs Committee.  Will the Governor call a third to address it?  I hope so, but not holding my breath.

Thanks for staying engaged!

Fran Rhodes, President