Good morning, 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Thursday, July 9, 2020
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• The Democrat mayor of Houston, Sylvester Turner, says next week’s Republican Party of Texas convention is canceled.
   
• The action came after Turner made comments during a city council meeting in which he indicated that he had asked the City of Houston and Houston First (the local government corporation that operates the George R. Brown Convention Center, where the event was to be held) to review their contract with the State Republican Executive Committee and determine a way to cancel the convention within the provisions of the contract.
   
• "With his words today, Mayor Turner is saying Houston does not want business. He does not want Houston to get back to work. He is not able to move forward and rise to these new challenges." –RPT Chairman James Dickey
   
• Dickey also stated that the Texas GOP's legal team was “weighing their legal options.”
   
• Delegates will have the opportunity to vote for who will lead the party. Last week, we published answers from the two candidates for chairman—James Dickey and Allen West. This week, we have published completed questionnaires from the two candidates for vice chairman–Alma Perez Jackson and Cat Parks. 

• As if heading back to school isn't enough to make most kids cringe, back-to-school shopping lists must include PPE this fall, according to new guidance from the Texas Education Agency.
   
• In a Public Health Planning Guidance document released to school districts on Tuesday, the TEA outlines that schools “must provide daily on-campus attendance for students otherwise entitled to attend school … whose parents wish them to attend on campus each day.”
   
• Any parent who desires to keep their children out of school, however, “may request that their student be offered virtual instruction from any school system that offers such instruction.” Additionally, “if a parent requests virtual instruction and the school does not offer it, the parent may enroll in another school that does offer it for transfer.”
   
• Students over the age of 10 will be required to wear masks, in accordance with the executive order issued by Gov. Greg Abbott that mandates masks in counties with more than 20 reported coronavirus cases, unless the mandate is removed prior to the start of classes.

• Taxpayers in Waxahachie are enjoying a victory as city officials postponed laying the groundwork for setting a substantially higher property tax rate, using the Chinese coronavirus as an excuse.
   
• On Monday, Waxahachie City Council voted unanimously to table until July 20 a resolution to calculate the city’s “voter approval” tax rate for 2020 at 8 percent—a rate much higher than the limit on tax increases set by last year’s property tax reform legislation, Senate Bill 2.
   

• SB 2 prevents most cities from raising taxes more than 3.5 percent a year unless voters approve the additional tax hike. The tax rate calculation excludes new construction and taxes collected to repay debt. 

• But a loophole in the law allows cities to raise property tax revenues by 8 percent—the old limit—without voter approval, if certain disasters are declared. Some taxing entities—bolstered by the Texas Municipal League—claim the coronavirus is a qualifying disaster.

• Donald Trump Jr. waded back into Texas’ July 14 election season again this week, recording a video for 13th Congressional District hopeful Dr. Ronny Jackson, in which he praised Jackson and attacked his opponent's record. Thomas Warren has the details.
   
• In a new video released by the Jackson campaign, Trump Jr. praised the former White House physician and retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, calling him the “America First patriot” in the Texas Panhandle and North Texas congressional race.
   
• “Ronny Jackson’s lobbyist opponent has lobbied against the Trump agenda and cannot be trusted. We don’t need any more lobbyists in Congress.” –Donald Trump Jr.
   
• Early voting in the primary runoff election ends tomorrow, with Election Day on July 14.

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