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Should Texas legalize marijuana as a way to increase revenues for the state? Legislation filed by Democrats at the Texas Capitol purport to do just that. What do you think; should Texas legalize weed?

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, December 1, 2020
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• Texas’ revenue outlook is “not nearly as dire as we feared in July.” That was the news Comptroller Glenn Hegar delivered to state lawmakers on Monday.
      
• Brandon Waltens reports the comments came as part of the comptroller’s presentation to the Legislative Budget Board – a committee comprised of the lieutenant governor, House speaker, and designated members of the House and Senate.
        
• Back in July, Hegar projected that lawmakers would face a $4.6 billion shortfall when they returned to Austin in January 2021. At the time, Hegar noted that the prediction came with “an unprecedented amount of uncertainty.” Now Hegar says certain sectors of the economy—such as tax collections from online purchases—have outpaced projections, softening the blow from the decrease in overall sales tax collections across the state.
     
• Comptroller Hegar stopped short of providing a new estimate for a budget shortfall, instead saying he will provide the new data on January 11, 2021 – the day before the legislative session begins.

• The LBB voted unanimously to set the state’s spending growth limit at 7.06 percent for the upcoming 2022-2023 budget. That limit, however, only applies to about half of the items covered by Texas’ biennial budget.
   
• Efforts to pass a stronger, all-encompassing spending limit have been passed out of the Texas Senate for the past three legislative sessions, only to be killed in the Texas House.

• As election integrity concerns continue to dominate the nation, the Office of the Attorney General of Texas said Democrat officials in Harris County – the most populous in the state – failed to follow the law when creating a new county elections office and appointing an administrator. Officials have been given 14 days to comply or face “appropriate legal action.” Erin Anderson has the details.
   
• “Harris County voters deserve an open and transparent process and unfortunately these letters from the Secretary of State and the Attorney General show that the Election Code was violated,” said State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston).

• In a new commentary, Cisco businessman Jon Francis explains conservatives find themselves losing politically because we first lost culturally. 
   
• “Keep in mind that politics is downstream from culture. If we allow them to change the culture, you must know that politics and law will follow.” – Jon Francis

• The Democrat-run Austin City Council is poised to extend its controversial COVID-19 ordinance at a meeting this Thursday – extending the rules and fines for another year. 
   
• Yes, you read that correctly. Another year.
     
• Adam Cahn reports the ordinance enables the city to fine residents up to $2,000 per violation of whatever administrative rules the city health department finds to be “reasonably necessary” in the months to come.
   
• In the months since its original enactment, the ordinance in question appears to have been sparsely enforced. Nevertheless, vague ordinances such as this are always ripe for selective enforcement based on political considerations.

• I guess mandates are just for us little people...
     
• The two most prolific issuers of coronavirus mandates didn’t appear to follow their own COVID-19 guidances citizens were expected to follow. Tarrant County’s Glen Whitley (R) and Dallas County’s Clay Jenkins (D) have been using their perches as county judges (administrators, not judicial) to issue steep mandates and regulations on their citizens. 
     
• Yet, Robert Montoya reports, both Whitley and Jenkins were spotted flagrantly violating the rules they expected everyone else to follow. While Whitley wanted Tarrant County residents to avoid family gatherings, a photo showed evidence of a large gathering at his own home.
      
• “Judge Whitley (aka Twitley) told all of us to only eat at home with our immediate family and to wear masks during Thanksgiving,” posted True Texas Project CEO Julie McCarty on social media. “Meanwhile he’s got 5 vehicles and an RV at his house!”
       
• Meanwhile, a photo of Dallas County Judge Jenkins has emerged from a wedding in October showing that he – unlike most of the attendees – was not wearing a mask.

• Incoming State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) and Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) want to legalize and tax marijuana. Gutierrez’s Senate Bill 140 and Moody’s House Bill 447 are being hyped as a way to bring in new state revenues. 
       
• Yet Politico reported in 2019: “States that have legalized recreational cannabis are finding that it's not always the cash cow they envisioned.”
      
• The 2018 GOP platform had “decriminalization” planks that were removed by the 2020 Texas GOP convention delegates. In the 2019 legislative session, the Texas House passed a marijuana decriminalization bill that was stopped by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas Senate.

ONE CLICK SURVEY

Should marijuana be legalized and taxed in Texas?