Good morning, 

Just two weeks left in a year that cannot end soon enough! Are you ready for 2021?

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, December 17, 2020
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• Let’s face it: 2020 has been a uniquely bad year for a lot of people. We’ve all had moments of using, um, colorful adjectives to describe it. So as the year comes to a close, I’m doing a little experiment. Specifically, I’m curious what one word stands out to you in describing 2020. Good or bad, positive or negative, a name or place…? 
   
• Rather than email it, please follow the link to tell me what (family-friendly!) word comes to mind in describing 2020.

• I had a conversation yesterday with Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar about the state of our economy, the impact of the economic shutdown on the biennial budget, and what he is advising lawmakers as they make their spending plans.
        
• As the CFO for state government, Hegar contends Texas’ economic situation isn’t as dire as predicted during the summer, but still cautions lawmakers to be conservative – and cautious – in their budget planning.
          
• You can watch the interview on our website, or listen to it as part of the Texas Scorecard Conversations podcast series.

• Ahead of Saturday’s special election runoff in Texas Senate District 30, Republicans Shelley Luther and Drew Springer met in a debate hosted by radio show host Chris Salcedo. Luther and Springer each earned 32 percent of the vote in the six-way September 29 special election, sending them to this runoff.
      
• Erin Anderson reports the debate covered four key issues: election integrity, school choice, taxpayer-funded lobbying, and property taxes.
     
• Springer, an incumbent state representative from Muenster, has the backing of Austin lobbyists and establishment Republicans. Luther is a political newcomer who rose to national prominence this year by opposing the economic shutdown ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott. Luther was briefly jailed for her stance, though released by order of the Supreme Court.

• Conservatives went one for two in Tuesday night’s important runoffs for two Austin City Council seats, taking out a Democrat ringleader of the city’s recent far-left turn. Adam Cahn reports political newcomer Mackenzie Kelly upset incumbent Jimmy Flannigan by a vote of 52 to 48 percent. Meanwhile, incumbent Allison Alter barely survived a challenge from Jennifer Virden. Both seats are in the northwestern part of the city.
   
• The election results capped a contentious year-long local debate in Austin over homelessness and public safety – with those issues deeply at play in the runoffs for both seats.

• The Fort Worth City Council voted unanimously this week to purchase the Pier 1 building at 100 Energy Way to serve as the new city hall. Robert Montoya reports the vote added $100 million of new taxpayer-backed debt—$69.5 million for the building itself, and the rest for renovations.
   
• According to data from the Office of the Texas Comptroller, Fort Worth had a debt of over $2 billion last year – or, $2,202 per resident.

• Statistics and polling expert Jim Ellis has broken down Texas’ 2020 election returns in a new commentary. With projections that the Lone Star State will receive an additional three congressional seats as a result of reapportionment, Ellis predicts “a major political fight” in the months ahead.
   
• “Despite predictions of a ‘blue wave’ hitting Texas and putting the state in play for Joe Biden, Republicans once again swept the competitive races.” – Jim Ellis

• In a new commentary, Rachel Bovard looks at the unprecedented power that has been concentrated in the hands of “big tech” – and the nearly bulletproof legal shield that they claim.
   
• “A handful of Big Tech companies are now controlling the flow of most information in a free society, and they are doing so aided and abetted by government policy. That these are merely private companies exercising their First Amendment rights is a reductive framing which ignores that they do so in a manner that is privileged—they are immune to liabilities to which other First Amendment actors like newspapers are subject—and also that these content moderation decisions occur at an extraordinary and unparalleled scale.” – Rachel Bovard

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