Good morning!

With hours remaining in 2020, it is traditional for news organizations to recount the biggest stories of the last 12 months. We all know what the biggest story of the last year was... So we will do something a little different in today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, December 31, 2020
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• As a self-governing people, the citizens are supposed to be in charge. The government officials are the hired help, the servants, the employees.
      
• Before we can expect them to remember it, we must first act like it. That means, in part, stop waiting for politicians to deliver on your priorities out of the goodness of their hearts.
     
• So heading into 2021, what will you be pushing your state legislators to do in Austin? Don’t be enslaved to whatever low expectations they set; you’re in charge.
     
• Here are some of the stories we’ll be watching develop in the weeks and months ahead...

Following Up... 

• In early 2020, we reported that the Texas Teacher Retirement System was going to be spending $326,000 per month on rent in an extravagantly luxurious office building in downtown Austin. It was one of the most read and shared stories of the year.
   
• Brandon Waltens has an update on where things stand now with TRS heading into the new year... and the legislative session.

... Big Questions Ahead

• As you know, the biggest stories of 2020 dealt with the Austin insiders handling of the Chinese coronavirus, and the powers they gave themselves and local governments to shutdown the state’s economy.
     
• Will legislators rein in the power of the state and local “executive branch” officials to shutdown businesses and the economy?
      
• Tied with those were concerns about the (mis?)handling of the election processes by Gov. Abbott, his appointees in the Secretary of State’s office, and the wide berth they gave local (Democrat) officials in Texas’ most populous regions.
      
• And will legislators reaffirm that elections mustn’t be governed by unilateral executive mandate?
     
• “It is surely just as offensive to the Constitution to rewrite Texas election law by executive fiat as it is to do so by judicial fiat. Yet that is what occurred here. Respected legislators and public leaders called on the Governor to call a special session so that legislators in both parties could consider and debate amendments to the state’s election rules to accommodate voter concerns arising out of the pandemic. But the Governor rejected those calls, and instead issued a series of executive proclamations purporting to unilaterally ‘suspend’ various Texas election laws.” – Justice James Ho, Circuit Court of Appeals

What Will Be The Status Of The Lone Star Agenda?

• Established by more than 300 grassroots leaders following the “purple” do-nothing session of 2019, the Lone Star Agenda offers popular reforms to improve life for all Texans.
     
• Despite repeated requests by top donors and activists, Gov. Abbott refused to call a special session in the intervening 18 months nor has he acknowledged the Lone Star Agenda’s existence. Will legislators take action?
     
• The Lone Star Agenda topics include:
  ✔️Allow families to make mental and physical health decisions for themselves.
  ✔️Stop wrongful removal of children from families by restoring due process rights for parents.
  ✔️Stop local ordinances that interfere in private employer-employee relationships.
  ✔️Increase protections for unborn Texans.
  ✔️Improve election integrity (paper ballot backup audit trail; citizenship verification).
  ✔️End taxpayer-funded lobbying.
  ✔️End union dues withholding from public sector paychecks.
  ✔️Protect Texas monuments.
  ✔️Secure the southern border (interior enforcement to end the “magnet” effect).
  ✔️Stop human trafficking.
  ✔️Protect the rights of Texans to bear arms.
  ✔️Reform the Texas Disaster Act and curtail executive overreach.
  ✔️Strengthen the state’s spending limit.
  ✔️Provide meaningful tax relief for all Texans.

What Will Be The Status Of The Texas GOP Agenda?

• Will the GOP-dominated Texas Legislature deliver on the nine priorities of the Republican Party of Texas? Despite nearly 20 years of GOP control of state government, they have not to date delivered significantly on the party’s platform.
     
• In 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and the leaders of the Texas Senate and House ranged from noticeably silent to publicly hostile to the priorities developed by the grassroots leadership of the Republican Party.
      
• Delegates to the state’s Republican Party convention this summer set the following priorities:
  ➡️Protect Election Integrity
  ➡️Expand Religious Freedom
  ➡️Protect Children By Banning Gender Modification
  ➡️Abolish Abortion
  ➡️Enact Constitutional Carry
  ➡️Protect Historic Monuments
  ➡️Provide School Choice for All
  ➡️Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
    
• A ninth legislative priority – ending executive overreach – was added by the State Republican Executive Committee last month at the behest of the party’s chairman, Allen West.

• The 87th Session of the Texas Legislature will convene on at noon on Jan. 12, 2021.

The Texas Minute will return on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021!