Good morning,

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Thursday, January 21, 2021

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Continuing a series looking at the lobbyists who whisper in your legislators’ ears, Joshua Pierce profiles Rusty Kelly [[link removed]]. He has translated working as the chief of staff to a Democrat House Speaker into a lucrative career influencing public policy in a Republican-dominated legislature.

According to Transparency USA [[link removed]], Russell T. Kelley is the fifth-highest paid lobbyist in Texas, raking in up to $6,384,999 in the past two years. His clients [[link removed]] include major corporations, such as AT&T and the Calpine Corporation, as well as interest groups, such as the Texas Beverage Association and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association.

Taxing entities – including Waco, Amarillo, Lubbock, Pecos City, Reeves County, and Collin County – make up approximately 17 percent of his portfolio.

Ending the practice of taxpayer-funded lobbying has long been a priority for grassroots activists as well as the Republican Party of Texas. North Texans may be experiencing voter fatigue, if the early turnout in a special state House election is any indication. Erin Anderson reports [[link removed]] that just a tiny fraction of eligible voters had gone to the polls when early voting ended Tuesday in a special election to fill the open Texas House District 68 seat.

This is the seat vacated in December by Drew Springer, after he won [[link removed]] a special runoff for a state Senate opening.

Election Day in HD 68 is Saturday. There are five candidates in the race [[link removed]]: four Republicans and one Democrat. The Democrat-run Austin City Hall is, um, buzzing after they were caught yet again wasting citizens’ hard-earned money. Jacob Asmussen reports [[link removed]] city officials have been spending $88,000 per year on pagers... those 1990s-era communication devices – and many of which are not even used by employees. The audit also showed $13,000 was spent on pagers for people who no longer work for the city—one of whom hadn’t worked there since 2011. Sadly for Austinites, this story is just the latest in city hall’s trail of mishandling citizens’ cash. For example, the all-Democrat Austin City Council overspent $140 million [[link removed]] on a flawed tunnel, flushed away $450,000 [[link removed]] on two public toilets, wasted $115,000 [[link removed]] to clean one public toilet, literally gave away a total of millions [[link removed]] to citizens who simply emailed the city asking for cash, lavished $156,000 [[link removed]] on holiday parties in December 2019, and threw away a whopping $1 billion [[link removed]] on a catastrophic biomass power plant project that only produced energy for six months before it was permanently shut down.

More recently, city officials hired a convicted thief and subsequently were robbed of $1.3 million [[link removed]] of taxpayer money.

As the Fort Worth mayoral contest ramps up, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R) has endorsed City Councilman Brian Byrd for the post. Yet, as Robert Montoya reports [[link removed]], Granger’s connection to Fort Worth’s Panther Island redevelopment boondoggle raises questions for Byrd’s plans should he win.

To date, the field of candidates to replace outgoing Mayor Betsy Price includes Byrd, Price’s former chief of staff Mattie Parker, Tarrant County Democrat Party Chair Deborah Peoples, and Councilwoman Ann Zadeh. Also in the race are Mike Haynes and Chris Rector.

The Panther Island real estate redevelopment on the Trinity River near downtown Fort Worth is a taxpayer-funded boondoggle disguised as a flood-control project.

The congresswoman’s son, J.D. Granger, has helped helm the project, and after over a decade and nearly $400 million of federal, state, and local taxpayer funds spent, it’s nowhere near completion. The Trump Administration denied requests for more federal funding for the project last year and required a flood study to be conducted. As of last September [[link removed]], federal funding still hadn’t come through, and the board of the Tarrant Regional Water District—the agency that manages Panther Island—refused to do a flood study. Update On The Speech Regulation Fight

Yesterday my attorneys appealed a ruling from a Travis County judge – a self described “progressive Democrat with a lifelong commitment to social justice – fining me $10,000 for allegedly engaging in too much speech to legislators about the Fiscal Responsibility Index in 2010 and 2011.

The speech regulators at the Texas “Ethics” Commission – working directly at the behest of former House Speaker Joe Straus’ cronies – argued that in order to engage in the privilege of even a single communication with a legislator on behalf of an employer, I was required to register as a lobbyist and pay a hefty fee. (In fact, the chairman of the TEC said at the time he wanted “28 million lobbyists” — meaning every Texan would have to register, and pay, before communicating with legislators.)

When my attorneys argued to the Travis County judge that such a standard would regulate the speech of nearly every Texan, she said: “No, they have to have a job.” So, if you are employed, you lose the right to exercise your rights? Welcome to Texas!

Years ago the speech regulators offered to settle with me for just $500. They said, “We don’t understand why he won’t just pay us $500 and make it go away.” I said “Nuts” to that, and we’ve continued fighting. Why?

Because the unethical speech regulators want to create a hedge around Austin to keep you out. They want you to have to hire a professional lobbyist, who is all too willing to pay a fee to the government for them to protect their turf. But both the U.S. and Texas constitutions say you and I have a right to talk to and about our legislators. And just because we “have a job” doesn’t mean the government gets to tax us or fine us for exercising our rights.

Our appeal will move up the court system, and in it we will ask the courts to throw Texas’ unethical speech codes on the ash heap of history where they belong.

Number of the Day

1,460

Number of days until the next President of the United States takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.

[Source: calendar]

Quote-Unquote

“Peace if possible, truth at all costs.”

– Martin Luther​

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PO Box 248, Leander, TX 78646 Produced by Michael Quinn Sullivan and Brandon Waltens, the Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is delivered weekday mornings (though we'll take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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