Good morning, 

Joe Biden stuck his head out of the White House yesterday, saw his shadow, and decided we get two more years of coronavirus fear-mongering.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, February 3, 2021
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• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities for the 87th Session of the Texas Legislature bear little resemblance to those established by delegates to his party’s political convention in the summer of 2020. Only one of Abbott’s priorities is in the eight established by the GOP grassroots, reports Brandon Waltens.
     
• The priorities approved by delegates to the party’s convention last year include enhancing election security, protecting religious freedom, preventing child gender modification, abolishing abortion, enacting constitutional carry, promoting school choice, protecting monuments, and banning taxpayer-funded lobbying. Though Abbott mentioned he would like to see legislation to prevent discriminatory abortions and prevent local governments from closing churches, those items were not given priority status.
      

• Instead, the governor listed expanding rural broadband access, preventing cities from defunding police, bail reform, election integrity, and protecting businesses from COVID-related lawsuits as his top concerns. Of those five items, only election integrity is among the Texas GOP’s priorities.

     
• “We hope the Governor will listen to the Republican voters and clearly support this conservative agenda, as that is what people expect when placing our party in the majority.” – Jill Glover, chair of the Republican Party of Texas’ legislative priorities committee

• Perhaps most notable in its omission from Gov. Abbott’s priorities or mentions in the State of the State Address was a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying. Sources close to Abbott in the Texas Capitol told me last week the issue was “definitely” going to be included as an emergency item. Those same sources are flummoxed as to why it was suddenly withdrawn.

• A proposed state law could help local businesses and employees struggling in the wake of government-mandated shutdowns. Jacob Asmussen reports State Sen. Donna Campbell (R-New Braunfels) has introduced the Texas Small Business Protection Act.
      
• Specifically, the proposed law would prohibit local government officials, such as the county or city, from dictating which specific benefits businesses should give employees.
   
• “A one-size-fits-all government mandate on employee benefits is cost-prohibitive on some small businesses, especially in a difficult economic climate, harming job prospects for the very people these local government ordinances claim to be helping.” – State Sen. Donna Campbell

• Citizens experience frustration with the process surrounding local appraisal districts setting their homes’ taxable value. Robert Montoya asks what real reform of these districts would look like... and what the Texas Legislature might do to bring about such reform.

• As Austin City Hall continues exacerbating a homelessness disaster in the city, one of their proposed $6.5 million homeless shelters is receiving last-minute pushback from Williamson County. As Adam Cahn notes, part of the City of Austin is in Williamson County... as is one of the hotels the city wants to purchase for housing the homeless.
   
• The degree to which Williamson County has formal jurisdiction is unclear; nevertheless, these requests are usually considered a professional courtesy in government.

Y’All Answered

• In yesterday’s One Click Survey we asked readers whether or not they were satisfied with Greg Abbott’s performance as governor. By a 4-to-1 ratio, the answer was “dissatisfied” – 81.4 percent to just 18.6 percent who said they were satisfied.
   

• Here’s a sampling of the responses:

“Oh heck no! Those that inflicted pain and suffering need to be held accountable. No immunity!” – Dana Crawford

“I supported Greg Abbott for many years and many different offices. Governor Abbott lost my support during the pandemic when he ‎usurped power from the Legislature and unilaterally made decisions he was not authorized to make.” – Roger White

“King Abbott made no effort to call the Legislature back into session to validate or over rule his edicts during the past year. His actions are very much like those of a despot, just like Mr. Biden's edicts through Executive Order. What happened to the People's Voice through their elected Representatives?” – Gregory Reinhart

“Didn't you mean ‘King’ Abbott enemy of liberty?” – Roger Taylor

“I checked satisfied on the survey.....simply because he is probably doing more than 50 % of his job well but this is comparing his job performance to others like Cuomo and Newsom.....for what Texas deserves he could do a lot better.” – Bob Porter

“Yes. Especially considering what he has to work with!” – Debbie Richardson

“No. But most people will associate with recent virus mandates and restrictions. While those things are really bad - I remember things like him pushing Pre-K, red flag laws, mental health bills, a sales tax swap.” – Fran Rhodes

“I am satisfied with Abbott! He is doing an excellent job. Take notice on the number of businesses relocating to Texas.” – Daniel Gomez

“Last report I saw said Texas had lost between 8-9k businesses, that would not reopen.. that was in the fall.. who knows what the numbers are now... That's all on Abbott and his one Man show, over the virus!” – Gloria Williams

“At least he isn't Cuomo. But he needs to lift the mask mandate. And I'll probably vote for someone else in the primary.” – Kim Climer

“No. He overstepped his authority, and kept the legislature out of the decision-making process during the whole covid panic. He fell back on his own opinions rather than clinging to individual freedom (like SD's governor: Kristi Noem).” – Christine Taylor

“No. He changed election laws without the legislature. He closed Texas businesses & enacted the stupid mask mandate.” – Nell Brindley 

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