Good morning –

According to several hundred responses, yesterday’s One Click Survey should have included something stronger than “no” as an option about the Democrats being committee chairs in the Legislature.

First, here is today’s Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, July 22, 2021
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Texans’ Property Tax Burdens Get Heavier

• Despite two decades of promises, Texans’ property tax burden is not only heavier than ever – but Texas’ property taxes are getting worse relative to other states. As Jeramy Kitchen reports, Texas property tax burdens have increased 181 percent over the last 20 years.
     
• “The supposed tax reform we received last legislative session gave no relief to Texans. Capping tax increases simply slows the growth of out-of-control property taxes.” – Tim Hardin of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility
     
• “Texans literally can’t afford for the legislature to wait years to address the issue or make small changes to the system.” – Vance Ginn of the Texas Public Policy Foundation
      
• A new report estimates that at least $5 billion of the state’s $7.8 billion surplus would need to be used to “buy down” school district maintenance and operations (M&O) property taxes enough for Texans to actually have lower property tax bills.
     
• Please don’t try to play the “well, at least we don’t have an income tax” argument. Of the eight other states without an income tax, all of them have lower property tax burdens than Texas except New Hampshire.

Abortion Industry Targets Pro-Life Activist

• A group of pro-abortion organizations have gone to court in an attempt to strike down Texas’ new heartbeat law, which aims to ban abortions after a baby’s heartbeat is detected. As Brandon Waltens reports, they are suing not only the expected state officials, but also a pro-life activist.
      
• Mark Lee Dickson, a regular contributor to Texas Scorecard, is named as a defendant in the abortion industry lawsuit against the heartbeat bill. Apparently he is seen as too effective in helping inform and engage his fellow Texans in the fight to protect the unborn. Dickson heads Right to Life of East Texas and has been instrumental in helping cities around the state pass laws banning abortion within their jurisdictions. 
     
• While his organization is unaffiliated with the larger Texas Right to Life, the more well-known brand is a fan of his work – and is speaking out against his treatment in the federal lawsuit.
     
• “There is no sound legal reason for the abortion industry to name Dickson in this lawsuit,” explains Texas Right to Life in a statement. “The abortion industry wants to make an example of him, to frighten Pro-Life activists lest they become too successful or vocal, and the target of future lawsuits.”

Democrats Are Trickling Back In

• The Texas House of Representatives has been paralyzed for the last nine days due to an insufficient amount of lawmakers present to conduct legislative business, after almost all of the House Democrat Caucus broke quorum (after being enabled by the chamber’s Republican leadership) and traveled to Washington, D.C.
   
• While originally only 80 lawmakers were present, those numbers have reportedly increased to more than 90 yesterday afternoon.
   
• One of those returning to the House is Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio), who claims that he was “asked” to return to Austin by his fellow Democrats “to begin active discussions here in Austin on improving” the election integrity measure.
   
• That claim was met with an immediate admonishment from Rep. Gina Hinojosa (D–Austin), who tweeted Cortez “is not negotiating on our behalf. He made the decision to rejoin Republicans without speaking to the Dem delegation.”
   
• Grab the popcorn… the Democrats are fighting!

Texas DEMs: Super-Spreaders

• Multiple media reports confirm staffers at the White House and in the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi were infected with the Chinese coronavirus by Texas Democrat legislators.
   
• The sheer number of fully “vaccinated” and masked Texas DEMs passing around COVID in DC points to three possibilities:
  1) Democrats as a group have incredibly weak immune systems;
  2) The DEMs have lied about being fully “vaccinated”; or,
  3) The Democrats and media have lied about the effectiveness of the “vaccine.”
   
• Of course, all these White House and congressional aides could be lying about being COVID-19 infected so that D.C. DEMs have an excuse not to meet with the clown-show known as Texas House Democrat Caucus?

War On Parents

• There has been a longstanding war on parents being waged by the left – that’s the opinion of Tim Lambert, who heads the Texas Home School Coalition. In a new video, he explains the historic origins in this fight and why it matters. 
    
• “This animosity toward the rights of parents to direct the care, control, and upbringing of their children continues today,” writes Lambert. “We believe that parents should be the last word on how their children are raised and how they are educated. We will continue to fight on all fronts to make sure that parents keep those rights in Texas!”

PROGRAMMING NOTE

• Tomorrow’s Texas Minute will be coming from Brandon Waltens.

Y’All Answered

In yesterday’s One Click Survey we asked if Democrats should continue to be allowed to hold committee chairmanships in the GOP-dominated Texas House. To describe the response as “overwhelming” would be an understatement: 98.47 percent answered “No,” leaving just 1.53 percent saying Democrats should continue to hold those leadership positions.

• “I wonder why armies don’t have generals from the enemy in charge of their troops? I guess the Texas House is just wiser than the military.” – Jim Pikl
     
• “If Democrats are denied Chairmanship of committees then Republicans are no better than Democrats in dictatorial terms.  When the party in power dictates the rules, it is no longer an objective or fair system.” – Cecil Candelario
   
• “NO, NO, a thousand times No!  Why did anyone ever come up with the idea of allowing the minority to run so much of the House activity in the first place?  If voters put Republicans in office, it is intended to put Republican priorities into action.” – Gay Armstrong
     
• “You don’t negotiate with terrorists, and that’s what this is.” – Elissa Harrell
   
• “If they are no more responsible than to leave work undone then they have no business even being in the legislature; let alone a committee chair.  Governor should declare seats vacant and call special elections.” – Alan Smith
   
• “If the Democrats were in the majority, they wouldn’t allow REPUBLICANS TO BE COMMITTEE CHAIRS!” – Maggie Wright
   
• “The absent democrats must be stripped of their chairmanships.  Actually it needs to happen immediately, not wait until they return to their offices.” – Karen Matocha
   
• “Should Democrats be committee chairs? Not only no, but hell NO! And the RINO's that keep them there shouldn't be there either.” – Glen Hartman
     
• “We conservatives have worked HARD to keep Texas RED. Those in Austin serving as our representatives have NO RIGHT to give away positions of authority that we the voters put into conservative hands.” – Suzanne Harrington
      
• “Republicans need to stop playing Mr. Nice Guy all the time; they need to stop giving handouts to the Dems (think of politics as war, not a football game). Texans voted for a state GOP House, therefore only GOP people should be in charge of leadership positions.” – Konrad Wiemann
   
• “Hell no. But that’s what you get when the speaker solicits votes from Democrats and doesn’t follow the rules for election with a Republican caucus.  He declared himself the winner before a caucus was even held.  So of course he has allegiance to the Democrats.” – Annette Bennett

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