A D.C.-based GOP group is urging Texans to thank Dennis Bonnen. Seriously.

Good morning –

A D.C.-based Republican group is urging Texans to thank Dennis Bonnen for his leadership. Yes, seriously.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

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The $1.17 billion boondoggle project headlined by U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) and her son J.D. may be in even worse shape than originally reported. The Grangers’ real estate development deal raked in millions of federal dollars during the Obama years but has been put on hold by the Trump Administration as the project has been exposed to sunlight.

A recent review of the so-called “Panther Island” project found it has already cost taxpayers more than $383 million with only its design phase finished. But now, as Robert Montoya reports [[link removed]], lawyers from the Tarrant Regional Water District are saying that even the design phase has not yet been completed.

Known derisively as Kay Granger’s Floating Island of Waste, the “Panther Island” project is a sinkhole of taxpayer cash funneled through local, state, and federal agencies to the benefit of Granger’s cronies. Since 2003, the cost has more than doubled under the (mis)management of J.D. Granger on behalf of his mother. The stated plan has been to reroute the Trinity River via a 1.5-mile bypass—and redevelop prime Fort Worth real estate—all under the dubious guise of flood control.

Disclosure the project has not even finished the design phase, despite massive cost overruns, was made because the Tarrant Regional Water District is trying to block Texas Scorecard from reviewing contracts and other documents related to the programmatic review. The TRWD lawyers told the Attorney General of Texas they want the documents kept secret because they “relate to portions of the TRV project that have yet to be bid out and [are] still in the design phase.”

You mean the design phase TRWD and the Grangers claimed was 100 percent complete after 13 years? Yep. Oops.

Gov. Greg Abbott is being asked to call a special session focused on delivering conservative results for Texans. Brandon Waltens reports [[link removed]] the latest to join the chorus asking for a special session is State Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands). Toth sent a letter to Abbott on Friday asking the items put forward on the Lone Star Agenda [[link removed]] by conservative grassroots leaders be the basis for a special session. A side benefit, Toth noted, House members would have the opportunity to elect a new leader following the scandal involving disgraced House Speaker Dennis Bonnen (R-Lake Jackson).

“Texans need an ethical and active Speaker to take over the leadership of the Texas House of Representatives.” – State Rep. Steve Toth [[link removed]]

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is throwing cold water on the idea of a special session to enact the Lone Star Agenda. In an email on Monday, Patrick told supporters it would be inappropriate for him to publicly join calls for a special session... even though Patrick did so in 2017 [[link removed]].

In his blast email, Patrick implies a special session would “divide” conservatives, when in fact, passing those measures would be highly unifying! Each of them have broad support among Texans. The only division seems to be among politicians and the crony establishment in Austin.

Ironically, Patrick’s own recitation of legislative facts makes it clear while the Senate passed many conservative priorities, the Bonnen-controlled House killed the items now in the Lone Star Agenda and resulted in a purple legislative session. With Bonnen heading out the door, the House would have the chance in a special session to unify with the Senate and Texas’ grassroots.

Absent that, it would seem Lt. Gov. Patrick and other Texas Republicans want conservative voters unified on the promise that maybe long-ignored policy initiatives might finally be addressed by Republicans in 2021.

On the other hand, Gov. Abbott has refused to even acknowledge the letter sent to him two months ago [[link removed]] on behalf of nearly 300 grassroots organizations and party activists representing tens of thousands of Texans asking for a special session on the Lone Star Agenda.

In contrast, Abbott rushed to appease Democrats late in the summer when gun control advocates demanded he take action following a murderous rampage in Odessa. He convened roundtables, issued executive directives, and urged legislative action. ​

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​ Speaker Dennis Bonnen does have one defender: the DC-based “Americans for Prosperity.” The organization’s Texas backers have sent mail around the state [[link removed]] asking Republican voters to “thank” Dennis Bonnen. This is the same Bonnen who is being forced from office after making an unethical quid pro quo offer of government actions in exchange for political attacks on Republicans, and then spending months lying about it to the public and his fellow legislators.

For what are Republicans to be thanking him? AFP’s factually-deficient mailer [[link removed]] presents Bonnen as the sole reason property tax reform was accomplished. Their tone-deaf puff-piece leaves the not-so-subtle impression the Republican legislators in whose districts the mailing was sent, and the legions of grassroots activists working the issue, had nothing to do with it.

Ironically, the AFP mailer highlights how despite Republicans holding all levers of state government for nearly two decades, they have only now begun to address property tax reform. And let’s not forget that most taxpayers won’t be seeing any meaningful tax relief any time soon. Number of the Day

22

Number of years Kay Granger has been in the U.S. House of Representatives. She took office in 1997, succeeding Democrat Pete Geren who did not seek re-election.

[Source: Calendar; congressional bio]

Team Spotlight

Brandon Waltens

Managing editor of Texas Scorecard

Q: What makes a perfect Saturday?

A: A (winning) Baylor football game!

Q: With what three people – living or dead – would you like to have dinner?

A: Donald Trump, Sam Houston, George Washington.

Quote-Unquote

“A broader reading of history shows that appeasement, no matter how it is labeled, never fulfills the hopes of the appeasers.”

– Ronald Reagan​

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PO Box 36875 | Houston, TX 77236 The Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day that we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is produced on week days and distributed at 6 a.m. (though I'll probably take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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