Good morning! 

While there is still more than 24 hours left in the year, today’s Texas Minute looks back on Texas Scorecard’s most-read articles of 2019.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Monday, December 30, 2019
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• The Bonnen Saga
  Nothing we wrote about in 2019 carried more punch than disgraced House Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s self-destruction after only one session in the biggest chair of the legislature’s lower chamber. He invited me to a meeting, where he made an unethical quid pro quo offer: he proposed taking official government actions in exchange for me attacking his political foes as well as withholding spending against him. (This was after, of course, he publicly threatened members with severe retribution if they worked against any fellow incumbents regardless of party.)     
       
  Apparently Bonnen thought we were as corruptible as all his pals and sycophantic colleagues; he thought wrong. We spoke out... loudly.
     
  Bonnen proceeded to repeatedly lie about the meeting to his fellow House members and the general public... even after I revealed I had recorded the entire thing. Grassroots activists applied pressure to their legislators and Bonnen finally announced he would retire from office. Not resign, mind you, just not seek re-election.
       
  Despite finding Bonnen “likely violated” state law, the Republican-controlled House General Investigating & Ethics Committee on the Friday before Christmas unanimously voted to let Bonnen’s actions go unpenalized. Such is the corrupting power of the Capitol culture.
            

• Teacher Says Parents “Don’t Know What’s Best”
  After parents expressed outrage that a drag queen who works as an “adult performer” was featured at a Montgomery County high school, a teacher took to social media to say school officials know best how to raise children – not parents. 
   

• Odessa Sheriff Blasts “Lying” Beto’s Gun-Control Proposal
  In the wake of a summer shooting in Odessa, Democrat Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (unsuccessfully) sought to pump up his failing presidential campaign by making bold claims regarding the incident, laying out falsehoods and outraging local officials and residents. Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis fought back, saying O’Rourke “is an idiot.”
      

• The City Without Property Taxes
  With property tax reform taking center stage in the 2019 legislative session, a profile of the City of Stafford made a splash. Why? The city doesn’t levy any property taxes. And contrary to what is often claimed by local officials, Stafford’s decision to forgo a property tax hasn’t caused municipal services to collapse.
      

• Texas House Advances Legislation to Add Illegal Aliens to Welfare Rolls
  Despite campaigning on cracking down on illegal immigration, Texas House Republicans unanimously voted in support of a measure providing welfare benefits to illegal aliens taken into custody. 
       

• Texas Democrats Target Religious Liberty
  When the 2019 legislative session began, Democrats signaled what kind of priorities they would embrace should they ever take control of the Texas House. While bad overall, their attacks on religious liberties were even worse. For example, Democrats want to force Christian small businesses to provide goods and services in support of sexual orientation and transgenderism.
     

• Austin’s School District Approves High-Risk Sex Ed Curriculum
  Rather than focus on academic excellence, public schools have inserted themselves into the center of the culture wars. And nowhere is that more obvious than Austin. Over the loud objections of parents, the school board unanimously passed a controversial sex education curriculum aimed at promoting risky sexual activities to students in the third through eighth grades. 
     

• DPS Footage Contradicts Media Narrative Regarding Constitutional Carry Advocate
  In his one session as House Speaker, Dennis Bonnen did a lot of lying. Second Amendment activists were shocked when Bonnen killed popular reforms on the basis that a gun rights advocate had threatened his family. But then the video came out, showing Bonnen made the whole thing up. The leftwing media had breathlessly published Bonnen’s lies without a second thought, but somehow neglected to report on the fact video evidence from the Department of Public Safety found the whole thing to be a lie.
  
  But, remember, just before Christmas the House’s “ethics” committee gave lawmakers a free pass on lying...
     

• North Texas Tea Party Leader: No Support for Incumbents
  One of the state’s most well-known activists, Julie McCarty of the True Texas Project, announced after the lackluster legislative session that she would not assist any legislative incumbents for re-election. She specifically cited the legislature’s unwillingness to pass key reforms, and the unwillingness of incumbent lawmakers to fight for the grassroots.
   

• Patrick Fires At Bush
  After Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush released a string of Twitter posts characterizing those that were skeptical of plans to “reimagine” the Alamo as “racist,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick waded into the debate. Patrick hammered his fellow Republican’s comments as “offensive and inaccurate.” Bush responded by accusing Patrick of twisting his words, saying the lieutenant government had made a “very dangerous mistake.”