Good morning,

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants half of the state’s $27 billion budget surplus to go toward property tax relief. House Speaker Dade Phelan and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick are offering more tepid approaches. Today’s One Click Survey asks what you would do.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Don’t Let Our Enemies Buy Up Texas

• Republican State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst (Brenham) has filed legislation to ban certain foreign entities from gaining ownership of Texas lands. As Sydnie Henry reports, countries listed in the ban include Iran, Russia, North Korea, and China, and it would apply both to “governments or entities affiliated with these countries or their citizens.”
      
• “The growing ownership of Texas land by some foreign entities is highly disturbing and raises red flags for many Texans,” said Kolkhorst. “By comparison, as an American, go try to buy land near a Chinese military base and see how it works out for you. It would never happen there, and it shouldn’t happen here. Passing this law delivers some basic safeguards to ensure Texans remain in control of Texas land.”
      
• Kolkhorst cited the recent purchase of 130,000 acres in South Texas near Laughlin Air Force Base by a former member of the Chinese communist army in 2021.
      
• Texas Scorecard has chronicled China’s incursions into Texas in a recent special investigative series and Season 3 of the podcast series EXPOSED.
     
• Recent polling found 82 percent of Texas Republican voters want to see the Texas government prohibit the Chinese government or Chinese citizens from purchasing land in the state.

Texas GOP Calls For New National Party Leadership

• Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has lost the confidence of the Texas GOP. Over the weekend, the State Republican Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Texas—the party’s governing body—unanimously passed a resolution urging the RNC to choose new leadership. Brandon Waltens has the details.
     
• “Under Chairwoman McDaniel’s leadership, the GOP lost both houses of Congress and the White House, and seriously underperformed in 2022 by further losing ground in the Senate and only barely winning a majority in the House,” the resolution states. “The grassroots have lost faith in Chairwoman McDaniel and the RNC and believes the party needs new leadership that will address deficiencies in fundraising, messaging, [Get Out The Vote efforts] and election integrity and put the party in closer alignment with its grassroots supporters and voters.”
     
• The resolution urges Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi and the state’s two national committee members – Dr. Robin Armstrong and Toni Anne Dashiell – to “pay heed to the grassroots’ profound dissatisfaction with the RNC” and vote for an alternative to McDaniel.
     
• Rinaldi has expressed dissatisfaction with McDaniel’s leadership, while Dashiell has endorsed her. Armstrong has so far remained quiet on the issue. The RNC will elect its next chair when they meet in January.

🎧 MACIAS: Inside The SREC

• Learn more about the inner workings of the State Republican Executive Committee meeting in this week’s edition of the Luke Macias Show. With Republican lawmakers dismissing GOP legislative priorities, Macias explores how the Texas GOP is pushing back.
     
• As a bonus, he also unpacks Sen. Kolkhorst’s legislation prohibiting enemy nations and their citizens from buying land in the Lone Star State.
     
• Listen to the Luke Macias Show on the Texas Scorecard website, or anywhere you consume podcasts.

Republican Lawmaker Defends Democrat Committee Chairs

• Despite more than 79 percent of his county’s Republicans’ wishes to the contrary, State Rep. Lynn Stucky (R-Sanger) is unlikely to support a rule banning Democrats from chairing committees in the GOP-dominated Texas House.
   
• Monica Hamilton, a precinct chair from Wise County, told Texas Scorecard that during a recent meeting with Stucky, the lawmaker would not commit to ending the practice of putting Democrats in leadership positions in the Legislature.
      
• In the March Republican primary, 81 percent of Republican voters statewide – and 85 percent in Wise County – said “the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature should end the practice of awarding committee chairmanships to Democrats.” It is also a legislative priority for the Texas GOP, as defined by delegates to the party’s biennial convention.
     
• Funny how “Republicans” like Lynn Stucky demand that voters support the whole Republican ticket, even as he turns around and enables liberal Democrats to undermine the GOP agenda.

Abbott, Biden Expand Welfare Spending Under COVID Pretext

• The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday the Biden Administration has conspired with states to expand welfare payments while undermining work requirements under the pretext of the COVID pandemic.
      
• According to the WSJ, Gov. Abbott’s ongoing COVID emergency declaration is allowing Texas’ welfare recipients to stay on the dole longer and get more money.
      
• Only 11 states, including Texas, are still operating under a COVID “emergency.”
      
• When did “spend lots of money on welfare” become a Republican virtue?

Quote-Unquote

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”

– James Madison

ONE CLICK SURVEY

How much of Texas’ $27 billion budget surplus should be applied to property tax relief?

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!