Good morning, 

Texas is Californizing itself... and people have started to notice.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, January 28, 2020
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• We may not have the perpetually sunny weather or beaches bursting with starlets, but when it comes to taxes Texas is looking a lot more like California.
   

• The Wall Street Journal headline says it all: “So Long, California? Goodbye, Texas? Taxpayers Decide Some States Aren’t Worth It.” Yes, Texas’ tax problems are being compared to California’s – but not in the “Texas is great” way we like to think. Instead, the WSJ compares our state’s confiscatory levels of property taxes to the tax burdens which have forced Californians to migrate east in recent years.

     
• In 2019 Texas had a $10 billion state budget surplus, yet Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republicans in the Texas Legislature chose to use half to bloat government spending. After intense grassroots pushback, the other $5 billion was eventually dedicated to school property tax "relief." Apparently they hoped no one would actually look at their tax bill, which is slated to increase again on average in 2020.
      
• Queue promises that next year, trust them – really, they mean it now – they will finally get busy cutting the property tax burden... Unless they decide to spend it on growing government again, but, really then we can count on them to do it in 2023... Maybe...
     
• In a new commentary, Matt Rinaldi writes that the grassroots must flex their muscle more often so politicians will take note. He reflects on the message sent by the 22,000 individuals who peacefully descended on the Virginia Capitol last week protesting a series of gun-control proposals.
     

• Rinaldi reminds readers, “of the four gun-control proposals that sparked the Virginia protests, [Texas’] statewide Republican leaders have come out in support of two of them: universal background checks and red-flag laws.”
   

• In reviewing data from a recently published survey, Ross Kecseg finds only eight percent of Americans rightly believe that extreme global poverty has dropped since 1990. In fact, extreme global poverty has declined 75 percent since 1990 – not that you’d know that listening to “uninformed media pundits, activist college professors, and power-hungry politicians.”

• Texans for Fiscal Responsibility has endorsed Chip Roy for re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Cary Cheshire writes that since entering Congress, Roy has not only met every promise he made to voters, but he has exceeded their expectations.
      
• A complete list of TFR’s 2020 endorsements can be found on our website.
      
• Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s endorsement decisions are made after a diligent review of their record on fiscal policy, public advocacy on behalf of conservative issues, an interview, and feedback from district constituents.
   
• Momentum continues to build for conservative candidate Chris Ekstrom as he campaigns across North Texas and the panhandle to represent the 13th Congressional District in Congress. Cary Cheshire reports Ekstrom secured the endorsement of U.S. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs.