September 23, 2016 6:33 PM GOP Ethics Commissioners: We are working to ensure Texas disclosure rules are predictable and fair In letter to Abbott, Patrick, and Straus, the Republican members of the Texas Ethics Commission outline "blatantly false" accusations made by Tim Dunn's group Empower Texans and affiliated organizations All
the Republican members of the Texas Ethics Commission have now
told Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Speaker Joe Straus that an effort led by Midland
oilman Tim Dunn’s group Empower
Texans to change the direction of the agency is based on claims that
are “so blatantly false that we feel duty bound to respond to them
directly." In
a letter to the big three dated September 16 and obtained by Quorum
Report on Friday through an open records request, Chairman Chase Untermeyer along with Commissioners Hugh Akin, Jim Clancy, and Robert Long
said they had no choice but to respond to a letter sent to all Republican
lawmakers by Dunn’s Empower Texans and co-signed by other groups including Texas
Right to Life, the Texas Home School Coalition, and the
Northeast Tarrant Tea Party. In
the Empower Texans letter sent last month, which you can read here,
the professional activists made many claims about the Ethics Commission
including that the “process is the punishment.” The commission has, QR readers are
aware, been investigating Empower Texans for years leading to a maximum fine
for illegal lobbying and protracted
court battles on multiple fronts. Lawmakers
should “investigate the commissioners and staff at the TEC for their
inexcusable and inexplicable actions,” the paid activists wrote. “All of the
commissioners need to be replaced, and the agency needs to be fundamentally
reformed or abolished,” argued Dunn’s spokesman Michael Quinn Sullivan. After
Dunn’s group demanded TEC commissioners be replaced, Lt. Gov. Patrick did his best.
The rest of the story, subscribers only By Scott Braddock |
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September 23, 2016 6:32 PM In Texas Energy Report: Energy all-star panel reveals legislative game plan for oil and gasFast-tracking Railroad Commission Sunset, tapping $10 billion Rainy Day Fund and more HOUSTON – A long-elusive sunset bill to reauthorize the oil-and-gas regulating Texas Railroad Commission for 12 more years will be fast-tracked next spring and stripped clean of such controversies as replacing the agency’s outdated name or moving certain functions elsewhere, a key lawmaker said Friday. Rep. Larry Gonzales, R-Round Rock, chair of the Sunset Advisory Committee, promised members of the state’s leading oil and gas lobby that the RRC’s sunset bill will contain what members of his committee deem necessary instead of the traditional recommendations of the Sunset Advisory Commission staff. “The idea is the (sunset) staff won’t write the bill. We the committee will write the bill. I would like to see the sunset legislation in the first 60 days. We’re going to take the Railroad Commission up early on the House side so it is not changed so much in May and becomes this terrible thing that won’t pass anymore,” said Gonzales, referring to the legislature’s practice of tagging otherwise dead or “zombie” bills on to sunset legislation. In the Senate, “We will pass a Railroad Commission Sunset bill, and it will be a clean bill,” added Sen. Craig Estes, incoming chairman of the Senate Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee. “It won’t have any bells or whistles on it to drag it down.” The full story is in the Texas Energy Report. |
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September 23, 2016 5:56 PM Press Releases: Honoring Gold Star mothers, appointments, endorsements, disaster funding, and more Click the Press Releases button above |
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September 23, 2016 5:27 PM House budget chair urges greater use of outside contract reviewsLBB: “… we have a responsibility to do our best to protect the treasury, to ensure the proper use of taxpayer dollars, and also to ensure your directives, as legislators, are being carried out by state agencies.” The
chair of the Texas House budget-writing committee is urging agencies to take
advantage of the contract review functions triggered by the failure of the Attorney
General’s T2 contract. Of
late, two scenarios have emerged with larger state contracts plagued with
problems: The self-dealing scandals such as the Health and Human Services’
21CT
contract; or, more often, problematic
delivery of a contract such as the AG’s child support overhaul, which is
unlikely to go live before the end of 2017. Both House
Appropriations and Senate Finance sat down with the
agencies charged with deploying the changes under Senate Bill 20. And while
Chairman Rep. John Otto, R-Dayton, will
soon by ceding his chair because he is retiring, he remained emphatic about
improving contracting processes. The rest of the story, subscribers only By Kimberly Reeves |
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September 23, 2016 2:53 PM Sen. Cruz endorses Donald TrumpDays after Lt. Gov. Patrick applied pressure, Cruz took to Facebook to give a lengthy explanation and confirmed he will vote for Trump Here’s
the Facebook post where Sen. Cruz confirms
the endorsement. |
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September 23, 2016 2:52 PM Video flashback: Sen. Ted Cruz vs Donald Trump When Cruz went after the eventual GOP nominee, Trump called him "the single biggest liar." |
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September 23, 2016 12:50 PM Smith: Hostilities at Hofstra: The First Presidential Debate of 2016QR’s Liberal Columnist Glenn W. Smith previews next week’s Clinton-Trump debate in Hempstead, New York Is
it just a coincidence that Donald Trump
held a bizarre event with fight promoter Don
King the week before his upcoming bout with Hillary Clinton in the first presidential debate of 2016? King’s
first gig in boxing was the Ali-Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle”
fight of 1974. Is Trump promising “Hostilities at Hofstra?” The
phrase doesn’t have the punch of “Rumble in the Jungle.” The debate, however,
might match the fight in South Africa in pre-hostilities hype and over-the-top
news coverage. Which, we should agree, is not a good thing. Presidential
debates are not about awarding a gaudy golden belt to someone. They are about –
or they should be about – the selection of the President of the United States.
Elections past have seen good debates and bad debates. Few challenged the
political media the way the 2016 debates do. Why
is this? The full column by Glenn W. Smith is in the R&D Department. By Glenn W. Smith |
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September 23, 2016 12:48 PM Sources tell Politico that Sen. Cruz will fold and endorse Trump “If he announces he endorses, it destroys his political brand,” said someone who had worked for Cruz's campaign. The
breaking report
from Politico
is here. |
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September 23, 2016 11:09 AM As promised, Paxton appeals Voter ID case to SCOTUS
The
petition
is here. |
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September 22, 2016 5:44 PM Greenfield: Projecting revenue that will be available for the next Legislature Our resident number cruncher writes that “Even with a positive rate of growth for tax revenues in FY17, these growth rates will be applied to a lower base. Unless growth rates are increased substantially, tax collections in FY17 will again be $1 billion less than in the CRE.” With
the close of Fiscal Year 2016, signers of the Americans for Tax Reform (ATR)
pledge can rejoice. They can genuflect to the statue of Grover Norquist and proclaim that – under their brilliance –
tax revenue declined while maternal mortality increased and special education services
suffered. Is
that not fulfilling the ATR directives of lower taxes, smaller government? My
sarcasm aside, tax collections at the close of the fiscal year, as Comptroller Hegar stated, were less than the Comptroller estimated in October 2015. While the Comptroller had
estimated that all funds tax collections for FY16 would be $49.7 billion,
actual collections were $48.5 billion, $1.2 billion less than the estimate and
$3.3 billion less than FY15 tax revenue. Figure 1 shows
the cumulative YTD growth for FY10 through FY16. Only FY09 (-8.5 percent) and FY10
(-6.5 percent) had greater declines in tax collection than FY16 (-6.2
percent). Following the decline in FY10,
tax collections increased by 9.9 percent in FY11. The full column from Dr. Stuart Greenfield can be found in the R&D Department. By Dr. Stuart Greenfield |
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September 22, 2016 5:43 PM Press Releases: Simulated Convention of States, mourning the loss of Jacqueline Ellis, counterterror, and moreClick the Press Releases button for the latest |
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September 22, 2016 1:25 PM Poll: Clinton leads Trump in Harris County by 9 points with likely voters “Clinton’s lead narrows however to only 4 percent (well within the survey’s margin of error) if we restrict the analysis to only those who indicated that they are extremely likely to cast a ballot this fall.” The
University
of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs poll results can be read in full here.
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September 21, 2016 5:10 PM HD 107 is possibly the swingiest of House swing seats in an ever-changing Dallas CountyRepublican Kenneth Sheets, now facing Victoria Neave, has taken on formidable opponents previously and won DALLAS
– The Texas House race with perhaps the most potential to keep Democrats
and Republicans on edge on election night is the contest for HD 107
in Dallas County. The swingiest of swing seats is represented now by three-term
Republican Rep. Kenneth Sheets of
Mesquite. The district includes parts of Dallas, Garland and Mesquite. Like
neighboring Rep. Cindy Burkett – the
Sunnyvale Republican facing Rowlett Democrat Rhetta
Andrews Bowers – Sheets’ district is rapidly changing ethnically. On
paper, the changes look as if they would benefit Democrats. Yet urban
Republicans like Sheets have managed to hold on. The rest of the story, subscribers only By James Russell |
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September 21, 2016 5:06 PM In Texas Energy Report: Tom Smitty Smith's sometimes bumpy but mostly Happy Trails
How state consumer champion cleaned Texas air while cutting energy bills Tom “Smitty” Smith’s 30-year career of watching out for Texans’ pocketbooks ultimately helped clean the air they breathe, too. And, that was no accident. The director of the Texas arm of Public Citizen, founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, announced Tuesday that he’s about to hang up his spurs and hand the reins to a yet-to-be-named successor. With luck, the man whose adopted “Happy Trails” as his trademark sign-off, will make his exit form the hallways of the Texas Capitol in the early months of 2017. Were he not retiring, he would have turned his attention to the oil-and-gas regulating Texas Railroad Commission’s upcoming Sunset Advisory Commission review, Smith said in an interview with Texas Energy Report. But his main frustration as he departs is not having been able to stop the corrosive effect of special interest money on the Texas Legislature. “One of the things I regret most, that’s left undone, is not really getting a handle on the influence of corporate money, business money, on Texas politics,” he said. “In the 30 years I’ve been doing this, we’ve had wave after wave of business groups get organized and link their donations to legislators, to specific votes they want to have on legislation, that takes away citizen rights – whether it be tort reform or homebuilder protection acts or where we are right now, which is taking away communities’ rights to protect themselves from the oil companies,” he continued. The full interview is in the Texas Energy Report. By Polly Ross Hughes |
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September 21, 2016 5:04 PM Schuster: Water In Israel: Quenching Our Thirst For Peace and Providing Lessons for TexasIn this op-ed, Hillel Schuster writes that cooperation across governments and the private sector creates a scenario in which politics and profits can combine to become a powerful engine of change Editor’s note: Hillel
Schuster, who lives in Israel, is participating in the Israel Public Diplomacy Forum’s
visit to Texas this month. For more information on that, click here – SB The
Old
Testament is chock-full of references to water and its life and death
impact on the economy and inhabitants of the land of Israel/Canaan. Abraham sojourns from Israel to Egypt
during a time of famine (due to lack of rain). Isaac is reported to have dug
many wells to survive here; and the Jewish people’s ultimate enslavement to
Pharaoh in Egypt begins with Jacob bringing his extended family south, to Egypt
during a 7-year period of famine (again, due to a lack of rain) in Israel. The
most basic economic reward and punishment recorded in the Bible relates to having
the rains fall in their time. In fact, peace in Israel is specifically
described as a time when the land can be productive due to an abundance of
water. (See Leviticus 26:3-4) In
short, with respect to Israel: When there is water, there is peace and when
there is no water, there is economic turmoil and upheaval. Guess
what? Thanks to a combination of economic foresight, technology and steady rate
of infrastructure investments, there is water in Israel and lots of it. What’s
more, soon some of the investments made by Israel will be replicated in Jordan
and Egypt and there are even water projects planned to be jointly executed
between Jordan and Israel. Yes,
you read that right, JOINTLY EXECUTED…Perhaps peace is coming; and the actors
will not be the politicians, but rather, a bunch of nerdy engineers and
investment bankers. Let me explain. The full column by Hillel Schuster can be found in the R&D Department. By Hillel Schuster |
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September 21, 2016 11:42 AM Texas voter registration hits new record There are now roughly 14,853,000 registered voters up from 14,238,000 during the primary, SOS office said. Potentially on track to surpass 15 million this cycle. |
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September 20, 2016 6:13 PM Patrick: School choice is the civil right of every familyThe Lite Guv lays out his vision for what some Capitol observers are calling “Leininger 2.0” – some Republicans call out Abbott, arguing the governor would have to get on board to put vouchers over the top in the Texas House Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to reflect the fact that when Rep. Mike Schofield spoke, he
only referenced one event at the Katy ISD in which many educational topics were
discussed – SB HOUSTON – The ability to choose the right school for a child – regardless of income – is the civil right of every parent, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told a school choice summit in Houston this morning. Patrick told the audience at the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute’s School Choice Summit he would leave the model for school choice – tax-credit scholarships or education savings accounts – to his Senate Public Education chair Sen. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood. But Patrick was unequivocal that school choice was imperative for Texas. “The argument is over, ‘Do we have school choice, equally and fairly, to every parent?’” Patrick asked. “That’s the choice. That’s the debate. And I say it’s the civil right of every parent to have that choice. Just because they can’t write the check, we take it away from them?” Lawmakers talked choice, but they also spent a significant amount of time on other issues including school finance. Rep. Mike Scholfield, R-Katy, said he appeared at a panel recently at the Katy ISD where a broad range of topics were covered including standards and the difficulties of being a large and fast growth district. "If you don't know what the target is, you can't hit it. We get so caught up in school finance that sometimes I think we lose sight of what the purpose is," Schofield said. "[We have to] step back and realize it is about educating the kids." The rest of the story, subscribers only By Kimberly Reeves |
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September 20, 2016 4:51 PM Lawmakers tackle looming $1.3 billion shortfall in Medicaid“It’s not a trivial amount of money that Texas has been handed to deliver through Medicaid…It covers half the babies born in Texas and two-thirds of the nursing home residents…But it still gets blamed for our problems” The $1.3 billion shortfall in Medicaid funding going into the next budget cycle can’t all be attributed to what Republicans typically call “out-of-control growth.” Executive Commissioner Charles Smith and his staff reviewed cost-containment measures with the Senate Finance Committee. Each session, for last least the last three sessions, the Health and Human Services Commission has been asked to provide some targeted cost-containment measures. According to HHSC’s presentation, first came $2 billion in cuts, then $438 million in cuts and, most recently, $378 million. HHSC is still $240 million short of the cuts requested by Rider 50 in last session’s budget. The rest of the story, subscribers only By Kimberly Reeves |
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September 20, 2016 4:36 PM Prosecutors decline to prosecute Sid MillerCommissioner Miller is pleased; Progress Texas responds: “I guess a ‘Jesus Shot’ doubles as a 'Get Out of Jail Free Shot.' Here’s
the update from Brian Rosenthal
of the Houston Chronicle. |
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September 20, 2016 4:31 PM Pauken: Skills Training Is a Logical Component of a Trump Economic PolicyFormer Texas GOP Chairman Tom Pauken argues that if Trump wants his economic proposals to work, his administration would need to emphasize skills training in a way the candidate hasn’t so far GOP
candidate Donald Trump has made
bringing jobs home to America and rebuilding our U.S. manufacturing sector key
themes in his campaign for the presidency. He has discussed many ways to
accomplish those goals including leveling the playing field with our trading
competitors, opposing bad trade deals that result in American jobs being
shipped overseas, and reforming a business tax system which rewards companies
for locating headquarters and factories overseas. If
Trump wins the presidency and puts policies in place to rebuild our U.S.
manufacturing sector, one vital element necessary to make that happen is a
renewed emphasis on the importance of a skilled workforce. The complete column by
former RPT Chairman Tom Pauken can be found in the R&D Department. By Tom Pauken |
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September 20, 2016 4:26 PM Former State Rep. Dick Burnett passed away Former state representative, San Angelo Police Chief and FBI agent assigned to the John F. Kennedy assassination investigation was 94. The
story via the
San
Angelo Standard-Times. |
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September 20, 2016 11:26 AM Straus picks Reps. Davis, Howard, Larson, Springer and Walle for Rainy Day Fund Panel “They will help ensure that we meet the state’s needs within a disciplined budget that keeps an appropriate amount of money in reserves,” Straus said. Texas House Speaker Joe Straus on
Tuesday made his appointments to the Select Committee to Determine a Sufficient
Balance of the Economic Stabilization Fund. He
chose Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston,
to the Co-Chair. Representatives Donna
Howard, D-Austin, Lyle Larson, R-San
Antonio, Drew Springer, R-Muenster,
and Armando Walle,
D-Houston, will all serve on the committee. The rest of the story, subscribers only |
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September 20, 2016 11:19 AM Judge orders Texas to receive preclearance of voter ID educational materials"ORDERED that all materials related to the education of voters, poll workers, and election officials that have not yet been published shall reflect the language of the Court’s prior Order." The
judge’s order from today can be
found here via Election Law Blog. |
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September 20, 2016 10:54 AM Tom Smitty Smith is retiring from Public Citizen"Smitty has become a valued friend and counselor, and I will dearly miss seeing his signature wide-brimmed hat at the Capitol.” The
full announcement
is here. |
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September 19, 2016 5:06 PM Tri-Agency summit focuses on high school workforce diplomas“For Texas to be the undisputed center for innovation and intellectual capital in this decade and beyond, we need to accelerate learning to the speed of business and technology” Texas
will only continue to be a dynamic, innovative state if it matches the skills
of students with the needs of employers in an ever-changing economy, Gov. Greg Abbott told a ballroom full of employers
and educators at a conference Monday in Austin. Abbott,
speaking at the Texas Education & Workforce Summit, said companies that
were some of the biggest in the country 20 years ago – Eastman Kodak, Woolworth and
Sears – are now no longer players in the economic marketplace. The key
to success is the ability to anticipate where the state needs to go in the coming
decades, Abbott said. “For
Texas to be the undisputed center for innovation and intellectual capital in
this decade and beyond, we need to accelerate learning to the speed of business
and technology,” said Governor Abbott. “In order to remain competitive and
ensure Texans are creating and filling the jobs of tomorrow, we need to do
more. Understanding the changing needs of job creators today is paramount in
continuing to expand opportunity in Texas.” The rest of the story, subscribers only By Kimberly Reeves |
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September 19, 2016 5:04 PM Press Releases: Endorsements, appointments, student voters, terror attacks, and moreClick the Press Releases button above for all the latest |
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September 19, 2016 4:04 PM SAEN: Ethics Commission unsure if AG will defend agency in future lawsuitsICYMI: Paxton's refusal to represent the state agency could cost hundreds of thousands of additional tax dollars Here’s
the scoop from San Antonio Express-News reporter David Saleh Rauf. |
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September 19, 2016 4:00 PM O'Donnell: An inside look at how the Lege ends up considering hundreds of inane billsQR’s resident curmudgeon Edd O’Donnell gives a preview of exactly how some fights will play out during the next legislative session Over
the years, numerous people have asked me why the Texas Legislature wastes
so much of its 140 days every two years considering hundreds of bills that do
not affect public health, safety or well-being. Money, ego and ideology are the
three prime sources of most of the pointless bills the Lege
considers with money being the leading culprit. Here’s a fictional case of how
it works: Weldon Junkin, ambitious bean counter at
the Ham
Hock grocery chain notices that each of their 27 stores has come up
missing three or more grocery carts each fiscal quarter and calculates that at
$367 a copy the cart losses are running into many thousands of dollars
annually. Weldon does a three-year spreadsheet and presents it to the equally
ambitious CFO who brings it up at an executive board meeting. The
HH CEO latches on to this as an important industry-wide problem he can use in
his upcoming speech to his trade association, Texas United Grocers
(TUG). Following the speech, the CEO of HH starts lobbying TUG to get a bill
introduced into the Lege’s next session that would
make taking a grocery cart a serious crime. The full column by Edd O’Donnell is in the R&D Department. By Edd O'Donnell |
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September 19, 2016 9:42 AM Former Cruz and Paxton staffer Chip Roy joins TPPF as head of 10th Amendment Center “We are thrilled to have Mr. Roy join the Texas Public Policy Foundation after so many years as a distinguished ally and fast friend,” said Brooke Rollins, President and CEO. |
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Copyright September 23, 2016, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved 