May 22, 2020      9:00 AM

SB: GOP Galveston County Judge in war of words over property taxes with some Republican Texas House members

Any hint of speaker politics aside, the significant backdrop is disagreement over whether SB2 taxing limits are canceled out by Gov. Abbott’s disaster declaration in all Texas counties; Abbott now says he does not read the law that way but the language seems pretty clear

A handful of GOP Texas House lawmakers including some in retiring Speaker Dennis Bonnen’s leadership team along with Freedom Caucus members spent some of this week slamming the Republican Galveston County Judge after he said he was glad the speaker is not coming back.

County Judge Mark Henry, who recently asked Gov. Greg Abbott to use his disaster powers to freeze property values at 2019 levels, was quoted in the Galveston County Daily News as saying Bonnen has been “hiding behind his keyboard.” Henry added that he’s glad the speaker chose to not seek reelection. That was after Bonnen said Judge Henry’s property values proposal is a “horrible idea.”

There’s apparently been bad blood between the two of them for some time, which shouldn’t surprise anyone given the escalating tensions between state and local governments. Bonnen, as quoted in the Daily News, said “My valuation doesn’t cost me one penny in property tax, his tax rate does.”

After that, some Representatives whose districts are 250 miles away – and one who is situated nearly 600 miles away – from Babe’s Beach along the seawall piled on the GOP County Judge.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright May 22, 2020, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved