A variety of issues on the agenda of the 85th session

At least a partial list right now - expect more:

- The "bathroom bill," also know as the Women's Privacy Act.
- Border security
- Sanctuary cities.
- The Franchise Tax
- Reforming public school funding
- Abortion - burial of fetal remains
- Property tax relief
- Funding for Planned Parenthood
- Constitutional Carry
- Reforming Child Protective Services
- Private school vouchers - "education savings accounts"
- Rules related to ride-hailing: Uber and Lyft.
- Ban on texting while driving
- Limits on toll roads
- Outlaw use of traffic cameras
- Reforming marijuana laws
- Ethics reform: Lobbyists disclosures, transparency
- Mental care access.
- Highway funding
- Pension reform
- The costs of higher education
- Open records reform
- Local control
- Criminal justice reform

That's plenty for now.

Here are a handful of sources for more info on these issues:

- Austin American Statesman: Your Guide to the 85th Legislative Session.
- Austin American Statesman: 85TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE.

- Houston Chronicle: Texas needs to dump its franchise tax and come up with something better.
- KXAN: Break-down of top bills during 85th Texas Legislative Session.
- Austin American Statesman: Will lawmakers expand disclosure of lobbyist spending, transparency?
- Dallas Morning News: Texas lawmakers set to debate bathrooms, education, CPS as 2017 session launches.

From Blinn College: On the Road to the 85th Legislative Session and Discussion of TACC (Texas Association of Community Colleges) and CCATT (Community College Association of Texas Trustees)

Blinn College offers a terrific set of power points focusing on issues relevant to community colleges in the state and their strategy for achieving their objectives in the 85th session of the Texas Legislature.

These will be worth looking at in class.

- Click here for them.

From the Texas Tribune: GOP operative John Colyandro to lead "school choice" lobbying group

The doors keep on revolving.

- Click here for the article.

Longtime GOP political operative John Colyandro has been tapped to head a new organization that will aggressively push Texas lawmakers to approve education savings accounts, the latest controversial proposal in private "school choice" and a priority of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

The advocacy group Texans for Education Opportunity announced Colyandro's hiring in a press release Thursday morning as a key move in their push for legislation that will allow parents to send their children to private schools using tax money.

Now the executive director of the Texas Conservative Coalition Research Institute, Colyandro "easily rose to the top" of a large talent pool of prospective leaders, said Stacy Hock, TEO's board chair. "As we are moving into session, we found that John has been a trusted voice and a champion of smart policy in and around the capitol for decades now. As he started to engage from a board perspective, it became clear that his engagement became more and more active," she said.

Colyandro has had an up-and-down career in Texas politics. In 2004, he was indicted by a Travis County grand jury on charges of money laundering after serving as the director of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's political action committee. DeLay, Colyandro and aide Jim Ellis were accused of illegally funneling corporate contributions to GOP candidates in key 2002 Texas legislative races. DeLay was convicted in 2011, and the conviction was overturned in 2013 by the Texas 3rd Court of Appeals. Colyandro pleaded guilty to lesser misdemeanor charges, was hit with a fine and his record was expunged after a year.

Trib + Water

When we walk through Article 3 of the Texas Constitution I like to note the inclusion of large number of bonds approved by the voters for water development projects. The availability of water has been a dominant issue for much of Texas' history.

As a way to underscore the range of issues the state faces concerning water, you might want to peruse through the various items on the subject the Texas Tribune has posted over time.

- Click here for the article.

From the Texas Tribune: Texas Supreme Court Halts Children's Therapy Cuts

Some checks and balances - also related to Texas' tendency to cut social services.

- Click here for the article.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday delivered a temporary, last-minute victory to families of children with disabilities who want to stop sweeping budget cuts to a state-funded children’s therapy program.

State lawmakers last year approved $350 million in budget cuts for Medicaid programs that provide physical, speech and occupational therapy to disabled children. Blocked once before by a district court order, the cuts were scheduled to take effect July 15 after an appellate court ruled in April that Texas could move forward with them.

The Supreme Court’s order will delay those cuts, which have been tied up in court for nearly a year, once again.

The disabled children’s families, joined by therapy providers who are paid by Medicaid, the federal-state insurance program for the poor and disabled, sued the state over the pay cut, saying it would force medically necessary businesses to close and leave fragile children without access to health care.

Texas lawmakers ordered the cuts arguing that the state overpaid for those services. Many in-home therapy providers who treat children covered by Medicaid say the payment reduction would amount to a roughly 20 percent revenue cut that would force them out of business.

In the year since the budget was passed, dozens of lawmakers who voted for it have asked Texas officials to delay the cuts in order to study their projected effects more closely, for fear the move would jeopardize children’s access to health care.

The Supreme Court’s temporary injunction is not a ruling on the validity of the Medicaid cuts, but it buys time for the groups opposing the cuts to continue their aggressive lobbying campaign to have lawmakers revisit the issue.

From the TexasTribune: Appeals Court Tells Texas Foster Care Reforms Must Continue

Federalism in action: 

- Click here for the article.

Texas must continue drafting court-ordered plans to fix its broken foster care system, according to a new order from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

State officials have repeatedly gone to court seeking to avoid compliance with a ruling last year by U.S. District Judge Janis Jack finding the state’s long-term foster care system in such disrepair that it systemically violated children’s civil rights.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, represented by lawyers from the Texas Attorney General’s office, has argued that Jack lacked standing to order changes to the state’s foster care system. State officials also charged that her ruling ignored years of progress made by the agency.

Despite a series of setbacks in appeals court, Texas officials most recently hoped to derail the plan for reforms that is currently being overseen by outside appointees.

Justices on the bench of the 5th Circuit, considered one of the country’s most conservative appellate courts, found that lawyers for the state “failed to demonstrate that they have a ‘clear and indisputable’ entitlement to relief” from complying with the reform process.

From Houston Matters: Planning for Future Water Needs

In 2306 - when we walked through Article 3 of the Texas Constitution - we took note of all the bonds sold by the state that pertained to water development projects. The radio show focused on the Texas Water Development Board's recently released 50 year comprehensive plan.

- Click here for the program.

And if you are up for it:

- Water for Texas: 2017 State Water Plan.

From Grits for Breakfast: Debating the biggest Texas criminal justice stories of 2015

For 2306.

- Click here for the story.

. . . any such list is subjective, there's always room for debate. But here's how Grits would have ranked Texas' top criminal justice stories of 2015:

- Sandra Bland's death

- Darren Goforth's murder

- Waco biker shootout, aftermath

- Raising property theft thresholds

- DNA mixture debacle

- Decriminalizing truancy

- Ending pick-a-pal grand juries

- Strengthening junk science writ

- Flawed forensics reviews 

Honorable mention:

- Exoneration Commission created

- DPS border surge made rest of state measurably less safe

- SCOTUS says Texas cops can shoot whomever they want

- Texas to gather data on police shootings

- Lege ends DPS gathering ten fingerprints for driver licenses

- Number of new death sentences plummets

Opportunity in Texas: #1 for business, #38 for people

Two studies which purport top measure opportunity across each state have different things to say about Texas.

CNBC has had Texas #1 in recent surveys for business opportunity, but the measures used as part of the Opportunity Index - which focus on the factors that impact people, not businesses - place Texas far lower among the states.

This illustrates a few things we cover in 2306, namely the types of public policy priorities in the state and the impact of the state's individualistic political culture on state priorities.

From the Washington Monthly:

The Opportunity Index ranks states based on sixteen indicators that Measure of America codirector Kristen Lewis says are essential to the “infrastructure of opportunity” for individuals. These indicators include not just the basics—the availability of jobs, affordable housing, and quality education—but also what a growing body of research shows is critical to upward mobility: social capital and civic life. These factors make up, at the individual level, the equivalent of the “business-friendly” environment that company-focused rankings measure.

The outcomes under the Opportunity Index approach, needless to say, are radically different from those of CNBC. Under the 2013 Opportunity Index, Texas—top ranked in opportunities for business by CNBC—ranks thirty-eighth in opportunities for people. Meanwhile, Vermont, which invests nearly double what Texas does per pupil in K-12 education ($15,096 versus $8,562), ranks first on the Opportunity Index and thirty-second by CNBC.

. . . While some structural differences—such as the level of church membership—are less susceptible to public policy, federal, state, and local policy choices can have profound impacts on whether people have access to the building blocks of upward mobility: decent schools, safe streets, and even access to grocery stores with affordable healthy food. In some neighborhoods of Houston, says a report by Children at Risk, “areas as large as 10 miles have been identified as containing a single food source—gas stations that sell tobacco, alcohol and fatty snacks.” As a tragic—but unsurprising—consequence, as many as 47 percent of Harris County children are obese or overweight.

In the same way that the rankings of the U.S. News & World Report have influenced—for better or for worse—the investments and choices that colleges have made to improve their standings, it’s likely that the multiplicity of business-focused rankings have skewed the policy choices of states eager to attract companies within their borders. Texas, for example, spends $19 billion a year on tax incentives to woo companies to the state, according to the New York Times—at the same time, it cut education spending by $5.4 billion last year. In the last legislative session, Texas lawmakers passed yet more tax cuts, exempting small businesses from franchise taxes, lowering franchise tax rates, and creating a special tax break for data centers doing business in the state. Texas was also among the first states to develop a so-called war chest—the Texas Enterprise Fund—aimed at offering companies incentives to move to the state, along with a smorgasbord of other goodies, including grants and low-cost loans to businesses.

From the DSM: High-tech pushes growth in Texas again

The article's title is a bit more sunny than its content. We've lost research jobs recently.

Texas still lags other big states - it mentions California, New York and Virginia - in both the number of high tech workers and the amount of their pay.

Tech workers in California, for instance, commanded an annual average of almost $32,000 more. Whether that’s an advantage depends on your point of view: Startups here pay considerably less for labor (as well as real estate), but they also see a lot of top talent bolt for higher pay on the east and west coasts.

While high-tech is big in Texas, we should be striving to make it a lot bigger. Last week’s billion-dollar sale of the young blogging platform Tumblr was the latest reminder of the industry’s huge upside.
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Other locales have turned more aggressive. In New York, where Tumblr is based, private and public leaders have pledged billions for campuses, office space and other initiatives to create a high-tech challenger to Silicon Valley. Venture capital has poured into the New York area (while it declined elsewhere, including here) and seed accelerators have multiplied. Both help speed the development of startup companies.

Cities and states always ask how to get more high-tech companies, said Matthew Kazmierczak, a researcher at the TechAmerica Foundation and author of the group’s annual Cyberstates report, which chronicles the industry’s job growth. He emphasizes a large labor force with the right skills.

“That’s often tied to good universities and research centers,” he said. “They fuel the pipeline of ideas.”

So the point seems to be that Texas lags behind other states because our state and local governments do not make the necessary investments to lure and incubate them. The relatively low number of tier one universities is one example. This makes it less likely that research will be conducted here:

. . . jobs in R&D remain a weakness in Texas’ tech story. From 2009 to 2012, the state lost 600 workers in research, according to TechAmerica. Over the same time, Texas employers added 19,000 jobs in computer system design and 5,000 in engineering services.

Just 7 percent of Texas tech jobs are in research and testing labs, compared with 12 percent nationwide. The share of R&D jobs in California, New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania is at least twice as high as in Texas.

Texas’ tech workforce is larger than every state, except California. But New York and the mid-Atlantic region, led by the Virginia area near Washington, have been coming on strong. Last year, even after solid growth, Texas was still about 7,000 jobs shy of its peak tech employment in 2008. New York had 10,000 more tech workers than its pre-recession peak, and Virginia eclipsed its peak, too.

Texas counties bear costs of illegal dumping of oil and gas waste - the state seems unconcerned

The oil and gas boom has imposed environmental costs on counties in the state. The existing regulatory environment is not strong enough to environmental rules, and there seem to be some confusion about the jurisdiction of counties, and that of the Railroad Commission. It seems that counties want to take a more aggressive stance towards polluters than the state.

Story in StateImpact Texas

State of the Judiciary Address

Last Wednesday Texas Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson gave the State of the Judiciary address before the legislature.

Here is the text of the remarks: Chief Justice Jefferson Calls for Continued Legal Help for Poor, Decriminalizing School Misbehavior, Study of Guardianship Needs for Elderly.

And some feedback about the remarks:

- Texas Tribune.
- The Atlantic.
- Texas' chief justice wants investigation of all wrongful convictions
- Jefferson pushes for judicial reforms


His speech drew notice for his focus on inequality in the state's justice system, an area we don't spend enough time on in class - this should help correct that deficiency. The Trib states that he:

. . . "reiterated his calls for more funding for civil legal aid, indigent defense and juvenile justice reform, and pushed for the establishment of an 'innocence commission' to investigate wrongful convictions."

Presenting his State of the Judiciary speech to Texas lawmakers, Jefferson said that "wrongful convictions leave our citizens vulnerable, as actual perpetrators remain free" and recommended the Legislature create a commission "to investigate each instance of exoneration, to assess the likelihood of wrongful convictions in future cases, and to establish statewide reforms." He cited the recent exoneration of Michael Morton, who spent nearly 25 years in prison for murder.

The creation of such a commission nearly passed in 2011, but failed at the last minute. Part of the opposition has come from Jeff Blackburn, chief legal counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas, a nonprofit organization that attempts to overturn wrongful convictions and investigate why they happen in the first place. He said recently that such a commission would have to be “extremely well-funded,” and would more likely become “a paper commission that would give a lot of people an excuse to turn away from a lot of the real issues we face in the criminal justice system."

But the bill creating such a commission, House Bill 166, by state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, got a favorable review from the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Tuesday.

Jefferson also pushed for indigent defense and more money for civil legal aid. "We must do more," he said, "to keep the courthouse doors open for all of our neighbors." He called on lawmakers to increase the amount of funding dedicated to organizations that provide indigent civil legal aid and criminal defense.

From the Chronicle: State orders North Forest ISD to close

Some material for our eventual look at public education in the state.

State officials on Thursday once again recommended pulling the plug on the troubled North Forest Independent School district.

Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams recommended that the district of 6,900 students be annexed into the mammoth Houston ISD effective July 1. His statement came just two days after the district said it would seek a partnership with Texas A&M University to assume day-to-day operations of its 10 schools.

. . . North Forest ISD's enrollment is down more than 40 percent in 10 years. The district has garnered the state's lowest performance rating for three years and has also struggled financially, amassing an $8 million debt and nearing bankruptcy.

North Forest High School, where the Class of 2011's dropout rate was slightly more than 30 percent, has been deemed "academically unacceptable" by TEA for six years straight. In spring 2012, ninth-graders' HISD.

Public Policy in the 83rd Session

If you have an hour to kill, here's a video put together by the Texas Tribune in early December looking at what's likely to dominate this session of the legislature.

“It is totally conboomerated”

The proposition referred to below did not pass (thanks PR). The vote was roughly 73% no and 27% for. It seems to touch on an old issue unique to cattle country related to open and closed ranges. The reason seems to be that no one was really sure what the proposition proposed (thus the title):

Should stock owners be required to keep their cattle fenced in, or should their neighbors be required to keep the cattle fenced out?

What sounds like a straightforward proposition involves two separate ballot initiatives and more than a small ration of confusion.

. . .The first initiative pertains only to cattle. The ballot language states simply: “Adoption of the Stock Law.”

A “yes” vote will support a closed range, meaning the cattle owner is responsible for keeping his livestock contained. A “no” vote supports open range, meaning landowners are responsible for keeping cattle off their property.

The second initiative pertains to livestock other than cattle. The ballot language states: “Letting horses, mules, jacks, jennets, donkeys, hogs, sheep and goats run at large in Coryell County.” 

On this initiative, a “no” vote supports closed range; a “yes” vote favors open range.

I thought this was a simple issue. I was wrong.

- Open Range counties in Texas.

Catching up with the conflict between Texas and the Feds over Medicaid

The national government would like to see Medicaid expanded - and is creating incentives to persuade state to do so - but Texas is balking on that. This is one of a handful of items that will dominate the legislative session, so here's some of the latest on it:

- Texas Tribune: Dewhurst, Nelson Tout Proposals to Curb Medicaid Costs.

Dewhurst said Senate Bills 7 and 8, filed by Nelson, the chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, would bring down ballooning state Medicaid costs. “What we’re trying to do, Senator Nelson and myself, is improve the quality of health care for our Medicaid population” by providing incentives that lead to better patient outcomes.

SB 7 would redesign long-term and acute care services for the disabled and elderly — the most costly services in Medicaid — by instituting quality-based payment systems and expanding Medicaid managed care to cover services provided in nursing facilities.

SB 8 would ensure that providers found guilty of Medicaid fraud in Texas or other states would be barred from participating in the state’s program, strengthen prohibitions against marketing to Medicaid patients, add medical transportation services to managed care and enable the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General to establish a new data system to catch Medicaid fraud earlier.

There's more along those lines from the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and Austin American-Statesman.

Dewhurst ruled out expanding Medicaid coverage as encouraged under the Affordable Care Act. The expansion is primarily paid for by the national government, but Texas is among a handful of states that do not wish to comply. That could be something we discuss in 2306 next week since we will be talking about Texas within the federal system. Remember that Texas provides medical assistance to the poor not because it wants to, but because it is enticed to (or subtly coerced to if you prefer) by the national government.  

Cool graphic from KUT:

We still haven't figured out what to do about the confederacy.

The Texas Tribune reports on the latest tussle over how to deal with Texas' confederate past. The Son's of Confederate states that the current plague insufficiently honors the Confederacy. It reads:

"Because this building was built with monies from the Confederate Pension fund it was, at that time, designated as a memorial to the Texans who served the Confederacy."

Not good enough for the group. Here's one of the many confederate monuments on the capitol grounds










We discussed controversies over the content of history and government curriculum in class this week, at least a bit. Covering Texas' past presents on an ongoing conflict in the state.

Click here for an interactive map of all Texas' confederate markers.

And here's a related story.

Catching up with the Texas school finance trial

In most classes today - when we were trying to figure out why the state of Texas includes 6 credit hours government in the core curriculum - we continued to look at primary documents, including the opening section of Article 7 of the Texas Constitution. It reads:

A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.

I mentioned that the part in bold and that a current lawsuit involves this phrase. Following the $5.4billion in budget cuts made in the 82nd session of the Texas Legislature, 2/3rds of the public school districts in the state sued.

The Texas Tribune catches us up with the case. A trial is underway and is not expected to result in a decision until March, and then the appellate process will begin, and who knows when that ends. The legislature is not sure exactly how to deal with this, although restoring the cuts may well do the trick.

Leadership has already stated that this will not happen if they have their say, but the courts may end up ordering that they do so. The article details the problems this poses for the legislature:

If the courts finds the funding mechanism of public education unconstitutional, the Legislature must revisit school finance in the budget. And if the state does not comply with the court-ordered instructions, the Texas Education Agency would be blocked from giving money, [State Rep. Jimmie Don] Aycock said. “The lever is the ability to shut off funding to the schools so [legislators] don’t have to do exactly what the court says, but be within the boundaries set by the court,” Aycock said.

Thompson said schools have repeatedly sued the state over the years because Texas refuses to perform studies on its education system and to update its financing for its changing population. “They quit doing them because they didn’t like the answers,” he added. “They were consistently finding that it’s going to take more resources."

Some legislators have tried to permanently change the state’s responsibility to education by amending the Texas Constitution, but they have not gained traction. In the early 1990s, state Rep. John Culberson, now a Republican congressman from Houston, drafted an amendment to exclude courts from school finance matters by allowing lawmakers to determine adequate levels of financing. State Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, offered an amendment last session, but it failed in committee.

We will follow this as it develops.

The Texas Public Policy Foundation holds its third orientation for the legislators

The Texas Public Policy Foundation (Wikipedia) is one of the state's most influential think tanks and is heavily funded by conservative groups and individuals to develop policy recommendations to the state and the legislature.

This is the third time they've held an orientation for legislature at the beginning of the session. Governor Perry gave the keynote and a large number of legislators attended. Click here for background of past meetings

Here's Perry's address:





The TPPF has published a summary of what they would like to see the legislature accomplish this session. Click here to read through it. It might be helpful to balance their priorities with those of the Center for Pubhlic Priorities - a liberal leaning Texas think tank. I can't find a similar document right now - but I'll keep looking.

Catching up with the 83rd Legislature

Here are links to a few stories about the goings on in Austin. All will apply to some aspect of GOVT 2306, so be on the lookout.

- The Texas Tribune reports that Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst wants to retain the 2/3rds rule in the Senate, but that other Senators are not in favor of retaining it. The rule allows a minority within the Senate to block legislation they oppose:

The controversial rule prevents bills from being brought up for debate on the Senate floor unless two-thirds of senators consent. That rule has allowed a coalition of 11 of the Senate’s 31 members to block measures that have the support of more than half of the body. Although the rule has often helped Democrats block legislation, it has also worked in the favor of other groups of like-minded senators, such as those from rural districts.
Democrats will have at least 11 members out of the 31 in the Senate, so it gives them a bit of leverage in the chamber.

- Texas Watchdog argues that the state legislature in a "minefield of potential conflicts of interest." Legislators, who need to do something else in the almost 600 days they are not in session every two years, often have interests that they can assist with their ability to pass legislation. We might wish to consider if this is an inevitable consequence of the amateur legislature.

- The Texas Legislature likes to claim that it is not as dysfunctional of Congress, but the Dallas Morning News claims that lines are emerging quickly over what to do about the projected surplus. Should the programs cut in the last legislative session be restored? Or should taxes be cut further?

- The Dallas Morning News highlights 5 things to watch for in the upcoming session. 1 - Perry and Dewhurst will try to rebuild their reputations after a bad year. 2 - Water and transportation infrastructure needs to be addressed. Texas is not ready for projected growth. 3 - Public education has multiple issues including the backlash against testing and the cuts from the past session. 4 - A variety of hot-button issues including vouchers, drug testing, texting while driving bans and a statewide no-smoking ban. 5 - The latest round in pro-business efforts.

- The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal echoes the point.

- An editorial writer in Corpus Christi wonders if the legislature will look to the future or focus on the short term.