"Four"-Point Shots, Vol. 1, No. 26: October 27, 2023
“In God We Trust” is engraved above the dais in both the House and Senate chambers. But the motto should be that of the Average Joe’s team in “Dodgeball:” “Aim Low.”
Welcome to a special “Four Points” edition of Three-Point Shots, a part of my Life Its OwnselfSubstack page. If you enjoy reading it, please 1) hit the Like button, 2) subscribe to the Life Its Ownself, and 3) share it with others in the link below. Comments are welcome and encouraged.
Friday, October 27, 2023, 3:00 p.m.
We have had so much drama lately at the national and international levels that, like the eye of Sauron, our attention has been drawn away from our own Capitol Building and the third special session, which is now in its 19th (out of 30) day. The session must end on or before November 7. Abbott, of course, can call additional 30-day special sessions after that.
Today, therefore, let us briefly catch up on each of the four issues listed in the special session and evaluate the state of play on each.
Before delving into them, though, let us note again for the record that each of these issues caters to a vanishingly small portion of the Texas electorate and will not, if addressed as Greg Abbott would have them be, substantially improve the quality of life of any significant number of Texans. This is a session about nothing, or at least about nothing that will have some payoff for the people of our state.
In part, this is because Greg Abbott has a very clear idea of his “constituency.” The problem is, they are a small (and getting smaller) portion of the actual population of Texas, consisting mostly of oligarchs and aging reactionary evangelicals.
The phrase “In God We Trust” is engraved above the dais in both the House and Senate chambers. But the motto should be that of the Average Joe’s team in “Dodgeball:” “Aim Low.”
1. Vouchers, AKA education savings accounts
The voucher education savings accounts vehicle is SB 1 by Brandon Creighton. It has passed the Senate and is awaiting a hearing in the House Select Committee on Educational Opportunity & Enrichment. It would set aside $500 million of general revenue to provide $8,000 of taxpayer money to pay for private schools and other educational expenses such as uniforms, textbooks, tutoring or transportation, among other things. If demand exceeds supply, the program would prioritize grants to students receiving free or reduced lunch (40%), families earning between 185% and 500% of the federal poverty level (30%), and students with disabilities (20%).
These allocations sound generous, but private schools are not required to accept or educate such students, which means the private schools, not the families, will decide where the dollars end up. Also, private school students are not required to take a state-administered academic achievement exam as public school students do.
The House has offered a more modest voucher proposal in HB 1, wrapped in an omnibus bill that raises teacher pay and puts more money into public schools. But that bill has not even been scheduled for a hearting yet.
My take: Vouchers have hit a wall in the House. The Senate bill has not gotten a hearing, and the House version probably cannot until the Governor expands the call of the session, which he has threatened he will not do until a voucher bill in on his desk. The question is how long the coalition of Democrats and rural Republicans can hold out in the face of a full-court press from the Governor and his supporters.
2. Border security
The border security package has three elements:
· A new criminal offense for a non-citizen who illegally enters or re-enters the state (HB 4)
· A bill to increase penalties for people involved in smuggling or operating a stash house for persons who are not U.S. citizens (SB 4)
· An $1.5 billion appropriation to build more border walls (HB 6)
Let’s take them in turn.
HB 4 would create a new crime – illegal entry or re-entry into the state by someone who is not a U.S. citizen. A first offense would be a class B misdemeanor (up to 180 days in jail and/or a maximum fine of $2,000) and subsequent offenses would be a state jail felony (180 days to two years in a state jail and an optional fine of up to $10,000).
SB 4 addresses human trafficking by increasing the minimum sentence for smuggling or operating stash house from two years to 10 years. Democrats complain the definition of smuggling in the bill is too broad and may lead to law enforcement officers targeting people giving rides to friends or family who happen to be undocumented to places such as a church or a doctor’s office.
The bill has passed both the House and Senate and is on its way to the Governor’s desk.
House Bill 6 will, according to the Texas Tribune, “appropriate $1.5 billion to continue paying five contractors to erect an additional 50 miles of border barriers and to maintain the currently planned 40 miles of barrier.” In building the additional mileage, the State cannot use the money to acquire property by eminent domain, build on property acquired through eminent domain, or build a wall between Texas and any other state. These restrictions could be weakened when the Senate considers the bill.
My take: The situation on the border is distressing from every perspective. Texas has complicated it by making it the State’s business and throwing billions of dollars at it. But GOP base voters love this stuff, and they set the tone for the Lege. Expect to see news stories about racial profiling redux and horror at otherwise-innocent people subjected to the new mandatory minimum sentences.
Oh, and “the wall?” It’s a popular but not cost-effective strategy. At the rate of $1.5 billion per 50 miles, it will take $37.62 billion to “secure the border.” As Will Hurd and others have pointed out, we can more effectively monitor the border with technology and personnel investments that would cost a fraction of that amount.
3. Ban on private employer COVID mandates
The vehicle is SB7, which has passed the House and is on its way back to the Senate. SB 7 would prohibit an employer from adopting or enforcing a mandate requiring an employee, contractor, or applicant for employment or a contract position to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment or a contract position. An employer also could not take an adverse action against an employee, contractor, or applicant for refusal to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
My take: Private employers have resisted the mandate successfully so far, but declining concern about a COVID resurgence has taken the steam out of their opposition. Additionally, the Lege prohibited governmental entities from imposing COVID vaccination mandates during the regular session.
4. Colony Ridge
I wrote a couple weeks ago about the Colony Ridge subdivision in Liberty County northeast of Houston. Right-wing trolls and the fever swamp media that sustains them had declared it “one of the largest illegal alien settlements in America.” Well, Greg Abbott could not resist the bait and so added Colony Ridge to the special session agenda. Never one to miss a chance to demonize his fellow Texans, Attorney General Ken Paxton sent a letter to the legislative leadership and the congressional delegation, noting that his “investigation” revealed that Colony Ridge was “attracting and enabling illegal alien settlement in the state of Texas and distressing neighboring cities and school districts.” Paxton knows exactly whose fault this was: Senator Robert Nichols and Representative Ernest Bailes, who passed uncontroversial legislation in 2017 to create a Municipal Management District in Colony Ridge. And by “uncontroversial,” I mean the bill passed both houses of the Lege on their consent agendas. Curiously enough, both Nichols and Bailes had supported Paxton’s impeachment earlier this year.
Anyway, I pointed out earlier that the problem with Colony Ridge is that everything the developers have done has been legal and, in fact, congruent with state policy:
Subdividing and selling land in the unincorporated areas of counties is legal. Minimal land use standards are legal. Selling land and/or houses to people who are not American citizens is legal. Offering financing on terms that are achievable for people of limited means is legal.
Not only are these things legal, but they are also the public policy of the State. … Which means that whatever the Lege tries to do to “solve” the problem is going to step on some mighty big, well-financed toes — land speculators, developers, homebuilders, etc.
Liberty County Judge Jay Knight summarized the problem from the perspective of local officials, per the Texas Tribune:
He said the inability of commissioners courts to regulate development in unincorporated areas can be problematic when huge developments, like Colony Ridge, spring up there. He said he first raised concerns about this with the Legislature eight years ago.
He said in unincorporated areas, the county can regulate “water, sewer, ditches and roads, that’s it.” He added, “If you have 100 acres there, I can’t tell you you can’t have 100,000 goats, or sheep, or whatever. I can’t tell you what kind of house you can build.”
The committee took no action and, as of this morning, there is no “fix” to the Colony Ridge problem.
My take: Colony Ridge was always going to be a toughie. Much of the testimony last week was that there was “no there there” – Colony Ridge was not the crime-infested hellhole right-wing media had made it out to be.
“Why the hell are we here?” GOP Rep. Jay Dean of Longview asked at the State Affairs hearing.
5. What are we missing?
At the beginning of this essay, I noted that none of the issues on the call will make a significant positive difference in the lives of most Texans. In fact, arguments being made in committee hearings and floor debates suggest that the policies being advanced will hurt many Texans.
But let’s take a moment to talk about problems facing Texas that are not even being discussed this month. At the risk of depressing myself, I will avoid going into detail about any of them. My point is, a responsible Legislature would at least be looking into these issues, which each and every one of them has the potential to make life better for some Texans.
The collapse of our rural hospital and health care infrastructure;
Medicaid expansion, and the millions of Texans it could provide health care for;
School finance, particularly to meet the need for new classrooms and facilities in fast-growing communities, and eacher pay raises, to address the brain drain affecting that vital profession; these are addressed in HB 1, which has not gotten a hearing.
This weekend:
Halloween is on Tuesday, but significant rabble-rousing will occur this weekend. Kick off your celebration by checking out the full Hunter’s Moon on Saturday night.
Wednesday is All Saint’s Day, or Dia de Todos Los Santos, in the Christian world.
Thursday is Dia de Los Muertos, which is celebrated throughout Latin America and especially Mexico. Here’s a terrific two-minute video about the day and its customs. One lovely custom is an ofrenda, an altar to honor and celebrate those who have gone before. Maybe with all the dark energy in the world now, enlisting the dead on our side is not a bad idea. Check here and here for ideas on setting up your own ofrenda. And if you do, consider sharing a photo of your ofrenda with the Life Its Ownself community
Have a great weekend!
I've given up hope on the Ledge and just have to wait until the white dinosaurs die off in a Democrat inspired comet crash.
If the state had ever wanted to do anything about unregulated developments and their unscrupulous developers, it would have started years ago at the colonias on the border. Las Milpas, south of McAllen, for many years had more than ten thousand residents dealing with open sewers, privvies, no running water and often no electricity. But the poor, mostly immigrants, could cobble together their monthly payment for the land they bought. Colonias are still centers of deprivation and disadvantage from El Paso to Brownsville, and nobody in Austin gives a jolly good goddamn.