MON brief 10.18.21
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Today’s Stories
TUITION REVENUE BONDS are flying through the legislative process at the last minute, classic Austin lobby playbook.
Last week Lt. Governor Dan Patrick called for the issue to be added at the last minute to this third special session. Governor Abbott added TRB’s to the special session call shortly after that, and the relevant legislation flew out of the gate.
This is now an unstoppable legislative freight train to create a $3 billion slush fund for woke university bureaucrats and SJW Wall St.
Add this to the list of bills filed this year in service to the powerful, not the people being ushered at breakneck pace through the process. Banning vaccine mandates, remedying gutted election law, or property tax abolition has not enjoyed the similar expedited privilege. But the ruling class always seems to get what they want.
Bonus question: If Wall St. banks have (temporarily) stopped underwriting municipal debt in Texas, wouldn’t the same concerns forestall them from underwriting higher ed. debt?!?
Related: GOP prioritizes dog tethering over tax relief
LLOYD DOGGETT throws a monkey wrench into the plans of central Texas Democrats.
The quarter-century congressional incumbent, and nearly five-decade veteran of Texas politics, announced he’s running in the new CD-37 in central Austin rather than the CD-35 he’s occupied for the past decade.
It’s hard to miss the sense of entitlement that permeates Doggett’s announcement. It’s certainly true that Texas Republicans have twice attempted (and failed) to gerrymander Doggett out a seat, and perhaps such moves are detrimental to the public interest.
None of that changes the fact that Doggett hadn’t represented central Austin in nearly two decades.
Safe congressional seats don’t come open often, and it’s hard to imagine ambitious Travis County Democrats clearing the field. Take Doggett’s whiteness, add to it his maleness (and the fact that he’s been around since the early Bill Hobby era), and a portrait of what our friends on the left call “privilege” emerges.
Unfortunately, one of the consequences of Doggett’s decision might be the creation of a lane for Socialist Austin City Council member Greg Casar to fail upwards into the redrawn CD-35.
TEXAS REPUBLICANS are callow and effete compared to Illinois Democrats.
Last week’s Friday brief mentioned Democrats in the Prairie State drafted congressional maps that were so partisan Princeton Universities’ gerrymandering project gave them an F. These maps, which gave Democrats a 17 to 3 seat advantage, didn’t go far enough for some Democrats.
Meanwhile, in Texas, we’re catfooting around with our boundaries to protect the fragile egos of the politically entitled.
Over the weekend, the Dade Phelan lead House amended Texas’ congressional maps to protect two Democrat lawmakers from Houston. This is opposite the energy of the party rank-and-file in 2021, but Phelan and his backers are actively working to thwart that.
VOTING for constitutional amendments begins today. Most of the items under consideration are a snooze fest. The most exciting contest is probably Austin’s initiative to restore police funding the city council cut last year. If Prop. A passes, that’s somewhere between bad news and awful news for Democrats.
In addition, there could be fireworks in school board races.
Hit the Links
Inflation likely to persist, worsen under Biden
Greg Abbott gives Kinney County the shaft
SWA employees protest vaccination mandate
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