The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 21, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Wednesday, August 21st, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lausches, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, a Dallas District Court judge has issued an order and opinion that sets aside the Federal Trade Commission's new rule against non-compete agreements. Judge Ada Brown wrote, quote, Consequently, the rule shall not be enforced or otherwise take effect on its effective date of September 4, 2024 or thereafter. She also denied the FTC's motion for summary judgment. Ryan LLC, a Dallas-based tax servicer, the Texas Business Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Longview

Starting point is 00:00:53 Chamber of Commerce filed the initial lawsuits wherein Brown previously temporarily blocked the new rule. Brown stated clearly her reasoning behind the decision, writing, "...the role of an administrative agency is to do as told by Congress, not to do what the agency thinks it should do." Essentially, the court said that the FTC overstepped its bounds by trying to establish the non-compete rule, as the authority provided by Section 6G of the FTC Act, does not extend to the creation of such substantive regulations concerning unfair competition. Stay tuned for more news updates after this short message. Are you tired of missing critical updates in legislative hearings? Frustrated by the overwhelming flood of new bills and the challenge of staying informed as they change? Introducing USLedge, the revolutionary artificial intelligence solution designed to transform how you track Thank you. cutting-edge AI technology to monitor and analyze thousands of bills in real time, providing you with personalized summaries and instant notifications. Check us out at

Starting point is 00:02:08 uslege.ai. That's U-S-L-E-G-E dot A-I. Now returning to your daily Texas news. Next, a salary grievance committee composed of Harris County residents voted unanimously to increase the base salaries of elected constables on Tuesday, repudiating the commissioner's court for repeatedly rejecting similar requests over the past seven years. Committee member Glenn Hilford said, quote, This is unconscionable. These people have a hard job. Since 2017, Harris County's eight elected constables have been paid a base salary of $133,598, less than that of second

Starting point is 00:02:48 in command chief deputies for each department. But now, the committee has voted to increase their pay to $178,509 next year. While the Commissioner's Court has given the chief deputies frequent cost-of-living adjustments that brought their base pay to $151,923 in 2023, constables' pay remains stagnant. For fiscal year 2025, commissioners planned to provide an increase to elected officials that would bump the constables to $145,889 but left their pay still 4.15% less than that of their chief deputies. In other news, a Texas tax return preparer has been banned from operating his business due to allegedly costing the United States $20 million through fraudulent refunds. In early June, the United States Justice Department filed a complaint against Texas man Ruben P. Gonzalez, seeking to permanently

Starting point is 00:03:46 enjoin him and any colleagues from acting as a federal tax return preparer and from related activities. The filing recognized that Gonzalez began preparing and filing returns for customers in 2010, operating out of Fort Worth under the company name Sin Barreras Income Tax. The filing included that Gonzalez was penalized by the Internal Revenue Service in 2013 for, quote, understating taxpayer liabilities due to unreasonable positions reported on client returns for tax years 2009, 2010, and 2011. Six years later, Gonzalez was again penalized by the IRS for, quote, failure to be diligent in determining the eligibility of his tax preparation customers for various credits. Gonzalez allegedly assisted in obtaining tax refunds to which customers are not entitled by fabricating or inflating business losses, falsifying charitable donation reductions,

Starting point is 00:04:43 and falsely claiming energy credits, as well as fraudulent COVID-19 family sick leave credits. The court found that through these allegedly falsified tax returns, Gonzalez cost the United States more than $20 million in lost tax revenue between the years of 2021 and 2023. Last but not least, General Electric Aerospace's On-Wing Support Division and the City of Fort Worth have announced the expansion of the company's 84,344-square-foot facility in Fort Worth. GE On-Wing Support is a full-service provider of jet engine maintenance and repair. The expansion will develop a 3.25-acre parcel of land located next to the company's current facility. GE On-Wing Support is committed to a capital investment of $50 million, broken into $37.5 million in real property improvements and $12.5 million in taxable business personal property. The real property improvements must be completed by

Starting point is 00:05:45 December 31, 2026, and the business personal property improvements must be completed by January 1, 2027. At least 15% of hard and soft construction costs are required to be spent with contractors that are qualified as business equity firms. Failure to meet this commitment will result in a reduction of the grant by 10%. Business equity firms are businesses designated by the city as minority and women-owned, with the goal to close racial and gender gaps in city contracting and procurement. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 21, 2024

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