The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - August 26, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy folks, today is Monday, August 26, 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, there's no barnstorming tour yet for U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Colin Allred, and no tsunami of yard signs across the state. Little homage has been paid to some of the marquee characteristics of the last Democratic campaign that came closest to flipping a statewide seat, Beto O'Rourke's 2018 run against Senator Ted Cruz. And that might be the point. O'Rourke's 2018 campaign came within 215,000 votes of the upset and has thus become the benchmark for all of its successors in form as in results. He raised loads of money and spoke to tens of thousands of Texans across the state at rallies.

Starting point is 00:00:56 O'Rourke scared the daylights out of Texas Republicans and drove a wave of victories for down-ballot Democrats, but he still came up short. Check out thetexan.news for reporter Brad Johnson's analysis of the all-red campaign. Next, in his stated effort to uphold election integrity in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced that more than 1 million people have been removed from the state's voter rolls. As part of the announcement, Abbott provided a chart that shows over 1.1 million voters in various categories were flagged as removed, including over 457,000 deceased individuals and over 463,000 voters on the suspense list. Additionally, over 134,000 voters failed to

Starting point is 00:01:41 respond to an address confirmation notice, while over 6,500 are non-citizens and over 6,000 have felony convictions. Abbott also highlighted Senate Bill 1, which was signed into law in 2021, that added provisions designed to prevent fraud by adding criminal statutes, prohibiting unsolicited mail-in ballot applications, and setting additional ground rules for early voting and voter registration. In other news, a legal dispute between Dallas County and state officials in Austin over the custody of inmates who were adjudged incompetent led to a challenge over the constitutionality of the newly created 15th Court of Appeals. And in a unanimous decision on Friday, the Supreme Court of Texas cleared the way for the new court to take its place in the Texas judiciary. The dispute arose when Dallas

Starting point is 00:02:31 officials were involved in a legal squabble with state officials over the aforementioned custody issue. The cases resulted in an appeal to the Third Court of Appeals, an intermediate appeals court that has jurisdiction over cases arising out of a multi-county area that includes Travis County. However, Senate Bill 1045 by Senator Joan Huffman recently established a new intermediate appellate court with statewide jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction over certain cases, including cases brought by or against the state. Given its jurisdiction, the Third Court of Appeals deferred the case to the new court, which will begin hearing cases on September 1st. Also, Fort Worth Independent School District, Northwest ISD, Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD,

Starting point is 00:03:19 Crowley ISD, and Arlington ISD have all taken measures to condemn the Tarrant Appraisal District's new reappraisal plan. On August 9th, the TAD Board approved a plan to reappraise residential properties every two years, meaning that properties eligible for a homestead exemption will have their property taxes levied at the current rate until 2027. The plan has not been popular with school districts in Tarrant County. On August 13th, Northwest ISD issued a statement saying that Tarrant County school districts had engaged in discussions with TAD in the run-up to the vote on the new appraisal plan and that the plan will quote, devastate school district budgets and cause irreparable harm to school services.

Starting point is 00:04:02 Last but not least, Fort Worth City Manager David Cook presented the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget to the City Council two weeks ago, but Mayor Matty Parker and all City Council members are asking him to revise the proposed tax rate. On August 13th, Cook presented the $2.79 billion budget for fiscal year 2025, which included a tax rate increase of about a half cent from $67.25 to $67.73 per $100 in assessed valuation. Parker and the council asked that the tax rate remain at the current rate or be lowered, either of which would be below the no new revenue rate, the state calculated tax rate that would produce the same revenue as the prior year. The letter also listed

Starting point is 00:04:50 priorities it once reflected in the budget, including public safety, street maintenance, and an increase in the minimum wage for city employees to $18 per hour in February 2025. 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 26, 2024

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