The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - September 9, 2024

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

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Howdy folks, today is Monday, September 9th, 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, the Texas GOP has filled its open victory chair position with less than two months until the November general election, appointing Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne to head up the fundraising committee. The 2024 Victory Fund is a joint fundraising effort between the Texas GOP and the Senator Ted Cruz campaign, intended to finance campaign operations through the election to get Cruz and other Republicans down ballot across the line. Van Dyne is a two-term congresswoman from Irving and serves on the Ways and Means Committee and

the Small Business Committee in Congress. Next, the Texas State Board of Education will hold meetings this week to discuss and take public comment on its newly proposed instructional materials following the passage of House Bill 1605. The SBOE meeting will be held from September 10th through September 13th. The new instructional materials and review approval process, enacted under HB 1605, replaces the State Board of Education proclamation and the Texas Resource Review processes, consolidating reviews under a single SBOE-governed system. The Texas Education Agency released a new set of state-owned instructional curricula

back in May. In an interview with The Texan, TEA Commissioner Mike Marath said that the new curriculum is going to help kids, quote, to lead much more successful lives. In other news, the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct has issued a public reprimand of a former Harris County misdemeanor court judge who said he wanted to contribute to the, quote, demolition of the criminal justice system. A self-proclaimed socialist elected to criminal court at law number eight in 2018, Judge Franklin Bynum has faced multiple complaints from the Harris County District Attorney's Office over his refusal to follow state law and behavior demonstrating

bias against the state and victims of domestic violence. The SCJC reprimand includes 31 findings of fact, including Bynum's orders to the Harris County Sheriff's Office to not collect DNA samples from defendants convicted of certain burglary charges. State law requires law enforcement to collect such specimens in order to match with samples collected from other unsolved crime scenes. Also, former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo has filed a motion to quash multiple indictments against him, stemming from the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting. In June 2024, Arredondo was charged with 10 counts of child endangerment, which alleged that he was responsible for a delayed law enforcement response, failing to properly respond to the victims of the shooting.

A 77-minute interval between the arrival of officers on the scene and the takedown of the shooter raised questions about the leadership of the law enforcement responsible. Arredondo's motion to quash the charges states that while the indictment, quote, alleges that Mr. Arredondo was performing his official duties while an active shooter was hunting and shooting a child or children in room 112 at Robb Elementary School, end quote, it fails to pinpoint a specific action taken by Arredondo that placed a child in direct danger. Last but not least, the Tarrant Appraisal District Board of Directors again discussed its recently approved reappraisal plan at its meeting today.

No action was taken on the plan, but the board did approve a contract for new appraisal plan at its meeting today. No action was taken on the plan, but the board did approve a contract for new appraisal software. Nine school districts out of 62 entities that fall under the jurisdiction of TAD issued resolutions disapproving of the new appraisal plan and the TAD budget. In order for the budget not to be approved, at least 50% of the local government entities under its purview must disapprove it. They have until the end of today to do so. The reappraisal plan in question was approved by the TAD Board in August. The three main changes included are that residential properties will be reappraised every two years, rather than every year, residential properties

will not be reappraised in 2025, and if a reappraisal value on a residential property will increase by more than 5%, the district must provide clear and convincing evidence of that increase. After the plan passed, an open letter by school district officials condemning it was published. It accused the Tad Board of, quote, deliberately defunding public schools across the county at a time when Texas public schools are already facing multimillion dollar deficits because of political posturing at the state level, end quote. It claims the districts stand to lose a combined $100 million due to the reappraisal plan. Thanks for listening. due to the reappraisal plan.