The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - March 3, 2023

Episode Date: March 3, 2023

Get a FREE “Fake News Stops Here” mug when you buy an annual subscription to The Texan: https://go.thetexan.news/mug-fake-news-stops-here-2022/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=weekly_roundup  The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.  This week on The Texan’s Weekly Roundup, the team discusses: Various bills filed to strengthen the Texas Legislature’s power, including over local authoritiesA judge ruling that Attorney General Ken Paxton cannot prosecute out-of-state abortionsTwo lawmakers proposing a legislative committee to defend “Texas sovereignty”Speaker Dade Phelan releasing more House priorities, including a revival in some form of Chapter 313A Texas lawmaker filing a bill to let teachers refuse a CDC LGBT inclusivity training toolThe majority of House members signing on as co-authors of the “Save Women’s Sports Act”An update to the state’s infrastructure plan, increasing its budget from $85 to $100 billionIncumbent Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson running unopposed in the city’s upcoming electionThe divide over property tax reform between the House and SenateThe University of Texas system pausing its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiativesA San Antonio man sentenced to three years in prison for human smugglingThe West Texas Bobcat Competition that has run for 15 years with over 700 teams in 2020

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast. This week, the team discusses various bills filed to strengthen the Texas legislature's power, including over local authorities. A judge ruling that Attorney General Ken Paxton cannot prosecute out-of-state abortions. Two lawmakers proposing a legislative committee to defend Texas sovereignty. Speaker Dade Phelan releasing more House priorities, including a revival in some form of Chapter 313. A Texas lawmaker filing a bill to let teachers refuse a CDC LGBT inclusivity training tool. The majority of House members signing on as co-authors of the Save Women's Sports Act, an update to the state's infrastructure plan, increasing its budget from $85 to $100 billion. Incumbent Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson running

unopposed in the city's upcoming election. The divide over property tax reform between the House and the Senate. The University of Texas system pausing its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. A San Antonio man sentenced to three years in prison for human smuggling, and the West Texas Bobcat competition that has run for 15 years with over 700 teams in 2020. As always, if you have questions for our team, DM us on Twitter or email us at editor at thetexan.news. We'd love to answer your questions on a future podcast.

Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Well, howdy folks. It's Mackenzie here with Hayden, Matt, Cameron, and Brad. On another episode of our weekly roundup podcast, we are in our brand new office in downtown Austin. Well, brand new to us at the very least. Just another episode. Not just another episode.

It took me a half a second to get into the fact that this is a new office but it's new to us i'm pretty pumped about it what what are what are y'all's reviews good bad ugly i like it we've got a big newsroom now whereas before we were we were in a smaller room now we're in a bigger newsroom. And that's a lot of fun. We've got an area. We've got neighbors now. I've met a couple of our neighbors, which is it's, it's different to have other people. I almost said strangers, but they won't be strangers for very long. But it's it's different to have other other people because we have a shared space in the break room now. And I'm enjoying it. I think it's a lot of fun. It's going to be nice to have other people around and get to know our neighbors. I am jealous that Hayden has made inroads with our

neighbors as anytime I have attempted to make a new friend in the break room, I have been met with stares of like, yeah, I'm not interested in talking right now. This is my break. And Hayden's like, just met Jennifer. I'm like angry that I'm not getting the same reception. Maybe I should just be more chill. Maybe that's just the moral of my story is I should just be more chill. Yeah, no, Jennifer's nice. Jennifer, if you're listening to this, thank you for letting us move into your building. That's exactly right.

And we had neighbors at our old place previously, but then it was getting remodeled. So we were the only ones in the building for a long time, which is why it felt so lonely. Any other thoughts, Cameron, Brad, Matt? Well, I like the upgraded bathroom here. Ah, yes. Tile floors. We got bamboo in there. Bamboo?

Well, yeah. Wow. There's not bamboo in the women's restroom? Maybe. Actually, I think there is bamboo. I just had not thought about it. Ours is a great theme. Yeah, it's an ambiance that they created in there.

It's serene. That's interesting. Bradley? Well, while our main office has gotten bigger, our podcast room has gotten smaller. And so we are crammed in here like a can of sardines. But I'm excited for a change of scenery. If there's a fire either matt

is gonna have to pick me up and carry me out of here like a baby or i'm gonna have to crawl over him in a panic so i liked both pictures that was fun for me matt doesn't have a microphone in front of in front of his face thumbs up or thumbs down thumbs up yay we'll delight we'll ask your opinion later on when there is a mic in front of your face but let's jump into the news this week brad you wrote a piece about two bills filed by representative justin burroughs that both focus on legislative authority tell us about them so burrs's first bill you've kind of filed them as a um a section together um and the first one hb2127 is a broad sweeping local preemption measure it prohibits localities from creating regulations within certain categories of code that exceed that which state is that which is allowed by the state. And so anything that contradicts something in state law or is not expressly

permitted by state law that has passed at the local level is prohibited under this bill. Of course, it has to go through the whole legislative process and get passed, but it's got the backing of governor Abbott. He's come out multiple times and touted it. He did again today at TPPS or yesterday at TPS policy. So I'm there actually, was at um the economic development uh press conference yesterday so talked about that again

burroughs said when i interviewed him about this uh piece of legislation every single session we see more and more need to try and deal with an instance of a city abusing its home rule status and decided to regulate something that historically it's never regulated in the past. That is a threat to our conservative governance and the legislature is left trying to play whack-a-mole. So I filed this bill to provide something broader and more robust. He pointed to a couple examples of um of reasons of specific instances there is the city of dallas is considering a ban on um or an ordered phase out of gas powered lawn equipment that has not been passed but it's being considered um in 2015 or earlier than 2015 uh the city of Denton outlawed natural gas from being used.

Sorry, that's fracking. Outlawed fracking. We saw instances in California cities banning the use of natural gas as an electric generation source. And so this is kind of trying to hit it all off at the pass, prevent anything that Burroughs and those with whom he agrees see as an abuse to do largely anything they want, run their area as they see fit. And so this is yet another example of the theme that I've tried to pound into people's heads, state versus local. And this is a pretty big one. So Senator Brandon Creighton filed the version in the Senate and has the backing of the governor. So we'll see where it goes.

You mentioned there are two bills. The second deals with the judiciary. Tell us about that one. Yeah. So where the first bill aims to reassert legislature authority over the local governments, HB 2139 tries to do the same over the judiciary. It reads, when interpreting a statute, a court is not to inquire into what members of the legislature intended or hoped to accomplish, but shall enforce the statutory text as written and in accordance with the meaning that the words of the statute would have to an ordinary speaker of the English language. So Burroughs said that the purpose of it is, I want to know that when judges are trying to decide what a statute means they need to go to the plain text and plain meaning of the actual words on the piece of paper there's a few different uh opinions on

this kind of thing um you will often see the onus for for this you'll often see um on the house floor from the back mic two members having a conversation and quote trying to establish intent essentially talk about a bill trying to set boundaries of what the bill author is actually wanting to do with this law and put that in the record so that when a legal challenge is made to that bill the judge can look back on that statements made by the legislators and include that in how they interpret what the legislature intended to do with the law they passed and so this is trying to prevent that from happening and burrows added that it's very frustrating to him to see two members be able to undermine what the other 140, six, seven of them voted on in a past.

And so that is that's the main purpose. You could look at this fight within conservative legal theory over textualism, originalism, and intent-based or rampant prescriptivism. judges should stick to the words on the page and burrows is coming down on that's where it should begin and end when a judge is determining what a law means and what it says how it should be applied so i get into more of the details in the article so i recommend you check it out but it is i think a very interesting set of bills awesome thank you bradley cameron we're coming to you uh you wrote about a case this week dealing with the attorney general and his ability to prosecute out-of-state abortions. How is this case possible with the multiple pro-life measures that Texas has taken and a physician where they had sued Attorney General Kim Paxton, alleging that he violated their First Amendment rights by trying to restrict their ability to facilitate out-of-state abortions by restricting their right to interstate travel. And what was interesting going through the pages of the opinion and the ruling was, as we know, Texas has pre-Roe abortion laws. There's the Texas Heartbeat Act. There was House Bill 1280, which is the trigger ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court's judgment in Dobbs v. Jackson.

So what this judge did in their ruling, they actually laid out that Paxton, saying that there is no plausible construction of the statute that allows the attorney general or local prosecutors to penalize out-of-state abortions. And the judge also ruled that the trigger ban does not regulate abortions that take place out of the state of Texas and cannot even be arguably read to do so. So this is one of the first things we've seen in terms of what is going to be happening post the trigger ban that we saw come into effect. The judge dismissed Paxton from the lawsuit because, again, the judge determined that he had no authority to enforce some of these pre-Roe laws.

And the judge further determined that the Texas trigger ban on abortions do not regulate abortions that take place out of the state of Texas. So we'll see what happens from here. It's going to be interesting. Yeah. So talk to us about what happens next. Well, we haven't seen just of yet, this ruling just happened, but I'm sure we're going to see some counter suits and those counter suits, how they work their way up through the court system. And then we have seen a bill that was filed by Tony Tenderholt that would place restrictions on companies' ability to facilitate

an out-of-state abortion. So I'm sure a lot of people have seen online with many companies saying they would facilitate individuals that are employees at their companies to get abortions outside of the state if the state doesn't allow for abortion. So a law like this would place legal restrictions on a company's ability to do that. You go, Cameron. Thanks so much for your coverage. Hayden, state sovereignty and separation of powers are always hot topics these days. Tell us about a proposal to act on constitutional violations. You're exactly right. They are. Somebody really smart must have wrote that.

I don't know if I'm really smart. I am a reasonably functional adult. We'll put it that way. But Brad just talked about separation of powers. It's something that is create a legislative committee to investigate and deem certain federal actions to be unconstitutional. This committee would be outside of the functioning of the U.S. and Texas constitutions. It would be composed of lawmakers in both the Texas House and Texas Senate, six from each side, and a maximum of four could be from the same political party. They would be appointed by the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor. And these two bills, Senator Hall filed his bill just a couple of weeks ago, and Representative Bell filed his in November. They have each been sent to the State Affairs Committee

in each chamber. Senator Brian Hughes chairs state affairs in the Texas Senate and Representative Todd Hunter chairs state affairs in the House. But the essence of these proposals is to separate the state of Texas from any kind of federal law, Texas or any kind of federal court decision or presidential executive order, really anything the federal government does or could do if the state of Texas deems it to be unconstitutional. And the mechanism of this would be that this legislative committee would make its own decision about whether something is unconstitutional. And then either in a special session of the legislature or if lawmakers are in town, they would submit it for the legislature's and the governor's approval. And if all of that did happen, then it would be unenforceable, null and void in the state of Texas. And any law enforcement officer in Texas who tried

to enforce it could be prosecuted for official oppression, according to this bill. And I think this excerpt from both bills sums up their position. They said, quote, the contract with the state of Texas has been willfully violated by the federal government and must be constitutionally restored, end quote. That's a little bit of the outline of how these bills would function. And as Brad mentioned earlier, local versus state is a big contentious deal here in Texas. And as you're mentioning, especially when the White House is of a different political party than Texas is largely governed by, these conflicts arise in that way as well with jurisdictional power.

And these proposals, if passed, could be seen as an act of defiance toward the federal government. Can the state of Texas really decide not to follow federal law? No, the Constitution actually speaks about this. The U.S. Constitution does. There is a provision in the Constitution called the Supremacy Clause that says, quote, this Constitution and the laws of the United States, which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state actions or federal law trump state law, period.

And there's the Article 3 of the Constitution gives the judicial power to the U.S. Supreme Court and any inferior courts. So the authority to resolve any type of dispute as to whether something is constitutional federally belongs to the federal government. Now, I will say these bills point to the 10th Amendment, which says, quote, the power is not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people, end quote. So these state sovereignty proposals are saying that the federal government is acting lawlessly by, for instance, not acting to secure the border or spending money appropriating taxpayer dollars on things that are well outside the bounds of the Constitution. So it is true that this would be an act of defiance toward the federal government. Proponents of these types of plans, just like proponents of secession,

say that the federal government has acted so lawlessly that the state of Texas must act in order to rein in that lawlessness. Well, Hayden, thanks for breaking that down for us. Bradley, let's talk about the Texas House. The speaker released his next slate of House priority bills. What did it include? So the three bill group is essentially economic development focus. The first bill creates a technical education scholarship program that is by, I believe representative Gary Van Deaver. The second would create a commercial appeals court that would create the 15th court of appeals.

And it would specifically handle business disputes. The purpose of that has been to provide an outlet for these kinds of, these kinds of cases that have gotten caught up in uh the backlogged court system from the pandemic um everything is backed up and these um business litigation takes a long time and so this is trying to create an outlet for the for that app for for that kind of case. And so the idea is that it'll encourage more businesses to come here because they'll have a friendlier environment to handle these kinds of disputes. So that's the argument there. But the third was the most notable, and it's the much-anticipated replacement of chapter 313 tax abatements and so of these

three phelan said as texas continues to grow and attract even more business that creates jobs and spurs local economies our state must ensure that we have the kinds of tools to keep us competitive with others on a national and global scale and And so more on that 313 replacement. It's obviously received much of the attention. It's something Speaker Phelan has called for for quite a while. I believe he was the first of the big three to really call for some sort of replacement for this. He was pretty firm on that early on after it expired last year. The top line notes

of this bill, and it's by Representative Todd Hunter, who's chairman of the State Affairs Committee. The top line notes are it gives the comptroller a lot of authority on how to run the program. In the previous version, there was a lot of simple comparison. This bill is seven pages long. The straight revival bill of 313 is 35 pages. So there's a lot of different requirements and regulations that were in the previous version that are not, at least as of now in this version and so this would give um comptroller glenn hager and whoever his successor is uh the ability to run it as he sees fit um there were a lot of problems with the way the 313 program collected data and the uh the accuracy of the data over time

collect you know projecting property value tax taxable property values over decades is not a simple task. And surprise, surprise, it's often wildly inaccurate, even just a couple of years down the road. So he raised the issue there. And that, along with a few other things kind of led to chapter three, one, three, uh, renewal of it, uh, dying in the house and these, uh, Senate last year or in 2021. The other big thing is it doesn't appear to include renewable projects in those who may receive these abatements. Now, uh, it sets forth three different categories of companies that may receive these abatements, manufacturing, critical infrastructure, and security based entities. I suppose it depends on what critical infrastructure means. You could certainly see someone trying to make an argument that renewable generators qualify there, but as of now, it seems like that's not the case. And so we don't know where this is going to go, but there is a lot of momentum building for some sort of replacement. And it has remained a key for many to keep the renewables out of that.

That's kind of been a hard line drawn, I've seen. Let's very, very quickly delve into that because we're we gotta move on here but it seems that they're as you said the biggest point of contention in this debate what are we looking forward to in that debate going forward so i asked governor abbott uh this week if he supports renewables being included he said he does not we heard lieutenant governor patrick at our kickoff event say that uh renewables were one of the two main reasons that he greenlit killing the renewal bill and then at tpps policy summit yesterday senator brian hughes said that he will fight tooth and nail to prevent their inclusion and representative charlie garan seconded it it's a pretty wide array of officials uh on the Republican side opposing this.

And so, as I said, you know, there's appears to be a pretty hard line drawn on including against including renewables in whatever replaces 313. But it is a priority bill, especially in the House. And Speaker Phelan is pushing this hard. And so I think we'll probably get something. Just a question of what it is. Awesome. Thanks, Brad. Cameron, we're coming to you. You wrote a piece this hard. And so I think we'll probably get something, just a question of what it is. Awesome. Thanks, Brad. Cameron, we're coming to you. You wrote a piece this week specifically about Texas lawmaker filing a bill that deals with both the CDC and the LGBT community. Quite

a combo. What's going on with this bill and what's it all about? So Terry Leo Wilson introduced this bill and it would give protections for Texas educators who refuse to participate in a LGBT inclusion training that was created by the CDC. And the protections are put in place because many educators who have religious beliefs would choose to opt out from participating in this training. And the training is actually called the LGBTQ Inclusivity Continuum. Interesting. So what's all involved in this training? Well, essentially, it's a self-assessment tool, and it asks educators to really report on themselves about how inclusive they are to what we see now as a progressive movement in education.

Some of the questions involved in the assessment ask the educator if they use a student's chosen name at school, or if they advocate for LGBT inclusive and affirming materials, or do they create safe spaces at the school. And the assessment then will determine if you will commit to change or begin to break through or are you already a awesome ally? An awesome ally. Okay. So where is this training coming from? And is it just the CDC?

Well, the assessment was created by the CDC and it's being promoted by the Texas State Teachers Association and the National Education Association, the NEA. And the TSTA is an affiliate of the NEA, and they have a variety of offerings for those who want to incorporate the ideas of intersectionality and anti-racist pedagogy, which is curriculum and teaching methods into teacher trainings. Oh, there you go. Well, Cameron, thanks so much for your coverage of this issue. And I know you'll be continuing to watch it. Your social issue coverage has been just awesome to watch. So thanks for joining our team. Let's move on here to the next batch of topics, which is still relating to these issues, Cameron. We know about bills that have been introduced that have to do with protecting women's sports. What makes this particular proposal that you wrote about different?

So this bill from Valerie Swanson would extend the protections to the college level. She was able to garner 77 co-authors, which establishes a majority support in the Texas House. Her previous bill prevents biological males from competing in girls sports from the 7th to 12th grade. And these two bills will now aim to work in conjunction with each other. Okay. So has there been any other moves by the legislature related to protecting women's sports? In the Senate, Maise Middleton filed a bill by the same name, but it is a bit different. With Middleton's bill, it actually places in provisions where an entity who would seek legal action to prevent the state from enforcing a statute regulating athletic participation

would have to pay the costs and attorney fees of the prevailing party in the lawsuit. Got it. Okay. Well, Cameron, thank you so much. Bradley, Governor Abbott made an announcement about transportation. What did he have to say? So the governor announced alongside the texas department of transportation that the state's transportation plan the fiscal note attached to it will rise from 85 billion to 100 billion dollars in 2024 due in large part to the record budget carryover balance the surplus which is now at 32.7 billion dollars um and so governor abbott said about this under texthot's 2024 unified transportation program we will dedicate critical funds to bolster our major major roadway infrastructure to address the unique needs of

texas in rural urban and metropolitan. It includes a wide array of different projects. Of the $100 billion plan, the increased funding is spread out among 17 different categories. It includes a $1.25 billion increase to a carbon reduction program um it includes 5.5 billion more than the previous plan in itemized projects for rural and urban connectivity road construction and then in additional 2 billion was pushed toward road maintenance and a few other things. So overall, infrastructure has been another main theme of the legislative session. There is a lot of money with which the legislature hopes to divvy out towards this general topic but um overall it seems like more and more we're going to see a lot of money put towards this and there as i said there's a big focus on using a large portion of it to set the state up for better infrastructure whether it's roads or the power grid or water supply in the coming decades.

There you go, Bradley. Thank you. Hayden, the filing deadline recently passed to file for office in Dallas. Does Mayor Eric Johnson have any opponents? Mayor Johnson is the first mayor in decades to face reelection with no opponents in his re-election bid. He is running for another four-year term. Interestingly enough, city council members serve for two-year terms. The entire council is up every two years, but the mayor serves a four-year term, so everyone doesn't need to elect a new mayor every two years. But Mayor Johnson had one opponent file against him, Jermar Jefferson, but that person was declared ineligible for the office by the city secretary, though the website did not indicate why he was declared ineligible. It is likely,

well, I won't say it's likely, it's possible it was a residency issue because he also ran in East Texas as a Democratic candidate for the first congressional district, which was Louie Gohmert's seat. So he had no chance of being elected as a Democrat in that seat. But that doesn't even include any portion of Dallas. So if he's still living in the first congressional district, then that would create a residency problem. All of that to say he was disqualified. I think he is now trying to run as a write-in candidate, but Johnson does not have any other names on the ballot against him, according to the published ballot order. He is the presiding officer of the Dallas City Council, which has 14 other members on it. But much of the executive power still falls to the city manager, T.C. Brodnax. So he is not the chief executive of the city of

Dallas, but he does hold a great deal of power as the presiding officer of the city council. Absolutely. So what are some highlights of Johnson's tenure? Well, Johnson has stood out among other big city mayors because he has absolutely not been on board with the defund the police movement, the cuts to police funding. drew attention when he tweeted, quote, if you work for Austin PD, are still interested in protecting and serving, and are considering retiring from the profession, don't. Come work for the residents of the city of Dallas by joining Dallas PD. We want and need you, end quote. And his support for the police goes back a long way. He was a vocal opponent of even the, I won't characterize that as a small cut, but small compared to some of the cuts that were being called for to the Dallas Police Department budget. When they proposed a $25 million cut to the overtime budget have slashed salaries for high paid employees at City Hall. A good example of that is Mr. Brodnax makes more than the president of the United States.

So they do have well paid employees at City Hall and he wanted to cut their salaries. But Mayor Johnson has supported the police. There have been, I will say he did get into a conflict with former police chief Renee Johnson, excuse me, Renee Hall. And she said that she was frustrated by comments he made because crime in Dallas was escalating, but he has a more workable relationship with the current police chief, and DPD has been working more with City Hall to get other public safety objectives across the finish line, and crime has been decreasing as a result. There you go. How did the rest of the field shape up for city council races? Councilwoman Kara Mendelson is the only incumbent on the council who is not facing an opponent. She said to us in a statement

that she was happy for the support. She said, quote, last election, I received 81% of the votes and I've been humbled by the overwhelming support I received as this term's campaign began. With no opponent, I am honored to continue serving District 12 for the next two years. Two other city council incumbents, Casey Thomas III and Adam Magoe, are not seeking re-election, but everyone else has an opponent. And we have the full list of candidates for Dallas City elections at the texan.news. So please visit the article to see who's running in your district. Elections are scheduled for May 6th.

Coming right up. Thank you, Hayden. Bradley, the divide over property tax reform between the House and the Senate seems to be developing even more so than in previous ones. Give us a little bit of preview as to what we can see going into this session. So this specifically on property tax relief, there's the general agreement on how much money to put towards this, but the disagreement seems to be coming on how exactly to do that, which tactics to deploy. So the Texas Senate announced the filing of its Senate bill three priority legislation last night on Wednesday,

and that would increase the school homestead exemption from 40k to 70k and so author senator ben paul benton court said this bill will save every homestead 340 a year on top of the existing exemption 454 totaling 795 per year in these exemptions driving down property tax bills and so last session uh this has been a strategy they deployed before last session they increased it from 25k to 40k and in this bill uh every senator signed on to it as a co-author showing unanimous support within the upper chamber it's something lieutenant governor patrick has talked about a lot. The bill also fixes the flaw in state law that has caused homeowners with elderly or disabled status to not receive the full exemption in previous years. It's a very complicated reason, as simple as I can make it those homeowners are classified in a different uh part of of the texas constitution than regular homestead exemption owners and so when you when they increase the homestead

exemption they have to pass two separate um constitutional amendments in order for everyone to get and for this other group to get the full benefit that the main group did. So this would eliminate that. And so it's not just increasing the homestead exemption, but this is one of the top priorities of the Senate. There you go. The Texas House and Speaker Phelan seem to have a very different strategy. What's that? So they've, at TVPF's summit on Thursday, Phelan announced that the house would file its HB2 today, Thursday, that will reduce the year-to-year appraisal cap from 10% down to 5%.

If you have a homestead exemption, your taxable value on that property may only increase up to 10% from the previous year. It's a way of preventing runaway appraisal growth and commensurate property tax increases. Property tax bills are still increasing as we've seen. And so this is a strategy to reduce that from cut it in half and as Phelan described, kind of level out the increases of property tax growth because of the complicated appraisal times the rate situation. It's kind of two sides of the same coin, but different sides. Like they are different strategies to try and accomplish the same thing. Heck, they might pass both that's certainly possible in addition to the uh probably nine billion dollars in in um compression that we're looking at at least in this draft budget it may increase it may decrease we'll see but um phelan also said that he wants to make that

appraisal reduction cap or appraisal increase cap apply to every property in the state. And that you would assume that includes businesses, which currently don't get homestead exemptions. Uh, but that raises another issue of the business personal property tax, which is another thing that the legislature will talk about that we will not on this podcast. We'll cut it off there. Thank you, Brad. Cameron, we're coming back to you. UT has been in the news this week. There's been a pause on diversity, equity, and inclusion training. How and why is

this happening? So the board chairman of the University of Texas system, started off their board meeting last week with comments that were not part of the meeting notes or agenda. So people weren't really expecting this, but he stated that certain DEI efforts have strayed from their original intent and that many legislators are concerned about that. He added that all UT campuses would be pausing their DEI policies and will be asking for reports about any policies that are still in operation. He also mentioned that moving forward, the UT system will await for action from the legislature for any future implementation. There you go. So what prompted this announcement? Well, we've seen Abbott's office had previously made some comments about DEI policies being used

to manipulate and push policies. We've seen Texas Tech had previously released a statement of how they were going to take steps to ending DEI hiring. UT Austin had previously been accused of having DEI policies that, in quotes, espouse a clear ideological agenda. There was also a recent report about DEI being used in the hiring and application process at many different Texas medical schools. What's been the impact of DEI policies and why are they so prevalent? Well, DEI is a part of this recent progressive push in education as we've seen, but it's also become big business. I saw one report that estimated that DEI services will reach $15.4 billion by 2026 in the global market.

And its desired effects don't seem to be working. I saw an article from Harvard Business Review, they were commenting on this, saying that your organization will become less diverse, not more, if you require managers to go to diversity training. And what's interesting is this is all sort of nested within some polling numbers that are showing the deterioration of relations among different groups in the country. I saw a poll from Pew Research that showed that the majority of Americans across all racial and partisan groups say race and ethnicity should not be a factor in the college admissions process. This is opposed to another Gallup poll that I saw that showed 61% of American adults rated their feelings on race relations in the nation as either somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, which is actually up from 35% in 2014.

So in keeping that in mind, what has the Texas legislature done to try and mend some of these issues? Well, Dan Patrick announced that eliminating CRT from institutions of higher education would be a top priority for the Senate this legislative session. And there have been multiple bills filed, like the one we just talked about with Terry Leo Wilson and from Carl Tepper, which address this effort to eliminate DEI practices on college campuses. There you go. Well, thank you, Cameron. Hayden, a San Antonio man is behind bars after his arrest for human smuggling. Tell us about his guilty plea and sentence.

A 40-year-old San Antonio man pleaded guilty in December to smuggling three people, trying to smuggle them across the Sarita Border Patrol checkpoint. He, according to prosecutors, he approached the checkpoint and seemed nervous to the officers working that checkpoint. And as they asked him questions, he could not answer their questions. So he they requested to search his vehicle. At that point, he tried to get away and they ultimately caught him and found three people in his trunk, which, by the way, was almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit. And two of them said they had been in the trunk for which by the way, was almost a hundred degrees Fahrenheit. And two of them said they had been in the trunk for more than an hour. So he has been sentenced to more than three years

in federal prison. And he is in custody pending the formal sent or he was in custody pending the formal sentencing, which was 37 months in prison. So state lawmakers have proposed stiffening the penalties for human smuggling. What are some of their ideas? Well, a few proposals have been put out there. Representative Steve Allison filed to increase the minimum punishments for human smuggling, continuous human smuggling, and organized criminal activity, including operating a stash house. Allison's bill seems to propose making it a first-degree felony, any type of human smuggling activity, whereas now it's a tiered system with certain factors. This would make it a first-degree felony across the board. And there are other bills that would increase the punishments for injuring someone during a human smuggling attempt.

Allison's bill would also add a minimum sentence of 15 years for continuous human smuggling and then 20 years if there are aggravated factors, such as if someone smuggled a small child or the smuggling victim became a victim of a violent crime. So some lawmakers are moving to stiffen the penalties for this type of activity. I believe it was Congressman Chip Roy who quote tweeted this particular article that was put out on social media in three years. Like that's not that's not that much. So we'll see what happens there. Obviously, he legislates at the federal level, but still garnering a lot of interest there. Because this was a federal case, but certain crimes can be prosecuted at both the state and the federal level. Yeah, a lot of variables there. Thank you, Hayden. Matt, we're coming to you last but not least. A

predator hunting contest in West Texas has grown into one of the largest of its kind, paying out millions in prizes over the past 15 years. Give us the details on the hunt. The West Texas Bobcat Competition is a 23-hour predator hunting contest that's held three times a year in January, February, and March with the goal of getting the biggest bobcat and qualifying it by getting enough foxes and coyotes to go along with it. The event was founded in 2008 by three San Angelo area residents, all of whom are multi-generation ranching and family families. We spoke with one of them, Mr. Jeremy Harrison, who gave us some interesting stats on how big the competition is. According to Harrison, the contest has had upwards of 700 two- to four-man teams at its peak, paid out over $3 million in prizes over the course of 15 years.

And I had to ask about what was the biggest bobcat they've seen ever, which he said they've had two weigh in at approximately 42 pounds and the highest total prize payout for the grand prize was $50,000. This most recent contest paid out about $44,000 and quite a few people walk away still with pretty substantial prizes. Now we discussed the economic impact that the competition has on local economies with it bringing in hunters from all over the world we discussed conservation end of things with the contest giving access to wildlife officials and academic researchers who are able to get many months worth of of work done in in a single day because they're able to review and test these

animals from all over the state and we were able to discuss some of the interesting aspects that have come up over during the course of this event during its 15 times. You can check out more details on this story at the Texan. Certainly worth checking out, folks. A great human interest story just about a longstanding Texas tradition. Okay, let's move on to the Twittery section of our podcast here. Brad, let's start with you. So a while back, I was walking through a store and I checked my phone because I got an email and it. What is the efficacy of a person

running for an office on the platform of abolishing that office? Turns out it was a real situation. Hank Doogie, the then candidate for Galveston County treasurer was running on a platform to eliminate the treasurer position and move its functions into other, um, other offices. And, uh, there was actually,

there's actually a lot of support for this in Galveston. It's been done in other places. It's not, it's not like this is a new idea. Um, but sure enough, he won, he is in office.

And this week, two bills in the legislature were filed to abolish the Galveston County Treasurer's Office. And so if it passes, we'll then trigger a ballot proposition to amend the Constitution. Only Galveston County voters would get to vote on that and so the two legislators who filed that were maize middleton senator and representative greg bonin both in the area both in galveston um galveston county so uh it's just interesting to see this very strange situation really get some traction. Like legislators, a state senator and a state rep both want to do this, and it's not just them. So I think there's a decent shot it'll happen. One more odd occurrence.

I was at Galveston County Days last night. They had an event at Schultz Garden. And who gets up and gives a speech? Hank Doogie. And so he didn't mention abolishing the treasurer's office, but it was just an odd moment of serendipity. And yeah, I can't wait to see how it turns out, how these bills move through the ledge. Absolutely. Cameron, what about you?

Also, today is, is it today? It's yeah. Today's Texas independence day, which is kind of a dovetails right into what you have for tweetery. Well, I saw this pop up on my timeline that it was Texas independence day. I was like, Oh, there's gotta be some fun events that are going on here in Texas. And I saw there, there was a site that was posting all these events that were happening at different restaurants or hotels. I saw the Driscoll was having a huge party for anyone here in Texas that would like to attend. And one of the things they were serving though is Texas caviar. And I was like, what is Texas caviar? Is this a local dish or is this actual caviar from a fish? Well, Texas caviar is a bean salad. It's delicious, mind you. It is

so good. This isn't your caviar that comes in a tin and is served with white gloves no this is served out of a bowl with a wooden spoon heck yes so only in texas style um and then i also saw there was there's gonna be a local bar that is gonna be having a party that includes uh armadillo races so if anyone is looking for texas caviar armadillo raises, today is your day. Do you know what bar is that? Skinny's Off Track. This is here in Austin. Yeah.

Super close by. That is so fun. I love those traditions. That's so fun. Hayden, what about you? I don't know this person very well. Well, I mean, I don't know him at all, but I don't know of person very well well I mean I don't know him at all but I don't know if his content very well

so don't hold it against me if he's I don't know a crazy person but Dave Klein apparently he's written books on management etc and he wrote he tweeted there is a direct connection between self respect and the respect others show you

whether it's a vicious or virtuous cycle, starts with you. And I thought that was a good sentiment. This reminds me of when Hayden would, in the mornings, send an inspirational quote to our Slack. Do you remember that? I need to go back to doing that. And often they came from a founding father or something, which was quite nice.

But I thought that was a pithy and true statement. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Well, let's move on here to the fun topic. Who put this in the document? Hayden, was this you? Guilty. Yes. Okay. Hayden says, this is quite the question. Are you good at singing? When was the last time you had to sing in front of a group? Do you want me to go first? Yeah. you you did some theater growing up didn't you did you do musical theater not growing i i did two plays a few years ago oh that's right but they were a wonderful director right oh my goodness i don't even get me started they weren't they were not yeah i told the guys a little bit about that this week, but they were not musicals, so we didn't have to sing.

The last time I've had to sing in front of a group, it was probably in high school when I was staffing with Teen Pact. We had to lead worship, and so we would sing in front of the other kids, but it wasn't a solo, so it was with a solo. So it was with, with, uh, a group. Um, but I was probably really little the last time I sang by myself in front of a group, but, um, whether or not I can sing decently depends entirely on the song. There are some songs I'll sing it to myself in the car. And I thought, oh my gosh, I'm so glad nobody was able to hear that. But other times I feel like I can sing decently. So I just, it's a shot in the dark. Yeah, absolutely. Another thing we're trying to figure out

with this new office is the chairs. So if you hear squeaking in the background, folks, we have chairs that we're trying to get used to. Cameron, you look like you have something to say for sure on this topic. Well, of course I do. Because back in California, when I was in Sacramento, me and my friends, one of my friends loved to do karaoke.

So we would often go to Old Ironside, which was a bar right next to where we lived in downtown. And does everyone here have a go-to karaoke song? They know. they pick it and they know that they're going to perform well mine was all the small things by blink 182 classic it's so easy there's there's not many words but you can just jump up and down play the air guitar and you're you're gonna put on a performance so anyone else what's brad what's your uh i might be in the same vein as you i mean let me first say i am a terrible singer so even when i do karaoke and i pick an easy song it doesn't end up well but put on a good performance

and my buddy and i would duet make a Man Out of You from Mulan back in college. Yeah. I think a go-to would be Don't Stop Believin'. Okay. Classic. I want to see you sing that one. We need to have karaoke night at the Texan. What?

Which one? Don't Stop Believin'. Oh. That would be fun. Yeah. You should do a solo. Oh. No. Oh, no.

Oh man. I, I'm not a huge care. Well, I don't know. I like karaoke. If it's with the right group, I will say I did.

I think I've talked about this before. I, Brad's going to get mad at me for mentioning this, but it's the only thing I have in this regard i won a lip sync battle in college rapping mclemore that's all that's what i did um so i definitely not karaoke but i had a great time rapping mclemore that's amazing yeah it was quite fun that was like a requirement of my wedding was that we play this mclemore song and it was like just me out there but it worked it was quite fun. That was like a requirement of my wedding was that we play this Macklemore song. And it was like just me out there.

But it worked. It was fun. Matt, do you have anything to add? Any karaoke that you are particularly fond of belting out? Not big on karaoke. Well, that's sad. Okay. Well, folks, I do want to say also that um an announcement kim roberts delightful uh regional reporter from tarrant county who has so faithfully executed

her beats and made sure that our readers are informed about what's going on in north texas this is her last official week she will have a piece published next week. We'll see if we can get her on the pod. But, and if not, then we will talk about her ad nauseum next podcast. But just as a heads up, make sure if you've enjoyed her reporting, just give her a little bit of a shout out. Email her, kroberts at the texan.news. She's not on Twitter, so you can't just drop into her DMs or mention her. But she's done an incredible job reporting and is going back to practicing law. Brilliant, brilliant, way above our pay grade. So go Kim, but we will miss her sorely after she leaves us next week. So just as

a little heads up that that is happening. We're losing a team member who's been around with us for years and has just served our readers very well. So we will talk about that more next week, but wanted to make sure you guys were in the loop on what's happening here at the Jackson boys. Did I miss anything? No, I mean, we're going to talk,

we're going to talk more about, we're going to talk about Kim next week, but I, cause I have a lot to say, uh, uh, about Kim. It would be very unlikely that you would be working here if it weren't for

Kim. I would not be here if it wasn't for Kim. So I, I, yeah, I'll, we can, we can we'll talk more next week. I don't like this at all. It's so sad. I don't like departures. They really suck.

Well, folks, thanks for listening and we'll catch you next week. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at thetexan.news. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you,

so thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you, and God bless Texas.