Fourth Session's Past Two Weeks
Tantamount to Taxpayer Robbery
Capitol Inside
November 30, 2023
The taxpayers are footing the bill for Christmas for 180 Texas legislators who are being paid more than a half-million dollars collectively for doing nothing for two entire weeks since the House killed a school vouchers plan that's been the number one priority this year for the state's top two leaders.
At a rate of $221 each day for personal expenses while in special session, Texas lawmakers will pocket $3,094 apiece for 14 days of inaction without a calendar in the House or work on the Senate floor beyond the referral of bills to committees where they've been parked and appear destined to die.
Texans who pay state taxes will be forced to fork over $556,920
in per diem for the Legislature's individual members for two weeks of idleness in a fourth special session at the state Capitol where there's no effort to try to compromise that would justify the ongoing payments.
Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick are blaming House Republicans who opposed education savings accounts for the impending failure of the current session. Twenty-one GOP representatives teamed with Democrats to strip the ESA provision from a school funding measure on September 17.
Abbott is targeting some Republicans who voted against vouchers in the House while endorsing others who did.
The governor has singled out selective GOP members in recent days like State Reps. Stan Lambert of Abilene and Hugh Shine of Temple with pitches for primary challengers Liz Case-Pickens and Hillary Hickland in their respective districts. Abbott appeared at a campaign kickoff event in Lubbock on Tuesday night for GOP State Reps. Dustin Burrows and Carl Tepper as a debt of gratitude for their support on school choice.
Patrick said repeatedly in a radio interview with conservative host Mark Davis on Wednesday that 12 Republicans in the House were responsible for the demise of vouchers in the west wing. Patrick had been ill for a couple of weeks - and he may not have realized that 21 House Republicans actually backed the amendment that ripped ESAs from the package. But Patrick got the number of anti-voucher votes right in a post on X on the same day.
"If the 21 House Republicans who killed school choice last week, including Speaker Dade Phelan who cowardly abstained from voting on it at all, ran for statewide office they would be soundly defeated in a Republican primary," Patrick said in the X tweet. "They are not representing the majority of their voters on this issue."
No House Republicans - for the record - are running at this point in time for any statewide posts in 2024 or 2026 when most will be on the ballot again. Phelan is well aware that he would have no shot in a GOP primary election in a statewide race. Phelan, a fifth-term representative, faces his toughest test yet at the polls in 2024 in the face of primary opposition from David Covey of Orange and Alicia Davis of Jasper.
Patrick branded Phelan as a coward for failing to register an official position on the vouchers amendment in the only vote on the floor on the issue since the state budget fight in regular session. While the speaker rarely votes as a matter of tradition, Patrick said he would have said "show the chair voting aye" if he'd been a serious leader.
But Patrick and Abbott clearly deserve their fair share of blame for the current special session's failure for making no efforts to try to bring the two chambers to find a middle ground on school choice if they'd been serious about passing a bill. Abbott called the fourth session at a time when the odds for passing a vouchers bill had never been lower in the aftermath of the House's failed bid to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton. Patrick raised no objections to the timing of the latest special session.
more to come ... |
