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Speaker 1: This week's episode of the trib Cast is supported by

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former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza and the Texas

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Managed Care Alliance. Hello and welcome to the second episode

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of the trib Cast. I'm Eleanor Klibanoff, a reporter here

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and co host of the Trip Cast. I'm joined by

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my two other co hosts, politics reporter James Barragan, editor

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in chief Matthew Watkins, and our very special guest, Texas

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Tribune co founder former executive editor Ross Ramsey from.

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Speaker 2: The former original trib Cast back in December of two

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thousand and nine.

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Speaker 3: The Podfather, The Podfather horrible. We'd like to apologize for you.

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Speaker 4: Reboots never as good as the original. But here we are, But.

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Speaker 3: Here we are. We're trying.

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Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining us. It is the first

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week of session. We're wearing cowboy hats to honor it.

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Speaker 5: You told me I could take it off.

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Speaker 3: You could take it off now, Matthew, your narrative fun.

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Speaker 4: There's a fun part of the table over here.

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Speaker 6: In the afternoon, I'm getting on an airplane and I

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just spent this morning trying to figure out how to

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fit cowboy boots into my very constricted suitcase, cowboy boots

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in a tuxedo.

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Speaker 3: And so now the boy boots and a TUXI was

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very important.

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Speaker 2: Matthew is very important up in Washington.

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Speaker 5: Boots and boats or boots and black ties.

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Speaker 3: Wow.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so that is your Texas credentials. You can take

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off the hat and still be a proud text.

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Speaker 5: I will admit that I had to borrow the cowboy boots.

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Speaker 6: I have brown cowboy boots, but not black ones, so embarrassing.

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Speaker 5: I didn't.

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Speaker 2: That is embarrassing.

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Speaker 1: So if you're not watching on YouTube, join us on

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YouTube because we are wearing hats and having a lot

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of fun.

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Speaker 4: Some of us are Matthew Watkins Roast Podcast.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Okay, well, so we are

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one day into the legislative session. We're recording this on

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Wednesday morning. We have a lot of news to get through.

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But before we get to that, James, I mean I

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was over in the Capitol yesterday day, big first day

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of school energy. Everybody was finding their locker and seeing

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their old friends.

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Speaker 3: You were there. What was the energy under the pink Dome?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 7: I mean usually it is first day of school energy.

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As you said, people are finding their old friends. The

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new people are very excited. They think they're going to

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pass all their bills, Their families are there. Everybody's super

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excited because it's the swearing end day. But hanging over

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all of this was the Speaker's battle, which I think

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everybody knew was going to be a big deal and

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was frankly, I think people were not really sure which

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way it was going to go, one way or the other.

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So that was kind of looming over all of this,

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and there was this sort of air of uncertainty. You

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asked everybody, you know, how you doing, how are you

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feeling there? So we'll see, we don't know what's going

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to happen. So it was a little bit different than

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other opening days that.

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Speaker 5: It was like the first day of school.

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Speaker 6: If the student body president and the football captain said

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they were going to have a fistfight in the cafeteria.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd been talking about it all summer.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, it's like we all had to elect the

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class president on day one. Yeah, with about as much influence,

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you know, eventually they would have. So, I mean, the

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brief facts are if you want the whole backstory on

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the Speaker's race, you know, last week's episode, we got

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into it in depth. It's also you can read our

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coverage on our website. But to summarize, it essentially came

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down to Republican Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, who was seen

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as representing the more establishment arm of the party represented

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David Cook of Mansfield, seen as representing this more further right,

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more insurgent arm of the party. The Democrats also put

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forward set of Anna Maria Rodriguez Ramos. It really came

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down to Cook and Burrows. Last week, James, You and

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Jasper predicted Burrows would get the vote. I decided to

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be contrarian and predict.

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Speaker 3: That Cook would get the votes. Who was right?

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Speaker 7: What happened, Well, it ended up being Dustin Burrows, and

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I think it happened a lot quicker than.

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Speaker 4: I expected it to go.

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Speaker 7: It was two rounds and Burrows won with a vote

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of eighty five to fifty five with nine people not voting.

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But in that first round, the Democrats had a real

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opportunity and I'm sure we'll get into this, but Democrats

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are a real opportunity to in the second round make

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this hurt a little bit more for the Republicans and

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really squeeze them and make them make a decision rather

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than cast their lot with the boroughs.

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Speaker 4: Or cook team.

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Speaker 7: Anna Maria Rodriguez Ramos, as you said, was in that

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first round, and because she was in it, and because

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twenty three Democrats stuck with her, neither of the two

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Republican candidates could get to that seventy six threshold that

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would be a simple majority to win the speakers race.

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And then there was talk in the chamber of well,

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if we can just keep forcing this and keep like

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president not voting or white lighting this, we can force

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the issue. And there was a question by missus Tis

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and Fromie Thompson of Houston of whether if they just

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kept going to infinity could they nominate a new candidate,

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and the answer was unclear. The answer was sort of

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we'd have to ask the parliamentarian. There was no clear

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answer in their rules. And so I think that really

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influenced how some of those Democrats voted afterwards, because they

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were like, do we want to make this keep going

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and going and going forever and not have a straight

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up answer from the parliamentarian. And I think a lot

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of them decided, well, we don't, let's just get on

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board the Borough's team and get this over with. I mean,

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it still took a lot longer than other speaker votes,

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but we were done by I want to say, two

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or three.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, it turns out the Democrats were more united than

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maybe we thought, right, forty three Democrats for Burroughs, three

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Democrats for Cook, forty three Democrats for Burroughs, thirty six

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Republicans for Cook. We now have a speaker again, going

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back to the days of Joe Strauss that was elected

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by more Democrats than Republicans, which.

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Speaker 5: Makes a lot of people mad.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, in the same something, you know, watching

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this from outside, a lot of it had in common

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with the Strauss race. You know, this was less about

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Republicans and Democrats and more about inside versus outside, and

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whether the House is going to be controlled by forces outside,

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whether that's money forces, whether that's the Lieutenant governor or

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the Senate or you know, or they're going to be

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controlled by the House. And you know, one way to

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read this vote is that that overcame the partisan differences

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between the Democrats and the Republicans and they just voted.

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You know, look, we want to run our own show.

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We would rather not have this run from some outside

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you know, chair somewhere and certainly not by the outside

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chair over on the eastern end of the capitol.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that also is I mean there are

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also outside influences that impact like the current establishment we

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talk about like some of the when you talk about

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some of the packs, like obviously Art is very involved

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Texas or the lawsuit Reform are very involved in some

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of those leadership people, and they support a lot of

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the leadership people. But it's also about and this is

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something we talked about last week, but about power and

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like the people who are in power and who share

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that power with the current leadership team, and a lot

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of the people who are on Cook's team are sort

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of outside of that power establish it. And obviously they

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want a new guy in so they could be part

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of that power, right, And I think that's going to

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play out a little bit here and that they're going

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to continue to be shut out.

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Speaker 2: Right, So you know, how so how do Borrows get

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the Democrats? I mean, you know, there was conversation about

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reviving this whole thing and having budget chairs on all

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of the substantive committees so that you could give CBO

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chair its a I can't remember what called chairman of

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the Budget Office or something. You know, anyway, you'd have

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a budget chair on like the Agriculture Committee, and you

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could give that to a Democrat. You're not giving a

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chair to a Democrat, So you're honoring the Republican Party,

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but you're giving them a little bit of power, you're

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putting them on appropriations. Was there, you know, was there

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anything to that? Was there something substantive the Democrats got

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out of this.

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Speaker 7: I don't know if you've heard anything different, Matthew, but

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I'm not quite sure how they won over the Democrats.

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I'm sure it is some of those things, and we're

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sort of actively looking to find out what exactly those

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those not promises, but yeah, I mean, I guess their

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pledges or promises or agreements or were. But I think

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that in the end, the Democrats probably felt that they

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had a better shot with Burrows than they had with

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Cook overall in terms of getting their legislation pass of

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killing legislation that they didn't see as favorable. But I'm

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not sure exactly what the details are, And that's one

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of the big questions for me, like won them over?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the big question moving forward is.

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Speaker 6: This has a lot to do with power, as we

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already talked about, but does it have anything to do

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with policy and the decisions that are actually going to

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be made. I think, you know, rightly or wrongly, David

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Cook was associated with the insurgent wing of the House,

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wing that has grown in power, and that has been

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largely associated with a few, you know, the financial support

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of a few billionaires, and you know Tim Dunn being

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the most prominent one. And I think I have to

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imagine that Democrats part of this motivation was to just

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not give that wing a victory, because that wing is

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what scares Democrats more than anyone else in the state.

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I think there is a question here of you know,

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they that wing did not win a victory, you know,

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technically by electing the speaker. It's still a very conservative speaker.

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And if you look at the things that that wing

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has been upset about that they haven't gotten in recent years,

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You're talking about school vouchers which Burrows supported. You talked

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about Democratic Democrats being allowed to chair some committees in

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the House. It seems very possible that that's going to

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go away. You talk about like little maybe more under

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the radar, things like ending taxpayer funded lobbying, going after

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cities and local government's ability to lobby the legislature. Dustin

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Burrows was the author of the death Star bill that

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we called, people called it last session, which really really

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targeted the power of cities. You know, I think there's

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a real question about whether that could actually finally make

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its way through. I mean, a lot of the things

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that that wing has been going for, they might still

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get what they want. And they that wing has been

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pushing ever since Strauss was elected, probably even before that,

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putting intense pressure on that wing of the party. And

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they haven't been able to gain control of the House,

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but they've been able to push the House in the

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direction of that they want it to go very very effectively.

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And you know that now basically the choice for Democrats

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is essentially two people that want to do the exact

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same thing, ones that's associated with that wing and one

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that isn't.

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Speaker 5: And they chose the one that isn't right.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the gap between like the Democrats who spoke

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on behalf of Representative Rodriguez Ramos and like the Texas

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that they presented, and the gap between what Burrows and

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Cook supporters presented is is vast Burrows and Cook next

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to each other look like so similar when you look

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at compared to you know, the Democrats were talking about,

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you know, expanding abortion access, protecting LGBT Texans like Burrows a.

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He is not talking about any of that. And now

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to build consensus, he's not going to say how can

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I appease the Democrats?

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Speaker 2: Cerial boxes, the contents on him were about the same.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely, right, I mean these are the same. It's just

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the central market.

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Speaker 3: And we won't say which is.

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Speaker 4: You decide.

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Speaker 2: Well, and this is also a mirror image of the

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Paxton Strauss fight. You know, there was a there was

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an effort to knock off Strauss, you know, that was

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very similar to this. The candidate at the time was

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a House member named Ken Paxton and represented by these

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outside interests, and they were sort of parading around the

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John Reagan Building over here on campus while the Republican

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Caucus met, and the caucus decided to go ahead and

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go with Strauss. But you know, this has been a

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developing fight for a long long time.

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Speaker 1: Well, let me just throws too, which is like Paxton

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also loomed large in this fight.

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Speaker 3: Now that he's Attorney general.

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Speaker 1: I mean, the impeach his the House impeachment of him,

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which you know, he was eventually cleared by the Senate,

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was a huge part of this insurgent wing gaining power.

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He also, among others have like sort of threatened this

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to primary people who oppose what happens on that front.

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Speaker 3: On this question, the caucus fight.

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Speaker 7: Oh, I think that there's no doubt that there's gonna

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be a lot of primary challenges for sure. You know,

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the RPT chairman has already said that. Some of the lawmakers,

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the more conservative lawmakers, have already said that they've said

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things like this is war, and they warn't beforehand that.

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I mean, that's what Paxton was saying on his two

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day statewide tour that if they didn't vote, if they

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didn't honor the GOP caucus endorsed nominee, who was David Cook,

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that they would be primaried in next year's election. So

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I think we will see that for sure.

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Speaker 5: But I do want to.

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Speaker 7: Point out too that I agree with you guys, like

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both of these guys are very conservative, but I do

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think that there needs to be like new language around

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what that means, you know, because like they are both conservative,

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and I think, you know, Matthew, you were saying they're

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the right wing of the party. I think that is

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actually the right way to get get to it. They're

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like much more socially conservative. Burrows is more of like

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the business friendly Republican, but he is also very conservative.

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Speaker 2: I don't I don't really think it's about a difference

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of policy. I really think this is you know, I

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think you guys were on it when you were talking

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about power in there to go who's who gets to

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who gets to run this and who calls the shots here?

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And you know, I really do think that the House's

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chance of sort of calling its own shots internally is

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stronger with Burrows than it would have been outside with

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with Cook, because you know Cook, you know, when you

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when you analyze that part of the of the or

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that faction, you know they were getting instructions from somewhere,

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not at the corner of Congress and twelfth, you know.

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And and but the result for this, I mean, if

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you're looking at this, you know, like we said, if

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you're looking at this, you know, if I get this speaker,

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this is the result from the Capitol. And if I

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get that speaker, this is the result from the Capitol.

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I'm not sure that's that different.

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Speaker 7: I think also, uh, to the point about the primaries

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to Burroughs did get mostly support from Democrats and a

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few Republicans, and so that to a certain extent, I

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think proves the point of the right wing conservatives of

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the party right, and so that's why there will be like,

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I think both things can be true.

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Speaker 6: It's also true that in order to get things through

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the capital, you need to agree on the policies and

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you need to be able to get along right. And

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you know, we all remember last session where there was

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this massive surplus. Everyone agreed they wanted to spend a

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big chunk of that money on property taxes, and Patrick

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and Phelan fought the entire legislative session over how to

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do that and could not get it done and had

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to come back for special sessions in order to get

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that pass. And you know, I guess maybe they eventually

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did pass something. So maybe we're just talking about like

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what's going to happen with our summer vacations.

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Speaker 1: Like how painful the process is of getting there, right,

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which I do you think it it's more indicative of

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how that's going to go that we came in without

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a speaker, or that it got resolved pretty quickly like

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which is more telling to me.

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Speaker 6: It's more about how can the House and the Senate

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get along? Then how can they get along within the House.

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I don't really have any doubt in Burrows's ability to

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get through get things through the House. It's whether that

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can then be reconciled with Dan Patrick, who you know,

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put out a pretty you know, salty statement yesterday. He

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was clearly advocating for cook in the days ahead of

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the session. You know, he's not particularly happy. He can

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hold a grudge. I mean, I think you know, the

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question is will Burrows be able to sort of mend

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that relationship.

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about the other chamber, but first

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00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:52,519
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So we do have an entirely other chamber to worry about.

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Certainly less sparks on the first day over there. But

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Governor Greg Abbott was in the Senate. He gave a

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speech in which he addressed his top priorities of stricter

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bail laws and school choice, school vouchers, education savings accounts.

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And Dan Patrick, speaking to Abbot, said, we passed that

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school choice bill five times. We passed that bail bill

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five times. I don't know who my partner is going

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to be across the Hall, but we passed that bill

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many times. Obviously, the Senate is not the sticking point

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for those but ross this school choice school vouchers issue

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has been floating around a long time.

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Speaker 3: Is this the session it gets done?

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Speaker 2: You know? I sure, I think that they won. They

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won the primaries. I mean, you know they they basically

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made a fist and backed it up, and you know,

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the old school politics, it's like, you know, do this

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or else and the and they produced the or else.

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So everybody who votes against vouchers is in a position

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where every Republican, I should say, who votes against vouchers

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is in a position where, unless they have a very

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very very strong signal from home and or else from home.

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You know, if you if you vote for vouchers, we're

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going to turn you out. They're going to have to

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follow the governor and the Lieutenant governor on knows, particularly

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the governor, because he produced a bunch of money and

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a bunch of effort that wiped out enough of the

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House members that it actually was one of the things

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that called into question the speakers race. You know, is

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the is the House now controlled by the House like

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it always has been. So he's been the you know,

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sort of the angry younger sibling right with its middle

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fingers up and and there was a moment there where

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he's sort of say, are they going to come into

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this so cowed that they're going to let the governor

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and the Lieutenant governor determine who the speaker is and

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what the issues are. But I think that even though

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they didn't determine who the speaker is, they have determined

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what the issues are and you're gonna get a voucher

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bill this time, right.

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Speaker 1: I Mean, in some ways it's just how power works.

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To talk about power is well, and that those people

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in other big.

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Speaker 2: Question may have been solved, you know, by by Glenn Hager.

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There's enough money here to do vouchers and also put

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a bunch of you know, sort of levening money into

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public schools here, so you can say, you know, we

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think this is terrible, but also this other thing. So

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you know, I think you'll get both of them together.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, if they don't pass vouchers, I'll in

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twenty twenty five, I'll put this cowboy hat into my

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regular wardrobe.

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Speaker 3: An orange cowboy hat for in your oatmeal for YouTube.

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Speaker 5: You know, nothing is for sure.

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Speaker 6: Of course, anything can go weird and crazy, but it

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would just be wild to me if they somehow couldn't

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get it past. They have the votes, they have a

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speaker who supports it, and as we said last week,

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I think, you know, if I'm Burrows and I need

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to sort of shore up relationships with the other people

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in power in this state. One way to really do

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that is to get that Boucher bill through the House

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very quickly early in the session, to make Greg Abbott happy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean historically the sticking point there has

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been rural Republicans who feel like their constituents aren't going

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to be served by that Dustin Burrows from Lubbock. You

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know he's a supporter. I think there's been more momentum

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in those rural districts. James, do you feel like those

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rural Republicans are going to have sway on this issue

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the way they are been blockers the way they have

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been in the past.

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Speaker 7: Well, a bunch of them, to Ross's point, got replaced.

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They're gone, So they're gone. So they were sort of

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the buffer, I guess, and they're gone, which leads us

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to this situation where school vouchers does seem like an inevitability.

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I think the governor has said he's got seventy nine

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hardcore supporters, but you know, the doubles in details. I

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think there will be some kind of bill that gets past.

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Is just what does it actually look like? But yeah,

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a lot of those people who were the blockers are

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either chose to retire or.

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Speaker 4: Were knocked out in the primaries.

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Speaker 2: You can ignore the politics for a minute. If you

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think about school finance has always sort of turned on.

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They produce a bill and then they produce these printouts

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of the twelve hundred or eleven hundred school districts and

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say this is how this piece of legislation will affect

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financially each one of these districts. So every member of

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the legislature can look at these and say, I'm okay here,

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I'm okay, I'm hurt here, all of that kind of stuff.

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One of the substantive arguments against vouchers has been you're

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going to take money out of my public schools, and

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you know you're going to hurt this community institution whatever else.

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That means if they have enough money in a school

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finance bill that even with vouchers, your district's not hurt.

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Then it takes away some of that argument, and it

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takes away some of the heat that those members might

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feel from home, and they might be able to hold

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their nose and vote for it. And I and then

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when you add the politics in, as James points out,

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you know, I don't see how that bill doesn't And

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you know, we had a Texas Tribune event up in Dallas.

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Speaker 4: This is not a rural area, obviously.

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Speaker 7: But Morgan Meyer, who supported the voucher bill, he said

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exactly that. He said, I was looking at the numbers

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and it did not hurt my districts. It actually was

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helping us. Was going to bring hundreds of millions of

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dollars to our districts. And that's why I voted for it,

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and it becomes easier to rationalize.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know what hurt districts was the four

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point five billion dollars that was allocated for schools contingent

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on vouchers getting passed that didn't go through.

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Speaker 5: I mean.

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Speaker 6: Those districts, you know, many of which are very opposed

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to vouchers, and many people have said, you know, it's

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not worth it to take that like short term you know,

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amount of money. But I wonder how many of them

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still feel that way after we've seen schools closed and

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jobs canceled and everything like that. The districts really feel

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like they need them.

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Speaker 3: Money, right, I mean, this is how again, this is

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how power works.

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Speaker 1: Right. It's like get who you want in office and

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hold something valuable hostage until you kind of get what

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you want.

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Speaker 2: And some of these may be the things that you know,

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as you find out, as we all find out, you know, what,

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if anything, did the Democrats get in this you know

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broker in this deal? You know, are we going to

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base school funding on enrollment instead of attendance? And you know,

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all of those kinds of things along the way that

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you know, turner screw here, turnis screw there. It's not

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like you won the issue, but you won some concessions along.

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Speaker 1: The way, right, which I do think Democrats have gotten

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somewhat savvy at using those like small tools, you know,

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because they're not going to necessarily be able to block

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these big bills. Speaking of the budget, Matthew, you spoke

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with Controller Glenn Hagar this week. Give us sort of

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the rundown of how the money's looking.

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Speaker 6: The money is looky, not as strong as last session,

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but stronger than pretty much any other session that came

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before it.

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Speaker 3: It's a small quibble I'm.

478
00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:41,920
Speaker 5: So going into last session.

479
00:22:42,119 --> 00:22:44,720
Speaker 6: Well, actually, first of all, they have I think one

480
00:22:44,759 --> 00:22:47,440
hundred and ninety four billion dollars in general revenue to spend,

481
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:49,799
which is slightly less than they had available in twenty

482
00:22:49,799 --> 00:22:52,559
twenty three, but more than they actually chose to spend,

483
00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:55,240
so they can essentially spend more money than they want to.

484
00:22:55,480 --> 00:22:58,759
They have a twenty four billion dollar surplus coming in

485
00:22:58,799 --> 00:23:01,440
from last year, which again is less than thirty two

486
00:23:01,480 --> 00:23:05,240
point seven billion from last session, but still like far

487
00:23:05,279 --> 00:23:08,640
more than any other surplus prior to that some of

488
00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:11,039
that money is that the four point five billion dollars

489
00:23:11,039 --> 00:23:13,079
that I mentioned earlier, they didn't go to schools. There's

490
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:15,039
a few other things that kind of are supposed to

491
00:23:15,119 --> 00:23:19,720
go to specific counts accounts like highways and water funds

492
00:23:19,759 --> 00:23:21,720
and everything like that that hasn't been spent. That's not

493
00:23:21,799 --> 00:23:25,200
account allocated for. But as Hagar kind of confirmed to

494
00:23:25,279 --> 00:23:28,880
me on the stage on Monday, they've got about twelve

495
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,039
billion dollars to work with that they can kind of

496
00:23:31,079 --> 00:23:33,680
allocate to other things. The other thing that I think

497
00:23:33,759 --> 00:23:36,799
is really interesting that he flagged in this is that

498
00:23:36,839 --> 00:23:40,599
the Rainy Day Fund, the Economic Stabilization Fund, will also

499
00:23:40,839 --> 00:23:45,720
reach around twenty four billion dollars this calendar year and

500
00:23:45,799 --> 00:23:50,119
will reach essentially it's maximum. It's basically the Rainy Day

501
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:54,680
Fund caps out at ten percent of like prior spending,

502
00:23:55,559 --> 00:23:58,680
basically and for the first time in history, in part

503
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,039
because of how much oil and gas are being extracted

504
00:24:02,039 --> 00:24:04,240
from the state, which is what funds the Day Fund.

505
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,519
In part because Hagar actually won the ability to invest

506
00:24:07,559 --> 00:24:09,880
that money and has also been collecting interests and things

507
00:24:09,960 --> 00:24:12,319
like that in recent years. It will reach that cap.

508
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:14,960
And one of the questions that Hager was sort of raising,

509
00:24:15,079 --> 00:24:18,799
is should the legislature lift that cap and allow that

510
00:24:18,839 --> 00:24:21,880
to grow even further so you could he's basically saying,

511
00:24:22,039 --> 00:24:24,480
by in a decade that amount could reach eighty billion

512
00:24:24,519 --> 00:24:27,960
dollars or should they you know, lower taxes with it?

513
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:31,519
They could, it's the an oil and gas tax that

514
00:24:31,599 --> 00:24:35,519
feeds that. You could conceivably lower that tax, although that

515
00:24:35,599 --> 00:24:38,279
only helps us pretty small number of people. Or do

516
00:24:38,319 --> 00:24:40,200
you just kind of allow that money at which is

517
00:24:40,359 --> 00:24:42,640
the current set up, to go back into the general

518
00:24:42,680 --> 00:24:45,119
fund to spend each year? And you know, it's an

519
00:24:45,119 --> 00:24:50,759
interesting question, but the big picture thing here is just

520
00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:52,839
the state has a lot of money to spend again,

521
00:24:53,079 --> 00:24:55,039
and in some ways that'll make things easier.

522
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:56,720
Speaker 5: In some ways that'll make it harder for them.

523
00:24:56,920 --> 00:24:58,799
Speaker 3: So like we're retrich this year.

524
00:24:58,880 --> 00:24:59,720
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

525
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:02,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all good. It's all good. You know, there

526
00:25:02,799 --> 00:25:04,799
was a you know, back in the day, there was

527
00:25:04,799 --> 00:25:08,319
an Appropriations chairman Rob Dannell later became a federal judge

528
00:25:08,319 --> 00:25:11,400
who said, you know, it's easiest to do a budget

529
00:25:11,440 --> 00:25:13,960
in a legislature where the money's short because people come,

530
00:25:14,279 --> 00:25:16,200
there's a line of supplicants, we want money for this

531
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:17,559
we want money for that, and you can say I

532
00:25:17,599 --> 00:25:20,079
love you, but we just don't have the money. But

533
00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:21,920
when you have a surplus, you know, and he was

534
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,359
talking about much smaller surpluses, but when you have enough

535
00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,920
money quote unquote, when they come to you and they

536
00:25:27,920 --> 00:25:29,519
say we want this and we want that, you have

537
00:25:29,559 --> 00:25:33,039
to say, well, I just don't love you, and it's

538
00:25:33,079 --> 00:25:34,559
a different kind of problem.

539
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:36,039
Speaker 3: And everyone starts fighting over what should we do.

540
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:38,640
Speaker 2: So now we've had this line for a couple of

541
00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,240
sessions now where they've had some kind of surplus or

542
00:25:41,279 --> 00:25:44,079
they've had some kind of you know, land of plenty,

543
00:25:44,279 --> 00:25:47,920
and they've gotten into this mode where they basically you

544
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:50,759
can see more clearly what their priorities are and are

545
00:25:50,759 --> 00:25:52,880
not because it's not that they don't have the money,

546
00:25:53,039 --> 00:25:54,480
it's that they don't have the will for some of

547
00:25:54,519 --> 00:25:55,160
these things.

548
00:25:55,440 --> 00:25:59,039
Speaker 6: I think three things to look at for likely candidates

549
00:25:59,039 --> 00:26:00,279
for some of that money to get spent.

550
00:26:00,519 --> 00:26:01,720
Speaker 5: One property taxes.

551
00:26:01,759 --> 00:26:04,440
Speaker 6: I don't think you can have a surplus in this state,

552
00:26:04,559 --> 00:26:07,920
in this political environment without doing something to lower property taxes.

553
00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,799
Water infrastructure. That's been a big issue kind of leading

554
00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:14,400
up to the session. A lot of people across the

555
00:26:14,440 --> 00:26:17,720
political spectrum saying we need to spend more money preparing

556
00:26:17,839 --> 00:26:21,599
Texas for the future with in terms of water supply and.

557
00:26:21,519 --> 00:26:22,200
Speaker 5: Everything like that.

558
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:25,200
Speaker 6: And then as we've already discussed school funding, the schools

559
00:26:25,319 --> 00:26:29,759
really struggling. I think folks would like to sort of

560
00:26:29,799 --> 00:26:32,799
take that attack line off the table heading into twenty

561
00:26:32,799 --> 00:26:33,359
twenty six.

562
00:26:33,400 --> 00:26:36,480
Speaker 7: But I think two of those three are I mean,

563
00:26:36,599 --> 00:26:39,119
I don't know, we have ross herehegon Wigan, but wouldn't

564
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:41,880
it be unwise to use like one time expenditures on them,

565
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:43,880
Like it seems like the water infrastructure one is the

566
00:26:43,920 --> 00:26:45,720
only one that you'd really want to do it one

567
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:46,839
time spend.

568
00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 2: The water thing is you know you can do that

569
00:26:48,039 --> 00:26:50,160
with bonding, so you can put one time money into

570
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:52,000
that and then you know, sort of live off the

571
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:55,200
corpus to some extent. Right, you know, the question is

572
00:26:55,519 --> 00:26:57,799
exactly right. You know, if the other two are related.

573
00:26:57,839 --> 00:27:02,319
If you lower property taxes, you're basically saying the local

574
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:06,079
part of school finance is going to go down, and

575
00:27:06,119 --> 00:27:08,559
to compensate for that, the state part's going to go up.

576
00:27:08,640 --> 00:27:10,480
That's how you do that. That's a waterbed, right, and

577
00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:14,039
especially if you're in an environment where you're telling people.

578
00:27:14,039 --> 00:27:15,920
We're gonna do vouchers. It's not going to hurt schools.

579
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:17,880
Everybody's going to go up right. You have the money

580
00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,200
to do that and do the property tax thing. But

581
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,839
then you have to worry about next time and next

582
00:27:22,839 --> 00:27:25,920
time and next time. And that's what's happened to school

583
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:29,799
finance over and over and over again in history, is

584
00:27:29,839 --> 00:27:33,160
that it eventually, you know, the state's funding goes down

585
00:27:33,319 --> 00:27:35,880
and that puts pressure on property taxes and you get

586
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:37,039
back yeah, you know.

587
00:27:37,079 --> 00:27:39,440
Speaker 7: Yeah, right now we're rich, rich, and it looks all good.

588
00:27:39,480 --> 00:27:43,200
But when we hit a bust or something, it's it's

589
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,039
not gonna be all good, and we may if there

590
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:48,400
is no legislation that puts in an infrastructure to actually

591
00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:51,440
solve these things, or in the budgeting it solved. Then

592
00:27:51,720 --> 00:27:56,440
one time expenditures are kind of hard to justify in

593
00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:57,359
the long run, I think.

594
00:27:57,400 --> 00:27:59,400
Speaker 2: And if you're an appropriator and you're looking for ways

595
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,279
to say no to all those people in line, this

596
00:28:01,319 --> 00:28:03,799
is how to do it. Say it's one time money,

597
00:28:03,799 --> 00:28:05,799
we can't use it for ongoing expenses.

598
00:28:06,200 --> 00:28:08,680
Speaker 1: But those one time expenditures are popular with you know,

599
00:28:08,799 --> 00:28:12,079
it's great to say I threw all that money Yeah.

600
00:28:11,880 --> 00:28:13,720
Speaker 2: It's going to make me feel better about my property

601
00:28:13,759 --> 00:28:14,599
taxes right now?

602
00:28:15,200 --> 00:28:16,279
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.

603
00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,319
Speaker 1: Well, you know, before we go, I think the most

604
00:28:19,359 --> 00:28:23,559
important thing on every Texans mind this week is I

605
00:28:23,559 --> 00:28:25,759
think James and I have been discussing all morning, which

606
00:28:25,799 --> 00:28:30,200
is that Dustin Burrows, in addition to being our new

607
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:34,079
House speaker and representing how power works in the state

608
00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:38,880
of Texas, is also the first House speaker since eighteen

609
00:28:39,119 --> 00:28:42,519
eighty seven to have a beard.

610
00:28:43,240 --> 00:28:45,119
Speaker 3: Beards are back. We've got two beards on this.

611
00:28:45,160 --> 00:28:49,880
Speaker 4: Stage, Ross, not anybody's beard.

612
00:28:52,359 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 3: Ross. Are you thinking about growing a beard?

613
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,079
Speaker 2: Now that I've thought about it all my life? If

614
00:28:57,079 --> 00:28:58,759
I had stopped shaving when I was thirteen, I would

615
00:28:58,759 --> 00:28:59,960
pretty much look like I love right now.

616
00:29:01,319 --> 00:29:04,119
Speaker 1: Uh. You know, bearded representation on the dais What does

617
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:05,039
this mean to you guys?

618
00:29:06,559 --> 00:29:09,839
Speaker 6: I think I think Burrows. I think Burrows has got

619
00:29:09,839 --> 00:29:10,839
to trim the beard a little bit.

620
00:29:11,039 --> 00:29:15,119
Speaker 3: Really, he gets the power he already did.

621
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:16,119
Speaker 2: He looked like us.

622
00:29:16,359 --> 00:29:18,039
Speaker 4: He's certainly trimmed.

623
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:20,079
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think when he's out in a lumbic winter,

624
00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:22,599
he's got a bigger one, but he's certainly trimmed.

625
00:29:22,759 --> 00:29:24,519
Speaker 2: He has a hibernation beard for a minute there.

626
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,440
Speaker 7: Right right, and it's it's gonna get hot, and then

627
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,000
Dustin Burrows does then shave it down. But I think

628
00:29:29,319 --> 00:29:31,720
I am a strong proponent for the beards. I've been

629
00:29:31,759 --> 00:29:34,880
a strong proponent for beards since I started covering the legislature.

630
00:29:35,599 --> 00:29:39,200
The last guy shout out to Asher Price from Axios

631
00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:41,240
because he did all this research. The last guy to

632
00:29:41,319 --> 00:29:43,319
have a full on beard and be the Texas House

633
00:29:43,319 --> 00:29:47,480
speaker was a guy in eighteen eighty five called Lafayette

634
00:29:47,559 --> 00:29:48,640
Lumpkin Foster.

635
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:53,440
Speaker 3: So that is, you know, Lumpy Foster.

636
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:55,279
Speaker 1: And I hate to be this person, but you know,

637
00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:57,799
not a woman in the bunch in the whole history.

638
00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:00,319
But you know, we do finally have bearded represent tation

639
00:30:00,559 --> 00:30:02,480
and so you know, we'll have to see what that

640
00:30:02,599 --> 00:30:03,799
means for policy.

641
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:05,680
Speaker 7: This is If you would like to read a story

642
00:30:05,839 --> 00:30:11,319
about bearded speakers, please email our editors who are sucking

643
00:30:11,359 --> 00:30:11,640
the fun.

644
00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 1: Yeah you know this is you know, if anything happens

645
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,200
on the beard front, we at the Texas Trip Cast

646
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:25,720
will be cracking it. Yes, we want to thank our sponsors,

647
00:30:25,759 --> 00:30:29,119
former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza and the Texas

648
00:30:29,119 --> 00:30:34,200
Managed Care Alliance. Our producers are Rob Avila and Chrisoba.

649
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:36,400
Oh Chris, I should have checked her last name before

650
00:30:36,440 --> 00:30:39,759
we did this. Chris Shobaa. Our theme music is composed

651
00:30:39,759 --> 00:30:43,079
by Rob. I want to thank James, Matthew and Ross

652
00:30:43,079 --> 00:30:45,279
for joining us and we will see you guys next

653
00:30:45,279 --> 00:30:45,519
week