Speaker 1: This week's episode of the trib Cast is supported by
Speaker 1: former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza and the Texas
Speaker 1: Managed Care Alliance. Hello and welcome to the second episode
Speaker 1: of the trib Cast. I'm Eleanor Klibanoff, a reporter here
Speaker 1: and co host of the Trip Cast. I'm joined by
Speaker 1: my two other co hosts, politics reporter James Barragan, editor
Speaker 1: in chief Matthew Watkins, and our very special guest, Texas
Speaker 1: Tribune co founder former executive editor Ross Ramsey from.
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Speaker 2: thousand and nine.
Speaker 3: The Podfather, The Podfather horrible. We'd like to apologize for you.
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Speaker 1: Thank you all for joining us. It is the first
Speaker 1: week of session. We're wearing cowboy hats to honor it.
Speaker 5: You told me I could take it off.
Speaker 3: You could take it off now, Matthew, your narrative fun.
Speaker 4: There's a fun part of the table over here.
Speaker 6: In the afternoon, I'm getting on an airplane and I
Speaker 6: just spent this morning trying to figure out how to
Speaker 6: fit cowboy boots into my very constricted suitcase, cowboy boots
Speaker 6: in a tuxedo.
Speaker 3: And so now the boy boots and a TUXI was
Speaker 3: very important.
Speaker 2: Matthew is very important up in Washington.
Speaker 5: Boots and boats or boots and black ties.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that is your Texas credentials. You can take
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Speaker 5: I will admit that I had to borrow the cowboy boots.
Speaker 6: I have brown cowboy boots, but not black ones, so embarrassing.
Speaker 5: I didn't.
Speaker 2: That is embarrassing.
Speaker 1: So if you're not watching on YouTube, join us on
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Speaker 4: Some of us are Matthew Watkins Roast Podcast.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us. Okay, well, so we are
Speaker 1: one day into the legislative session. We're recording this on
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning. We have a lot of news to get through.
Speaker 1: But before we get to that, James, I mean I
Speaker 1: was over in the Capitol yesterday day, big first day
Speaker 1: of school energy. Everybody was finding their locker and seeing
Speaker 1: their old friends.
Speaker 3: You were there. What was the energy under the pink Dome?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 7: I mean usually it is first day of school energy.
Speaker 7: As you said, people are finding their old friends. The
Speaker 7: new people are very excited. They think they're going to
Speaker 7: pass all their bills, Their families are there. Everybody's super
Speaker 7: excited because it's the swearing end day. But hanging over
Speaker 7: all of this was the Speaker's battle, which I think
Speaker 7: everybody knew was going to be a big deal and
Speaker 7: was frankly, I think people were not really sure which
Speaker 7: way it was going to go, one way or the other.
Speaker 7: So that was kind of looming over all of this,
Speaker 7: and there was this sort of air of uncertainty. You
Speaker 7: asked everybody, you know, how you doing, how are you
Speaker 7: feeling there? So we'll see, we don't know what's going
Speaker 7: to happen. So it was a little bit different than
Speaker 7: other opening days that.
Speaker 5: It was like the first day of school.
Speaker 6: If the student body president and the football captain said
Speaker 6: they were going to have a fistfight in the cafeteria.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd been talking about it all summer.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's like we all had to elect the
Speaker 1: class president on day one. Yeah, with about as much influence,
Speaker 1: you know, eventually they would have. So, I mean, the
Speaker 1: brief facts are if you want the whole backstory on
Speaker 1: the Speaker's race, you know, last week's episode, we got
Speaker 1: into it in depth. It's also you can read our
Speaker 1: coverage on our website. But to summarize, it essentially came
Speaker 1: down to Republican Dustin Burrows of Lubbock, who was seen
Speaker 1: as representing the more establishment arm of the party represented
Speaker 1: David Cook of Mansfield, seen as representing this more further right,
Speaker 1: more insurgent arm of the party. The Democrats also put
Speaker 1: forward set of Anna Maria Rodriguez Ramos. It really came
Speaker 1: down to Cook and Burrows. Last week, James, You and
Speaker 1: Jasper predicted Burrows would get the vote. I decided to
Speaker 1: be contrarian and predict.
Speaker 3: That Cook would get the votes. Who was right?
Speaker 7: What happened, Well, it ended up being Dustin Burrows, and
Speaker 7: I think it happened a lot quicker than.
Speaker 4: I expected it to go.
Speaker 7: It was two rounds and Burrows won with a vote
Speaker 7: of eighty five to fifty five with nine people not voting.
Speaker 7: But in that first round, the Democrats had a real
Speaker 7: opportunity and I'm sure we'll get into this, but Democrats
Speaker 7: are a real opportunity to in the second round make
Speaker 7: this hurt a little bit more for the Republicans and
Speaker 7: really squeeze them and make them make a decision rather
Speaker 7: than cast their lot with the boroughs.
Speaker 4: Or cook team.
Speaker 7: Anna Maria Rodriguez Ramos, as you said, was in that
Speaker 7: first round, and because she was in it, and because
Speaker 7: twenty three Democrats stuck with her, neither of the two
Speaker 7: Republican candidates could get to that seventy six threshold that
Speaker 7: would be a simple majority to win the speakers race.
Speaker 7: And then there was talk in the chamber of well,
Speaker 7: if we can just keep forcing this and keep like
Speaker 7: president not voting or white lighting this, we can force
Speaker 7: the issue. And there was a question by missus Tis
Speaker 7: and Fromie Thompson of Houston of whether if they just
Speaker 7: kept going to infinity could they nominate a new candidate,
Speaker 7: and the answer was unclear. The answer was sort of
Speaker 7: we'd have to ask the parliamentarian. There was no clear
Speaker 7: answer in their rules. And so I think that really
Speaker 7: influenced how some of those Democrats voted afterwards, because they
Speaker 7: were like, do we want to make this keep going
Speaker 7: and going and going forever and not have a straight
Speaker 7: up answer from the parliamentarian. And I think a lot
Speaker 7: of them decided, well, we don't, let's just get on
Speaker 7: board the Borough's team and get this over with. I mean,
Speaker 7: it still took a lot longer than other speaker votes,
Speaker 7: but we were done by I want to say, two
Speaker 7: or three.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it turns out the Democrats were more united than
Speaker 6: maybe we thought, right, forty three Democrats for Burroughs, three
Speaker 6: Democrats for Cook, forty three Democrats for Burroughs, thirty six
Speaker 6: Republicans for Cook. We now have a speaker again, going
Speaker 6: back to the days of Joe Strauss that was elected
Speaker 6: by more Democrats than Republicans, which.
Speaker 5: Makes a lot of people mad.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, in the same something, you know, watching
Speaker 2: this from outside, a lot of it had in common
Speaker 2: with the Strauss race. You know, this was less about
Speaker 2: Republicans and Democrats and more about inside versus outside, and
Speaker 2: whether the House is going to be controlled by forces outside,
Speaker 2: whether that's money forces, whether that's the Lieutenant governor or
Speaker 2: the Senate or you know, or they're going to be
Speaker 2: controlled by the House. And you know, one way to
Speaker 2: read this vote is that that overcame the partisan differences
Speaker 2: between the Democrats and the Republicans and they just voted.
Speaker 2: You know, look, we want to run our own show.
Speaker 2: We would rather not have this run from some outside
Speaker 2: you know, chair somewhere and certainly not by the outside
Speaker 2: chair over on the eastern end of the capitol.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think that also is I mean there are
Speaker 7: also outside influences that impact like the current establishment we
Speaker 7: talk about like some of the when you talk about
Speaker 7: some of the packs, like obviously Art is very involved
Speaker 7: Texas or the lawsuit Reform are very involved in some
Speaker 7: of those leadership people, and they support a lot of
Speaker 7: the leadership people. But it's also about and this is
Speaker 7: something we talked about last week, but about power and
Speaker 7: like the people who are in power and who share
Speaker 7: that power with the current leadership team, and a lot
Speaker 7: of the people who are on Cook's team are sort
Speaker 7: of outside of that power establish it. And obviously they
Speaker 7: want a new guy in so they could be part
Speaker 7: of that power, right, And I think that's going to
Speaker 7: play out a little bit here and that they're going
Speaker 7: to continue to be shut out.
Speaker 2: Right, So you know, how so how do Borrows get
Speaker 2: the Democrats? I mean, you know, there was conversation about
Speaker 2: reviving this whole thing and having budget chairs on all
Speaker 2: of the substantive committees so that you could give CBO
Speaker 2: chair its a I can't remember what called chairman of
Speaker 2: the Budget Office or something. You know, anyway, you'd have
Speaker 2: a budget chair on like the Agriculture Committee, and you
Speaker 2: could give that to a Democrat. You're not giving a
Speaker 2: chair to a Democrat, So you're honoring the Republican Party,
Speaker 2: but you're giving them a little bit of power, you're
Speaker 2: putting them on appropriations. Was there, you know, was there
Speaker 2: anything to that? Was there something substantive the Democrats got
Speaker 2: out of this.
Speaker 7: I don't know if you've heard anything different, Matthew, but
Speaker 7: I'm not quite sure how they won over the Democrats.
Speaker 7: I'm sure it is some of those things, and we're
Speaker 7: sort of actively looking to find out what exactly those
Speaker 7: those not promises, but yeah, I mean, I guess their
Speaker 7: pledges or promises or agreements or were. But I think
Speaker 7: that in the end, the Democrats probably felt that they
Speaker 7: had a better shot with Burrows than they had with
Speaker 7: Cook overall in terms of getting their legislation pass of
Speaker 7: killing legislation that they didn't see as favorable. But I'm
Speaker 7: not sure exactly what the details are, And that's one
Speaker 7: of the big questions for me, like won them over?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think the big question moving forward is.
Speaker 6: This has a lot to do with power, as we
Speaker 6: already talked about, but does it have anything to do
Speaker 6: with policy and the decisions that are actually going to
Speaker 6: be made. I think, you know, rightly or wrongly, David
Speaker 6: Cook was associated with the insurgent wing of the House,
Speaker 6: wing that has grown in power, and that has been
Speaker 6: largely associated with a few, you know, the financial support
Speaker 6: of a few billionaires, and you know Tim Dunn being
Speaker 6: the most prominent one. And I think I have to
Speaker 6: imagine that Democrats part of this motivation was to just
Speaker 6: not give that wing a victory, because that wing is
Speaker 6: what scares Democrats more than anyone else in the state.
Speaker 6: I think there is a question here of you know,
Speaker 6: they that wing did not win a victory, you know,
Speaker 6: technically by electing the speaker. It's still a very conservative speaker.
Speaker 6: And if you look at the things that that wing
Speaker 6: has been upset about that they haven't gotten in recent years,
Speaker 6: You're talking about school vouchers which Burrows supported. You talked
Speaker 6: about Democratic Democrats being allowed to chair some committees in
Speaker 6: the House. It seems very possible that that's going to
Speaker 6: go away. You talk about like little maybe more under
Speaker 6: the radar, things like ending taxpayer funded lobbying, going after
Speaker 6: cities and local government's ability to lobby the legislature. Dustin
Speaker 6: Burrows was the author of the death Star bill that
Speaker 6: we called, people called it last session, which really really
Speaker 6: targeted the power of cities. You know, I think there's
Speaker 6: a real question about whether that could actually finally make
Speaker 6: its way through. I mean, a lot of the things
Speaker 6: that that wing has been going for, they might still
Speaker 6: get what they want. And they that wing has been
Speaker 6: pushing ever since Strauss was elected, probably even before that,
Speaker 6: putting intense pressure on that wing of the party. And
Speaker 6: they haven't been able to gain control of the House,
Speaker 6: but they've been able to push the House in the
Speaker 6: direction of that they want it to go very very effectively.
Speaker 6: And you know that now basically the choice for Democrats
Speaker 6: is essentially two people that want to do the exact
Speaker 6: same thing, ones that's associated with that wing and one
Speaker 6: that isn't.
Speaker 5: And they chose the one that isn't right.
Speaker 1: I mean, the gap between like the Democrats who spoke
Speaker 1: on behalf of Representative Rodriguez Ramos and like the Texas
Speaker 1: that they presented, and the gap between what Burrows and
Speaker 1: Cook supporters presented is is vast Burrows and Cook next
Speaker 1: to each other look like so similar when you look
Speaker 1: at compared to you know, the Democrats were talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, expanding abortion access, protecting LGBT Texans like Burrows a.
Speaker 1: He is not talking about any of that. And now
Speaker 1: to build consensus, he's not going to say how can
Speaker 1: I appease the Democrats?
Speaker 2: Cerial boxes, the contents on him were about the same.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, right, I mean these are the same. It's just
Speaker 1: the central market.
Speaker 3: And we won't say which is.
Speaker 4: You decide.
Speaker 2: Well, and this is also a mirror image of the
Speaker 2: Paxton Strauss fight. You know, there was a there was
Speaker 2: an effort to knock off Strauss, you know, that was
Speaker 2: very similar to this. The candidate at the time was
Speaker 2: a House member named Ken Paxton and represented by these
Speaker 2: outside interests, and they were sort of parading around the
Speaker 2: John Reagan Building over here on campus while the Republican
Speaker 2: Caucus met, and the caucus decided to go ahead and
Speaker 2: go with Strauss. But you know, this has been a
Speaker 2: developing fight for a long long time.
Speaker 1: Well, let me just throws too, which is like Paxton
Speaker 1: also loomed large in this fight.
Speaker 3: Now that he's Attorney general.
Speaker 1: I mean, the impeach his the House impeachment of him,
Speaker 1: which you know, he was eventually cleared by the Senate,
Speaker 1: was a huge part of this insurgent wing gaining power.
Speaker 1: He also, among others have like sort of threatened this
Speaker 1: to primary people who oppose what happens on that front.
Speaker 3: On this question, the caucus fight.
Speaker 7: Oh, I think that there's no doubt that there's gonna
Speaker 7: be a lot of primary challenges for sure. You know,
Speaker 7: the RPT chairman has already said that. Some of the lawmakers,
Speaker 7: the more conservative lawmakers, have already said that they've said
Speaker 7: things like this is war, and they warn't beforehand that.
Speaker 7: I mean, that's what Paxton was saying on his two
Speaker 7: day statewide tour that if they didn't vote, if they
Speaker 7: didn't honor the GOP caucus endorsed nominee, who was David Cook,
Speaker 7: that they would be primaried in next year's election. So
Speaker 7: I think we will see that for sure.
Speaker 5: But I do want to.
Speaker 7: Point out too that I agree with you guys, like
Speaker 7: both of these guys are very conservative, but I do
Speaker 7: think that there needs to be like new language around
Speaker 7: what that means, you know, because like they are both conservative,
Speaker 7: and I think, you know, Matthew, you were saying they're
Speaker 7: the right wing of the party. I think that is
Speaker 7: actually the right way to get get to it. They're
Speaker 7: like much more socially conservative. Burrows is more of like
Speaker 7: the business friendly Republican, but he is also very conservative.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't really think it's about a difference
Speaker 2: of policy. I really think this is you know, I
Speaker 2: think you guys were on it when you were talking
Speaker 2: about power in there to go who's who gets to
Speaker 2: who gets to run this and who calls the shots here?
Speaker 2: And you know, I really do think that the House's
Speaker 2: chance of sort of calling its own shots internally is
Speaker 2: stronger with Burrows than it would have been outside with
Speaker 2: with Cook, because you know Cook, you know, when you
Speaker 2: when you analyze that part of the of the or
Speaker 2: that faction, you know they were getting instructions from somewhere,
Speaker 2: not at the corner of Congress and twelfth, you know.
Speaker 2: And and but the result for this, I mean, if
Speaker 2: you're looking at this, you know, like we said, if
Speaker 2: you're looking at this, you know, if I get this speaker,
Speaker 2: this is the result from the Capitol. And if I
Speaker 2: get that speaker, this is the result from the Capitol.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that's that different.
Speaker 7: I think also, uh, to the point about the primaries
Speaker 7: to Burroughs did get mostly support from Democrats and a
Speaker 7: few Republicans, and so that to a certain extent, I
Speaker 7: think proves the point of the right wing conservatives of
Speaker 7: the party right, and so that's why there will be like,
Speaker 7: I think both things can be true.
Speaker 6: It's also true that in order to get things through
Speaker 6: the capital, you need to agree on the policies and
Speaker 6: you need to be able to get along right. And
Speaker 6: you know, we all remember last session where there was
Speaker 6: this massive surplus. Everyone agreed they wanted to spend a
Speaker 6: big chunk of that money on property taxes, and Patrick
Speaker 6: and Phelan fought the entire legislative session over how to
Speaker 6: do that and could not get it done and had
Speaker 6: to come back for special sessions in order to get
Speaker 6: that pass. And you know, I guess maybe they eventually
Speaker 6: did pass something. So maybe we're just talking about like
Speaker 6: what's going to happen with our summer vacations.
Speaker 1: Like how painful the process is of getting there, right,
Speaker 1: which I do you think it it's more indicative of
Speaker 1: how that's going to go that we came in without
Speaker 1: a speaker, or that it got resolved pretty quickly like
Speaker 1: which is more telling to me.
Speaker 6: It's more about how can the House and the Senate
Speaker 6: get along? Then how can they get along within the House.
Speaker 6: I don't really have any doubt in Burrows's ability to
Speaker 6: get through get things through the House. It's whether that
Speaker 6: can then be reconciled with Dan Patrick, who you know,
Speaker 6: put out a pretty you know, salty statement yesterday. He
Speaker 6: was clearly advocating for cook in the days ahead of
Speaker 6: the session. You know, he's not particularly happy. He can
Speaker 6: hold a grudge. I mean, I think you know, the
Speaker 6: question is will Burrows be able to sort of mend
Speaker 6: that relationship.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the other chamber, but first
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Speaker 1: So we do have an entirely other chamber to worry about.
Speaker 1: Certainly less sparks on the first day over there. But
Speaker 1: Governor Greg Abbott was in the Senate. He gave a
Speaker 1: speech in which he addressed his top priorities of stricter
Speaker 1: bail laws and school choice, school vouchers, education savings accounts.
Speaker 1: And Dan Patrick, speaking to Abbot, said, we passed that
Speaker 1: school choice bill five times. We passed that bail bill
Speaker 1: five times. I don't know who my partner is going
Speaker 1: to be across the Hall, but we passed that bill
Speaker 1: many times. Obviously, the Senate is not the sticking point
Speaker 1: for those but ross this school choice school vouchers issue
Speaker 1: has been floating around a long time.
Speaker 3: Is this the session it gets done?
Speaker 2: You know? I sure, I think that they won. They
Speaker 2: won the primaries. I mean, you know they they basically
Speaker 2: made a fist and backed it up, and you know,
Speaker 2: the old school politics, it's like, you know, do this
Speaker 2: or else and the and they produced the or else.
Speaker 2: So everybody who votes against vouchers is in a position
Speaker 2: where every Republican, I should say, who votes against vouchers
Speaker 2: is in a position where, unless they have a very
Speaker 2: very very strong signal from home and or else from home.
Speaker 2: You know, if you if you vote for vouchers, we're
Speaker 2: going to turn you out. They're going to have to
Speaker 2: follow the governor and the Lieutenant governor on knows, particularly
Speaker 2: the governor, because he produced a bunch of money and
Speaker 2: a bunch of effort that wiped out enough of the
Speaker 2: House members that it actually was one of the things
Speaker 2: that called into question the speakers race. You know, is
Speaker 2: the is the House now controlled by the House like
Speaker 2: it always has been. So he's been the you know,
Speaker 2: sort of the angry younger sibling right with its middle
Speaker 2: fingers up and and there was a moment there where
Speaker 2: he's sort of say, are they going to come into
Speaker 2: this so cowed that they're going to let the governor
Speaker 2: and the Lieutenant governor determine who the speaker is and
Speaker 2: what the issues are. But I think that even though
Speaker 2: they didn't determine who the speaker is, they have determined
Speaker 2: what the issues are and you're gonna get a voucher
Speaker 2: bill this time, right.
Speaker 1: I Mean, in some ways it's just how power works.
Speaker 1: To talk about power is well, and that those people
Speaker 1: in other big.
Speaker 2: Question may have been solved, you know, by by Glenn Hager.
Speaker 2: There's enough money here to do vouchers and also put
Speaker 2: a bunch of you know, sort of levening money into
Speaker 2: public schools here, so you can say, you know, we
Speaker 2: think this is terrible, but also this other thing. So
Speaker 2: you know, I think you'll get both of them together.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, if they don't pass vouchers, I'll in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty five, I'll put this cowboy hat into my
Speaker 6: regular wardrobe.
Speaker 3: An orange cowboy hat for in your oatmeal for YouTube.
Speaker 5: You know, nothing is for sure.
Speaker 6: Of course, anything can go weird and crazy, but it
Speaker 6: would just be wild to me if they somehow couldn't
Speaker 6: get it past. They have the votes, they have a
Speaker 6: speaker who supports it, and as we said last week,
Speaker 6: I think, you know, if I'm Burrows and I need
Speaker 6: to sort of shore up relationships with the other people
Speaker 6: in power in this state. One way to really do
Speaker 6: that is to get that Boucher bill through the House
Speaker 6: very quickly early in the session, to make Greg Abbott happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean historically the sticking point there has
Speaker 1: been rural Republicans who feel like their constituents aren't going
Speaker 1: to be served by that Dustin Burrows from Lubbock. You
Speaker 1: know he's a supporter. I think there's been more momentum
Speaker 1: in those rural districts. James, do you feel like those
Speaker 1: rural Republicans are going to have sway on this issue
Speaker 1: the way they are been blockers the way they have
Speaker 1: been in the past.
Speaker 7: Well, a bunch of them, to Ross's point, got replaced.
Speaker 7: They're gone, So they're gone. So they were sort of
Speaker 7: the buffer, I guess, and they're gone, which leads us
Speaker 7: to this situation where school vouchers does seem like an inevitability.
Speaker 7: I think the governor has said he's got seventy nine
Speaker 7: hardcore supporters, but you know, the doubles in details. I
Speaker 7: think there will be some kind of bill that gets past.
Speaker 7: Is just what does it actually look like? But yeah,
Speaker 7: a lot of those people who were the blockers are
Speaker 7: either chose to retire or.
Speaker 4: Were knocked out in the primaries.
Speaker 2: You can ignore the politics for a minute. If you
Speaker 2: think about school finance has always sort of turned on.
Speaker 2: They produce a bill and then they produce these printouts
Speaker 2: of the twelve hundred or eleven hundred school districts and
Speaker 2: say this is how this piece of legislation will affect
Speaker 2: financially each one of these districts. So every member of
Speaker 2: the legislature can look at these and say, I'm okay here,
Speaker 2: I'm okay, I'm hurt here, all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: One of the substantive arguments against vouchers has been you're
Speaker 2: going to take money out of my public schools, and
Speaker 2: you know you're going to hurt this community institution whatever else.
Speaker 2: That means if they have enough money in a school
Speaker 2: finance bill that even with vouchers, your district's not hurt.
Speaker 2: Then it takes away some of that argument, and it
Speaker 2: takes away some of the heat that those members might
Speaker 2: feel from home, and they might be able to hold
Speaker 2: their nose and vote for it. And I and then
Speaker 2: when you add the politics in, as James points out,
Speaker 2: you know, I don't see how that bill doesn't And
Speaker 2: you know, we had a Texas Tribune event up in Dallas.
Speaker 4: This is not a rural area, obviously.
Speaker 7: But Morgan Meyer, who supported the voucher bill, he said
Speaker 7: exactly that. He said, I was looking at the numbers
Speaker 7: and it did not hurt my districts. It actually was
Speaker 7: helping us. Was going to bring hundreds of millions of
Speaker 7: dollars to our districts. And that's why I voted for it,
Speaker 7: and it becomes easier to rationalize.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know what hurt districts was the four
Speaker 6: point five billion dollars that was allocated for schools contingent
Speaker 6: on vouchers getting passed that didn't go through.
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 6: Those districts, you know, many of which are very opposed
Speaker 6: to vouchers, and many people have said, you know, it's
Speaker 6: not worth it to take that like short term you know,
Speaker 6: amount of money. But I wonder how many of them
Speaker 6: still feel that way after we've seen schools closed and
Speaker 6: jobs canceled and everything like that. The districts really feel
Speaker 6: like they need them.
Speaker 3: Money, right, I mean, this is how again, this is
Speaker 3: how power works.
Speaker 1: Right. It's like get who you want in office and
Speaker 1: hold something valuable hostage until you kind of get what
Speaker 1: you want.
Speaker 2: And some of these may be the things that you know,
Speaker 2: as you find out, as we all find out, you know, what,
Speaker 2: if anything, did the Democrats get in this you know
Speaker 2: broker in this deal? You know, are we going to
Speaker 2: base school funding on enrollment instead of attendance? And you know,
Speaker 2: all of those kinds of things along the way that
Speaker 2: you know, turner screw here, turnis screw there. It's not
Speaker 2: like you won the issue, but you won some concessions along.
Speaker 1: The way, right, which I do think Democrats have gotten
Speaker 1: somewhat savvy at using those like small tools, you know,
Speaker 1: because they're not going to necessarily be able to block
Speaker 1: these big bills. Speaking of the budget, Matthew, you spoke
Speaker 1: with Controller Glenn Hagar this week. Give us sort of
Speaker 1: the rundown of how the money's looking.
Speaker 6: The money is looky, not as strong as last session,
Speaker 6: but stronger than pretty much any other session that came
Speaker 6: before it.
Speaker 3: It's a small quibble I'm.
Speaker 5: So going into last session.
Speaker 6: Well, actually, first of all, they have I think one
Speaker 6: hundred and ninety four billion dollars in general revenue to spend,
Speaker 6: which is slightly less than they had available in twenty
Speaker 6: twenty three, but more than they actually chose to spend,
Speaker 6: so they can essentially spend more money than they want to.
Speaker 6: They have a twenty four billion dollar surplus coming in
Speaker 6: from last year, which again is less than thirty two
Speaker 6: point seven billion from last session, but still like far
Speaker 6: more than any other surplus prior to that some of
Speaker 6: that money is that the four point five billion dollars
Speaker 6: that I mentioned earlier, they didn't go to schools. There's
Speaker 6: a few other things that kind of are supposed to
Speaker 6: go to specific counts accounts like highways and water funds
Speaker 6: and everything like that that hasn't been spent. That's not
Speaker 6: account allocated for. But as Hagar kind of confirmed to
Speaker 6: me on the stage on Monday, they've got about twelve
Speaker 6: billion dollars to work with that they can kind of
Speaker 6: allocate to other things. The other thing that I think
Speaker 6: is really interesting that he flagged in this is that
Speaker 6: the Rainy Day Fund, the Economic Stabilization Fund, will also
Speaker 6: reach around twenty four billion dollars this calendar year and
Speaker 6: will reach essentially it's maximum. It's basically the Rainy Day
Speaker 6: Fund caps out at ten percent of like prior spending,
Speaker 6: basically and for the first time in history, in part
Speaker 6: because of how much oil and gas are being extracted
Speaker 6: from the state, which is what funds the Day Fund.
Speaker 6: In part because Hagar actually won the ability to invest
Speaker 6: that money and has also been collecting interests and things
Speaker 6: like that in recent years. It will reach that cap.
Speaker 6: And one of the questions that Hager was sort of raising,
Speaker 6: is should the legislature lift that cap and allow that
Speaker 6: to grow even further so you could he's basically saying,
Speaker 6: by in a decade that amount could reach eighty billion
Speaker 6: dollars or should they you know, lower taxes with it?
Speaker 6: They could, it's the an oil and gas tax that
Speaker 6: feeds that. You could conceivably lower that tax, although that
Speaker 6: only helps us pretty small number of people. Or do
Speaker 6: you just kind of allow that money at which is
Speaker 6: the current set up, to go back into the general
Speaker 6: fund to spend each year? And you know, it's an
Speaker 6: interesting question, but the big picture thing here is just
Speaker 6: the state has a lot of money to spend again,
Speaker 6: and in some ways that'll make things easier.
Speaker 5: In some ways that'll make it harder for them.
Speaker 3: So like we're retrich this year.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's all good. It's all good. You know, there
Speaker 2: was a you know, back in the day, there was
Speaker 2: an Appropriations chairman Rob Dannell later became a federal judge
Speaker 2: who said, you know, it's easiest to do a budget
Speaker 2: in a legislature where the money's short because people come,
Speaker 2: there's a line of supplicants, we want money for this
Speaker 2: we want money for that, and you can say I
Speaker 2: love you, but we just don't have the money. But
Speaker 2: when you have a surplus, you know, and he was
Speaker 2: talking about much smaller surpluses, but when you have enough
Speaker 2: money quote unquote, when they come to you and they
Speaker 2: say we want this and we want that, you have
Speaker 2: to say, well, I just don't love you, and it's
Speaker 2: a different kind of problem.
Speaker 3: And everyone starts fighting over what should we do.
Speaker 2: So now we've had this line for a couple of
Speaker 2: sessions now where they've had some kind of surplus or
Speaker 2: they've had some kind of you know, land of plenty,
Speaker 2: and they've gotten into this mode where they basically you
Speaker 2: can see more clearly what their priorities are and are
Speaker 2: not because it's not that they don't have the money,
Speaker 2: it's that they don't have the will for some of
Speaker 2: these things.
Speaker 6: I think three things to look at for likely candidates
Speaker 6: for some of that money to get spent.
Speaker 5: One property taxes.
Speaker 6: I don't think you can have a surplus in this state,
Speaker 6: in this political environment without doing something to lower property taxes.
Speaker 6: Water infrastructure. That's been a big issue kind of leading
Speaker 6: up to the session. A lot of people across the
Speaker 6: political spectrum saying we need to spend more money preparing
Speaker 6: Texas for the future with in terms of water supply and.
Speaker 5: Everything like that.
Speaker 6: And then as we've already discussed school funding, the schools
Speaker 6: really struggling. I think folks would like to sort of
Speaker 6: take that attack line off the table heading into twenty
Speaker 6: twenty six.
Speaker 7: But I think two of those three are I mean,
Speaker 7: I don't know, we have ross herehegon Wigan, but wouldn't
Speaker 7: it be unwise to use like one time expenditures on them,
Speaker 7: Like it seems like the water infrastructure one is the
Speaker 7: only one that you'd really want to do it one
Speaker 7: time spend.
Speaker 2: The water thing is you know you can do that
Speaker 2: with bonding, so you can put one time money into
Speaker 2: that and then you know, sort of live off the
Speaker 2: corpus to some extent. Right, you know, the question is
Speaker 2: exactly right. You know, if the other two are related.
Speaker 2: If you lower property taxes, you're basically saying the local
Speaker 2: part of school finance is going to go down, and
Speaker 2: to compensate for that, the state part's going to go up.
Speaker 2: That's how you do that. That's a waterbed, right, and
Speaker 2: especially if you're in an environment where you're telling people.
Speaker 2: We're gonna do vouchers. It's not going to hurt schools.
Speaker 2: Everybody's going to go up right. You have the money
Speaker 2: to do that and do the property tax thing. But
Speaker 2: then you have to worry about next time and next
Speaker 2: time and next time. And that's what's happened to school
Speaker 2: finance over and over and over again in history, is
Speaker 2: that it eventually, you know, the state's funding goes down
Speaker 2: and that puts pressure on property taxes and you get
Speaker 2: back yeah, you know.
Speaker 7: Yeah, right now we're rich, rich, and it looks all good.
Speaker 7: But when we hit a bust or something, it's it's
Speaker 7: not gonna be all good, and we may if there
Speaker 7: is no legislation that puts in an infrastructure to actually
Speaker 7: solve these things, or in the budgeting it solved. Then
Speaker 7: one time expenditures are kind of hard to justify in
Speaker 7: the long run, I think.
Speaker 2: And if you're an appropriator and you're looking for ways
Speaker 2: to say no to all those people in line, this
Speaker 2: is how to do it. Say it's one time money,
Speaker 2: we can't use it for ongoing expenses.
Speaker 1: But those one time expenditures are popular with you know,
Speaker 1: it's great to say I threw all that money Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's going to make me feel better about my property
Speaker 2: taxes right now?
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: Well, you know, before we go, I think the most
Speaker 1: important thing on every Texans mind this week is I
Speaker 1: think James and I have been discussing all morning, which
Speaker 1: is that Dustin Burrows, in addition to being our new
Speaker 1: House speaker and representing how power works in the state
Speaker 1: of Texas, is also the first House speaker since eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty seven to have a beard.
Speaker 3: Beards are back. We've got two beards on this.
Speaker 4: Stage, Ross, not anybody's beard.
Speaker 3: Ross. Are you thinking about growing a beard?
Speaker 2: Now that I've thought about it all my life? If
Speaker 2: I had stopped shaving when I was thirteen, I would
Speaker 2: pretty much look like I love right now.
Speaker 1: Uh. You know, bearded representation on the dais What does
Speaker 1: this mean to you guys?
Speaker 6: I think I think Burrows. I think Burrows has got
Speaker 6: to trim the beard a little bit.
Speaker 3: Really, he gets the power he already did.
Speaker 2: He looked like us.
Speaker 4: He's certainly trimmed.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think when he's out in a lumbic winter,
Speaker 7: he's got a bigger one, but he's certainly trimmed.
Speaker 2: He has a hibernation beard for a minute there.
Speaker 7: Right right, and it's it's gonna get hot, and then
Speaker 7: Dustin Burrows does then shave it down. But I think
Speaker 7: I am a strong proponent for the beards. I've been
Speaker 7: a strong proponent for beards since I started covering the legislature.
Speaker 7: The last guy shout out to Asher Price from Axios
Speaker 7: because he did all this research. The last guy to
Speaker 7: have a full on beard and be the Texas House
Speaker 7: speaker was a guy in eighteen eighty five called Lafayette
Speaker 7: Lumpkin Foster.
Speaker 3: So that is, you know, Lumpy Foster.
Speaker 1: And I hate to be this person, but you know,
Speaker 1: not a woman in the bunch in the whole history.
Speaker 1: But you know, we do finally have bearded represent tation
Speaker 1: and so you know, we'll have to see what that
Speaker 1: means for policy.
Speaker 7: This is If you would like to read a story
Speaker 7: about bearded speakers, please email our editors who are sucking
Speaker 7: the fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know this is you know, if anything happens
Speaker 1: on the beard front, we at the Texas Trip Cast
Speaker 1: will be cracking it. Yes, we want to thank our sponsors,
Speaker 1: former US Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza and the Texas
Speaker 1: Managed Care Alliance. Our producers are Rob Avila and Chrisoba.
Speaker 1: Oh Chris, I should have checked her last name before
Speaker 1: we did this. Chris Shobaa. Our theme music is composed
Speaker 1: by Rob. I want to thank James, Matthew and Ross
Speaker 1: for joining us and we will see you guys next
Speaker 1: week