Sen. Don Huffines (TP – Dallas) has introduced Senate Bill 343 which would strip the ability of Texas local governments to enact ordinances that exceed what regulation and rules the Legislature deems appropriate.  The bill has the at least tacit support or Gov. Abbott who indicated his support for such a measure in one of his first public statements after his election.  If passed, the Legislature will have the last word on every element of Texas public policy that it touches.  The short but powerful bill reads:

Sec.A1.006.AACONFORMITY WITH STATE LAW. (a)Where the state has passed a general statute or rule regulating a subject, a local government shall restrict its jurisdiction and the passage of its ordinances, rules, and regulations to and in conformity with the state statute or rule on the same subject, unless the local government is otherwise expressly authorized by statute.

(b)AAUnless expressly authorized by state statute, a local government shall not implement an ordinance, rule, or regulation that conflicts with or is more stringent than a state statute or rule regardless of when the state statute or rule takes effect.

This usurpation of local government control contradicts everything that the GOP supposedly stands for, i.e. local control.  But what is principle when you have larger interests (rewarding donors and getting re-elected with their money) to serve?  Principle must give way to partisanship when many of the largest counties and cities in Texas are controlled by the Democrats.  The Texas GOP has consistently complained about the Federal government (read Pres. Obama)  imposing its will on Texas.   But when the tables are turned and Texas local governments turn out to be more progressive than the GOP can tolerate, then the all powerful “State” must take control.  Does the GOP believe in the will of the people or is it only interested in serving the interests of their donor base?

Many Texas counties and cities are worried that the Texas Legislature’s proposed property tax relief will leave them unable to meet their obligations.  Unknown to many, Texas’ local government (counties and municipalities) are loaded up with debt.  According to the Texas Bond Review Board, of the 10 most-populous states, only New York has more local debt per resident. The debt of Texas local governments has increased by 75 percent over the past decade, as local officials have had to pour money into public works to accommodate population growth and decaying infrastructure.  The State isn’t helping much as Texas ranks 48th in spending per capita.  As anyone driving on the streets of a large Texas city can tell you, we are falling behind.

Bloomberg reports on some of the local officials’ concerns about their ability to keep up in the face of Tea Party demands for tax relief.

Texas’s Williamson County hired hundreds of workers and ran up debt as it became home to two of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. cities. Now, state tax cuts threaten to crimp the revenue it needs to pay for the expansion.

“It scares the fool out of me,” said Dan Gattis, a [County] judge who helps oversee the budget for the county, an area north of Austin where farms gave way to congested roads as the population almost doubled since 2000. “It takes so much money to run county government. We’ve got to have some way to pay the bills.”

Williamson County is among them. An influx increased its population by almost 90 percent since 2000 to 471,000. Two of its cities — Cedar Park and Georgetown — were among the 10 fastest growing in 2013, according to the Census Bureau.  Its payroll has swelled 40 percent since 2003 to about 1,500 employees. Jail bookings are up 50 percent. Even the county’s miniature train has seen its ridership increase by more than one third since 2007. In 2013, Williamson County voters approved a $315 million bond for roads and parks.

“The state is not appropriating the money,” said Gattis, the county judge.

“Our debt is high here, I don’t try to hide from that at all,” Gattis said. “There was no way we could have built the infrastructure we needed to build without going out and leveraging money.”

Williamson County is Tea Party country.  Good luck Dan.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (TP) wants to bust the state spending cap in order to provide tax relief and pay down state debt while at the same time cutting social services.  But he doesn’t want his fingerprints on it.  The state spending cap is a complicated check on expenditures that many politicians do not understand.  Patrick has proposed a constitutional amendment to provide political cover for what might otherwise be seen as an effort to bust a spending cap that has served the state for 36 years.  The Texas Tribune attempts to explain the cap and Patrick’s proposal.

While a simple idea in theory, the spending cap in practice is a complicated measure that even some members of the Legislature have trouble grasping. The Texas Constitution says the government can’t grow faster than the state’s economy. State leaders set a growth rate of 11.68 percent for this session in December, based on the estimated rate of growth in Texans’ personal income over the next two years. 

Not all spending is subject to the cap. However, paying down state debt is. So is cutting property taxes, because it would require lawmakers approving extra state spending to make up for the loss to public schools.

Patrick proposes an amendment to eviscerate the cap so that an expected $4-5 billion surplus over the cap can be returned back to taxpayers.  Rather than simply vote to do so, Patrick has proposed a constitutional amendment to exempt tax relief and debt payments from the spending cap.  Sound complicated?  The Tea Partiers don’t want to be on record as voting to bust the spending cap for whatever reason – so they are attempting to pass the buck to the voters.

Why not keep the $4-5 billion in the state treasury as a bulwark against what appear to be rockier roads ahead.  That would make too much sense and not allow Patrick to pander to his Tea Party roots.

Jonathan Tilove breaks down the performance of Ted Cruz and other Republican presidential wannabes at CPAC.

Rep. Tony Tinderholt (TP- Headcase City) has filed a complaint with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct against Travis County District Judge David Wahlberg who recently ordered the Travis County Clerk to issue a marriage license to a long-time gay couple with two children.  Tinderholt is understandably concerned about the sanctity of the institution of marriage – apparently having been married five (5) times himself.  Tinderholt obviously believes that marriage is a sacred bond between a man and a woman – at least until he gets tired of his current wife or vice versa.

Tinderholt has complained that Judge Wahlberg failed to give notice to the Texas Attorney General’s office before issuing his order.  One problem – Wahlberg was not the judge in the court where the constitutionality of Texas’ ban on same sex marriage was challenged.  That was in a case before Probate Court Judge Guy Hermann.  Texas litigants are required to notify the Attorney General when challenging a Texas statute on constitutional grounds and that was done in the probate case.  The AG declined to intervene and the case proceeded.  Wahlberg was acting on a request based on the prior ruling.  It seems highly unlikely that any action will be taken against Wahlberg.

And the current over/under on Tinderholt’s latest marriage – Red is putting that at 3.5 years and going short.

The Dallas Morning News reports that former David Dewhurst advisor Kenneth “Buddy” Barfield was sentenced to more than 7 years in prison for his embezzlement of millions of dollars from Dewhurst’s campaign war chest.

Barfield was also ordered by a federal judge to pay $2.5 million in restitution,  after pleading guilty in October to three charges, including wire fraud, falsified tax returns and theft of campaign funds from a candidate for federal office.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks said that the 87-month sentence was a “little bit low,” as compared to others he’s given out for similar offenses. But taking into account Barfield’s cooperation in the case, the judge said he hoped the sentence would be a deterrent.  “The seriousness of the offense I don’t think can be overstated,” Sparks said.

Barfield used the money to pay his home mortgage, tuition for his children and personal expenses. Barfield’s rather unsophisticated scheme involved false bank deposits, fake invoices and reports that inflated the amount of cash on hand.  Barfield’s businesses were also paid for work that was never performed including polling and political mail-outs.  Judge Sparks remarked that Barfield’s actions “could well have impacted elections.”  Hopefully, Ted Cruz will send Barfield a care basket every now and then.

Several members of the Texas Legislature joined bigots masquerading as conservatives at the Capitol for a controversial slice of symbolic wedding cake yesterday.  The happy bigots were celebrating the 10th anniversary of a constitutional amendment that defined Texas marriages as “the union of one man and one woman.”

The way those guys are crowded around that cake holding hands looks  suspiciously gay to me.

A Texas Politics Project/Texas Tribune poll of Texas voters has Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker near the head of the early GOP Presidential field.  Walker polls at 19% – in a statistical tie with Tea Party favorite Ted Cruz.  Ex-Gov. Rick Perry is stalled at 8%.  And in a remarkable turn of sanity for the GOP, the former half-term Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, is at 3%.

Newly elected Sen. Konni Burton (TP-Crazyville) desperately wants to become the Ted Cruz of the Texas Senate.  To advance that claim, Burton announced she will ban public-sector lobbyists from her office.  If Burton follows her policy she will exclude representatives of municipalities, counties, school districts, public universities, river authorities, and water districts.  Burton will exclude representatives of the areas she allegedly serves.  Any person officially representing citizens in Fort Worth, Arlington, or a local school district will not be allowed into her office to advocate or inform Burton on issues that could help or hurt the her constituents.  This unusual policy did not prevent Burton from accepting campaign contributions from some of the now-banned lobbyists.   It would be one thing if Burton’s lobbyist ban was universal, but of course it is not, because Burton will still welcome lobbyists representing private corporations or special interest groups.  The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (not exactly a liberal rag) is not amused.

Burton says lobbyists “very well could be pushing policy that is in direct conflict with the will of the people.” She shouldn’t make that judgment before she knows what they want to talk about. Elected officials in her district hire lobbyists to push specific policies, presumably ones they believe represent “the will of the people.”  She can make lobbyists tell her what they want to discuss and decide case by case which she wants to hear. To reject them all without consideration is a disservice to the people back home, and it’s not smart.

Jeb Bush claims to be “his own man.”  A look at his foreign policy advisors reveals that he appears to be nothing more than a retread of brother George W. who led perhaps the most incompetent foreign policy team in U.S. history.  “Jeb’s Team” includes discredited figures such as Paul “I’ve Been Wrong About Almost Everything” Wolfowitz and John “Death Squad” Negroponte.  The Washington Post has prepared a Venn diagram which illustrates Jeb’s almost complete lack of independence from the Bush family legacy of foreign policy failure.  How did Don Rumsfeld get left out?