Pratt on Texas

In this Pratt on Texas Podcast Extra, IPI's Dr. Merrill Matthews joins us to discuss several subjects covered by him in recently published columns.What You Need to Know About Government's Clean Energy SubsidiesA Quick and Easy Way to Grow the WorkforceThe Worker-Shortage Mystery Solved--MostlyIf Cutting Social Security Is a Scandal, Then Biden Did it FirstEstimating Illegal Immigration's Cost to Public Education About the Institute for Policy InnovationThe Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy "think tank" based in Irving, Texas and founded in 1987 to research, develop and promote innovative and non-partisan solutions to today's public policy problems.IPI's focus is on approaches to governing that harness the strengths of individual liberty, limited government, and free markets. IPI emphasizes getting its studies into the hands of the press and policy makers so that the ideas they contain can be applied to the challenges facing us today.IPI is engaged in an extensive publication program of policy studies, issue briefs, newsletters and books on public policy issues, all of which are available in electronic form at this site.Though IPI is a non-partisan organization, we approach policy issues from a consistent philosophical viewpoint of individual liberty and responsibility, free markets, and limited government.IPI is a public foundation, supported wholly by contributions from individuals, businesses, and other non-profit foundations. In order to maintain its independence, IPI neither solicits nor accepts contributions from any government agency. 

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day:  An Accuracy in Media investigation in Texas shows how public school teachers and administrators readily ignore state law to continue pushing neo-Marxist programs like Critical Race Theory. In the continued fight against this and similar, like Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs at our universities, lawmakers need to go the proverbial extra mile to get the language right in bills.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Why has Gov. Abbott backed away from “record” property tax relief? Could it be because legislative leaders rigged the game to prevent record property tax relief this session? Read details here.Texas lost a True Texan legend, Spur-native and San Antonio resident, Red McCombs dead at 95.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates. www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Legislative "emergency items" and other priorities of Governor Abbott were put before the people last night. Legislators in Texas have a very long history of ignoring what governors ask for but let's hope the 88th Legislature moves with haste on Abbott's list because, overall, it is quite good.Gov. Abbott's State of the State addressAlso, despite being a good list, few noticed that Abbott has backtracked on his property tax proposal related to a phase out of school district M&O taxes as well as passing the "largest" property tax cut in history. Indeed, using the Legislative Budget Board's own numbers, the much smaller (than $20 billion or more to be the biggest) $15 billion is actually only $9.7 billion in new property tax cuts with the balance being to continue previous such cuts - not very honest from Abbott or the Legislature.Abbott's word play with "COVID restrictions" is beneath the dignity of the office."That’s why I’m announcing an emergency item to end COVID restrictions forever. We must prohibit any government from imposing COVID mask mandates, COVID vaccine mandates, and from closing any business or school because of COVID. These actions will help Texas close the door on COVID restrictions. Also, we must change how government responds to future pandemics, including requiring the legislature to convene if another pandemic is ever declared."It sounds good until you realize it's nothing and, he wants to ensure legislatures meet in the future over such matters!? Abbott is the one who refused to call a special session to allow for just that when it was his orders and power at stake.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995. In the PodcastExtra segment: The Biden Administration again weaponizes the Department of Justice. This time it is to go after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, stepping over other state and federal officials, to do so in a way the White House can control. Why? They'd love to indict, and it's pretty easy to indict anyone, the man who keeps suing them and stopping their Leftist policies in court.Oil and gas rig count unchanged in Texas this week.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com 

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: It’s all legislation today as the 88th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature is underway.Representative Carl Tepper talks with us about the evolving effort to strike “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) political activity from our state colleges and universities. Tepper also discusses his efforts to reform extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) abuse of landowners by Texas municipalities.Rep. Tepper also discusses his new experience on the House Appropriations committee and just how convoluted and complicated it is with federal and state dollars, formulas attached to all, and how it leads to the agencies not being able to answer basic questions on spending and related issues.Then we move to a discussion with Daniel Dew of the Pacific Legal Foundation and formerly of the Heritage Foundation. Dew talks about two Texas bills and how Texas should work to end “judicial deference to executive agencies.”In federal and state courts around the country, Americans often face an uneven playing field when they square off against executive agencies thanks to doctrines that require judges to rubber stamp agency interpretations of the law. Unfortunately, court doctrines favoring big government have leaked into Texas’ state court system as well, but HB 1947 and HB1948 will ensure that Texans will have a fair shot in court.This is important for Texans because as it stands, courts are so infused with a systemic bias favoring government agencies that successful legal challenges are nearly impossible for every Texan. Likewise, rulemaking by unelected bureaucrats is a grave perversion of the government’s checks-and-balances structure, and its correction is also long overdue.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Should Texas set aside a saint’s day, February 14th, to honor adulterer-owned or pederast-owned businesses? The Democrat backed homosexual lobby tried, and failed I am glad to report, to get the Christian Saint Valentine’s Day voted as a day to honor homosexual businesses. It was in-your-face disrespect as usual, and as usual, they were also looking for special preferences beyond equality by having homosexual-owned businesses given HUB status for state and local government contracting purposes.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Anti-Wimp Update: Armed robber nets not so sweet reception in Sugar Land store.Texas Tribune story picked up across the state with a headline that makes it seem that some secret about school choice was released. Frankly the story is meaningless and discloses nothing that we don’t know and that already happens when a student, as thousands do, transfers from one public school to another – the district the student leaves loses the attendance funding from the state.Huge numbers of illegal entry into Texas and the United States continues along the border with Mexico with the Biden Administration doing nothing but trying to encourage more to come and cross. On top of that, Senator Lindsey Graham is teaming up with the Left to grant amnesty to about 2 million assuring that waves of people will keep coming no matter what we do.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: The Texas Senate is again working faster than the House and Lieutenant Governor Patrick has announced the low bill number, his priority list, legislation.Overall it’s a good list that appears to reflect the reality of what Senate Republicans want to pass. Too bad the House is more murky.Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick releases 30 legislative priorities for TexasLt. Gov. Dan Patrick focuses on property tax relief and power grid in top billsSome of the priorities need a hard look as they sound good under current circumstances but could, in a differing political climate, turn into nightmares for conservatives. SB 20, 21, and 23 are examples of bills that could, if not written very carefully, be turned back upon non-Leftist Texans in the future.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Good work from the Texas Attorney General:Paxton Condemns Yelp for Discriminating Against Crisis Pregnancy Centers – and it appears Yelp has reversed coursePaxton Warns CVS and Walgreens on the Illegalities of Sending Abortion Pills Through the MailTexas AG Paxton Expands Fight Against AbortionAnd, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Are Democrats beginning to sound like Republicans on border security? No, but a Dallas Morning News piece tries to suggest such. There is no question consultants and a few other recognize what a losing issue this has been for Democrats but to turn from their current position would be abandoning their fundamental plan to reshape the country’s electorate. Plus, with the Democratic Party being dominated by young anti-law and order office holders it becomes very problematic to suddenly become pro-law and order at the border.A.G. Ken Paxton’s Newsweek opinion piece: State AG Litigation Delivers Where Washington Fails on Border Security.Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Sherry Sylvester has a fine follow-up on our reporting about D.E.I. Leftism at Texas Tech and the state’s other universities. Likely we’ll get at least a symbolic bill passed but that is not sufficient. We must have a ban on state sponsorship of these inherently political  dogmas that works and has serious teeth. Perhaps a 25% loss of state funds to the institution for funding or using these discriminatory movements in the administration of the schools?And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: Rep. Carl Tepper’s early efforts to ban the use of the inherently political (Leftist) D.E.I. on our Texas college campuses is gaining great momentum after Texas Tech was shown to use such for hiring discrimination in John Sailer’s piece in the Wall Street Journal. Now Lieutenant Governor Patrick has joined the call from Governor Abbott to get this pernicious D.E.I. model out of our state agencies including colleges and universities.Listen to my interview with John Sailer here (2nd half of the show.)Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Anti-Wimp update: Hotel clerk’s handgun vs. robber’s rifle.Some so-called “rogue employees” who went after Attorney General Paxton agree to settle case if Legislature approves the deal. Maybe it is cheaper to settle but I still don’t buy much of any of the arguments of this crew and still have the opinion their actions were little more than a political hit job.Oil and gas rig count rises for nation but oddly falls a lot in Texas.Border news: Biden Admin. is reducing the amount of air assets used by Border Patrol – clearly the move is to make it harder to report “gottaways.”And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: We talk with John Sailer of the National Association of Scholars about Texas Tech’s D.E.I. political litmus test used in hiring.The Texas Tribune reported:  During a meeting of the Texas Senate Finance committee Wednesday, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell said that the situation in the biology department was not a universitywide policy.“I don’t believe in litmus tests of any kind,” Mitchell told the committee. “It’s no more appropriate to ask them if they’re a Christian or Muslim. When we find out something like that has occurred, we stop it.” I find it very hard to believe Mitchell because otherwise, what is the purpose of the university founding and funding the inherently political D.E.I. movement with its Texas Tech University Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion? That office doesn’t teach classes, it teaches faculty and staff, university-wide, how to be D.E.I. political warriors. Note part of its own description: “We establish our culture through shared practices and traditions, through our artwork and our food, through our words and our actions, through our practices/policies/procedures,…” [Emphasis added.]Governor Abbott has sent a letter reminding our state agencies not to use inherently political D.E.I. in hiring but of course the press constructs the story to lie to the public about what is D.E.I. and frames it as an attack on “diversity.” D.E.I. is not about promoting diverse points of view otherwise people would not be penalized for disagreeing with some of its Leftist political tenets – as people were at Texas Tech, proven in Sailer’s reporting.(By the way, this is been major national and state news since Tuesday – where is the local Lubbock reporting on the issue?)Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Huge scandal of “persistent failures to report sexual misconduct by administrators at City View ISD of multiple incidents over an eight-year span” leads to arrest of seven current and former administrators. More..Local sales tax collection numbers released.Speaker Phelan releases Texas House committee assignments. I will comment on these more in coming days.And, other news of Texas.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates. www.PrattonTexas.com

The news of Texas covered today includes:Our Lone Star story of the day: You hear and read a lot of bad information on what states can actually do under federal law related to the border. Former “Contract with America” congressman from Indiana, John Hostettler tells us there is a tried and true area of federal law that let’s states enforce a great deal when it comes to illegal immigration. Hostettler, working with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, has put out a detailed study on the part of federal law states should be using to deter illegal crossings between official ports of entry. Hostettler served in the U.S. House from 1995 to 2007 and was chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security, and Claims. Our Lone Star story of the day is sponsored by Allied Compliance Services providing the best service in DOT, business and personal drug and alcohol testing since 1995.Listen on the radio, or station stream, at 5pm Central. Click for our radio and streaming affiliates.www.PrattonTexas.com