James Quintero - Policy Director, TPPF Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well they're trying. Five fifty two is our time here
in Houston's Morning News. We're joined by James Winterow, policy
director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. There are seemingly
no end to what the far left will do to
try to circumvent Texas law and the Texas legislature and
get their hands on more tax money.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
That's exactly right, Jimmy, Good morning. Leftist local governments love
to spend your money on all sorts of things. They're
very activist at the local level, and it's one reason
why we're pushing hard at the legislature to preempt what
they're trying to do and rain them in, focus them
on core services, get them back to basics, not only

(00:41):
because it's good for the Texas economy, but also because
the more activists they are, the more money they cost us,
and the more released, the more tax relief we all
lose in the process.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, some of these municipalities are turning to bonds. And
then you have Harris County, which seems to be very creative.
I don't know if you've heard me mention before the
break here they have this Climate Justice plan where they're
proposing to do greenhouse gas tax. They're promoting DEI, which
I know the governor is not going to be very
happy with. And they're recommending income based property taxes and
rent controls. Are they even allowed by Texas law to

(01:17):
change the property tax formula to income based?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
No. You know, county governments actually are supposed to do
very few and defined things. But you have activist local
leaders in office who think it's a platform for them
to make a name for themselves and try and move
on to the next level. And I can tell you
that a lot of this activism is really frustrating people

(01:43):
at the at the capitol right now. And here's one
reason why. Two years ago, the legislature passed historic measure
of tax relief. They devoted eighteen billion dollars to buying
down everyone's property taxes. It was supposed to get the
average person about thirteen hundred dollar in relief that was
supposed to last a while. Well, turns out we all

(02:04):
convened in January and everyone acknowledges that relief that was
provided two years ago is gone. And what happened is
it effectively turned into a subsidy for your cities and
your counties and your special districts. So we have folks
at the local level who don't understand that when the
legislature provides tax relief, that's not a signal to raise

(02:28):
your rates, to issue big bonds, to use certificates of obligation,
and do all the rest. They need to give folks
a time out, and unfortunately they didn't do that this time.
It's really causing a lot of frustration, and I think
it's going to lead to some pretty good, strong tax
reforms to rein in what they can do on the

(02:50):
tax side.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Why do I always get the billing though that there
are one step ahead of Conservatives, always one step ahead.
They're probably already thinking up. They're working two moves ahead.
They're like Trump, only they're working for the far left.
They're big, they're doing things two moves ahead.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, you're right, they are. You know. One of the
one of the things that became very obvious once the
legislature passed the death Star Bill last session was the
fact that they they understand how to not only utilize
the courts to their advantage, but they have some very
creative interpretations of state law. And because they've got a

(03:28):
lot of tax payer funded lawyers at their disposal. They're
constantly thinking of ways to circumvent what conservatives do with
the legislature to either mitigate or get around entirely what
we're trying to do. You know, it's again, it's one
of those reasons I think we have to get a
bit more prescriptive in the law and say, look, city's county,
school districts, this is what y'all be doing, and you

(03:51):
can't do any of these things period.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, well, until they think of something else. I think
one of the things that Harris County is looking at
is getting around tex law by supporting NGOs. In other words,
we'll just we'll get around government by sending the money
to a nonprofit who will do our bidding.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, it's really unfortunate. You know. The Elon Must Doze
investigation at the federal level really uncovered this pernicious relationship
between government and NGOs, and I think that dynamic exists
here in Texas too. What I'm trying to persuade the
legislature to do is empower individuals to have the ability

(04:31):
to utilize the Public Information Act for these government funded NGOs,
so that they can go and ask them questions about, Hey,
how are y'all spending my money. I think we're getting
a little traction at the legislature. There's there's some definite
interest there, so we've got some vehicles in play. Hopefully,
when the legislature finally adjourned Signide in June, we'll be

(04:56):
able to give people a tool so that they can
go out and ask questions on their own and hold
these folks to account where needed.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
All right, James, thanks as always for your time. Appreciated
Policy director at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, James Quintero,
it's five fifty seven.