October 16, 2025 • 36 mins
On this Salcedo Storm Podcast:
Brandon Waltens, is a Senior Editor at Texas Scorecard. He is the host of the essential, Daily Headlines at Texas Scorecard.
Brandon Waltens, is a Senior Editor at Texas Scorecard. He is the host of the essential, Daily Headlines at Texas Scorecard.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, I'm you happy, keep.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Book Neil Smith and old Buck Buddy. Are you hearing Neil?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Neil?
Speaker 4 (00:09):
I miss you, Mann.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I have a question. We respect for me.
Speaker 5 (00:13):
Down by breaking a major story, Chris, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Listen to a single score podcast.
Speaker 5 (00:43):
Did an interview with Brandon Walton's the senior editor at
the Texas Scorecard, and folks, he was detailing and you're
going to hear our interview here in a minute. He
was detailing to me some of the constitutional amendments that
we have coming up for vote in November. And I'm like, oh,
it's in November, meaning you know the general election November.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
No, We've got an election coming up in November, then
a primary election in March, then another election in November
the following November. Three elections within a year's period, Folks.
That's an awful lot of voting and an awful lot
of issues. And I don't know if that's if that's
a feature or a bug folks. For me, I just
(01:29):
think that's an awful lot to ask of the voters.
But you know, I think it's the reason why they
do it that way, because if you think about this,
it was just going to be kind of scary that
a November, an off year November election is so poorly attended.
(01:50):
It's people aren't getting out there in droves to votes.
That means a very small percentage of us are making
some pretty damn big decisions for.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Their to us.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
And I'm talking about these constitutional amendments, and a lot
of them, folks, the majority of them have to deal
with money. We're talking big money. So and then the
other things are pretty important too. Let me just go
down the people that they decided that they would consult
to give their opinion and weigh in on whether or
(02:22):
not these constitutional amendments that you're all going to be asked.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
To vote for.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Praise God, all of you will get out there and
do it. They asked Texans for fiscal responsibility.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Good group. I know their leadership.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
True Texas Project. Another great group, I know their leadership.
Texas Policy Research, I don't think I know them. I
know Texas Public Policy Foundation, but I don't know Texas
Policy Research. So anyway, I'll go through the list of
these prop one creating funds to support the capital needs
of educational programs offered by the Texas State Tentical College System. No,
(02:58):
I oppose it. All of the others oppose it. All
those groups that I mentioned, they oppose it. Banning taxes
on the realized or unrealized capital gains of individual family
and estates or trusts. No, I do not want to
tax stuff that has already been taxed, right, you don't
tax money that's already been taxed. So we want to
stop the leftists from even thinking about this. So TFR,
(03:21):
TTP and TPR say new Proposition three, denying bail under
certain circumstances to persons accused of certain offenses punishable as
a felony. TFR is neutral on it because they're Texans
for Fiscal Responsibility, TTP True Texas Project supports this, and
(03:42):
TPR Texas Texas Policy Research says oppose. Okay, so they're split.
One's neutral, one's for it, on's against it. So that's
going to be a jump ball, folks, if you don't
know how to evaluate that yourself. For me, denying bail
under certain circumstances to persons accused of certain offenses punishable
(04:06):
as a felony, that's really ambiguous wording, not very specific
for me.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So I'm going to say no.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Proposition four dedicating a portion of the state's sales and
use tax revenues to the Texas Water Fund and to
provide for the allocation and use of that revenue. Everybody
opposes this of all the groups that were consulted. I
don't necessarily think that government is the best arbiter to
(04:38):
do this. It needs to be done, folks. We need
water projects in the state of Texas. My preference is
that the state government create a system that allows the
private sector to get this done and gives either incentives
to these private sector companies or that kind of thing.
(05:00):
But if we're going to guarantee that it gets done
on time and under budget, this should not be a
project that is undertaken by the state. Government is not
the best arbiter to handle any of this stuff, frankly,
unless we want cost overruns in greasing of palms and
(05:20):
all the cronyism that goes with it. Proposition five exempting
from advalorum taxation tangible personal property consisting of animal feed
held by the power of the property or sale at retail.
This is again not allowing the government to take your money,
and everybody supports that. Proposition six prohibits the legislature from
(05:41):
imposing an occupation tax on certain entities that enter into
transactions conveying securities or imposing attacks on certain securities transactions.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Everybody supports that.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Getting the government out of our transactions, all good, all right.
Proposition seven, providing for an exemption from they may addalorum
taxation of all are part of the market value of
the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a veteran
who died as a result of a condition or disease
that is presumed to have been service connected. So if
(06:13):
you die in service to your country as a result
of that service, then you should have an exemption from
advalorum taxation of all are part of the market value
of the residents. Now, I think the ambiguity of this
law is maybe what cause the True Taxes Project to
say no. I think the True Texas Project wants an
(06:37):
elimination of all property taxes, doesn't want to solidify them,
just wants to get rid of them all. TFR and
TPR supported. I guess they'll take what little they can get.
Proposition eight prohibiting the legislature from imposing death taxes applicable
to a decedents property or the transfer of an estate
inheritance legacy, succession.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Or gift.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Yes, you shouldn't be able to impose taxes on this stuff.
No more taxes. Everybody supports that. Proposition nine, exempting from
advolorum taxation a portion of the market value of tangible
personal property a person owns that is held or used
for the production of income.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So if you use.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
A property for income, you shall not have extra taxes
levied on it. Everybody supports that. Proposition ten, providing a
temporary exemption from adolrum taxation of the appraised value of
an improvement to a residence homestead that is completely destroyed
by a fire. So you have your home destroyed by
a fire, and you want to add, let's say a
(07:38):
cleanout for your RV on the side yard. It's going
to cost a litle extra. You can't be taxed on
that little extra benefit. They're going to say, you're able
to upgrade maybe to modern standards, maybe to modern codes,
and not be penalized for it, not be taxed for it.
Proposition eleven increasing the amount of exemption from ada lorm
(08:00):
taxation by school districts of the market value of the
residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled
so I guess what I'm reading here is you increase
the amount of your exemption if you're no longer paying
for kids to go to school, or you don't have
kids in school, so why should you be paying for that?
The Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, they're neutral. Everybody else opposes this.
(08:25):
Not sure why. I guess, I guess maybe with two
Texas Project they want they want all of that. They
want to get the schools out of all of our pockets,
not just seniors. Proposition twelve, relating to the authority of
a State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Tribunal, and the
Texas Supreme Court to more effectively sanctioned judges and justices
(08:47):
for judicial misconduct. Everybody wants that. Proposition thirteen, raising the
exemption of residence homesteads from adlarum taxation by a school
district from one to one hundred and forty thousand. TFR
supports at TPR support said the Texas True Texas Project
says they reluctantly support it. Yes, nice to get a
higher exemption, but we shouldn't be paying taxes on our
(09:10):
property anyway they want. I mean, that's kind of where
I'm at. Get rid of the property taxes get rid
of it. We shouldn't that means we never own our property.
It should not be the case in Texas, folks. Or
stop paying taxes after you pay off your property. How
about that? That wouldn't that be good? So you can
(09:31):
finally own your property. It doesn't get taxed again until
you die, until it until you sell it, right, and
then they got to pay it off.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
But anyway.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Proposition fourteen creating the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
Everybody opposes it because, hey, if you want to find cures,
the worst place you can do it is government. Proposition fifteen.
Parents are the preliminary decision makers for their children. Are
the primary decision makers for their children. TFR supports it,
(10:05):
TPR supports it, The True Texas Project does not.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
They oppose it.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
So I'm I guess I've got to call up Julie
McCarty and say, well, who the hell else should be
making decisions for their kids other than their parents? Maybe
I should read parents or guardians. Maybe that's the sticking
point for them. Proposition sixteen. Voters must be United States citizens.
Everybody supports it. Don't want Democrats doing what they do
(10:33):
in California and Massachusetts and Maryland giving illegal aliens the
vote Proposition seventeen providing an exemption from advalorm taxation of
the amount of the market value of real property located
in a county that borders the United States Mexico border
that rises from the installation or construction on the property
of a border security infrastructure and related improvements. Again, if
(10:54):
your property is used for the border wall, then you
know you're not going to get taxed on the quote
unquote improved. I suppose everybody supports that, folks. We have
a conversation with Brandon Walton's from the Texas Scorecard. Up
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Speaker 5 (14:48):
Let me bring in Brandon Waltons. He's senior editor at
the at the Texas Scorecard.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Hey man, Hey Chris, always good to be on.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Nice to have you here, sir.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
So let's talk about a couple of issues that you
have been writing about and others have been writing about
at Texas Scorecard. First thing, Ken Paxton ordering cities to
halt their tax hikes amid potential audit and law violations.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I guess this begs the question a.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Does the Traney General have the ability to enforce that
or is this just a strongly warded letter saying, hey,
you better watch out because if you decide you want
to raise taxes counter to Texas law, We're coming after you.
Speaker 6 (15:26):
What is this, Well, essentially, the legislature earlier this year
passed this bill was signed into law by Governor Abbott
that essentially says that cities can't raise their taxes their
tax rates above a certain level unless you know as
part of the criteria to do that, you have to
do an audit. And here you have a number of
(15:47):
these cities that are not in compliance with that, Whitesboro
being one of the foremost examples where you had state
representative Shelley Luther literally showing up to the city council
hearings pointing out this new law, saying, look, you're in
violation of this.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
They didn't care. They voted.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
City council voted to approve a sixty one percent tax
rate increase without voter approval. And there's a few other
cities that have done that as well, some other cities
that receive similar letters, like Odessa and tom Bean. But
you know, the Attorney General is putting this out there,
laying that marker down. It'll be interesting to see how
(16:24):
the cities react to this.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Right now. I think they're sort of in a holding pattern.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
But you know, I think you look at the law
that was passed by the legislature is pretty clear on this,
and if cities aren't in compliance, then you know they're
not going to be able to raise their taxes as
much this year, you know, which is good news in
any case for the taxpayers.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Right which is really all that matters. I know, I
know that a lot of people out their prize government
above all, but frankly, it's we the taxpayers, who are
most important. So just to put that in your hat
and smoke it, Okay, now, the other thing that has
been covered by a Texas Scorecard, and I think this
is going to be who wrote this?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Was it Addie? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:04):
It was Addie Hublin wrote this piece about the constitutional
amendments that are up for election in the primary, right
in the primary election.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So the November election is it?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Is it November? Okay?
Speaker 5 (17:18):
So this is November's election, not the primary. Okay, good, okay,
So we have some time to go over this, but
there are seventeen I think we ought to go now.
There was a consultation done by the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility,
a True Texas Project, a conservative activist group, and then
Texas Texas Policy Research. When I'm not familiar with those guys,
(17:38):
So two of the three I know. So basically what
Texas Scorecard did is you floated these out saying, here
are the amendments to the constitution, and what do you
guys think the first one, let's just let you describe
what proposition one is.
Speaker 6 (17:55):
Yeah, well, you know, to sort of give a little
bit of context to this, who people ask all the time,
we've got seventeen proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot, Why
does Texas have so many amendments? In fact, the Texas
Constitution currently has over five hundred amendments. And there's actually
an interesting historical reason. It goes back to eighteen seventy six.
(18:16):
Texas had just come out of reconstruction. They were deeply
suspicious of government power, and the drafters of the state
constitution wanted to limit what Austin could do. And so,
unlike the US Constitution, which is relatively short, right has
only been amended so many times, the Texas constitutions over
ninety thousand words long. It's filled with a lot of
(18:36):
specifics and the legislature and Austin can only do what
the constitution explicitly allows. And so that's why every cycle
we see these constitutional amendments that are you know, either
for creating new funds, certain tax exemptions, et cetera. They
need to be passed by the legislature by two thirds
and then they go to the voters for a simple
majority vote. And so we've got seventeen of those on
(18:59):
here this time. And you know, it's interesting if you
look at the seventeen because there's.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Sort of been a random order.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
They're literally randomized by the Secretary of State, but you
can categorize them into I'd say three main categories. You
have a few that deal with spending, that's like Proposition one,
which i'll talk about here in a second.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You have ten of the seventeen that deal with taxes.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
And then you have a few sort of assorted amendments.
And so you know, you look at Proposition one, for example,
creating funds to support programs at Texas State Technical College System.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
This essentially would.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
Create excuse me, would create a permanent endowment to help
the State Technical College with you know, trade schools.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Right.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
This is something that a number of the conservative groups,
actually all three of the conservative organizations that we put
together their recommendations on this, All three of pose, as
you can imagine, sort of on fiscal responsibility grounds, saying that,
you know, we don't need to be putting this sort
of spending in the constitution.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
When you put spending like this in.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
The constitution through a constitutional amendment, you know, lawmakers certainly
liked it for longer term projects because it's the only
way that you can essentially dedicate money in future years.
You know, every session that you do a budget, but
that budget starts from scratch every time. If you have
constitutionally dedicated funding then it's a little harder to undo.
(20:28):
And so you've got Proposition one, which which you know,
creates creates funds for the Technical College. And then you
have a couple others. Pop four creates dedicates some sales
tax revenue to a new Texas Water fund. So this
is dealing with water infrastructure, addressing things like droughts, rising demand,
with with people moving into the state.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
And then well, by the way, we should say, we
should say prop for all of them, t FR, t TP,
and TPR. They all oppose this as well. And you know, look,
I've got to be honest with you. I'm not sure
the government's a solution to this, but we better figure
out something fast because our water infrastructure needs to be
updated to accommodate our rising population. It has to be done.
(21:12):
And I'm not necessarily saying the government has to do it,
but it has to be done.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
No, it's certainly an important issue. I mean, especially as
more people move into the state. Right, so it's a
it's a huge issue.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
Some of those groups take issue with some of the
specific ways that this money would be dedicated. And we've gotten,
by the way, a Texas scorecard. We've got you know,
links to all their analysis, so you can kind of
folks can dive in deep onto each of these amendments.
I'm giving sort of the broad strokes here, but Proposition
four deals with that Texas Water Fund. And then lastly,
as far as the spending propositions, you have Proposition fourteen,
(21:49):
which establishes a three billion dollar Dementia Prevention and Research Institute. Now,
this is something that was a priority coming out of
the Senate. You had Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick very strongly
in favor of it, and like all these amendments, it
received a two thirds at least support in the Senate
(22:09):
and the House. A lot of these groups, these groups
are largely opposing it, mainly because you know, it's essentially
modeled after something the state has had called the Cancer
Research Institute, cancer Prevention Research Institute, but that itself has
been plagued with questions about where the money's going, how
(22:30):
efficiently it's being used, and whether or not, you know,
essentially becomes another wasteful government program. You know, I don't
think anybody is pro dementia, right, nobody's you know, in favor,
but I think the question here with a lot of conservatives,
specifically people on fiscal issues. Is whether or not this
is the most efficient and right use of government to
(22:53):
get the problem done.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Right, Because if you want to solve a problem, typically
you don't go to government to do it because typically
the government is the source of said problem. So what
I would be in favor of is government creating a
space to where the private sector could come in and
solve these problems. That's that's what government can do. Set
(23:15):
it up, get the hell out of the way, and
let the private sector and the private economy take care
of it.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Folks.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
We're talking to Brandon Waltons. He is the senior editor
at the Texas Scorecard. So we skipped a lot and
generalized a lot. So I guess we should just go
through these. Do you want to go through all seventeen
or do you just want to.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I'll let me hit a few that I think folks
will find interesting. Okay, very well, some of them are
a little you know, in the weeds.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
But now you've got another category of these that are
dealing with taxes. Actually have ten of them to deal
with taxes, exemptions or bands on certain taxes in different ways.
The one I think that's gonna get most people's attention
is increasing the home set exemption. So there's an amendment
on there to increase the home set exemption from one
hundred thousand dollars up to one hundred and forty thousand dollars.
(24:02):
There's another amendment to raise that to two hundred thousand
dollars for seniors. And that's essentially, you know, designed to
lower or at least slow down the increase of property taxes.
This goes back to, you know, whether or not the
legislature could have done more. I think they could have
done more on property tax relief, but this is the
(24:26):
property tax relief essentially that was given. I expect that
this will probably pass very, very widely. I think most
people would say they'd like to see their homestead exemption increased.
And then you've also got a few on these Proposition eight,
for example, which bans an inheritance or a death tax.
You've got Proposition two, which bans capital gains taxes. So
(24:46):
you've got a few of these on here that actually
ban certain taxes that may already be not collected in Texas.
But by putting it as a constitutional amendment, it makes
it harder for future legislatures. If God forbid, right, crats takeover,
it makes it much harder.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
For them to then institute one of these taxes.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Right, So it's some of these are preventative, saying in
case you ever think about it, it just it's going
to be no bueno. Okay, all right, if I can
get some Spanish lingo through and in there. Okay, what
is the so you would anticipate and I'm scrolling through here,
this is interesting Proposition thirteen, which, by the way, there's
(25:26):
there's a history to Prop thirteen out in California, folks
who have to look it up one of these days,
enabling legislation SB four raising the exemption of residence homesteads
from valorum taxation by the school district. This is the
one you were talking about, right, and forty thousand. So
TFR says support, TPR says support, and TTP reluctantly supports that.
(25:49):
The troop taxes project reluctantly supports that. Do you know
what's behind the reluctantly supporting it?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You know?
Speaker 6 (25:59):
This this comes down to essentially a problem that a
number of conservatives have had. There's certainly been I think
disagreement among the right on what the best way to
go about lowering property taxes is there's a one camp
that says, let's increase the homestead exemption. That's obviously the
route that the legislature went with, right, there's other that say, no,
(26:21):
it's better to buy down local school property taxes. True
Texas Project essentially says they reluctantly support this because you know,
they're in favor of certainly reducing property taxes by any means,
but they would, essentially my understandings, they would prefer to
see it done the other way.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
And what about this camp?
Speaker 5 (26:42):
And maybe the Texas Public Policy Foundation and others could
weigh in on this even though they're not part of
your surveys here, or True Texas Project could weigh on
it as well, about this whole discussion about eliminating property
taxes altogether.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Up there, there's another camp that.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Says, you know what, this this not owning your own
property BS has.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Got to end.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
And I'm kind of in that camp, the idea that
no matter what you do, no matter even if you
pay off your home, you still don't really own it
because you're always paying taxes on it. So what are
your thoughts on that?
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Well, you know, count me in favor of that right.
I think the state certainly sees a lot of surplus revenue,
partly because we have state spending caps, and so you know,
for the last several session, we've seen billions and billions,
tens of billions of dollars in excess surplus revenue.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And you know, there.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Are people groups like Texans for Fiscal Responsibility in the
Texas Public Policy Foundation as well, that have put together
plans that say, essentially within a certain time period usually
I think like between eight and ten years, the state
could actually use that to buy down and essentially eliminate
school property taxes, which is the bulk, the biggest portra
(27:59):
of most people's property tax bill. But unfortunately it re
it requires some will from the legislature to get that done.
It also requires some buy in as well from local
school districts that they'll actually keep spending restrained. And more importantly,
it means that when the state has a surplus, that
that money isn't used to just grow government, that it's
(28:20):
actually put back towards lowering property taxes. And so that's
why I think those efforts have been very unfortunately uphill
in the legislature in the last few seessions.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So Brandon.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
We've mentioned two categories. Is there a third category on
which these propositions falls under.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Yeah, so you've kind of got a grab bag of
kind of i'd say, other And these are things like
Proposition three, which denies bail in certain violent felony cases
when the defendant poses a danger or a flight risk.
This is part of the bail reform package. Most conservative
groups have supported this. Texas Policy Research sort of a
(29:00):
a little bit of an odd group out on this.
They say, well, you know, kind of this doesn't this
might deny people certain due process. But this has certainly
been a big part of Governor Rabbit's bail reform push.
And then you've got, for example, another one, Proposition sixteen,
that explicitly puts in the constitution that only US citizens
(29:23):
may vote. We've seen happen in other states, in other
cities where they've tried to have, at least in local
elections allow non citizens to vote. Even here in Texas.
You know, over the last several years, there's been a
few cities that have attempted to allow, for example, non
citizens to serve on city commissions and things like that.
(29:44):
This would explicitly put it in the constitution. Again, making
it much harder to be undone later saying no, only
US citizens can vote, which should be a no brainer.
I mean, imagine telling somebody, you know, ten years ago
that this would need to be put in the constitution.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Exactly, and the idea that it's it's even up for debate,
that we even have to that we'd even have to
require such an amendment to reaffirm which, by the way,
it's already illegal for non citizens to vote in this country.
Still we have to put an amendment into the States
constitutions to prevent it, just to reaffirm it. It shows
(30:21):
you the termination of those willing to cheat the left.
Let's just be honest. It's it's the left. Brandon Walton's
our guest right now, folks. So I think we've I
think we're going to go through some of these initiatives
in greater detail, maybe doing all seventeen as more analyzes
come online and a Texas Scorecard does more of these analyzes,
and will as we march through the months, as we
(30:42):
head toward the next November election, the midterms, we'll we'll
hit these again.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
The other thing I wanted to talk with you about,
speaking of the midterm elections.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
Yeah, well these are on the ball I should I
should mention byether. These are on the ballot this November.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
So uh web, next month?
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Wait a minute, so okay, see now I'm now I'm
not totally confused. So it's next month, it's the next month.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Yes, so it's a low turnout election.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Oh usually, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Damn it. Okay, so that changes much out?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Well no, it's all right.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
I mean, because I mean, how many of us, I mean,
even even me, as much as I pay attention, I go,
wait a minute, I mean that this is so we
got a primate, we got a November election, then we
got a primary election, then we've got the midterm election.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
It's like seriously, yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
And depending on where you live, there might be local
elections next summer as well.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
A good grief.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
So, folks, let me just be plain again that the
amendments we're talking about, and maybe I'll go through them
in greater detail in future podcasts before this November coming up,
this November twenty twenty five. It's boy, it does seem
an awful lot to digest, doesn't it. Low turnout elections,
(31:54):
that those who are not going to be turning out
are that that those who do turn out will be
determining a lot of high stake stuff for the rest
of us. It's kind of scary to think about it.
But well, don't don't be alone, folks, don't don't be
the ones that don't weigh in. Okay, So the last
thing I want to talk to you about was what
was happening with the the trial concerning these redistricting efforts
(32:21):
by the big beautiful maps, and they're being evaluated, they're
being challenged in court, and what has transpired in the
in the court cases brought by leftists who don't want to,
in my opinion, don't want to comply with federal law
and what the federal government is saying.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
Well, first of all, I have to give major credit
to Travis Morgan, our legal correspondent, who has been in
the courtroom all day for you know, the entire trial,
which has lasted ten days in I'll pass so watching
all of this and reporting on it every day, it's amazing.
You know, Democrats were so loud if you recall earlier
(33:02):
this summer about how you know, these these new congressional
maps that are designed to add five you know, new
Republican leaning seats for Texas and Congress that that they
were going to go to court and they're going to
take them down. These maps are are racist, et cetera. Well,
it turns out that, you know, while Democrats can scream
that's racist on the House floor and on the campaign trail,
(33:26):
that argument crumbled seemingly when it came into the courtroom
where you had, you know, these these big witnesses for Democrats,
people like Senator Royce West State Representative sin Fronia Thompson,
essentially undermining Democrats' own case saying, well, you know, we
we always challenged these these maps.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's always political.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
They're saying that they really you know, in some cases
some of these people saying that there really wasn't any
evidence to suggest that race was ever used as a.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Factor in this.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
All this at the same time that, you know, Chris,
these maps actually create new Hispanic majority districts and actually
create a new black majority district as well.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Right exactly.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
And I hate to keep on pointing this out to Democrats,
but it was the federal government insisting that that Texas
comply with federal law, and that Texas has been breaching
federal law because we've been seeking to pat the bum
bums of Democrats and please Democrats in this state that
it took a Trump administration to come in and say, hey,
(34:32):
no more of that, please, you need to come into
compliance with the law. And I'm and it's my understanding
that if if the Supreme Court gets rid of what
is it, Section two of the Voting Rights Act, which
it insists on racism, it actually promotes racism rather than
rather than having a color blind metric, that if that,
(34:55):
if that takes place, then it's Katie bar the door
that it's it's that we're going to have free elections
based on no other criteria other than where people live,
not who they are with their skin color is. And
that is going to be I would contend the death
knell to the Democrats Socialist Party because the only way
they've survived is by this intensive jerrymandering they've been doing.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
That's exactly right, That's why Democrats are so fearful of
what happens. And look, whatever comes out of this case,
we expect that, you know, the other side, whatever side loses,
is going to appeel. This potentially could go all the
way to the Supreme Court. And this is really important
for you know, at least one other reason too, which
is that depending on some of these potential delays in
(35:43):
the courts could maybe have the effect of pushing back,
you know, potentially the dates of these primary elections. Right now,
it's scheduled primary scheduled for first week in March, but
candidate filing is opening up next month, and if this
gets tied up in courts, we could see a delay there.
It certainly has happened in some past years as well.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
Brandon Walton's he's senior editor at Texas Scorecard and has
a host of programming options for you. If folks want
to follow you in what you're doing at Texas Scorecard
and you're fine programming, what can they do?
Speaker 6 (36:17):
Yes, we're at texascorecard dot com or you can follow
us on x at Texas Scorecard.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
All right, buddy, thanks very much for the visit, as always,
thank you. Now that's going to put a rap on
this Salceado Storm podcast till we visit again, my friends.
Don't forget to pick up the book at Amazon, The
Rise of the Liberty Loving Latino. And remember this, a
society's worth is not measured by how much power is
stolen by an out of control government. A society's worth
(36:44):
meaning its value, is measured by how much power is
reserved for you and me, we the people. You keep
fighting for freedom out there, my friends,
Hello, I'm you happy, keep.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Book Neil Smith and old Buck Buddy. Are you hearing Neil?
Speaker 3 (00:08):
Neil?
Speaker 4 (00:09):
I miss you, Mann.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
I have a question. We respect for me.
Speaker 5 (00:13):
Down by breaking a major story, Chris, congratulations.
Speaker 4 (00:17):
Listen to a single score podcast.
Speaker 5 (00:43):
Did an interview with Brandon Walton's the senior editor at
the Texas Scorecard, and folks, he was detailing and you're
going to hear our interview here in a minute. He
was detailing to me some of the constitutional amendments that
we have coming up for vote in November. And I'm like, oh,
it's in November, meaning you know the general election November.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
No.
Speaker 5 (01:06):
No, We've got an election coming up in November, then
a primary election in March, then another election in November
the following November. Three elections within a year's period, Folks.
That's an awful lot of voting and an awful lot
of issues. And I don't know if that's if that's
a feature or a bug folks. For me, I just
(01:29):
think that's an awful lot to ask of the voters.
But you know, I think it's the reason why they
do it that way, because if you think about this,
it was just going to be kind of scary that
a November, an off year November election is so poorly attended.
(01:50):
It's people aren't getting out there in droves to votes.
That means a very small percentage of us are making
some pretty damn big decisions for.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Their to us.
Speaker 5 (02:00):
And I'm talking about these constitutional amendments, and a lot
of them, folks, the majority of them have to deal
with money. We're talking big money. So and then the
other things are pretty important too. Let me just go
down the people that they decided that they would consult
to give their opinion and weigh in on whether or
(02:22):
not these constitutional amendments that you're all going to be asked.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
To vote for.
Speaker 5 (02:25):
Praise God, all of you will get out there and
do it. They asked Texans for fiscal responsibility.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Good group. I know their leadership.
Speaker 5 (02:34):
True Texas Project. Another great group, I know their leadership.
Texas Policy Research, I don't think I know them. I
know Texas Public Policy Foundation, but I don't know Texas
Policy Research. So anyway, I'll go through the list of
these prop one creating funds to support the capital needs
of educational programs offered by the Texas State Tentical College System. No,
(02:58):
I oppose it. All of the others oppose it. All
those groups that I mentioned, they oppose it. Banning taxes
on the realized or unrealized capital gains of individual family
and estates or trusts. No, I do not want to
tax stuff that has already been taxed, right, you don't
tax money that's already been taxed. So we want to
stop the leftists from even thinking about this. So TFR,
(03:21):
TTP and TPR say new Proposition three, denying bail under
certain circumstances to persons accused of certain offenses punishable as
a felony. TFR is neutral on it because they're Texans
for Fiscal Responsibility, TTP True Texas Project supports this, and
(03:42):
TPR Texas Texas Policy Research says oppose. Okay, so they're split.
One's neutral, one's for it, on's against it. So that's
going to be a jump ball, folks, if you don't
know how to evaluate that yourself. For me, denying bail
under certain circumstances to persons accused of certain offenses punishable
(04:06):
as a felony, that's really ambiguous wording, not very specific
for me.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
So I'm going to say no.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Proposition four dedicating a portion of the state's sales and
use tax revenues to the Texas Water Fund and to
provide for the allocation and use of that revenue. Everybody
opposes this of all the groups that were consulted. I
don't necessarily think that government is the best arbiter to
(04:38):
do this. It needs to be done, folks. We need
water projects in the state of Texas. My preference is
that the state government create a system that allows the
private sector to get this done and gives either incentives
to these private sector companies or that kind of thing.
(05:00):
But if we're going to guarantee that it gets done
on time and under budget, this should not be a
project that is undertaken by the state. Government is not
the best arbiter to handle any of this stuff, frankly,
unless we want cost overruns in greasing of palms and
(05:20):
all the cronyism that goes with it. Proposition five exempting
from advalorum taxation tangible personal property consisting of animal feed
held by the power of the property or sale at retail.
This is again not allowing the government to take your money,
and everybody supports that. Proposition six prohibits the legislature from
(05:41):
imposing an occupation tax on certain entities that enter into
transactions conveying securities or imposing attacks on certain securities transactions.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Everybody supports that.
Speaker 5 (05:52):
Getting the government out of our transactions, all good, all right.
Proposition seven, providing for an exemption from they may addalorum
taxation of all are part of the market value of
the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a veteran
who died as a result of a condition or disease
that is presumed to have been service connected. So if
(06:13):
you die in service to your country as a result
of that service, then you should have an exemption from
advalorum taxation of all are part of the market value
of the residents. Now, I think the ambiguity of this
law is maybe what cause the True Taxes Project to
say no. I think the True Texas Project wants an
(06:37):
elimination of all property taxes, doesn't want to solidify them,
just wants to get rid of them all. TFR and
TPR supported. I guess they'll take what little they can get.
Proposition eight prohibiting the legislature from imposing death taxes applicable
to a decedents property or the transfer of an estate
inheritance legacy, succession.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Or gift.
Speaker 5 (06:59):
Yes, you shouldn't be able to impose taxes on this stuff.
No more taxes. Everybody supports that. Proposition nine, exempting from
advolorum taxation a portion of the market value of tangible
personal property a person owns that is held or used
for the production of income.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
So if you use.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
A property for income, you shall not have extra taxes
levied on it. Everybody supports that. Proposition ten, providing a
temporary exemption from adolrum taxation of the appraised value of
an improvement to a residence homestead that is completely destroyed
by a fire. So you have your home destroyed by
a fire, and you want to add, let's say a
(07:38):
cleanout for your RV on the side yard. It's going
to cost a litle extra. You can't be taxed on
that little extra benefit. They're going to say, you're able
to upgrade maybe to modern standards, maybe to modern codes,
and not be penalized for it, not be taxed for it.
Proposition eleven increasing the amount of exemption from ada lorm
(08:00):
taxation by school districts of the market value of the
residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled
so I guess what I'm reading here is you increase
the amount of your exemption if you're no longer paying
for kids to go to school, or you don't have
kids in school, so why should you be paying for that?
The Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, they're neutral. Everybody else opposes this.
(08:25):
Not sure why. I guess, I guess maybe with two
Texas Project they want they want all of that. They
want to get the schools out of all of our pockets,
not just seniors. Proposition twelve, relating to the authority of
a State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Tribunal, and the
Texas Supreme Court to more effectively sanctioned judges and justices
(08:47):
for judicial misconduct. Everybody wants that. Proposition thirteen, raising the
exemption of residence homesteads from adlarum taxation by a school
district from one to one hundred and forty thousand. TFR
supports at TPR support said the Texas True Texas Project
says they reluctantly support it. Yes, nice to get a
higher exemption, but we shouldn't be paying taxes on our
(09:10):
property anyway they want. I mean, that's kind of where
I'm at. Get rid of the property taxes get rid
of it. We shouldn't that means we never own our property.
It should not be the case in Texas, folks. Or
stop paying taxes after you pay off your property. How
about that? That wouldn't that be good? So you can
(09:31):
finally own your property. It doesn't get taxed again until
you die, until it until you sell it, right, and
then they got to pay it off.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
But anyway.
Speaker 5 (09:41):
Proposition fourteen creating the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.
Everybody opposes it because, hey, if you want to find cures,
the worst place you can do it is government. Proposition fifteen.
Parents are the preliminary decision makers for their children. Are
the primary decision makers for their children. TFR supports it,
(10:05):
TPR supports it, The True Texas Project does not.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
They oppose it.
Speaker 5 (10:11):
So I'm I guess I've got to call up Julie
McCarty and say, well, who the hell else should be
making decisions for their kids other than their parents? Maybe
I should read parents or guardians. Maybe that's the sticking
point for them. Proposition sixteen. Voters must be United States citizens.
Everybody supports it. Don't want Democrats doing what they do
(10:33):
in California and Massachusetts and Maryland giving illegal aliens the
vote Proposition seventeen providing an exemption from advalorm taxation of
the amount of the market value of real property located
in a county that borders the United States Mexico border
that rises from the installation or construction on the property
of a border security infrastructure and related improvements. Again, if
(10:54):
your property is used for the border wall, then you
know you're not going to get taxed on the quote
unquote improved. I suppose everybody supports that, folks. We have
a conversation with Brandon Walton's from the Texas Scorecard. Up
next on the Salsado Storm podcast word for my sponsor,
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Speaker 3 (14:33):
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Speaker 5 (14:48):
Let me bring in Brandon Waltons. He's senior editor at
the at the Texas Scorecard.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Hey man, Hey Chris, always good to be on.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Nice to have you here, sir.
Speaker 5 (14:57):
So let's talk about a couple of issues that you
have been writing about and others have been writing about
at Texas Scorecard. First thing, Ken Paxton ordering cities to
halt their tax hikes amid potential audit and law violations.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
I guess this begs the question a.
Speaker 5 (15:13):
Does the Traney General have the ability to enforce that
or is this just a strongly warded letter saying, hey,
you better watch out because if you decide you want
to raise taxes counter to Texas law, We're coming after you.
Speaker 6 (15:26):
What is this, Well, essentially, the legislature earlier this year
passed this bill was signed into law by Governor Abbott
that essentially says that cities can't raise their taxes their
tax rates above a certain level unless you know as
part of the criteria to do that, you have to
do an audit. And here you have a number of
(15:47):
these cities that are not in compliance with that, Whitesboro
being one of the foremost examples where you had state
representative Shelley Luther literally showing up to the city council
hearings pointing out this new law, saying, look, you're in
violation of this.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
They didn't care. They voted.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
City council voted to approve a sixty one percent tax
rate increase without voter approval. And there's a few other
cities that have done that as well, some other cities
that receive similar letters, like Odessa and tom Bean. But
you know, the Attorney General is putting this out there,
laying that marker down. It'll be interesting to see how
(16:24):
the cities react to this.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Right now. I think they're sort of in a holding pattern.
Speaker 6 (16:30):
But you know, I think you look at the law
that was passed by the legislature is pretty clear on this,
and if cities aren't in compliance, then you know they're
not going to be able to raise their taxes as
much this year, you know, which is good news in
any case for the taxpayers.
Speaker 5 (16:46):
Right which is really all that matters. I know, I
know that a lot of people out their prize government
above all, but frankly, it's we the taxpayers, who are
most important. So just to put that in your hat
and smoke it, Okay, now, the other thing that has
been covered by a Texas Scorecard, and I think this
is going to be who wrote this?
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Was it Addie? Yeah?
Speaker 5 (17:04):
It was Addie Hublin wrote this piece about the constitutional
amendments that are up for election in the primary, right
in the primary election.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
So the November election is it?
Speaker 2 (17:17):
Is it November? Okay?
Speaker 5 (17:18):
So this is November's election, not the primary. Okay, good, okay,
So we have some time to go over this, but
there are seventeen I think we ought to go now.
There was a consultation done by the Texans for Fiscal Responsibility,
a True Texas Project, a conservative activist group, and then
Texas Texas Policy Research. When I'm not familiar with those guys,
(17:38):
So two of the three I know. So basically what
Texas Scorecard did is you floated these out saying, here
are the amendments to the constitution, and what do you
guys think the first one, let's just let you describe
what proposition one is.
Speaker 6 (17:55):
Yeah, well, you know, to sort of give a little
bit of context to this, who people ask all the time,
we've got seventeen proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot, Why
does Texas have so many amendments? In fact, the Texas
Constitution currently has over five hundred amendments. And there's actually
an interesting historical reason. It goes back to eighteen seventy six.
(18:16):
Texas had just come out of reconstruction. They were deeply
suspicious of government power, and the drafters of the state
constitution wanted to limit what Austin could do. And so,
unlike the US Constitution, which is relatively short, right has
only been amended so many times, the Texas constitutions over
ninety thousand words long. It's filled with a lot of
(18:36):
specifics and the legislature and Austin can only do what
the constitution explicitly allows. And so that's why every cycle
we see these constitutional amendments that are you know, either
for creating new funds, certain tax exemptions, et cetera. They
need to be passed by the legislature by two thirds
and then they go to the voters for a simple
majority vote. And so we've got seventeen of those on
(18:59):
here this time. And you know, it's interesting if you
look at the seventeen because there's.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
Sort of been a random order.
Speaker 6 (19:06):
They're literally randomized by the Secretary of State, but you
can categorize them into I'd say three main categories. You
have a few that deal with spending, that's like Proposition one,
which i'll talk about here in a second.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You have ten of the seventeen that deal with taxes.
Speaker 6 (19:22):
And then you have a few sort of assorted amendments.
And so you know, you look at Proposition one, for example,
creating funds to support programs at Texas State Technical College System.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
This essentially would.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
Create excuse me, would create a permanent endowment to help
the State Technical College with you know, trade schools.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Right.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
This is something that a number of the conservative groups,
actually all three of the conservative organizations that we put
together their recommendations on this, All three of pose, as
you can imagine, sort of on fiscal responsibility grounds, saying that,
you know, we don't need to be putting this sort
of spending in the constitution.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
When you put spending like this in.
Speaker 6 (20:03):
The constitution through a constitutional amendment, you know, lawmakers certainly
liked it for longer term projects because it's the only
way that you can essentially dedicate money in future years.
You know, every session that you do a budget, but
that budget starts from scratch every time. If you have
constitutionally dedicated funding then it's a little harder to undo.
(20:28):
And so you've got Proposition one, which which you know,
creates creates funds for the Technical College. And then you
have a couple others. Pop four creates dedicates some sales
tax revenue to a new Texas Water fund. So this
is dealing with water infrastructure, addressing things like droughts, rising demand,
with with people moving into the state.
Speaker 5 (20:49):
And then well, by the way, we should say, we
should say prop for all of them, t FR, t TP,
and TPR. They all oppose this as well. And you know, look,
I've got to be honest with you. I'm not sure
the government's a solution to this, but we better figure
out something fast because our water infrastructure needs to be
updated to accommodate our rising population. It has to be done.
(21:12):
And I'm not necessarily saying the government has to do it,
but it has to be done.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
No, it's certainly an important issue. I mean, especially as
more people move into the state. Right, so it's a
it's a huge issue.
Speaker 6 (21:25):
Some of those groups take issue with some of the
specific ways that this money would be dedicated. And we've gotten,
by the way, a Texas scorecard. We've got you know,
links to all their analysis, so you can kind of
folks can dive in deep onto each of these amendments.
I'm giving sort of the broad strokes here, but Proposition
four deals with that Texas Water Fund. And then lastly,
as far as the spending propositions, you have Proposition fourteen,
(21:49):
which establishes a three billion dollar Dementia Prevention and Research Institute. Now,
this is something that was a priority coming out of
the Senate. You had Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick very strongly
in favor of it, and like all these amendments, it
received a two thirds at least support in the Senate
(22:09):
and the House. A lot of these groups, these groups
are largely opposing it, mainly because you know, it's essentially
modeled after something the state has had called the Cancer
Research Institute, cancer Prevention Research Institute, but that itself has
been plagued with questions about where the money's going, how
(22:30):
efficiently it's being used, and whether or not, you know,
essentially becomes another wasteful government program. You know, I don't
think anybody is pro dementia, right, nobody's you know, in favor,
but I think the question here with a lot of conservatives,
specifically people on fiscal issues. Is whether or not this
is the most efficient and right use of government to
(22:53):
get the problem done.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Right, Because if you want to solve a problem, typically
you don't go to government to do it because typically
the government is the source of said problem. So what
I would be in favor of is government creating a
space to where the private sector could come in and
solve these problems. That's that's what government can do. Set
(23:15):
it up, get the hell out of the way, and
let the private sector and the private economy take care
of it.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Folks.
Speaker 5 (23:21):
We're talking to Brandon Waltons. He is the senior editor
at the Texas Scorecard. So we skipped a lot and
generalized a lot. So I guess we should just go
through these. Do you want to go through all seventeen
or do you just want to.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
I'll let me hit a few that I think folks
will find interesting. Okay, very well, some of them are
a little you know, in the weeds.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
But now you've got another category of these that are
dealing with taxes. Actually have ten of them to deal
with taxes, exemptions or bands on certain taxes in different ways.
The one I think that's gonna get most people's attention
is increasing the home set exemption. So there's an amendment
on there to increase the home set exemption from one
hundred thousand dollars up to one hundred and forty thousand dollars.
(24:02):
There's another amendment to raise that to two hundred thousand
dollars for seniors. And that's essentially, you know, designed to
lower or at least slow down the increase of property taxes.
This goes back to, you know, whether or not the
legislature could have done more. I think they could have
done more on property tax relief, but this is the
(24:26):
property tax relief essentially that was given. I expect that
this will probably pass very, very widely. I think most
people would say they'd like to see their homestead exemption increased.
And then you've also got a few on these Proposition eight,
for example, which bans an inheritance or a death tax.
You've got Proposition two, which bans capital gains taxes. So
(24:46):
you've got a few of these on here that actually
ban certain taxes that may already be not collected in Texas.
But by putting it as a constitutional amendment, it makes
it harder for future legislatures. If God forbid, right, crats takeover,
it makes it much harder.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
For them to then institute one of these taxes.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Right, So it's some of these are preventative, saying in
case you ever think about it, it just it's going
to be no bueno. Okay, all right, if I can
get some Spanish lingo through and in there. Okay, what
is the so you would anticipate and I'm scrolling through here,
this is interesting Proposition thirteen, which, by the way, there's
(25:26):
there's a history to Prop thirteen out in California, folks
who have to look it up one of these days,
enabling legislation SB four raising the exemption of residence homesteads
from valorum taxation by the school district. This is the
one you were talking about, right, and forty thousand. So
TFR says support, TPR says support, and TTP reluctantly supports that.
(25:49):
The troop taxes project reluctantly supports that. Do you know
what's behind the reluctantly supporting it?
Speaker 1 (25:58):
You know?
Speaker 6 (25:59):
This this comes down to essentially a problem that a
number of conservatives have had. There's certainly been I think
disagreement among the right on what the best way to
go about lowering property taxes is there's a one camp
that says, let's increase the homestead exemption. That's obviously the
route that the legislature went with, right, there's other that say, no,
(26:21):
it's better to buy down local school property taxes. True
Texas Project essentially says they reluctantly support this because you know,
they're in favor of certainly reducing property taxes by any means,
but they would, essentially my understandings, they would prefer to
see it done the other way.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
And what about this camp?
Speaker 5 (26:42):
And maybe the Texas Public Policy Foundation and others could
weigh in on this even though they're not part of
your surveys here, or True Texas Project could weigh on
it as well, about this whole discussion about eliminating property
taxes altogether.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Up there, there's another camp that.
Speaker 5 (26:57):
Says, you know what, this this not owning your own
property BS has.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Got to end.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
And I'm kind of in that camp, the idea that
no matter what you do, no matter even if you
pay off your home, you still don't really own it
because you're always paying taxes on it. So what are
your thoughts on that?
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Well, you know, count me in favor of that right.
I think the state certainly sees a lot of surplus revenue,
partly because we have state spending caps, and so you know,
for the last several session, we've seen billions and billions,
tens of billions of dollars in excess surplus revenue.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And you know, there.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
Are people groups like Texans for Fiscal Responsibility in the
Texas Public Policy Foundation as well, that have put together
plans that say, essentially within a certain time period usually
I think like between eight and ten years, the state
could actually use that to buy down and essentially eliminate
school property taxes, which is the bulk, the biggest portra
(27:59):
of most people's property tax bill. But unfortunately it re
it requires some will from the legislature to get that done.
It also requires some buy in as well from local
school districts that they'll actually keep spending restrained. And more importantly,
it means that when the state has a surplus, that
that money isn't used to just grow government, that it's
(28:20):
actually put back towards lowering property taxes. And so that's
why I think those efforts have been very unfortunately uphill
in the legislature in the last few seessions.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
So Brandon.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
We've mentioned two categories. Is there a third category on
which these propositions falls under.
Speaker 6 (28:38):
Yeah, so you've kind of got a grab bag of
kind of i'd say, other And these are things like
Proposition three, which denies bail in certain violent felony cases
when the defendant poses a danger or a flight risk.
This is part of the bail reform package. Most conservative
groups have supported this. Texas Policy Research sort of a
(29:00):
a little bit of an odd group out on this.
They say, well, you know, kind of this doesn't this
might deny people certain due process. But this has certainly
been a big part of Governor Rabbit's bail reform push.
And then you've got, for example, another one, Proposition sixteen,
that explicitly puts in the constitution that only US citizens
(29:23):
may vote. We've seen happen in other states, in other
cities where they've tried to have, at least in local
elections allow non citizens to vote. Even here in Texas.
You know, over the last several years, there's been a
few cities that have attempted to allow, for example, non
citizens to serve on city commissions and things like that.
(29:44):
This would explicitly put it in the constitution. Again, making
it much harder to be undone later saying no, only
US citizens can vote, which should be a no brainer.
I mean, imagine telling somebody, you know, ten years ago
that this would need to be put in the constitution.
Speaker 5 (30:00):
Exactly, and the idea that it's it's even up for debate,
that we even have to that we'd even have to
require such an amendment to reaffirm which, by the way,
it's already illegal for non citizens to vote in this country.
Still we have to put an amendment into the States
constitutions to prevent it, just to reaffirm it. It shows
(30:21):
you the termination of those willing to cheat the left.
Let's just be honest. It's it's the left. Brandon Walton's
our guest right now, folks. So I think we've I
think we're going to go through some of these initiatives
in greater detail, maybe doing all seventeen as more analyzes
come online and a Texas Scorecard does more of these analyzes,
and will as we march through the months, as we
(30:42):
head toward the next November election, the midterms, we'll we'll
hit these again.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
I'm sure.
Speaker 5 (30:46):
The other thing I wanted to talk with you about,
speaking of the midterm elections.
Speaker 6 (30:50):
Yeah, well these are on the ball I should I
should mention byether. These are on the ballot this November.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
So uh web, next month?
Speaker 5 (30:55):
Wait a minute, so okay, see now I'm now I'm
not totally confused. So it's next month, it's the next month.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Yes, so it's a low turnout election.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
Oh usually, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Damn it. Okay, so that changes much out?
Speaker 1 (31:10):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Well no, it's all right.
Speaker 5 (31:12):
I mean, because I mean, how many of us, I mean,
even even me, as much as I pay attention, I go,
wait a minute, I mean that this is so we
got a primate, we got a November election, then we
got a primary election, then we've got the midterm election.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
It's like seriously, yeah.
Speaker 6 (31:28):
And depending on where you live, there might be local
elections next summer as well.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
A good grief.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
So, folks, let me just be plain again that the
amendments we're talking about, and maybe I'll go through them
in greater detail in future podcasts before this November coming up,
this November twenty twenty five. It's boy, it does seem
an awful lot to digest, doesn't it. Low turnout elections,
(31:54):
that those who are not going to be turning out
are that that those who do turn out will be
determining a lot of high stake stuff for the rest
of us. It's kind of scary to think about it.
But well, don't don't be alone, folks, don't don't be
the ones that don't weigh in. Okay, So the last
thing I want to talk to you about was what
was happening with the the trial concerning these redistricting efforts
(32:21):
by the big beautiful maps, and they're being evaluated, they're
being challenged in court, and what has transpired in the
in the court cases brought by leftists who don't want to,
in my opinion, don't want to comply with federal law
and what the federal government is saying.
Speaker 6 (32:41):
Well, first of all, I have to give major credit
to Travis Morgan, our legal correspondent, who has been in
the courtroom all day for you know, the entire trial,
which has lasted ten days in I'll pass so watching
all of this and reporting on it every day, it's amazing.
You know, Democrats were so loud if you recall earlier
(33:02):
this summer about how you know, these these new congressional
maps that are designed to add five you know, new
Republican leaning seats for Texas and Congress that that they
were going to go to court and they're going to
take them down. These maps are are racist, et cetera. Well,
it turns out that, you know, while Democrats can scream
that's racist on the House floor and on the campaign trail,
(33:26):
that argument crumbled seemingly when it came into the courtroom
where you had, you know, these these big witnesses for Democrats,
people like Senator Royce West State Representative sin Fronia Thompson,
essentially undermining Democrats' own case saying, well, you know, we
we always challenged these these maps.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's always political.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
They're saying that they really you know, in some cases
some of these people saying that there really wasn't any
evidence to suggest that race was ever used as a.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Factor in this.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
All this at the same time that, you know, Chris,
these maps actually create new Hispanic majority districts and actually
create a new black majority district as well.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Right exactly.
Speaker 5 (34:10):
And I hate to keep on pointing this out to Democrats,
but it was the federal government insisting that that Texas
comply with federal law, and that Texas has been breaching
federal law because we've been seeking to pat the bum
bums of Democrats and please Democrats in this state that
it took a Trump administration to come in and say, hey,
(34:32):
no more of that, please, you need to come into
compliance with the law. And I'm and it's my understanding
that if if the Supreme Court gets rid of what
is it, Section two of the Voting Rights Act, which
it insists on racism, it actually promotes racism rather than
rather than having a color blind metric, that if that,
(34:55):
if that takes place, then it's Katie bar the door
that it's it's that we're going to have free elections
based on no other criteria other than where people live,
not who they are with their skin color is. And
that is going to be I would contend the death
knell to the Democrats Socialist Party because the only way
they've survived is by this intensive jerrymandering they've been doing.
Speaker 6 (35:20):
That's exactly right, That's why Democrats are so fearful of
what happens. And look, whatever comes out of this case,
we expect that, you know, the other side, whatever side loses,
is going to appeel. This potentially could go all the
way to the Supreme Court. And this is really important
for you know, at least one other reason too, which
is that depending on some of these potential delays in
(35:43):
the courts could maybe have the effect of pushing back,
you know, potentially the dates of these primary elections. Right now,
it's scheduled primary scheduled for first week in March, but
candidate filing is opening up next month, and if this
gets tied up in courts, we could see a delay there.
It certainly has happened in some past years as well.
Speaker 5 (36:05):
Brandon Walton's he's senior editor at Texas Scorecard and has
a host of programming options for you. If folks want
to follow you in what you're doing at Texas Scorecard
and you're fine programming, what can they do?
Speaker 6 (36:17):
Yes, we're at texascorecard dot com or you can follow
us on x at Texas Scorecard.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
All right, buddy, thanks very much for the visit, as always,
thank you. Now that's going to put a rap on
this Salceado Storm podcast till we visit again, my friends.
Don't forget to pick up the book at Amazon, The
Rise of the Liberty Loving Latino. And remember this, a
society's worth is not measured by how much power is
stolen by an out of control government. A society's worth
(36:44):
meaning its value, is measured by how much power is
reserved for you and me, we the people. You keep
fighting for freedom out there, my friends,
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