Trib belatedly notices Dukes padding #TXLEGE Pension....

"For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light."
Luke 8:17

[UPDATE: DADGUM, literally ten minutes after we hit publish on this post, the Statesman reports Dukes won't be stepping down after all; but that doesn't change anything we said about the Trib's actions over the past 24 hours.]

This website tends to maintain a favorable opinion of the Texas Tribune.  They routinely host informative public events and their "just the facts ma'am" reporting of the Capitol tends to be pretty solid.  But certain acts of media corruption need to be called out for what they are:

As Texas lawmakers clock in for work on Tuesday, the first day of the 85th Legislative Session, one of their longtime colleagues is expected to call it quits.

State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, a Democrat, announced in late September that she planned to retire after more than two decades, but that she would not officially leave until Jan. 10.

Critics, including those hoping to replace her, point out that such a delay will leave Manor, Pflugerville and parts of Austin without representation for most of the legislative session as a special election cannot be called until she officially resigns.

Why wait to resign? Dukes, who is under criminal investigation by the Travis County District Attorney’s office amid allegations that she misused staff and government funds, won’t say. What is clear, however, is that the move will add $3,220 per year to her state pension.

The delay highlights a quirk in the way Texas calculates its often generous benefits packages for retired lawmakers: They can get credit for an extra year’s service without even taking a vote.

....

Elected officials can establish a “service credit” for “all or part” of any calendar year during which they held office or were eligible to take the oath of office, according to the Employees Retirement System of Texas.

So Dukes’ 10 days in January would boost her annual pension by $3,220.

Really guys...you're ONLY noticing this now?!?

Contrast the Trib's act of political CYA slow reaction with this website's September 2016 post "Dirty Little Secret of Dukes' Delayed 'Retirement'":

Yesterday, Dawnna Dukes announced her intention to retire from the legislature...in four months; what gives?!?

Consider this number: $3220.

That's the increase in annual pension Dukes will receive, for life, by retiring with 22 years of 'service time' instead of 21.

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One perk Texas Legislators receive (that they don't like to talk about) is access to the state's "judicial retirement" system. It's a form of kabuki theater that allows legislators to vote to increase their own pension without telling voters that's what they're doing. That's why, every session, there's always some hack who pushes bills and budget amendments to increase pensions "for our hardworking judges."

But, of course, September 2016 would have been before the November election, which means a critical mass of voters in East Austin still had time to figure out the final conclusion we drew when confronted with the same information:

Bottom Line: Whatever your thoughts on the long-term future of the district, the only way to stop Dawnna Dukes from acquiring another $3220 (+) of taxpayer money every year for life is to elect Gabriel Nila in November.

And we can't have a critical mass of legacy Democrats figuring that out before the election...right Texas Tribune?!?

Bottom Line:  Whatever.  You can't change the past.  Still, if he's smart, Gabriel Nila will make abolishing state pensions for legislators (AND STATEWIDE OFFICIALS) a centerpiece of his special election campaign.

2016 Austin/Travis County November Candidate Endorsements

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

[Author's Note: For races where we don't offer endorsements, our longstanding rule of thumb in local elections is to take the Austin Chronicle's endorsements and  vote AGAINST whoever they endorse.]

Austin City Council:

District 6: Don Zimmerman (Far Northwest Austin)

In two years in office, despite being in the distinct minority, Don Zimmerman has successfully stopped a hostile annexation, fought multiple municipal level attacks on the first amendment, and delivered traffic congestion solutions for a fraction of what the city bureaucracy proposed.

He's also one of only two council members to have voted against the ride-sharing and short-term rental regulations that have caused so much discord; if the council majority had listened to Don Zimmerman, most of the unpleasantness of the past year could have been avoided.

Finally, Don Zimmerman gives a voice at city hall to those who have been abused by the city bureaucracy (and, let's not kid ourselves, Don Zimmerman is the only reason Marc Ott left town).

District 7: Natalie Gauldin (North Central Austin; Burnet Rd./Parmer Ln. corridors)

In a city that needs to build 150,000 units of new housing over the next decade, Natalie Gauldin is a tenacious advocate for new housing supply.  She has the slings and arrows to prove it.  Just last week, her political opponents launched an over the top smear website against her (Author's Note: Austin Transit Blog has a through rebuke of the allegations here.)

Natalie is also a vote to repeal the ridesharing and STR regulations; obviously, the incumbent voted for both.

On taxation, we've had more productive discussions with Natalie than we've ever had with the incumbent; we don't expect to agree with her on every single issue, but she's light years better than the incumbent.

Distict 10: Rob Walker (West Austin)

This is a last minute addition, and a bit of a longshot, but we met Rob Walker over the weekend and liked what we heard.

Rob is the only viable candidate in this race to oppose the Mayor's "corridor" bond and he supports repealing the ride-sharing regulations.

Rob remains a work in progress on housing issues, but there are no perfect candidates in this race and Rob Walker offers, by far, the best issue mix of any of them.

AGAINST: Prop 1 "Mobility Bond" (aka. Adler's "Corridor" Bond)

This thing costs far too much to deliver far too little.  The city transportation department simply isn't capable of pulling off this complex of a project in anything remotely resembling a competent or timely manner.  And the process by which the bond package was developed was terminally shady.

And that's before you get into the degree to which this package is, in reality, a corrupt "redevelopment" scheme.

Read our archive about this package here.

Austin ISD Trustees:

No endorsements.  They all look terrible.  See the note about the Austin Chronicle above.

Austin Community College Trustees:

Place 9: Jeremy Story

An entrepreneur and philanthropist, Jeremy Story has built successful enterprises in both the for and non-profit sectors.

We heard Jeremy outline his pro-student, pro-taxpayer agenda for ACC a couple weeks ago.  Suffice to say, an organization that currently sees only 4% of its students move on to four year colleges has considerable room for improvement.  He also supports streamlining the process by which student may obtain certifications in skilled trades.

On the pro-taxpayer side, Jeremy Story is the only candidate running for the ACC board (IN ANY PLACE) who supports a moratorium on tax hikes.  This is important because if there's a single member of the board raising heck during the budget process, that will attract the attention of the media.  Case in point: Don Zimmerman.

Other places: No endorsements, but....

We haven't done our own homework, but we've heard reasonably positive things about Douglas Gibbons in place 6 and Michael Lewis in place 4 from ACC sources.

Travis County Races:

District Attorney: Maura Phelan

Maura Phelan has over 20 years of criminal law experience, her opponent last practiced criminal law in the 1980's; Maura Phelan is the only candidate for District Attorney who has the basic qualifications for the office.

Beyond qualifications, Maura Phelan wants to reduce the backlog of mental health cases that keep vulnerable citizens in jail by default.  Currently, the Travis County DA only has one attorney overseeing 10,000 mental health cases.  This is abhorrent.

Finally, Maura Phelan will end the disgraceful criminalization of political differences which the Travis County DA's office has become notorious over the past few decades.

Sheriff: Joe Martinez

Joe Martinez is the only thing standing between us and a nightmarish outbreak of politicized identity politics in the Travis County Sheriff's office.

Similar to Maura Phelan, Martinez also wants to focus on mental health to keep these vulnerable citizens away from violent criminals.

Then, of course, there's that whole second amendment thing.





Commissioner's Court, Precinct 3: Gerald Daugherty

We supported his opponent in the primary, and some of our misgivings remain, but we have no doubt that Gerald will be light years better than whatever hack the D's are running against him.

And it doesn't hurt that he's produced the best campaign commercial of this entire election cycle.

State House of Representatives:

District 46 (East Austin/Manor/Pflugerville):  Gabriel Nila

Gabriel has been doing the Lord's work against dramatic odds in this longest of longshot districts.

He has been aided in this quest by running against a multi-decade incumbent who can't seem to stop tripping over her own corruption.  This past weekend, we learned about another sweetheart contract she had obtained for herself and her family from Austin ISD.  Now she says she wants to retire early next year which will enable her to milk the state's retirement system one last time.

The only way to halt this shenanigan (Sidenote: Besides abolishing state pensions for legislators) is to deny the incumbent another term by voting for Gabriel Nila this November.

Bottom Line: A lot of people who vote for president aren't going to vote in anything else on the ballot.  It's what political science types call 'undervoting.'  But down ballot races are where real political power is held and they are often EXTREMELY close.

Dirty Little Secret of Dukes' Delayed "Retirement"....

"So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain;
It takes away the life of its owners."
Proverbs 1:19

Yesterday, Dawnna Dukes announced her intention to retire from the legislature...in four months; what gives?!?

Consider this number: $3220.

That's the increase in annual pension Dukes will receive, for life, by retiring with 22 years of 'service time' instead of 21.

-----

One perk Texas Legislators receive (that they don't like to talk about) is access to the state's "judicial retirement" system.  It's a form of kabuki theater that allows legislators to vote to increase their own pension without telling voters that's what they're doing.  That's why, every session, there's always some hack who pushes bills and budget amendments to increase pensions "for our hardworking judges."

As toughnickel explains:

The short sessions that take place every other year should be remembered when considering that state legislators have linked their pensions to the salaries of state district judges who work every year for a lot more than a 140 days in most cases. By linking their pensions to the state judge’s salaries, legislators receive a raise in their pension benefits every time judges receive a salary increase (Odessa American).

And yes, it's completely legal.

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Consider the following from the state retirement system:

As it relates to legislators, they get 2.3% of a state district judges' salary (currently $140k) for every year of 'service time' they accrue in the legislature.  They vest at year 8, which translates to 18.4% and goes up from there.  Not coincidentally, this is why so many legislators have a strange habit of running for something else after their fourth session in the legislature (lookin' at you Allen Fletcher).

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In Dukes' specific case, here's the math:

Retire with 21 years:

• 2.3% x 21 = 48.3%

• .483 x 140k = 67,620

• Therefore, Dukes would receive $67,620 (*) for life.

Retire with 22 years:

• 2.3% x 22 = 50.6%

• .506 x 140k = 70,840

• $70,840 (*) for life.

* -- Assuming, for the sake of discussion, that a future legislature doesn't increase the payout (which, of course, they will the second they think they can get away with it).

Don'cha love politicians?!?

[Sidenote: While we're on the subject, we'll make also predict cycically that Dukes will cash in with the lobby about ten seconds after she officially 'retires.']

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That being said, the good news is that Dukes has an opponent in November.  We've known Gabriel Nila for years and have been impressed by his diligence in the district for awhile (though, we confess, we didn't think he had a snowball's chance prior to yesterday's announcement).  Learn more about Gabriel here, donate here.

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Based on what we're hearing, it sounds like former Austin City Council member Sheryl Cole would be the prohibitive favorite if there's a special election early next year; that she was a member of the old, pre 10-1, council speaks for itself.

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Bottom Line: Whatever your thoughts on the long-term future of the district, the only way to stop Dawnna Dukes from acquiring another $3220 (+) of taxpayer money every year for life is to elect Gabriel Nila in November.

For the Record: James Dickey for TCRP....(and #NEVERTRUMP)

"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice;
But when a wicked man rules, the people groan."
Proverbs 29:2

We haven't commented upon the TCRP vacancy.  Largely, that's because we don't support the deranged cretin the Republican party nominated for president.  It's also because we're not a member of the executive committee and thus don't have a vote.

That being said, a number of people have inquired as to our thoughts, and it's probably time to say publicly what we've been saying privately for two weeks: to the extent that we care, we fully support James Dickey.

In February, when we endorsed James in the primary, we wrote: "Since James Dickey became county chairman two years ago, the Travis County Republican party helped put the first two conservatives EVER on the Austin City Council. The Travis County Republican party has a DA candidate on the ballot for the first time since we've lived here....Why mess with a good thing?!?"  To the extent that we care about the Republican party, those sentiments still apply.

Events of the ensuing months have revealed James' character and leadership skills.  While we view the Robert Morrow interregnum as delightfully good fun and the two party system's just desserts, it nevertheless produced unique and unprecedented challenges for the organization.  James' grace, humility, and wisdom during this period were obvious to anyone paying even casual attention.  If anything, the fact that Robert Morrow and Matt Mackowiak have both endorsed James tells you everything you need to know.

Here's the thing: Deranged cretin notwithstanding, there are several strong Republican candidates running in Travis county this cycle.  Maura Phelan is the only choice to introduce integrity (and basic competence) in the District Attorney's office.  Joe Martinez, running for sheriff, is a champion for the rule of law.  Gabriel Nila is doing the Lord's work in HD-46.  Deke Pierce is a credible constable candidate.  In western Travis County, while we didn't support him in the primary, a mediocre incumbent like Gerald Daugherty (Commissioner's court, precinct 3) still sucks less than whatever hack the D's are running against him.  And James helped recruit every single one of them (except Gerald).

Looking to 2018, James is the only person in this race we trust to recruit a credible candidate for Travis County Judge.

Bottom Line:  At this point, it's impossible to forecast the deranged cretin's impact.  That being said, there's a lot one can accomplish at the local level regardless of the details of how this ongoing national bi-partisan dumpster fire unfolds.  On that note, if anyone can salvage something from the Republican party, it's James Dickey.