UT now imposing politically motivated de facto speech taxes (aka. "Security Fees")

"As a dog returns to his own vomit,
So a fool repeats his folly."
Proverbs 26:11

Wow:

Today Young America’s Foundation (YAF) sent a letter to the University of Texas at Austin, demanding the immediate rescission of a viewpoint discriminatory “security fee” that University administrators levied on conservative students’ speech.

On November 14, 2017, the students of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) partnered with Young America’s Foundation to bring United States Senator Rick Santorum to campus to talk about “moral governance.” The lecture itself was a tremendous success and students benefitted from an insightful dialogue with Senator Santorum.

However, UT-Austin is now sticking conservative students with a $654 invoice for the security services of five security officers. Why? According to University officials, this “security fee” was necessary because Senator Santorum is “high profile” and because of the “political climate.”

“School administrators may not impose varying security fees based on the community’s reaction to the content of speech. Doing so violates both the First and the Fourteenth Amendments,” said Spencer Brown, Spokesman for Young America’s Foundation. “This security fee reeks of viewpoint discrimination. The facts are clear – University officials arbitrarily levied a hefty security fee based on the content of Senator Santorum’s lecture. Equally clear is how the courts respond to such a practice.”

Furthermore, having been in attendance at this event, we will add that we only saw one UTPD officer there.  So it seems pretty far-fetched to claim that there was any sort of heightened security fears when no actions were taken at the time to quell them.  But that assumes this charge was made in good faith, and this is the UT politburo about which we're talking....

Bottom Line: Isn't this just typical?!?

#TXLEGE: Crony capitalist crowd now openly claiming high taxes are good for business

"Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord,
But a just weight is His delight."
Proverbs 11:1

Buried deep within this puff piece on the latest act of collusion between big business and big government, we find this gem:

It will support local municipalities’ rights to set their own taxation policies and will oppose legislation that would set revenue caps, allow for tax rollbacks or put appraisal caps on local governments, he said.

“We believe this would deter their ability to finance local priorities and have a negative impact on their bond ratings,” he said.

A lot of this is the same type of drivel you frequently hear from this crowd.  But they didn't used to be this blatant about it.  They're not even paying lip service to the idea of low and consistent taxation anymore.

It's also remarkable how, to preserve their subsidies and protectionist regulations, this crowd is now moving from pushing left-wing social policy to openly embracing high taxes.

This group's Board of Directors is also quite the collection of looters and moochers.

Bottom Line: Whether this crowd likes it or not, low and consistent taxation is good for everyone, including business.

#TXLEGE: The Toxic Capitol Culture is not Limited to Sex

"For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there."
James 3:16

We attended this morning's Trib event about the culture of sexual abuse in the Texas Legislature.  The formal program had its ups and downs, but we had several highly productive conversations afterward.  One of those conversations got us thinking about our first session in 2013.

In our Empower Texans profile last May, we discussed being shocked by what we learned when we discovered the Capitol as it really exists.  While our earlier remarks concerned policy, there were also a couple encounters that revealed the dominant culture.  Let's (belatedly) discuss those.

In February 2013, we attended an early morning trib event with Joe Straus.  During the event, we asked Straus about a budget reform proposal under discussion that session.  Straus did what Straus does (though this was when he was polite about it), but it was what happened after the event that stood out.

Following the event, some guy we'd never met approached us and very aggressively asked us to clarify our support for the Texas Budget Compact.  We confirmed that we did and gave a standard explanation about government spending crowding out productive economic activity.  The guy flew into a rage and browbeat this author over our alleged stupidity for supporting a policy that, according to this gentleman, would mean no roads, schools, or water in a decade.  We haven't thought about this encounter in ages but, in hindsight, it was a deliberate act of gaslighting.

Approximately six months later, we attended an another event during the early stages of the Wallace Hall impeachment.  We made an offhand comment to a staffer for a (then) Republican house committee chair (who has subsequently left the legislature) about how we found the whole thing to be a fiasco with Jim Pitts playing the role of lead putz.  Once again, the guy flew into a rage and browbeat this author for our alleged mendacity in helping to "destroy the greatest university in the world."  Once again, we haven't thought about this encounter in ages but once again, in hindsight, it was a deliberate act of gaslighting.

Obviously, we're fine.  But it was scary in the moment.  And one of our conversations from this morning got us thinking about how that moment of fear might have played out if we weren't...well...male.

In an environment where it's a tactic of first resort to browbeat and gaslight male bloggers over policy...should we really be surprised when the same people browbeat and gaslight young women over sex?!?

In the Texas Legislature, the browbeating and the gaslighting are everywhere.  While the recent revelations related to sexual abuse are the most salacious (and dangerous), they didn't emerge in a vacuum.  When minor incident, after minor incident, after minor incident are tolerated, major incidents are the natural result.

Bottom Line:  No matter what the happens in response to recent revelations, until the Texas Legislature addresses its deeper culture of intimidation, the sexual stuff will eventually return.

#TXLEGE: Trib's "Austin & the Legislature" event illustrates Workman's irrelevance

"And they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit."
Ezekiel 16:50

Trib this morning:

Join us in person or on our livestream for the first installment of this series: a conversation about public education, immigration, health care, spending, taxes and other consequential matters with Austin-area state Reps. Gina Hinojosa, Donna Howard and Eddie Rodriguez. Tribune co-founder and CEO Evan Smith will moderate.

LOL, they didn't even include Paul Workman.

This shouldn't surprise anyone: As long as the current Democrat/liberal Republican coalition rules the House, the Democrats will always be the most important members of the Travis County delegation.

While Workman filed some good bills to rein in the city of Austin during the 85th, those bills went nowhere (because of the afore mentioned Democrat/liberal Republican coalition).

And that's why we can no longer afford Paul Workman.

Bottom Line: It's nothing we didn't previously know, but it's still funny that they're this blatant about it.

About Kendal Briles and Randy Clements: An Open Letter to [U of H Regent Chair] Tilman Fertitta

"Therefore by their fruits you will know them."
Matthew 7:20

[Note: Readers can ask Fertitta their own questions on Twitter -- @TilmanJFertitta]

Tilman J. Fertitta
University of Houston Board Regents
Chairman

Dear Chairman Fertitta,

Thank you for your time.  I'm an Austin based blogger who covers Texas politics.  Historically, I've been a fan of your performance as the Chairman of the University of Houston Board of Regents.  I applaud your effort to halt the University of Texas' Houston land grab during the 85th session of the Texas Legislature.

Today I'm writing over something much more alarming: The University of Houston's inexplicable decision to hire former Baylor assistant coaches Kendal Briles and Randy Clements in the Cougar football program.

Over the past several years Baylor Univesrty has been enmeshed in a slowly unfolding sexual assault scandal, the depths of which are almost too awful to plumb.  For everything we've learned in recent months, the Baylor scandals remain the most horrifying.  But even amidst the grotesque onslaught that's come out of Baylor, Kendall Briles' mendacity stands out.

According to books, lawsuits, and press reports Kendal Briles made the the following comment to a recruit about female Baylor students: "Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at Baylor and they love football players."

Seriously?!?

You just hired a guy who's been caught facilitating racially charged sexual assaults.  It's difficult to believe this could actually happen, but apparently this is how the University of Houston chooses to do business.  It's mind boggling.

I understand you're busy.  Between being CEO of Landry Restaurants, your casino interests, your CNBC show, and ownership of the Houston Rockets, you have a lot on your plate.  If the Kendal Briles and Randy Clements hires were an oversight due to a packed schedule, I encourage you to promptly rectify the situation.

As long as Kendal Briles and Randy Clements remain on the Cougar coaching staff, it's difficult to avoid the conclusion the the University of Houston condones the type of chilling abuses about which we've recently learned.

It should also go without saying that Big-12 expansion is a non-starter as long as Kendal Briles and Randy Clements remain on the Cougar coaching staff.

As Chairman of the University of Houston Board of Regents, the buck stops with you; choose wisely.

Sincerely,
Adam Cahn
Austin, TX

P.S. One recently relevant part of my background: In the past two months, I helped lead efforts to get both Congressmen Joe Barton and Blake Farenthold to retire.  While Barton's and Farenthold's respective conduct was reprehensible, either one of them is a fraction compared to Kendal Briles.  Like I said, choose wisely.

TPPF's DC Expansion makes Brady more valuble

"As iron sharpens iron,
So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."
Proverbs 27:17

On Tuesday, we discussed TPPF's D.C. expansion in terms of what it meant for the open seat congressional races.

But there's another point to consider: As TPPF expands into D.C., having a Ways and Means committee chairman from Texas becomes significantly more valuble.

If a widely respected organization back home makes a suggestion, you're going to at least listen.  You don't have a choice.  That's not necessarily true if the W&M chairman is from another state.

The 2017 tax bill, while a tangible step in the right direction, will not be the final effort on the tax code.  When congress takes up the next tax bill, we're TPPF to be at the table, that would be a very good sign.  That's a lot easier to make happen if the W&M chairman is from Texas.

Furthermore, from an activist perspective, this could give you a direct line to the committee chair for whatever your pet federal tax issue happens to be (eg. this author's interest in housing).  You send an e-mail to the relevant TPPF person, and they bring up the topic with the policymaker.  We've done it in the Texas Legislature and there's no reason why the same model can't work federally.

When the whole thing was said and done, Brady did a good job with the tax bill; with TPPF's help, he can do something even better in the future.

Bottom Line: As long as good things are getting done, having a ways and means chairman from Texas isn't the worst thing in the world.

#TXLEGE: Media Correction of the (Young) Year

"He who is slow to wrath has great understanding,
But he who is impulsive exalts folly."
Proverbs 14:29

Late yesterday afternoon, we posted to Facebook about wanting to write a longer...critique...of a sensationalistic article the Trib published about a Texas House race West of Waco.  Chris Evans, the TxRTL endorsed challenger to a liberal Republican incumbent, apparently got in some legal trouble a decade and a half ago.  The original article was a transparent opposition research dump fed to a credulous reporter who subsequently posted a click driven story.

The Trib has subsequently updated the story.   It's now straight news recounting.  Since they fixed their story before we got a chance to write this blog post, we'll cut them some slack.

But the correction they posted is mint:

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Texas House candidate Chris Evans as having been convicted for possessing a pipe bomb. He received deferred adjudication for the offense.

Gee..what could you have possibly been trying to imply by saying he was "convicted" for possessing "a pipe bomb"?!?

That being said, the funniest part is how the Trib's unforced error allows Chris Evans to run a media-bashing campaign the rest of the way.  Expect messaging along the lines of "you know the liberal media is scared of Chris Evans because they're already attacking him."  As a point of comparison, if you're wondering how that messaging will resonate in that district, just remember the HD-59 is Sid Miller's old district (*).

Bottom Line: This was a funny unforced error.

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* - It's worth pointing out that the liberal Republican incumbent was originally elected with assistance from Planned Parenthoood.