Seeking Silver and Gold: TxLege Update Week 2

Politicians in America may be elected by the people, but their authority to rule comes from God: “there is no authority except from God.” Pagans or believers, politicians are “the servant[s] of God” whose duty is to be “God’s servant for [those who do] good” and “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Romans 13).

Yet, as we all know, we live in a fallen world (Genesis 3) and politicians are going to fail in their duties to God, just like the rest of us. The Bible tells us that one of the main ways politicians fail is that they are going to take our stuff. God warns politicians that they “must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You shall never return that way again.’ And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:16-17).

Nonetheless, like Solomon, many of our rulers ignore God and instead “take []our sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen … and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest … [and] He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants” (1 Samuel 8:10-15). The list of acquisitions goes on.

As I observed Week 2 of the Texas Legislature, it was these passages that came to mind. It is clear to me that the members of the Legislature and some of our statewide elected officials are in the process of taking our stuff—a lot of silver and gold—and it will be quite a haul by the time we reach June 4, the end of session. My other observation is that they know at some level what they are doing is wrong, so they often try to cover it up. Here is a summary of a few happenings around the Texas state Capitol this week.

Property Taxes

I’ll write (a lot) more about this on Monday, but here is a summary of the problem:

The Texas Legislature has a $23.8 billion current budget surplus, with billions more in new revenue for the upcoming biennium (more on that in a week or two). Yet all Texas taxpayers are going to get from the surplus for property tax relief is a measly $3 billion (Texas Senate) or $3.5 billion (Texas House). With the rest of our silver and gold, Texas politicians are going to acquire for themselves horses and chariots, natural gas and nuclear company CEOs, water contractors and engineers, school boards and schoolteachers, medical researchers, etc. Along with their lobbyists and campaign contributions. Our property taxes continue to skyrocket despite more than $51 billion of new spending on public education in the name of property tax relief. Why? Because Texas politicians are more interested in acquiring our stuff than making sure we get to keep it.

The Budget

In 2023, the Texas Legislature appropriated 32% more in state funds than they did in 2021. This year, it looks like more of the same. The initial state budgets filed by the Texas House and Senate last week would spend about $235.5 billion of state funds, an increase of 8% and 7%, respectively, over 2023. But these are the initial budgets. Given what we heard during the Senate Finance Committee hearings this week, by the time the session comes to an end the numbers will be higher. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar says the Legislature can spend as much as $247.1 billion in state (non-federal) funds this session, which would be a 12.6% increase over last session. Based on the Texas Legislature’s budget practices over the last few years, it is a good bet they’ will come close to spending this amount.

The Rainy Day Fund

Texas has an Economic Stabilization Fund, which currently has a balance of about $26 billion. That is a nice size piggy bank for the state. The ESF is often called the “Rainy Day Fund,” because it was created by the Legislature for the supposed purpose of meeting emergency spending needs during times of financial crisis. But if Glenn Hegar, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Sen. Charles Schwertner get their way, the rainy day fund will become a slush fund for Texas politicians. At a Senate Finance hearing this week, Hegar pointed out to the senators that the amount of funds in the ESF is capped, and several billion dollars that would normally be transferred into the ESF have now become part of the state’s $23.7 billion budget surplus. This creates a problem for Texas politicians; Texas taxpayers rightly see a budget surplus as an overpayment of taxes and start demanding their money back. But if the money is quietly transferred into the ESF, the surplus drops and there is less clamoring for tax relief.

Sen. Schwertner pointed out that he will file a bill that would increase the limits on ESF to solve this problem, reducing the budget surplus and increasing the politicians slush fund. Schwertner also wants to enshrine into law the state’s current practice of “access[ing the ESF] during not just times of emergency but for very large infrastructure projects and other critical long-term projects.” To this end, he proposed “that we rename the ESF to the Texas Sovereign Fund” to make it easier for the Legislature to continue its practice of spending the ESF on whatever they want to spend it on. And, sure enough, this week Gov. Patrick came out in support of Schwertner’s bill, assigning it a low bill number (SB 23) and making it one of his top priorities this session.

The Texas House Oligarchy

Remember when Democrats across the country used to tell lies, hide their actions, and stifle debate and usually get away with it thanks to their friends in the media? Thankfully, that is rapidly coming to an end. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership cabal of the Texas House did not get the memo. Last week, they kicked off the Texas Legislature’s 89th regular session by electing a speaker supported by more Democrats than Republicans, shutting down debate on the House rules that gave Democrats more power than they have had since they lost the Texas House in 2003, and then lied to Texans about what they did. This week, they decided that they would not, unlike what they do almost every session, let House members vote on the budgets for House offices because it would have given conservatives a chance to offer amendments and point out to the public more problems with what the leadership is doing.

About 20 members from this same group of liberal Republicans lost their jobs during the 2024 primary season for doing the same type of things in during the Legislature’s last session. It is astounding how many of the Republicans did not learn a lesson from that. Apparently, they think they can keep doing the same things and somehow not suffer the same results in the 2026 Texas Republican primary. In the recovery community, such behavior is often described as insanity. We should pray for the conservative House members that they would stand firm this session, looking forward to 2026 and to eternity with Jesus Christ.

School Choice

In case you missed it, I wrote a piece describing the problems with the Senate’s school choice bill earlier this week. By a 9-2 vote, the Senate Education voted this week to approve the bill and send it to the full Senate. Under the Texas Constitution, the Senate or House cannot vote on bills within the first 60 days of a session, which goes through March 14. But it is expected that Gov. Greg Abbott will declare school choice, perhaps his top priority, as an emergency item that will allow the Senate and House to take up the bill before then.