Good morning, 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, September 5, 2019
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• Texas Democrats rallied Wednesday to demand a special session on gun-control measures, but Gov. Greg Abbott has refused to rule out any of the Democrats’ proposals. Instead, Cary Cheshire reports, Abbott is urging Democrats to stop speaking from behind the media and “start talking to colleagues in the Capitol to reach consensus.”
      
• Among the proposals pushed by Texas Democrats are “extreme risk protective order laws,” which Abbott himself has previously pushed. These laws – known as “red-flag” laws – would circumvent the Constitution’s due-process clause by denying Texans’ rights on the basis of hearsay.
       
• Consensus? Compromise? On our Second Amendment rights? Maybe the governor should tell the Democrats to pound sand.
       
• For what it’s worth, the Texas GOP Platform opposes every item promoted by the Democrats in their latest run against Texans’ right to keep and bear arms.
      
• In this week’s edition of Texas Scorecard Radio, Tony McDonald interviews former U.S. Rep. Allen West, a candidate for the chairmanship of the Republican Party of Texas. Meanwhile, Cary Cheshire has a commentary on the failure of Gov. Greg Abbott’s ill-considered tax swap scheme earlier this year.
      
• Another one drops out... A fifth incumbent Republican member of Congress from Texas is calling it quits ahead of the 2020 election. U.S. Rep. Bill Flores announced via Twitter yesterday that he won’t be seeking re-election. Brandon Waltens has the details.

• County commissioners and city councils around the state are grabbing as much cash from taxpayers’ wallets before next year, when a new state law will require them to ask citizens’ permission before raising taxes more than 3.5 percent in a year.
      
• The Travis County Commissioners Court is about to take more of the taxpayers’ money... and they’re pocketing some it. Jacob Asmussen reports Travis County will take about $126 more from the average homeowner’s wallet. Some of those higher taxes will go to pay the raises county commissioners are giving themselves.
     
• In north Texas, the Saginaw City Council is proposing a tax rate that would raise Saginaw homeowners’ city tax bills 57 percent from six years ago. Robert Montoya has the details. Meanwhile, the city council in Arlington is proposing a property tax rate that would raise the average homeowners’ tax bills 8.99 percent from last year, and nearly 53 percent from just six years ago.

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