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Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, July 17, 2019
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• According to a new study, Texas homeowners pay among the highest property tax bills when compared to other Republican-run states, including the states with no personal income tax. Ross Kecseg has the details.
      
• In the heated Democrat presidential contest, Texas’ former progressive hero Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke is now bordering on irrelevance. Sam Samson tracks the decline of the one-time Democrat darling.
     
• As the first campaign finance reports since the legislative session are being released, Brandon Waltens is compiling fundraising totals from different groups of politicians in order to keep citizens informed. He first looks at the fundraising totals for the Texas House Freedom Caucus.
     
• Erin Anderson reports another conspirator in what may be “the largest domestic public corruption case in history” is headed to prison for helping bilk Dallas County taxpayers out of millions. Slater Swartwood Sr. was sentenced last week to 18 months in prison for his role in the bribery and money laundering scandal that toppled school bus agency Dallas County Schools and cost county taxpayers more than $100 million.
     
• There are 14 applicants seeking appointment to the two vacancies on the Amarillo Independent School District’s Board of Trustees. Thomas Warren has the details.
       
• Please join me in wishing a very happy birthday to our copy editor, Gabbie Shafer!

• Texans were spared a massive tax hike thanks to the efforts of State Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R-Houston). Cary Cheshire examines the circumstances to led to proposal, and how Bettencourt’s principled stand saved the state from a costly delusion. 
     

• “We’ve never had a tax swap that worked.” – State Sen. Bettencourt
      
• Legislators entered the 2019 session with more than $10 billion in surplus dollars over and above even what was in the state’s Economic Stabilization Fund (the “rainy day” account). Yet rather than return those dollars to taxpayers in the form of property tax relief, lawmakers squandered them on new and expanded programs.
       
• This led, Cheshire recounts, to Gov. Greg Abbott proposing a sales tax hike to fund a property tax reduction. The problem was that the state’s own numbers showed the proposal would merely result in higher tax burdens. Learn how Bettencourt’s actions inspired lawmakers to reject the Abbott tax hike.
   
• At 12:30pm today, join Cary Cheshire on our Facebook page to discuss with him this important milestone in the 2019 legislative session.