Incoming Lt. Gov Dan Patrick released his vision for Texas last week, and it appears that not much of positive significance is going to happen while he’s in charge.
Patrick’s plan consists of 19 points in about eight areas that are keeping Republican leader of the State Senate and his followers up at night.
Going through all 19 of these points would be tiresome, so let’s look at some of the highlights.
Patrick wants to “pass a conservative budget that includes significant funding for both property tax cuts, and business tax cuts.” After more than a decade of Gov. Good Hair, I don’t see how the state budget can get much more “conservative,” but I’m sure there’s a way to do it. I’m all for keeping spending in check and taxes low, but I also liked our roadside rest areas and having the rights of way mowed more than once a year.
Patrick’s vision also calls for more funding for border security, which ought to be a federal issue, but we know how well that’s working. Anyway, our new leader, in his infinite wisdom, wants more money to increase DPS personnel on the border. That sounds wonderful, but let’s hope that these personnel are not just more of the current trend of sending Troopers from other areas of the state to patrol the border. Donley County is losing fine money because our troopers aren’t here to patrol our highways. And local accidents often can’t be worked in a timely fashion now because the nearest trooper is sometimes an hour away. But throw some more money at the border and stick out your chest, Mr. Patrick. I’m sure we’ll be able to take care of ourselves somehow.
Another budget goal is to provide property tax relief. Of course, the state doesn’t levy a property tax; local governments do. Patrick and his allies however want to interfere with local governments’ abilities to raise and collect the money they need to operate by increasing the homestead exemption and sticking their foot into the appraisal process. The fact of the matter is state politicians have already messed with local tax collections enough by creating exemptions and tax freezes for almost anyone with a sob story.
And speaking of interference from the boys and girls in Austin, Patrick has some ideas on public education. School choice and expanded “accountability” – the great platform of conservatives for decades. Realistically our school choices in Donley County will always be Clarendon or Hedley, so Patrick isn’t doing anything for us there. And I think we’ve had quite enough “accountability” programs to last us for a while. How about we just let teachers teach, let school board set policies, and let administrators discipline and administrate?
Patrick also wants a new reading program for our children. If you like the Accelerated Reader “how many books can your kid read before he explodes” program, I’m sure you’ll love what a pinhead like Patrick comes up with.
On higher education, one of Patrick’s “visions” has to do with tuition. He’s apparently upset that college tuition has “skyrocketed” in the last decade, but he fails to talk about how state education funding is kind of a go-to source for budget cutters. If you don’t provide funding for colleges and universities, they have no choice but to make it up on tuition and fees.
I read Patrick’s goals twice for transportation, and it still sounds like nonsense to me. I think he wants more money for roads basically, but I’m sure most of it will go to the I-35 corridor, so it probably doesn’t matter to us out here on the frontier.
I suppose it would be too much to hope that we might tackle real issues somewhere in all that. Like how will the state deal with a growing population and a dwindling supply of water?
Or how can we reform Child Protective Services to actually protect children in light of last week’s report from the Austin American-Statesman which found that CPS “did not publicly report 655 child abuse-related fatalities, even though the department confirmed that those children had been mistreated prior to their deaths?” Maybe Patrick and his friends could stop worrying about abortion for just one legislative session and take a look at what happens to kids after they are born.
Texas has real issues, but I don’t think we have a real leader in Dan Patrick. I think we have a guy with an agenda.
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