For all his tough guy antics, Texas Governor Greg Abbott may have inadvertently given the state’s Democrats a big bargaining chip: More control over the state’s partisan redistricting efforts. The question is, will Democrats use it?
After the end of the regular session of the Legislature and the defeat of two of the governor’s top priorities, he targeted the Legislature’s own budget with a line-item veto to retaliate. This move may have won him a battle, but lost him the war.
“I will veto Article 10 of the budget passed by the legislature ,” he tweeted. “Article 10 funds the legislative branch. No pay for those who abandon their responsibilities.”
Without giving Texas Democrats a reason to return, Article 10 funding can’t be restored. Without funding, over 2,000 staffers — working for Republican and Democratic legislators, plus various legislative branch departments — won’t be paid. Many will have little choice but to start looking for new new jobs.
The governor intended this move to box Democrats in to staying for the special legislative session. The thinking was that Democrats would stay in town to restore funding and paychecks to their staff, Capitol employees like the Legislative branch’s legal team, the Legislative Council.
Without funding, the Legislative Council (and all legislative branch staff) won’t be getting paychecks come September 1. To crunch that timeline even further, the Republican-controlled Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts told the Governor’s Office and the legislative leaders that the real drop-dead date for reinstating funding is August 20. The extra time is needed to implement software updates ahead of the September 1 start of the fiscal year.
Time is ticking away.
Read more