Lawmakers seek cuts to Paxton’s budget
Legislators unveil proposal that would slash more than 150 jobs at embattled AG’s office
Already under investigation by the FBI and facing calls to resign from both the left and the right, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton now has the Texas Legislature to worry about.
State lawmakers have rolled out an initial state budget that would slash his request for funding and eliminate more than 150 positions from his office — far deeper cuts than most state agencies face, reducing his staffing to its lowest level since he was elected.
In October, Paxton requested $1.26 billion over two years for his agency with 4,217 positions. Instead, the Texas Senate will begin debate on a budget plan this week that would give him $1.17 billion over the two years and 4,063 positions. That represents $89 million less than requested and 154 fewer positions.
Neither the Republican attorney general nor his colleagues in the state Senate are saying much publicly about the cuts, but that will change on Wednesday when Paxton and his staff are set to testify before the Senate Finance Committee.
“We have a lot of questions that need to be asked,” said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who is a member of that committee.
The cuts stand out when compared to the proposed budgets of other statewide elected officials.
Gov. Greg Abbott and State Comptroller Glenn Hegar both are getting exactly the amount of money and staff they requested.
“Many state agencies saw a reduction in our introduced budget, including the attorney general,” said Senate Finance Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound. “We made clear we did not want to see a reduction in services for crime victims, including rape crisis center services and sexual assault
nurse examiners. This is a starting point.”
For Paxton, it comes at a tumultuous time. On Oct. 1, seven top aides filed a complaint with law enforcement accusing him of abuse of office and accepting bribes. The FBI is investigating those accusations, which focus on his advocacy for Nate Paul, a friend and campaign donor.
At least two of the whistleblowers have been fired, exposing the state to potential liability for illegal retaliation.
In early October, Paxton rebuffed calls for his resignation from some lawmakers, including Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin, a former first assistant to Paxton.
“Despite the effort by rogue employees and their false allegations I will continue to seek justice in Texas and will not be resigning,” Paxton said in a statement to the media in early October, right around the time his office submitted its funding request to lawmakers.
His peers have been slow to defend Paxton publicly. Nearly all of the more than 100 Republicans in the Legislature did not respond when asked by the Associated Press whether they have confidence in Paxton.
Abbott has told KXAN, an NBC affiliate in Austin, that the latest allegations against Paxton “raise serious concerns” but has refrained from further comment.
One of the biggest proposed cuts is to Paxton’s fund for hiring outside law firms, consultants, expert witnesses and information technology services. He asked for $205 million for the two-year budget, but the Senate is proposing $118 million.
Paxton’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In budget documents, Paxton says he needs tens of millions of additional funding for managing crime victims services programs and for technology upgrades.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic and the slowdown in oil and gas revenues, most agencies have been warned to lower their budget expectations.
The proposed cuts come as Paxton faces other administrative woes.
In 2019, the Legislature halted work on upgrading the child support enforcement system that had been on the books since before Paxton took office. Originally budged at $223.6 million, the project had jumped to $419.6 million before lawmakers finally pulled the plug. State budget writers cited the terminated project as a key reason for Paxton’s drop in funding.
Although it is not detailed in his budget request, the Associated Press reported Paxton was seeking about $43 million in state funding to hire outside attorneys for a high-profile antitrust lawsuit against Google. The whistleblowers told the Associated Press that before they reported him to the FBI in September and began resigning, the lawsuit against the search engine giant was set to be handled internally. Paxton runs one of the largest state attorney general’s offices in the United States.
Paxton is highlighting several successes over the last two years as he lobbies for the funding, including once again leading the nation in child support collections and recovering $1.2 billion for Texas through legal action. In addition, he highlights increased activity by his election fraud investigators and nearly 100 indictments obtained by his Medicaid Fraud Unit.
Paxton has built a reputation since he took office in 2014 of signing on to high-profile national cases. Most recently, he won a temporary restraining order to block President Joe Biden’s executive action to “pause” deportations.
In early December, Paxton filed a suit against four other states in support of former President Donald Trump that called on the Supreme Court to delay certification of Biden’s victory. In the suit, Paxton said Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had engaged in election irregularities that require investigation, and it asked the court to “enjoin the use of unlawful election results without review and ratification by the defendant states’ legislatures.”
The Supreme Court quickly rejected the case.
Paxton is still under indictment for separate, previous charges of felony securities fraud dating back to 2015. No trial date has been set.
More recently, Paxton’s role in the rally that precipitated the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol has provoked new calls for his resignation. Paxton was among the speakers who encouraged the crowd to keep fighting, just before some in the crowd attacked the Capitol complex, killing five, including a Capitol Police officer.
“What we have in President Trump is a fighter. And I think that’s why we’re all here,” Paxton said that morning in a short speech. “We will not quit fighting.”
That appearance and Paxton’s false claims that the rioters were not Trump supporters have spurred calls for the Legislature to investigate him.
State Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie, said after the riots at the Capitol that lawmakers need to limit the attorney general’s jurisdiction and possibly cut his funding.
“My bottom line is the Legislature should be holding him accountable,” Turner said.