San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Legislative nightmare finally ends in Texas
Perceptions speak volumes.
To hear Gov. Greg Abbott tell it, the 87th Texas Legislature was a success. It wasn’t enough for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Republicans who called for a fourth Special Session. And Democrats? Oh, they are angry.
The state’s third special session ended Tuesday and the damage done to Texans, many who lack a meaningful political voice, will be felt for years.
In a tweet Wednesday, Patrick called on Abbott to bring the House and Senate back for a fourth not-so special session: The Senate “finished a strong conservative session. But more needs to be done. (The) Senate added felony penalties for illegal voting, but the House cut to a misdemeanor.”
It’s true state lawmakers did not give Abbott everything he wanted, as they also resisted Senate Bill 51, his push to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine mandates that would have further codified his Oct. 11 executive order to prohibit them by any Texas entity, including private businesses and health care facilities.
Mercifully, Abbott’s spokesperson told the Texas Tribune on Wednesday the governor wouldn’t call another special session, though he added, “at this time.”
Abbott was pleased with new measures in property tax relief, appropriating funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, and redrawing legislative districts to dilute minority representation. He wrote in a statement Tuesday that the Legislature ensured “an even brighter future for the Lone Star State.”
Abbott also noted other “dynamic achievements” and thanked those who worked in the Texas House and Senate, writing: “Because of their efforts, the future of Texas is stronger, safer, and freer.”
But we wonder: How bright is the future for people of color? Women? Low-income people? Transgender youth? Victims of gun violence?
Unsurprisingly, lawmakers did not expand Medicaid, despite our state having enough funding and the highest rate of uninsured people in America, including 23 percent of women — double the national rate. Not enough was done to fix our state’s child welfare, juvenile justice and mental health systems, which are in perennial crisis.
The state is not doing enough to fix our electric grid, which left 4.5 million Texans in the dark and freezing temperatures for days during during February’s deadly Winter Storm Uri.
Like other members of the GOP, Abbott has described those measures enacted in the three sessions as “protecting integrity.” But, again, we question the moralistic overtones.
Transgender students will no longer participate in sports based on their gender identity. Women can’t make health care decisions in their pregnancies.
But it’s now easier to carry guns in Texas than it is to vote. Voting is now more complicated, disproportionately affecting Texas voters of color, whose votes will count less due to racially discriminatory redistricting.
Despite people of color now making up 95 percent of Texas’ population growth and the increase of Hispanics and Latinos in Texas by 21 percent — accounting for half of the total population growth in the past decade and now totaling 39 percent of the total population, the GOP, once again, drew a large majority of districts to favor white, conservative voters.
So, we are left to deal with the outcome of another legislative session, again. Redistricting will be felt for years. The targeting and exclusion of transgender youth will be felt for lifetimes. The failure to expand Medicaid is an invisible and limiting force. This is the Texas Legislature — where “freedom” must be mandated. But one day, change is gonna come.