Abbott’s legislative funding veto panned
Former Texas leaders call response to House Democrats’ walkout ‘an attempt to intimidate’
A bipartisan group of former state leaders has sided against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over his decision to veto funding for legislative salaries in response to a walkout by House Democrats that blocked Republican-backed voting restrictions.
Former Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, former Democratic House Speaker Pete Laney and former Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff filed a brief this week in support of legal challenge mounted by Texas House Democrats at the Texas Supreme Court. They described Abbott’s move as an overreach of his constitutional authority.
“This action should be rebuked by people of all political persuasions,” the former legislative leaders wrote in the filing Monday. “By constitutional design, Members of the Legislature are not controlled by any Governor — Republican or Democrat.”
The veto, which affects about 2,000 lawmakers, as well as their staffers and those of legislative agencies, would take effect Sept. 1, when the new fiscal year begins. After Democrats broke quorum and killed the GOP package of voting restrictions for the time being, Abbott tweeted that there would be “no pay for those who abandon their responsibilities.”
In the special session that begins Thursday, lawmakers may have the chance to bring back the funding, either by passing a supplemental budget or overriding the veto. As of early Tuesday afternoon, Abbott had yet to issue the agenda items for the session, though attorneys for the state defended his decision by saying that he “has not ruled out” including this issue.
The state’s attorneys argue that the high court lacked jurisdiction over the governor’s clerk and the deputy secretary of state, and that Democrats might not even have a claim if funding is restored in coming weeks.
“Those alleged harms are spec
ulative,” they wrote. “They depend on the outcome of a special session that will conclude well in advance of September 1.”
Straus, Laney and Ratliff disagreed that this falls within Abbott’s veto authority, describing it as “an attempt to intimidate members of the Legislature and circumvent democracy.”
“In a situation where one branch of government interferes with the effective exercise of another branch’s constitutional duties, or assumes powers outside its own branch, it is the obligation of the Judiciary to protect the balance of power and defend the constitutional order that has governed in Texas for almost two centuries,” they wrote.