The 85th Legislative Session was different in many ways. Two things changed the narrative this session. First, Empower Texans successfully augmented the mainstream media with the conservative perspective. Social media is important and our friends at Empower Texans are mastering it. Michael Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans covered the session well 
and kept viewers well informed on the progress of conservative legislation as it moved through the House and Senate. The weekly live broadcasts by Sullivan and Jim Graham of Texas Right to Life really enhanced this session and highlighted the defects in House leadership. Second, the Texas Freedom Caucus led the charge against liberal legislation and successfully thwarted Straus and his henchmen. Conservatism had a voice this session.
Houston conservatives lost this session with the passage of SB 2190 – the pension bill. Turner ran his bill through the legislature with the assistance of Lt. Dan, Senator Joan Huffman, and House members supported by the Houston Police Officer’s Union (HPOU). This bill may help HPOU in the short term, but at what cost? Our city and our firefighters were ignored this session. HPOU has 750 million dollars in bond proceeds in the bill to pay for their Deferred Retirement Option Plans (DROP). These DROP benefits often contain millions of dollars per officer in addition to their 95{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} retirement pay for life. Now you know why the City of Houston is 10 billion dollars in debt. There are a lot of officers wishing to retire and run out the door because they negatively view the shift in criminal justice policy (i.e., Kim Ogg as DA and Art Acevedo as Chief of Police). This November, Houstonians will vote on the bond and repeal of the property tax cap.
On a much lighter note, the Texas Freedom Caucus (TFC) kicked butt and proved much more fun to watch than the Houston Rockets. Jonathan Stickland made a name for himself this session and helped the conservative cause against Straus and his liberal policies. The caucus is composed of a group of freedom and liberty loving conservatives from around the state who waged a war with the liberal agenda (including some “Republicans”) all session. The TFC revolt was entertaining and important. This revolt led to some great floor fights between impassioned, true conservatives fighting with liberals over the policies that govern our state. I say great because the TFC push revealed the weak, false conservatives à la Straus henchmen.
The TFC revealed a number of local representatives who are weak on conservative issues. For example, a number of local representatives worked against Houston Fire on the pension bill. This list includes Jim Murphy, Dan Huberty, and other (current and/or former) clients of Allen Blakemore like Dennis Paul, John Zerwas, Kevin Roberts, and Mike Schofield. Blakemore’s tentacles are a sure sign of poison in the water. Thanks to these folks, Houstonians will need to hold on to their wallets with all their might!
I truly do not understand why Sarah Davis keeps up this charade. Davis does not have a conservative bone in her body. I bet that the Fox News Channel has been removed from all of the televisions in the Davis home. Please remember that the Harris County Republican Party, under the leadership of Paul Simpson, placed the entire countywide campaign on the shoulders of Davis. And Davis was all in with Devon Anderson (the DA who jailed a sexual assault victim). As you know, this experiment failed miserably.
Davis fought against every pro-life bill this session – and seemed to enjoy it! Simpson’s effort to keep Davis in office cost every Harris County Republican in 2016.
Briscoe Cain and Valoree Swanson were our local superstars this session. Both quickly aligned themselves with the TFC and became valued members of this merry band of rebel rousers. Throughout the session, I turned to Brsicoe to find out what was going on with particular items of interest. Valoree provided crucial support to pro-life bills and had a good session. The liberal media attacked both and now you know why – they were effective in moving conservative legislation. Importantly, both members voted against Turner’s pension bill.
Throughout the session Lt. Dan worked hard to position himself for a run against Governor Abbott. Yesterday, Governor Abbott proved that he can handle Lt. Dan when he named twenty issues for the July Special Session. Put your chin straps on because it will be a ride
Big Jolly will keep you informed throughout the summer.
It really says all you need to know about how badly Joe Strausss tanked this session. Every member that you mentioned in the Blakemore context should be primaried. I’m surprised Phil Stephenson didn’t make your list of losers too.
And during the special Joe doesn’t get to block anything does he?
Phil is a nice guy but is not a conservative at all. At the end of the previous session I discussed pension reforms with him and his idea was to borrow the billions it would take to fund them and make money on the interest by savvy investing. The use those earnings to pay back the debt!! I even told him he sounded like Joe Biden and it went right past him.
DanMan,
I tried to keep it local. I am writing two follow up stories that discusses house leadership in greater detail.
I have yet to hear a credible source detail how many cops are making “millions in DROP”, a benefit the majority of existing city police have not had since 2004. I have, however, had enough conversations with Chairman Josh McGee of the state pension review board who is crystal clear how all Houston police with a DROP benefit, leave with about half their pay, no overtime boosts like the firemen get, their less senior peers getting 45{997ab4c1e65fa660c64e6dfea23d436a73c89d6254ad3ae72f887cf583448986} of pay to retire. Josh also has detailed information regarding how much more lucrative the firemen retirement benefits are, the man also a Vice President of the local Arnold Foundation that has been a nationwide leader in addressing pension issues. Is the Houston Chronicle and Chairman McGee also wrong about how almost the entire command staff of the police had to leave to maintain a semblance of their pensions moving forward, needing to find new jobs elsewhere unless they are willing to lose much of what they worked for?
Pete,
I think you are asking how much is in the DROP accounts, how many DROP account are there, is this the only billion dollar bond will we have to float to pay retiring officers and municipal employees, how solvent is the Police retirement fund, and who actually receives the proceeds of the bond and what is the purpose?
I am thinking these will be issues for the campaign concerning the bonds. I have spoken to HPOU leadership who have told me they have no intention of sharing this information. I am sure people will vote accordingly.
Not a fan of Josh McGee’s math or conclusions because he did not address any of the above.
Don, not really. My question remains: how many cops are making “millions in DROP”? You keep repeating this statement but with all due respect, you never provide a verifiable source for that particular claim. I can calculate an average using their pension reports, but just as their union wouldn’t have access to that data any more than you or I would, the only party with specific data on individuals would be their pension. It’s easy to find out how much in total remains in those accounts by going to their pension reports, just as it’s easy to see how most of the cops still working for the city do not have the perk as it was taken away over a decade ago in previous cuts.
Regarding the Arnold Foundation and Mr. McGee, they’ve provided a wealth of data on all three Houston pensions, if you missed any of it, they freely offer it to the public if you want to catch up. His credentials were strong enough to be appointed to the state board over the protestations of unions and pension boards across the state so I’m not sure why you aren’t a fan, he remains a serious advocate of defined contribution pensions and cuts as needed, which puts him squarely in the fiscal conservative camp.
Pete,
You know all the political contributions to Ken Paxton are designed to not allow anyone to discover how much money is in the DROP accounts. However, if you take a guy who is a senior patrolman who has been in the system making 75K since it started you are talking about 1.75 million. Think about the guys lobbying for this benefit. Now think about the guys making 175K, that is some splaining. The problem is far worse though when you realize the union paid off all the appellate judges to rule that DROP accounts are not community property. I learned this when I thought I will just go look up the records in the family courts, imagine my surprise. The problem of course is that divorce lawyers have a different interpretation of the lower appellate court rulings so far, if you get my drift. Divorcing officers keep all the money and the women get the shaft in a divorce. I have a good feeling this vote will be a hard sell, a very hard sell. Can you imagine all the divorced women explaining how they got screwed in their divorce as a campaign commercial let alone a few news stories. Imagine how fast that bad news will travel.
Pete, this of course is not diminished by the fact the public can’t get a police officer to respond to a car burglary, home burglary, catch an illegal immigrant who smashes a car and flees, the crime lab problems going back 20 years, Ryan Chandler, and all the other outrageous spending within the department with all the assistant chiefs. I get why HPOU does not want the public to vote. It quickly becomes a referendum on all your screw ups for years. Not to mention John Q public going now explain to me where the money is going. I get it.
Pete, Devon Anderson liked to dance on the edge of the fire too.
Don, correct me if I’m wrong but DROP started about 20 years ago. At that time, the only people making 75k a year with HPD were captains at the top of their pay grade, not generic officers that comprise the vast majority of their department making half that. I’m not a fan of Paxton or local family courts given their sorted history so it wouldn’t surprise me if individual courts had wildly different interpretations, but any good divorce lawyer will get the portion of DROP accumulated during the marriage labeled as community property, just as they attach monthly checks and the rest. How many cops stay 40 years, 20 for the base pension and then 20 years in deferred accounts, in the first place? I doubt it amounts to more than a very small percentage.
As far as how the city prioritizes use of manpower, the media pointed out several years back how tens of thousands of crimes were not bothered with, the then police chief ordering his charges to focus on crimes that had some chance of being solved or that involved people being hurt over property loss. Was that reasoning the kind most of us wanted to hear? I can’t speak for others but see the logic in it for a department experts claim is very understaffed. And Mike Morris reports that HPD’s command staff was replaced and reduced in size by over a third but with a new leader like the one recently appointed, I don’t see things getting better as many retire due to pension cuts.
Great article!
Thanks Eric!
I am a fan of your work to litigate the term limit issue. I wanted to thank you publicly for your efforts on behalf of the voters of Houston.
seconded!
I commend you for the talent it takes to write such an illogical rant, particularly as it relates to Rep Davis and HCRP. Why would the chair target voters in District 134? Well, let’s see: could it be because that district had the second highest turnout in the state in the previous presidential election? There is a simple premise to voter targeting: hunt ducks where the ducks live. Second, Rep Davis’ campaign stood out. While every Republican on election day in November lost vote percentage (except one unknown candidate in a D seat) Davis gained tremendously on election day. She won by 20 points, easily surpassing her early vote margin. Why? Because her advertising in the final two weeks woke up Republican voters in Republican precincts to turn out. She also won over Democrats, something some Republicans have little interest in now, but may one day as the state’s demographics change. She did it despite self-defeating advertising efforts by so-called conservatives who would have elected a liberal who would have voted against them on everything. Party purges in the name of purity are the best recipe for creating a minority party. I wish you no luck in that quest.
Eric,
Turning out voters in the most liberal Republican House District in the state costs every Republican their office in Harris County. Running a pro illegal immigration, pro-choice, and running against the President sure did not help. Speaker Straus and Planned Parenthood I am sure we’re thrilled with the outcome. They were probably disappointed with Devon Anderson wasbdefeated who Sarah Davis endorsed. I hope this clears up the rant.
Is there proof that was the cause of the Republicans losing Harris County? If there is data can you or will you direct us/me toward that place?
Welp, today’s news confirms Houston is a sanctuary city. Not that anybody believed our mayor and police chief on this issue.
So what other laws can we break fellas?
Let’s not get into the Dem’s coining and exploiting of the term, “Mother’s Day Massacre.”
How about this:
http://www.austin360.com/news/clash-over-death-panels-and-palliative-care-during-house-budget-debate/tcfvXnkr1q7Ze8d2ezpMjN/
(Where were his advisors? Was this a prank, some sort of Legislative snipe hunt Cain was sent on?)