government test 4
Texas Government DC: Exam 4 Concepts
Chapter 12: Public Finance
1. General Revenue Fund
2. Spending and Revenue in Texas
3. Sales Tax
4. Progressive Tax
5. State Income Tax in Texas
6. Permanent School Fund
7. Economic Stability Fund
8. Severance Taxes
Chapter 13: Public Policy
9. Implementation
10. De Facto Segregation in Schools
11. Gilmer-Akins Laws
12. San Antonio v. Rodriguez
13. Definition of “Poverty”
14. The New Deal
15. AFDC
16. Texas Rankings: Uninsured Population
17. Public School Funding
Chapter 14: Crime, Corrections and Public Safety
18. Can Felons Vote?
19. Bail
20. Grand Jury
21. Criminal Jury Decisions
22. Ruiz v. Estelle
23. “Cite and Release”
24. Concealed Carry Law
25. Qualified Immunity
26. Texas Commission on Law Enforcement
Chapter 15: Governing a Changing Texas
27. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
28. Negative Partisanship
29. Broadband Internet Access
30. U.S. Border Patrol
31. Sanctuary Cities in Texas
32. DACA
33. “Eminent Domain”
34. Texas Renewable Energy Percentage
35. Senate Bill 1 (SB1; 2022)
Public Finance
Chapter 12
Why Public Finance Matters
•Among other things, public finance affects the cost of going to college.
•Tuition and fees in Texas skyrocketed in the first two decades of the twenty-first century.
•Tuition rose 163% between 2003 and 2020.
•During this time, student loan debt increased significantly.
•Spiraling student debt coupled with higher tuition and fees is making it difficult for Texans to attend college.
•Passing a balanced budget is an important task.
•It requires identifying priorities and allocating money accordingly.
•Including how much funding state colleges and universities receive
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What Is the Budget? (1 of 4)
•The Texas Constitution mandates a “balanced budget.”
•Funds that constitute the “budget” can be divided into five broad budgetary categories:
•General Revenue Funds
•General Revenue–Dedicated Funds
•Federal Funds
•Other Funds
•All Funds
What Is the Budget? (2 of 4)
•General Revenue Funds:
•A nondedicated revenue account that functions as the state’s primary operating fund
•Appropriations from General Revenue Funds for the 2024–25 biennium totaled $144.3 billion
•General Revenue–Dedicated Funds:
•Budget composed of funds for dedicated revenues that target money for specific purposes
•Federal Funds:
•Includes all grants, payments, and reimbursements received from the federal government by state agencies and institutions
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What Is the Budget? (3 of 4)
•Other Funds:
•Consists of all other funds flowing into the state treasury that are not included in other state budgets
•Includes the Texas Highway Fund, various trust funds operated by the state, and certain revenues held for local higher education accounts
•All Funds:
•The aggregate of all the other budgets
•All spending that goes through agencies, including federal and state programs
What Is the Budget? (4 of 4)
•The state budget involves huge amounts of money, and much of it lies outside of the direct control of the legislature.
•Highlights from the 2024–25 budget:
•Over 102 billion dollars for Health and Human Services
•Over 122 billion dollars for education
•93.1 billion for Public Education
•29.8 billion for Higher Education
•46 billion for Business and Economic Development
Spending and Revenue in Texas
•Texas has a reputation for being a “low service, low tax” state that maintains a favorable environment for business.
•Trends in state spending:
•A 2022 study found that among the 50 states, Texas state expenditure per capita was $4,614, well below the national average of $8,346.
Revenue in Texas (1 of 3)
•Taxes are an important element of public finance.
•According to a 2023 study, Texas ranked 29th among the 50 states with regard to tax burden, coming in at 8.01 percent.
•Texas is one of seven states with no personal income tax, but there is a high sales tax.
•Texas property taxes are among the highest in the nation.
Revenue in Texas (2 of 3)
•Government and public policy are funded from a variety of sources.
•The sales tax is the most important single tax (6.25 %).
•Local taxing jurisdictions (cities and counties) may also impose up to a 2 percent tax for a maximum 8.25 percent sales tax.
•Oil and natural gas production and regulation: tax revenue varies with the price and volume
•Oil production is taxed based on market value; the tax is 4.6 percent of the market value of oil produced in the state.
Revenue in Texas (3 of 3)
•Natural gas production tax:
•7.5 percent of market value
•State revenues from natural gas (and oil) production fluctuate considerably.
•Motor fuel tax:
•20 cents per gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel
•Part of a dedicated fund for a specified purpose
•Public roads and education
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Other Tax Revenues
Other tax revenues come from:
•Franchise tax imposed on all corporations
•Tobacco taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products
•Alcoholic beverage taxes
•Insurance occupation taxes: a complex schedule is applied to insurance premiums
•Utility taxes (three sources)
•Tax on gas, electric, and water utilities
•Taxes on the gross receipts of public utilities
•Gas utility pipeline tax
•Hotel and motel tax
•Miscellaneous taxes such as taxes on attorney services, cement, sulfur, coin-operated machines, and bingo rental receipts
The Question of the Income Tax in Texas
•With a progressive tax, the tax burden falls more heavily on upper-income individuals.
•Progressive income taxes.
•With a regressive tax such as sales tax, the tax burden falls more heavily on lower-income individuals.
•Few politicians have been willing to support an income tax in Texas.
•The 2019 amendment to the Texas Constitution makes the future introduction of an income tax in Texas very difficult (banned).
Other State Revenue
•The largest single source of revenue for Texas is the federal government.
•Federal grants and matching funds are low, but federal aid to Texas has been increasing.
•The federal government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 significantly expanded the flow of federal revenue into Texas.
•As the crisis receded, federal dollars flowing to Texas declined to $72.7 billion in 2022 and to $68.7 billion in 2023.
State Funds
•Money spent by the state doesn’t just flow into and out of a single pot.
•About 400 funds direct money to a wide variety of functions.
•An understanding of how money flows lies at the heart of mastering the state budget.
General Revenue Fund and Permanent School Fund
•The General Revenue Fund is the state’s primary operating fund.
•Nondedicated general revenue
•General revenue: dedicated accounts
•The Permanent School Fund (PSF) funds primary and secondary schools.
•It distributes funds to school districts across the state based on attendance and similar criteria.
•Managed primarily by the state board of education
•The amount of money available to public education through the PSF is determined by the state board of education.
Available School Fund, State Highway Fund, and Economic Stabilization Fund
•The Available School Fund (ASF) is a dedicated fund for the support of public education.
•Funded through distributions of the PSF and 25 percent of the state’s motor fuels tax revenue
•The State Highway Fund supports the construction, maintenance, and policing of roadways and acquires rights of way.
•Funded through a variety of taxes, such as motor vehicle registration fees, the federal highway fund, and the sales tax on motor lubricants
•The Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF), or Rainy Day Fund, is meant to provide relief during times of financial distress.
Funds for Higher Education
•Specific legislative goals are met through the creation of various funds, particularly in the case of higher education.
•Permanent University Fund (PUF):
•Supports most institutions of the University of Texas (UT) and Texas A&M University systems
•Higher Education Fund (HEF):
•Supports universities that do not have access to PUF monies
The Texas Constitution and the Budget (1 of 3)
•Constitutional factors affect how the Texas budget is made.
•The legislature must write a two-year budget because it meets only once every two years.
•Agencies are forced to project budgetary needs without clear knowledge of the problems to be faced in two years.
•A large portion of the biennial budget is dedicated for special purposes by federal law or by the Texas Constitution or state statute.
The Texas Constitution and the Budget (2 of 3)
•A number of specific constitutional provisions constrain the legislature’s budgetary control.
•According to Article 3, Section 49a (pay-as-you-go limit), the state must maintain a balanced budget.
•All bills that get as far as appropriations must be sent to the comptroller, putting the comptroller at the heart of the budget process.
The Texas Constitution and the Budget (3 of 3)
•Article 8, Section 22 limits the growth of certain appropriations; when the state’s economy shrinks, appropriations must also shrink.
•The Legislative Budget Board (LBB) is responsible for determining the proper financial figures.
•Article 3, Section 51a limits the amount of money the state can spend on assistance to needy dependent children and their caretakers to 1 percent in any biennium.
•The constitution also limits the amount of debt the state can incur.
•A 1985 amendment enables the governor and the LBB to execute the budget, which includes the power to shift funds between agency programs or between agencies when the legislature is not in session.
The Budgetary Process (1 of 2)
•In theory, Texas has a “dual-budget” system.
•Responsibility is shared by the Governor’s Office of Budget, Planning, and Policy (GOBPP) and the Legislative Budget Board (LBB).
•In practice, the budget is primarily the responsibility of the legislature.
•The budgetary process involves two stages:
•Development of a draft budget by the LBB
•The legislative process, by which appropriations bills make their way through the committee process
•Final versions of the budget are voted on in each chamber.
•Differences are reconciled in a conference committee.
The Budgetary Process (2 of 2)
•The primary job of the LBB is to recommend appropriations for all agencies of state government.
•Key figures include:
•Lieutenant governor (Chair)
•Speaker of the House (Vice Chair)
•Chairs of key House and Senate committees: Appropriations (H), Ways and Means (H), Finance (S) and State Affairs (S)
•Budget Director who brings together budgeting requests from state agencies
•The LBB’s draft budget, not the governor’s, is the basis for final legislation.
Estimation and Planning (1 of 3)
•The LBB’s budget draft follows a series of steps in which each agency:
•Develop a strategic plan, which includes:
•A mission statement
•A goals statement
•A discussion of population served
•An explanation of the methods and means used to achieve goals
•Identifying how to assess whether goals have been met
•This information provides the basis for LBB funding recommendations for each agency.
Estimation and Planning (2 of 3)
•The LBB then sends out detailed Legislation Appropriation Requests (LARs) to state agencies.
•The LBB and GOBPP hold hearings to discuss these LARs and strategic plans with agencies.
•LARs become the starting point for the appropriations bill.
Estimation and Planning (3 of 3)
•While budget drafts are being prepared, the comptroller’s office prepares the Biennial Revenue Estimate (BRE).
•A detailed forecast of the total revenue the state is expected to take in over the next biennium
•This forecast effectively sets the ceiling on what the state legislature may spend.
•Can be overridden by four-fifths vote of each house
•Updated by the comptroller when economic conditions change significantly
•Coronavirus pandemic
The Legislative Process (1 of 4)
•By the seventh day of each regular session, appropriations bills are submitted by the LBB to the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.
•This is followed by hearings, debates, and revisions in committees within each house separately. The drafting process that takes place is called “markup.”
•These committees then write up the final bills.
•Each house votes on the bill.
•Differences between the two versions are reconciled in the conference committee.
The Legislative Process (2 of 4)
•Conference committee:
•Composed of representatives from both the Senate and the House
•Specific rules govern how disagreements are handled.
•Items that appear in both bills must be included in the final conference committee report (and those with identical amounts cannot be changed by the committee).
•Items that appear in one can be kept or eliminated, but no more money can be allocated to them.
•New items cannot be included.
The Legislative Process (3 of 4)
•Once a bill passes the conference, it returns to a vote in both houses for final passage.
•The comptroller has the formal constitutional authority to “certify” the budget, basically declaring the budget balanced.
•Bills not certified are returned to the house where they originated to either cut expenditures or raise revenue.
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The Legislative Process (4 of 4)
•After certification, the budget moves to the governor to sign, not sign, or veto, or to exercise the line-item veto.
•Line-item veto: veto of individual items in the bill
•Can mean that the governor unravels some compromises that occurred during the committee process
•Gives the governor a lot of power
•Appropriations bill takes effect on September 1.
•State auditor’s office monitor agencies’ compliance with the budget.
The Challenge of Budgeting in Texas (1 of 2)
•Texas must pass a balanced budget every two years.
•The budgetary process is full of uncertainty, as projecting expenditures and future revenues is difficult.
•At times, periods of economic boom can create an unexpected surplus.
•In 2023, projected revenues far exceeded expenditures, resulting in over a $32 billion surplus in the state budget.
The Challenge of Budgeting in Texas (2 of 2)
•At times, periods of economic downturns or unusually low oil prices can create deficits.
•The government collects severance taxes dependant upon on the value of oil and natural gas.
•If the price of oil goes up, the state collects more money.
•In 2017, due to low oil and natural gas prices as well as declining production, Texas was experiencing a budget deficit.
•Addressing this problem required creative solutions and belt-tightening.
The Budgetary Process Today
•The politics of budgetary surpluses and deficits in Texas today are contentious but predictable.
•As long as conservative Republicans are in power, cutting taxes will always be high on the agenda, as will minimizing tax increases.
•Not all tax cuts or tax increases are the same—different interests are served by different tax cuts or increases.
•Expanding social welfare or educational programs will likely not take priority.
Public Policy
Chapter 13
Why Public Policy Matters
•Public policy is how the government addresses the needs of its citizens.
•This includes protecting those who cannot protect themselves.
•The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) runs Child Protective Services (CPS).
•In 2023, CPS used its $2 billion budget to manage about 20,000 children, half of whom were permanently in the state’s care.
•Despite its importance, DFPS has been severely understaffed, resulting in “an unreasonable risk of harm [to children] caused by the state.”
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The Policy-Making Process
•Public policy refers to the outputs of governmental institutions.
•More narrowly, it is the expressed goals of the government backed by incentives or sanctions.
•Public policies can be found in laws passed by legislative bodies, rules, regulations, and orders from public agencies.
•The messy process of public policy making has several stages.
The Policy-Making Process:
Problem Identification and Policy Formulation
•Problem identification:
•Develop an understanding of how we must think about and address a particular problem.
•Identify a systemic agenda, in which issues are commonly perceived as involving matters within governmental authority.
•Example: the problem of poverty
•Policy formulation:
•Clarify general ideas about specifically defined problems and developing strategies for dealing with these problems.
•Institutional agenda-setting.
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The Policy-Making Process: Implementation and Evaluation
Implementation:
•Public policy must be put into effect by the government.
•Identifying the appropriate agency to implement a program is crucial at this stage, and budgetary policy plays a major role.
Evaluation:
•Policies must be evaluated for effectiveness.
•Good evaluation can allow for a rethinking of the policy and strategies employed.
Rationality in Policy Making
Rationality: the idea that we have clearly identified goals and that we seek to achieve these goals in an optimal or efficient manner.
Efficiency: maximizing the outputs of government with minimum resources.
Factors that work against rationality:
•The policy-making process is complex.
•Governments tend to work incrementally.
•Policy makers’ rationality may be a “bounded rationality.”
•They may arrive at decisions that are “satisfactory” rather than “optimal.”
Education Policy (1 of 2)
•Education is big business in Texas but continues to face several challenges.
•Over 5.4 million students were enrolled in public schools in Texas in 2022, second only to California.
•The population of students is increasingly minority and disadvantaged, and Texas has high dropout rates.
•The student-teacher ratio of 15.1 students per teacher compares favorably with the national average of 16.
•K-12 schools spend $13,680 per student. Texas ranks 33rd in per capita student expenditure.
Education Policy (2 of 2)
Education policy is complex and expensive.
•For the 2022–23 biennium, a projected $47.3 billion in state General Revenue Fund monies went to public education.
•There are over 1,200 regular school districts in Texas, with nearly 9,000 public schools.
•Expenditure per pupil is below the national average.
The Roots of Education Policy in Texas
•Through the first half of the twentieth century, public education was largely a local affair.
•Schools were funded by local taxes and decisions were made at the local level.
•Many school systems were chronically short of funds as a result.
•The Gilmer-Aikin Laws (1949) established a framework for education policy in Texas.
Desegregation
•Few issues have troubled educational policy in Texas as much as desegregation.
•In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state-imposed segregation in schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
•Desegregation was hampered by political opposition.
•De facto segregation remains a problem.
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Equity in Funding (1 of 3)
•Other important court cases have affected education policy and politics in Texas in the past 50 years.
•San Antonio v. Rodríguez involved the constitutionality of using property taxes to fund public schools.
•The question was one of equitable funding.
•The district court ruled Texas’s school finance system unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause, but the decision was overturned on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.
Equity in Funding (2 of 3)
•Edgewood ISD v. Kirby (1989) considered whether funding public schools through local property taxes fulfilled the Texas Constitution’s provisions.
•What constituted an “efficient system of free public schools”?
•The Texas Supreme Court held that the funding system was in violation of the state constitution, touching off a political firestorm.
•In 2016, the Texas Supreme Court acknowledged that the system was “Byzantine” and “undeniably imperfect.” Nonetheless, the court held that the existing system meets the minimum constitutional provisions for the “general diffusion of knowledge.”
Equity in Funding (3 of 3)
•Through the 1990s and into the 2000s, the legislature responded with various funding plans.
•In one, the so-called Robin Hood plan, funds were to be transferred from rich to poor districts.
•General revenue monies are now used to address some of the inequities of the system.
•Funding in public education is still unresolved to some degree.
•There has been a long-term decline in the percentage of general state revenues being allocated to public education compared to local revenues from property taxes.
•Rising property taxes have become a problem.
Educational Excellence and Accountability in Texas (1 of 2)
•In the 1980s, the Texas debate was part of a larger national debate over education.
•The state legislature established the Select Committee on Public Education (SCOPE).
•In 1983, SCOPE presented 140 recommendations for reform.
•Essentially centralized education policy in the state
•A second round of debate in 1995 led to new reforms focused on local control and on school accountability.
•Gave more discretion to local school districts to achieve state-mandated educational goals
Educational Excellence and Accountability in Texas (2 of 2)
•The reform movement in public education in Texas continues to face controversy over many issues:
•Accountability through testing
•School choice
•Statewide assessment standards
•School accountability
•Testing to promote academic excellence is no longer center stage.
Education Policy in a New Era
•New initiatives to overhaul education in the state have produced unsatisfactory results.
•Teachers’ salaries and state spending remain low, as do graduation rates.
•Despite the implementation of new assessments, overall student performance stayed flat or fell on various tests.
•More disturbingly, there appeared to be a growing “achievement gap” as people of color and at-risk students failed at higher rates than White students in consecutive iterations of the tests.
Vouchers and Charter Schools
•Vouchers and charter schools: a national debate
•Vouchers increase competition and student and parental choice.
•Charter schools are private companies that have a charter (contract) with the government to provide education services.
•Criticisms are that vouchers will encourage middle- and upper-class students to leave poor students in low-funded schools behind, and that charter schools will drain money from public schools.
•There is also concern that charter schools will not be able to meet the challenges of educating youth any better than traditional public schools.
Increased Funding
•There is a third alternative to the current education policy: spend more money.
•Supporters of increased spending argue that Texas schools fail because they are woefully underfunded.
•Salaries of teachers are too low, and state regulations on the curriculum and classroom are too great.
•Spending more to get better teachers is seen as a solution to the problem of public education.
•While the public is generally in favor of increased expenditures going to public education, support splits along partisan lines.
Welfare Policy
•One long-term policy issue in Texas has been how to provide for the basic needs of people in poverty in the state.
•It raises a fundamental question about the state’s role in helping people in poverty and how national policies influence the state’s response.
•Welfare policy is a clear example of how changes in problem identification and formulation can lead to an overhaul in policy implementation and evaluation.
Poverty in Texas
•Poverty is one of the most intractable problems facing the state.
•Poverty is defined as the condition under which individuals or families lack the means to meet their basic needs of food, shelter, health care, transportation, and clothing.
•In 2024, the federal poverty guideline was $15,060 a year for one person and $5,380 a year for each additional person in the family.
•Of those over the age of 65 in Texas, 13.4 percent lived in poverty compared with 11.5 percent nationally.
Welfare in Texas, 1935–96 (1 of 3)
The origins of modern welfare policy lie in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs.
•The Social Security Act of 1935 transformed welfare policy in the United States.
•States administered and determined the benefit levels for a series of welfare programs, but in exchange for federal assistance in funding, the programs had to meet certain minimum federal guidelines.
•The Department of Public Welfare was established in Texas in 1939 to run the state’s various public assistance programs.
Welfare in Texas, 1935–96 (2 of 3)
•Texas welfare policy was transformed in the 1960s.
•In the 1960s, new federal programs aimed at poverty proliferated.
•In 1965, the U.S. Congress established Medicaid.
•Johnson’s “War on Poverty” expanded social service programs for the poor.
Welfare in Texas, 1935–96 (3 of 3)
•In 1972, the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program was established.
•Between 1967 and 1973, participation rates and welfare expenditures in Texas skyrocketed.
•Example: the number of children on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) during this time rose from 80,000 to 325,000 (now TANF).
The Idea of Dependency and Welfare Reform in the 1990s (1 of 2)
•A new critique of welfare programs emerged in the 1980s: the policies of the 1960s had created a dysfunctional class dependent on welfare.
•In Texas, the comptroller’s office found that a quarter of all welfare recipients in 1993 were “long-term.”
•It issued a report on how welfare failed to help those most in need and failed to encourage people to become independent of the government.
The Idea of Dependency and Welfare Reform in the 1990s (2 of 2)
•A bipartisan legislative coalition ultimately supported major welfare reform in Texas.
•House Bill 1863 (1995) provided a number of “carrot and stick” incentives for moving off welfare.
•In 1996, the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was passed.
•Several programs were combined into Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
Evaluating Welfare Reforms
•Welfare reforms in Texas have been evaluated along two dimensions:
•Decrease in the number of people receiving welfare
•The number of people moving from welfare to work
•By the first measure, the reforms are a success.
•By the second measure, the reforms have had mixed results.
Medicaid and Health Care Policy
•Health insurance is a major policy problem facing Texas.
•People get health insurance from a variety of sources including:
•Employer-provided policies
•Individually purchased policies
•Medicare (a federal program for the elderly)
•Medicaid (a state-federal program for people in poverty)
•In 2022, an estimated 16.6 percent of Texans were uninsured—the highest percentage of any state.
Medicaid (1 of 4)
•Medicaid provides for the health care of people in poverty, particularly children.
•This is the principal policy initiative regarding health care and health insurance in Texas, other than programs established for state employees.
•It provides for the health care of people in poverty, and it is an especially costly program for the state.
•Medicaid is a joint state-federal program established under the Social Security Amendments of 1965.
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Medicaid (2 of 4)
•Texas and other states must follow certain principles and meet certain standards if they are to receive federal funds.
•For the 2022–23 biennium, $64.1 billion in federal and state funds have been appropriated for Medicaid.
•Federal law also allows states to be granted waivers to create programs for particular clients.
•Medicaid has grown into a complex insurance program serving a variety of special groups.
Medicaid (3 of 4)
•In Texas, Medicaid is administered through the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
•Through Medicaid, Texas and the federal government together pay for health care services for low-income populations.
•A program related to Medicaid is the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides coverage for children in families with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid.
Medicaid (4 of 4)
•Medicaid policy is part of a larger national discussion over health care.
•Numerous controversies divide the public and politicians:
•Is health care fundamentally a private or a public issue? And who pays for individuals who cannot pay?
•Should individuals be compelled to purchase health care insurance?
•What is the proper role for government in the delivery of health care?
•Medicaid threatens to overwhelm the budget, and policy makers are continually looking for ways to cut costs.
The Affordable Care Act (1 of 2)
•In 2010, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act (ACA), often known as Obamacare, and transformed the debate over health care policy.
•The ACA required individuals to obtain health insurance or pay a penalty, and it expanded Medicaid.
•The individual mandate penalty was eliminated in 2019.
•The act also increased coverage for preexisting conditions and expanded medical insurance.
•A complicated U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2012 rejected the insurance mandate but upheld the tax penalty, and it held that states could not be forced to expand Medicaid.
The Affordable Care Act (2 of 2)
•The ACA is in effect, but it is unclear what it means for poorer Texans.
•The Texas legislature has refused to expand Medicaid.
•The percentage of uninsured in Texas dropped between 2013 and 2018 from 22.1 percent to 17.7 percent, but rose again in 2022 to 20 percent, the highest rate of uninsured in the nation.
Medicaid and the Coronavirus Pandemic
•The coronavirus posed new challenges to Medicaid and health care policy in Texas.
•Many hospitals were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.
•Routine medical services were cut back, which financially strained many private practices.
•Rising unemployment left many people uninsured when they needed coverage most.
•The pandemic exposed the fragility of health care in Texas.
Public Policy and the Future of Texas
Looking at the policy-making process with a critical eye to the future demands that we pay attention to a number of key issues.
•The legislature will have to deal with funding and fairness in public education.
•Charter schools likely will continue to expand.
•Poverty policy will continue to take a backseat to other policy areas.
•Health care remains the wild card.
•Will Texas ever accept the expansion of Medicaid and insurance services
rime, Corrections, and Public Safety
Chapter 14
Why Policies around Crime, Corrections, and Public Safety Matter
•The criminal justice system can take away an individual’s liberty and even life.
•Texas is a poster child for harshness in criminal punishment.
•No state executes more prisoners than Texas.
•No state has a larger correctional population than Texas.
•Roughly 1 in 10 of all jail inmate deaths in the United States occur in Texas.
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Policing in Texas
•Law enforcement officers have the power to arrest and to use force in the conduct of their duties.
•Policing is an awesome responsibility carried out by a variety of police organizations.
•Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS)
•City police departments
•Sheriff’s departments
•Constables’ offices
•College police departments
•ISD police departments
Theories of Justice
•The criminal justice system works through a framework of laws intended to deter criminal acts.
•By holding convicted criminals accountable, the system aims to reduce recidivism, the act of recommitting crimes after one has been punished
•The system is also responsible for making victims “whole.” The goals of restorative justice are to help crime victims and their families heal, protect them from future harm, and provide them with the sense that justice has been served.
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What Rights Do Texans Have?
•The Bill of Rights—the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution—guarantees certain rights for those accused of crimes. They include:
•the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation
•the right to be confronted with witnesses against them
•the right to have counsel assist their defense
•the right to be protected against unreasonable search and seizure
•the right to not be subjected to double jeopardy (being prosecuted twice for the same crime)
•the right to due process
•These rights ensure that the conduct of police and others measures up to the ideals of our society.
What Rights Do Texans Have?
The Texas Constitution also has a Bill of Rights in Article 1, which includes rights guaranteed to the accused.
•The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has ruled that provisions of the Texas Constitution should not always be interpreted to mean the same as their federal counterparts.
•The Court concluded that the Texas Constitution provides more protection than the Fourth Amendment.
•This was a significant development in the concept of new judicial federalism, the idea that state constitutional rights provisions can provide more rights than the U.S. Constitution. As the court says, the U.S. Constitution sets the floor for individual rights, and the state constitutions establish the ceiling. States may not eliminate the right to counsel but may adopt moreprotections, such as mandating counsel in every misdemeanor case.
Police Departments
Police departments differ in their size, specialization, resources, contact with the community, and response times.
Several problems affect police departments in Texas:
•Response time to calls for assistance can be slow (Dallas PD).
•Recruiting and retaining police officers in large urban areas can be difficult.
•Large urban areas may prove challenging to police because the officers are unlikely to have much of a personal relationship with the communities.
Public Safety
•One of the most comprehensive datasets on crime in the United States is the Uniform Crime Report (UCR), based on police arrest and reporting data.
•According to the UCR, most crime in Texas involves property. Of the 900,000 index crimes (the eight crime categories under the UCR: murder, aggravated assault, rape and sexual assault, robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, larceny-theft, and arson) reported in Texas in 2022, property crimes—which include larceny, burglary, and motor vehicle theft—accounted for 63 percent.
•Violent crimes, such as murder, rape, and aggravated assault, represented 12 percent. In 2022, Texas ranked 13 among states and Washington, D.C. in its crime rate.
Handgun Ownership, Policies, and Deaths
Texans purchased nearly 1.3 million guns in 2023.
•Although this number seems large, gun ownership in Texas has declined as the population has grown, and the proportion of adults living in a household with a gun has declined since 1980.
•One controversial issue concerns the carrying of handguns.
•Gun advocates argue that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment provides a constitutional right to bear arms of any kind.
•There has been a rise in the rate of gun-related deaths in Texas (mostly homicides or suicides) since 2014.
Drug Crimes and Overdoses
•Since 2019, Texas has experienced a steady increase in deaths per capita from illegal drugs. The rate of drug overdose deaths in Texas has doubled over the last ten years to 15.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2022.
•Since 2019, fentanyl-related deaths among Texans have increased by more than 550 percent, and in 2022 they accounted for more than 44 percent of all drug deaths.
•Laws concerning opioids have gotten stricter, while the enforcement of marijuana laws has declined.
• In 2007 the Texas legislature gave police the option to cite and release a person arrested for possession of less than four ounces of marijuana.
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Border Security
•Texas voters cite border security as one of the most important issues.
•As of 2023, Texas law SB 4 makes it a state crime to enter Texas illegally and allows law enforcement to arrest and order undocumented migrants to leave the United States.
•Border security is also a top priority of Governor Abbott, whose Operation Lone Star program aims to stop the flow of drugs and undocumented immigrants into the United States.
•Texas alone allocated over $5 billion toward securing the border in the 2024–25 budget. In contrast, in 2008–09 the state spent only $100 million on border security.
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement
•The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement develops and enforces law enforcement standards:
•Licensing those in law enforcement
•Certifying all peace officers, with the exception of those peace officers who were elected
•Certifying county jailers
•Certifying private jailers who are responsible for federal prisoners and for prisoners from other states
•Revoking licenses if standards are not met
•Monitoring police training
Controversies Surrounding Policing in Texas
•Police have not only the power of arrest but also the power to use reasonable force.
•The use of force is very controversial, although it rarely results in major consequences for the police.
•Police shootings generally do not go to trial.
•Civil lawsuits over police misconduct are also often unsuccessful, because of the legal doctrine of qualified immunity.
•Concerns exist about racial bias.
•Use of video cameras might address concerns.
•An independent investigative body might mitigate concerns about biases in shooting investigations.
Crime and the Criminal Justice Process
•Crimes are classified by legislation into different levels of seriousness, and punishments vary according to the seriousness of the crime.
•The Texas Criminal Justice System classifies crimes as two types:
•Felonies
•Misdemeanors
Felonies and Misdemeanors
Felony: a serious criminal offense that subjects a person to fines or imprisonment
•The most serious felony is capital murder.
•The next is a first-degree felony (includes “aggravated” crimes).
•Other crimes are classified as second-degree, third-degree, or state jail felonies.
Misdemeanor: a minor criminal offense usually punishable by a small fine or short jail sentence
•Class A: burglary of a vehicle, a second driving while intoxicated (DWI) offense, lewdness, small amounts of marijuana (2–4 ounces).
•Class B: prostitution, terrorist threats, a first DWI charge, criminal trespass.
•Class C: public intoxication, disorderly conduct, minor’s possession of alcohol.
Punishing Crime (1 of 2)
•Probation is a suspension of the prison sentence; the defendant must meet requirements imposed by the court.
•The offender is usually required to report to a probation officer on a regular basis.
•Probation violations can result in being sent to jail.
•When conviction might be difficult, prosecutors might agree to a plea deal, with the expectation that the defendant will violate their probation, thereby spending time in jail.
Punishing Crime (2 of 2)
•Parole is release after serving some prison time, under specified rules, and under the supervision of a parole officer.
•Parole decisions are made by the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
•Capital crimes are not eligible for parole.
•Sentencing enhancements based on previous convictions can increase sentences or the classification of crimes.
•A “three strikes” provision allows persons convicted of three felonies to be sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Criminal Justice Process
Several procedural steps occur after a person is arrested and before a guilty or not guilty determination is made.
In Texas, as in most other states, this process may take months or even years, and may include:
•Arraignment and posting bail
•Grand jury indictment
•Pretrial hearings
•Plea bargaining
•Trial and sentencing
Arraignment and Posting Bail
•After being arrested for a felony or misdemeanor and jailed, a person is arraigned before a judge.
•Charges are explained, and due process rights are reviewed.
•Bail will generally be set, and the defendant may be released on bail.
•Recently, a federal court declared the operation of the money bail system in Harris County for indigent misdemeanor arrestees to be unconstitutional.
Grand Jury Indictment
•Generally, after arraignment, a felony case is presented to a grand jury.
•Consists of 12 people who will hear the case to determine if there is sufficient evidence to hold a trial.
•Grand juries do not determine guilt or innocence; they vote “true bill” if they find probable cause or “no bill” if they do not find probable cause.
•In 2015 a major change occurred in the way grand juries are selected in Texas.
•Texas was the last state to use what was commonly called the “pick-a-pal” or “key man” system.
•The new system selects 12 grand jurors and 4 alternates in a random selection process such as the one for trial juries.
Pretrial Hearings
•After indictment for a felony, there will likely be a number of pretrial hearings, in which the accused will formally plead guilty or not guilty.
•The trial is scheduled, and motions may be presented, such as a motion to exclude evidence.
•The prosecution and the defense will often discuss a punishment in exchange for a guilty plea (plea bargain) and reach an agreement before the trial.
Plea Bargaining
•A plea bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty.
•Might involve reducing the charge, dropping some charges, or recommending a lighter sentence
•Allows prosecutors to maintain high conviction rates
•Saves the limited resources of the prosecutor’s office and the courts
•Gives defendants an assured sentence
•Those who cannot afford a good lawyer may be pressured to plead guilty, even when innocent.
Trial and Sentencing
•If the case goes to trial, then the defendant may waive the right to a jury trial and have the determination of guilt made by a judge.
•Felony juries have 12 jurors; misdemeanor juries have 6.
•The decision of a criminal jury must be unanimous; the standard of proof is “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
•A guilty finding may be appealed, meaning the defendant will ask a higher court to reconsider the decision.
Prosecutors
•The most important actors in the Texas criminal justice system are probably the prosecuting attorneys.
•County attorney: in some counties, an elected official who prosecutes misdemeanor cases.
•District attorney: a public official who prosecutes the more serious criminal cases in district court.
•In some counties, the district attorney acts as the prosecutor; in others, the county attorney prosecutes crimes; sometimes they split the duties. In urban counties in Texas, prosecutors’ officers encompass several hundred lawyers, investigators, and support staff.
Crime and Criminal Defense
•People accused of a crime may represent themselves or retain a criminal defense lawyer.
•Assigned counsel: private lawyers, paid by the county, who are appointed by judges to provide legal representation for poor people
•Public defender: a salaried lawyer, funded by the government or grants, who represents poor people
•There are problems with the quality of representation.
Crime, Corrections, and the Texas Prison System
•It is often claimed that Texas does things in a big way and that is certainly true of its levels of crime and the way it deals with criminals.
•As of August 31, 2022, there were about 117,000 offenders incarcerated in the state’s prisons, about 2,500 in state jails, and about 2,700 in substance abuse facilities.
•Imprisoning a person is remarkably expensive in terms of direct costs to taxpayers.
•The average cost per day for each bed in the state’s correctional facilities was a little more than $62.
•In contrast, it only costs about $4.40 per day to place that person on probation.
History of the Prison System
•After Texas joined the Union, construction was authorized for a penitentiary in Huntsville.
•The 225-cell facility opened in 1849.
•From 1870 to 1883, the prison system was run by private contractors.
•After 1883, convicts were leased out as labor, but scandals and abuses led to an end of the practice in 1910.
•Abuses continued, such as cruel treatment, bad management, and inadequate care.
Ruiz v. Estelle
The federal court case of Ruiz v. Estelle focused on issues of crowding, security and supervision, health care, discipline, and access to the courts.
•In 1980, the court concluded that inmates’ constitutional rights had been violated.
•After Ruiz, the state attempted to eliminate constitutional problems by, among other things, encouraging the early release of prisoners to reduce crowding.
•Some prisoners on early release committed more crimes.
•Ruiz helped make the criminal justice system a major policy issue in Texas.
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The Prison System Today
The Texas prison system is operated by the Department of Criminal Justice.
•Nine-member board appointed by the governor with staggered six-year terms
The costs of prison construction and maintenance have been increasing dramatically.
In 2007, the Texas legislature began to seriously address prison alternatives, such as drug treatment facilities and halfway homes.
•First prison closure: Sugar Land, 2011
The Death Penalty (1 of 2)
Texas judges are elected, and polls show strong public support in Texas for the death penalty.
Since 1977, lethal injection has been the means for execution.
The average time spent on death row is 11 years.
•Death penalty cases have become very expensive and time-consuming.
Between 1977 and January 1, 2022, Texas executed 574 people; Texas leads the nation in the number of executions performed.
Recently, the number of executions and support for the death penalty have both declined.
The Death Penalty (2 of 2)
Are all offenders treated the same?
•Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented on death row; they may also be disproportionately subject to the death penalty.
•Despite constituting only about 13 percent of Texas’s population in 2020, Black people account for about 46 percent of those executed.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles votes on clemency for death row inmates.
The number of death penalties imposed in the state has dropped, for several reasons.
Self-Defense and Handgun Laws
•Similarly to the U.S. Constitution, the Texas Constitution provides for the right to bear arms.
•Under the Texas Constitution, that right is subject to state regulation.
•In 1995, the legislature passed its first bill legalizing concealed carry.
•In 2011, the legislature prohibited employers from banning guns secured in employees’ vehicles.
•In 2015, the legislature passed bills allowing open carry of firearms in public and concealed carry in parts of Texas’s public universities.
•In the 2021 legislative session, PermitlessCarry law was passed.
Juvenile Lockups in Texas
•Texas juvenile courts deal with minors between 10 and 17 years of age.
•In 2007 the Texas Juvenile Justice Department operated twelve juvenile lockups with 5,000 youths in custody.
•A scandal in which at least 13 boys in custody were believed to be sexually abused then led to a reduction in the number of minors placed in the lockups.
•However, the problems associated with the juvenile lockups were not resolved.
•Further drastic change in the juvenile detention system seems unlikely given Governor Abbott’s opposition to reforms in the adult criminal justice system.
The Integrity of the Texas Criminal Justice System
•How fair is the criminal justice system?
•Texas continues to execute people, even as DNA evidence proves that many convictions were wrongful.
•Concerns about wrongful convictions are often related to the methods police and prosecutors use.
•There was a pattern of convictions based on eyewitness identification with little forensic evidence.
•Craig Watkins, district attorney (DA) of Dallas County, created a Conviction Integrity Unit to investigate claims of innocence.
Reforms
•Texas is no longer handling its crime problem solely by incarceration and sees imprisonment as the last resort.
•Decline in prison construction and even prison closings
•Texas has the most generous compensation system in the nation for exonerated persons.
•Police departments are modifying their procedures for obtaining evidence.
•A new Texas law makes it much easier for an inmate to challenge a conviction if it is based on bad science.
•Prosecutors increasingly review wrongful conviction claims
Governing a Changing Texas
Chapter 15
Why Texas’s Population Growth Matters
•The “Big Freeze” of 2021 devastated Texas’s power grid, killed hundreds, and is estimated to have caused $90 billion in damages.
•Governor Abbott’s initial reaction was to blame renewable energy despite the state’s natural gas infrastructure freezing.
•The problem was not renewable energy; rather, the entire Texas electric grid was unprepared for severe cold.
•The state was aware this might happen after the 2011 ice storm.
•During the 2021 legislative session, efforts were made to improve the electrical grid.
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The Challenges and Opportunities of Population Growth
Texas of the twenty-first century is far different from the Texas of old.
•Non-Hispanic White people now constitute a minority in the state.
•Latinos, Black people, and Asian Americans combine to form a majority statewide, with Latinos composing 40 percent of the entire state population.
A booming population raises important questions for Texas:
•Who is coming to Texas, and why?
•Are immigration rates too high?
•Are immigrants helping or hurting Texas’s economy and society?
•Should undocumented immigrants be prosecuted, deported, or provided a path to citizenship?
Who Are Texas’s Immigrants? (1 of 2)
Americans from other parts of the country are flocking to Texas for economic opportunities.
Additionally, immigrants from all over the world continue to come to Texas.
•In 2022, 17.2 percent of the state population was foreign born; these residents can go through the process of becoming naturalized citizens.
•65 percent of immigrants in Texas are from Latin America; 24 percent are from Asia.
•This diversity is most reflected in the state’s major metropolitan areas.
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Who Are Texas’s Immigrants? (2 of 2)
•K–12 public education is available to all Texans regardless of their immigration status, while the Texas Dream Act allows undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition at the state’s public universities.
•While most immigrants are legal residents, around 1.6 million of the total population is undocumented.
•The labor force in Texas depends on immigrants.
•Immigrants have paid tens of billions of dollars in taxes, contributing to the Texas economy.
•Immigrants are also disproportionately business owners in the state.
Border Security (1 of 2)
•Border security is one of the most contentious areas of immigration policy in Texas and nationwide.
•The federal government is responsible for securing the border, which is monitored by the U.S. Border Patrol.
•The Texas–Mexico border is 1,254 miles long, making Texas the first point of entry for many land crossings.
Border Security (2 of 2)
Securing the border is both difficult and controversial.
•The Trump administration advocated building a border wall.
•Recent governors have sent the Texas National Guard to aid the U.S. Border Patrol.
•In 2021, Governor Abbott deployed the National Guard to help secure the border.
•The Biden administration and Texas state officials had several points of contention over the issue of immigration.
•Biden’s attempts to roll back the Migrant Protection Protocol
•His decision to end Title 42
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
•DACA is an executive order implemented by President Obama that shielded certain undocumented immigrants from deportation.
•The Trump administration rescinded the program, making the fate of the “dreamers” uncertain.
•In 2018, the Texas attorney general joined authorities in six other states, calling for an end to DACA.
•In 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court provided a temporary reprieve for DACA recipients.
•According to the Migration Policy Institute, nearly 1.2 million undocumented immigrants were eligible for DACA in 2023, with the largest share of DACA-eligible recipients from California (28 percent) and Texas (16 percent).
State and Local Tensions over Immigration Policy (1 of 2)
•Cities and localities have attempted to deal with undocumented immigration by passing local ordinances.
•Some city and county police departments refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities regarding individuals who were not legal residents.
•This led to debate in the state legislature about how best to deal with these cities and counties, known as sanctuary cities.
•2026-Police departments must work with ICE
State and Local Tensions over Immigration Policy (2 of 2)
•In 2017, the Trump administration warned sanctuary cities that they would lose federal funding if they refused to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
•In 2020, the Department of Justice (DOJ) targeted sanctuary cities by challenging local ordinances that limit the ability of federal immigration officials to deport unauthorized immigrants.
•In 2021, the Justice Department repealed the policy of cutting off funding to sanctuary cities, and the Supreme Court dismissed the pending cases.
•In the 2017 Texas legislative session, a strict law banning sanctuary cities was passed.
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The Challenge of Higher Education
•Higher education is vital for an expanding and diversifying population and for a state’s national and international competitiveness.
•The Foundations of Higher Education in Texas
•Recent decades have seen an enormous expansion of higher education in the number of both schools and enrollments.
•These institutions serve distinct geographic areas, providing a skilled workforce.
•In the past, the University of Texas and Texas A&M’s prominent place in the state’s educational hierarchy made it difficult for other institutions in the state to attain national and international prominence.
Funding Higher Education
•Public higher education is vast in Texas, with over 100 public institutions specializing in a variety of areas.
•Funding these institutions is a complicated affair.
•For the 2020–21 biennium, $18.7 billion was appropriated by the legislature to support public higher education in Texas.
•An additional $1.9 billion was appropriated to support two-year public community and junior colleges.
•Aggregated appropriations by the state alone do not capture the policy issues facing higher education in the state.
The Texas Higher Education System (1 of 2)
•Unlike other states, Texas did not have comprehensive plans for expanding higher education in the second half of the twentieth century.
•Policy makers ultimately adopted two strategies to bring coordination and efficiency to higher education:
•Six university systems were created around the state to provide coordination and efficiency.
•An administrative agency to bring cohesion to higher education policy in Texas.
•The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) was created in 1965 to oversee all public postsecondary education.
The Texas Higher Education System (2 of 2)
•In 2015, a new 15-year strategic plan called “60x30TX” was released by the THECB.
•The number of Texans between 25 and 34 with a certificate or degree will rise from 41 percent in 2015 to 60 percent in 2030.
•The number of individuals with a higher education degree or certificate will rise from 311,340 in 2015 to 550,000 in 2030.
•All graduates by 2030 will have completed programs with identified marketable skills.
•By 2030 undergraduate loan debt will not exceed 60 percent of first-year wages for graduates of public institutions.
•It will be hard to meet these goals without rethinking how to coordinate and fund higher education in the state.
Infrastructure
•Infrastructure refers to the basic economic and technological systems that undergird the structure of an economy.
•Transportation systems such as mass transit and roads, communication networks such as telephones, water delivery systems, sewage systems, power production, and higher education
•Larger-scale infrastructure is provided by the government directly, and smaller-scale infrastructure is often provided by private firms.
•Some emerging policy debates include:
•High-speed rail, broadband internet services, renewable energy technologies, and technologies to grapple with air pollution
The Bullet Train
•The Texas Bullet Train:
•Depends on private investment and federal loans
•Relies on Japanese train technology
•Will travel at speeds as fast as 205 mph
•Will make the trip between Houston and Dallas in 90 minutes
•The Texas Bullet Train remains controversial.
•One of the reasons some oppose the project has to do with the need to seize private land using eminent domain.
Renewable Energy (1 of 2)
•Texas’s population growth has led to increased demand for electric power.
•At the same time, coal and other fossil fuels have been shown to have detrimental effects on the environment.
•The result has been a dramatic increase in the use of renewable energy.
•Solar electric production in particular has rapidly increased.
•The greatest challenge in the development of renewable energy comes from political opposition by Republican leaders.
•Texas has traditionally been a state in which oil and gas is king.
•Legislation that would increase the costs associated with renewable energy has been proposed.
Renewable Energy (2 of 2)
•Despite opposition, the rise of renewable energy as a major source of Texas’s power seems likely for four reasons:
•The invasion of Ukraine and sanctions on Russia have greatly increased the cost of oil and gas.
•Concern with the environment and climate change creates political and economic support.
•Renewable energy brings with it jobs and wealth.
•The growth of Texas generates demand for more electric power and subsequently more power sources in the state.
Air Pollution
•One of Texas’s worst air pollution events occurred on November 27, 2019, when there was a massive explosion at a Port Neches chemical plant.
•Altogether, 664,184 pounds of pollutants were released into the air.
•The plant had been in violation of the Clean Air Act for three years prior to the explosion.
•The effects of air pollution on public health are significant.
•The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is responsible for safeguarding the State’s air, water, and waste management quality.
•The performance of Texas’s air pollution control is disappointing when compared with other states, ranking 43rd out of 50 in air quality.
Broadband Internet Access
•Almost 97 percent of Texas households have access to broadband speed of 25/3 megabits per second, the minimum threshold speed adopted by the Federal Communications Commission.
•Nevertheless, there are almost 287,000 households unserved by the minimum broadband speed.
•A 2019 U.S. Census Survey found that 67.6 percent of Texas households had home subscriptions to broadband, below the national average of 70.8 percent.
•The pandemic showed that internet access is a crucial state infrastructure need.
•In November 2023, voters approved a constitutional amendment creating a $1.5 billion Broadband Infrastructure Fund to expand broadband development throughout the state.
Political Challenges
•Another set of challenges faces Texas in the political arena.
•Representation is a central issue in Texas politics.
•How well individuals and groups are represented by their government is an important foundation of the legitimacy of government.
•Because government has a profound influence in the lives of Texans, citizens’ engagement in politics is an important lever used to hold elected officials accountable.
Negative Partisanship in Texas Politics
•There has been a growing ideological divide among Democrats and Republicans in Texas.
•While Republicans control all branches of state government, Democrats dominate in many of the large urban cities and counties.
•Demographic change has shaped Texas party politics by creating a more competitive political environment.
•With this comes a growing disdain for the opposing party among Texans.
•This rise in negative sentiments toward the opposing political party is a phenomenon known as negative partisanship.
•The growing partisan divisions in Texas have even infiltrated traditionally nonpartisan local elections.
Voting and Elections (1 of 2)
•In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Republican lawmakers pushed for legislation aimed at reforming voting procedures.
•Texas passed Senate Bill 1, aimed at making voting procedures stricter.
•Texas Democrats staged a walk-out during the regular session to protest the legislation.
•The bill eventually passed during a special session.
•It established new restrictions on polling hours, banned drive-through voting, and created new requirements for mail-in voting and people who assist voters with disabilities.
•These measures make voting more difficult for Texans, especially those in urban areas.
Voting and Elections (2 of 2)
•The first test of the new election laws came during the March 2022 primaries.
•Election officials reported that they were rejecting a high number of mail-in ballots.
•Qualified voters—some of whom had previously voted many times—were being hampered by the new requirements.
•Roughly 12.4 percent of mail-in ballots statewide were not counted during the primary election, compared to 1 percent in 2020.
•The 24-hour reporting requirement also created major issues.
•Harris County officials failed to count 10,000 votes despite poll workers pulling 15-hour shifts.
Redistricting, Republican Consolidation, and Representation (1 of 2)
•The redistricting process represents another battleground in Texas politics.
•Redistricting ultimately determines the choices available to Texans at the ballot box.
•The maps decide what the balance of partisan power in Texas will be over the next decade.
•In 2021, redistricting plans were passed with complete Republican support and complete Democratic opposition.
•The new maps increased Republican safe districts, making it difficult for Democrats to flip seats.
•Districts held by Democrats were packed with more Democrats, making it easier for Republicans to pick up seats elsewhere.
Redistricting, Republican Consolidation, and Representation (2 of 2)
•Texas became embroiled in litigation involving the new maps.
•The DOJ filed a lawsuit claiming that the maps fail to recognize growth among Latinos and discriminate against Black voters.
•Texans of color accounted for 95 percent of the population growth of the state over the last 10 years.
•Despite these demographic shifts, no new majority-minority districts were created under the new maps.
•Plaintiffs argue the maps violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, while the Texas attorney general’s office claims private individuals do not have standing under the section.
•If the maps withstand these challenges, they promise to solidify Republican control of the state for the next decade.
Make the notecards based on the exam concepts