Adam Cahn Reports on Bloated State Salaries

Jun 12, 2020 | GAWTP Blog

Conservative grassroots activist extraordinaire
& TX Conservative Grassroots Coalition leader
Adam Cahn Spots Yet Another
Vulgar Example of:

The Texas Elite Ruling Class
vs
 The Rest of Us

Adam Cahn’s witty blogs are often joltingly revelatory, but this one made me mad enough to spit railroad spikes. I’ll wager you won’t find it amusing either.

Thanks, Adam, for shining light on yet another example of how the Austin political elites roll with this June 9, 2020 post in Cahnman’s Musings. (If you don’t follow Adam’s blog, you really should!)

Appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott – this year (on March 13, 2020 at the beginning of the Wuhan Virus Debacle), Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson was allowed to also continue his regular job as the General Manager of the quasi-state agency – The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA).

Since Wilson’s $636,694 salary at the LCRA happens to be double the salary and benefits of the Texas HHSC Executive Commissioner job, it was conveniently lucrative for the path to be cleared for him to keep that salary and forgo the lower HHSC salary.

Mr. Cahn’s blog got us thinking about the timing of Mr. Wilson’s hire and Abbott’s contact tracing contract. Here’s our list of unanswered questions:

1. Why is a quasi-state agency “river authority” paying over $636,000 per year for a General Manager?
2. Why is Gov. Abbott entrusting the state agency charged with leading the COVID-19 response to a part-time commissioner?
3. Why did HHSC Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson sign the $295 million contract with MTX Group for contact tracing – approving it in two days – apparently without running due diligence backgrounds on MTX and the CEO?
(Note: As we’ve reported, grassroots leaders have uncovered plenty of questionable information about the contract, MTX Group and its CEO that Mr. Wilson apparently overlooked.)
4. How long can anyone hold two high level demanding jobs before mistakes become deadly – especially since HHSC regulates nursing homes, operates nearly two dozen state hospitals and state-supported living facilities, and is one of the largest state bureaucracies with 36,600 employees?
5. Why is this double posting considered constitutional, legal, or even ethical and how long will the Abbott-ignored legislature allow this kind of elite nest-feathering to go on without question?

Could the answer be found in this Texas Tribune quote which Cahn refers to as “this gem”?

“(Phil) Wilson has had a long career in and around state government, at least once making news for out-earning predecessors in the same positions. As executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), his starting salary was $100,000 more, 50% higher, than the previous head. Wilson was also deputy chief of staff to Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed him secretary of state, and worked as a lobbyist and corporate officer for Irving-based Luminant, an electricity generator.”

Read Adam Cahn’s Full Blog here

Read the referenced Texas Tribune Article here

Digging, watching, and reporting with help from great grassroots patriots like Adam,

Liberty in Crisis

May 2, 2020 | GAWTP Blog

Socialist State Rising in the West?
The prolonged government reaction to the Chinese virus has done more to turn the US toward socialist state status and has done it faster than Bernie Sanders or AOC could have ever envisioned. 

Democrats, poised to exploit the economic wreckage long after the Chinese virus has gone, intend to make the crisis payouts permanent. Hear the clamor rising for a taxpayer-funded guaranteed “living” salary? 

In Texas, we are well on our way with the waiving of “looking for work” requirements in state unemployment benefits.  Not only are the unemployed no longer required to look for work, but they can refuse to go back when their employer calls them back. Owners of businesses are contacting us with the predictable news that some workers will make more on unemployment and do not wish to return to work.

Friday, May 2, 2020 State of the Lone Star facts that hurt:

• More than 75% of Texas businesses remain shut down.
• There are more than 1.94 MILLION Texans out of work.
• Sales tax collections are down 9.3 percent from April 2019, the steepest decline since January 2010. Other state revenue declines are steep…
• Motor vehicle sales & rental taxes — $164 million, down 45 percent from April 2019, the largest monthly drop on record in data going back to 1983;
• Motor fuel taxes — $284 million, down 12 percent from April 2019, the steepest drop since 1991;
• Natural gas production tax — $67 million, down 48 percent from April 2019;
• Oil production tax — $191 million, down 45 percent from April 2019;
• Hotel occupancy tax — $24 million, down 63 percent from April 2019, the deepest drop in data going back to 1990;
• Alcoholic beverage taxes — $57 million, down 55 percent from April 2019.
• TX Attorney General Ken Paxton has sided with Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins et al against The People. Paxton doubled down on Abbott’s executive order Thursday after some county judges and district attorneys said the order was “vague” (true) and “unenforceable” (true – if your intent is lawful enforcement) relating to hair and nail salons, barbershops, bars and gyms.

AG Ken Paxton said the governor’s order was “neither vague nor unenforceable, and local governments are prohibited from allowing businesses to reopen unless they are recognized as essential or reopened services under the Governor’s order.”  In the past Ken Paxton has refused many times to defend state laws (TX Advance Directives Act, Ethics Commission rules) that conflicted with his interpretation of the Constitution. Where did THAT Ken Paxton go? See the full article here: https://bit.ly/2WfGuml

In Case You Missed It

If you are as sick as I am of anything related to COVID-19, social distancing, gov’t officials telling you to wash your hands for the five thousandth time and everybody and his dog Skyping, Zooming and FaceTiming, you may have tuned out and missed these important articles that rose above the noise this week.

Click on the article title to read.  Click on the source to read more and bookmark. If you don’t have time now, save for later. The contents are well worth pondering and sharing.

• From Streiff at Redstate.com:

If You Are Still Wondering How Death Camps Happen, Just Take a Look Around You

• From Lt. Colonel Allen West (RET) at TheOldSchoolPatriot.com:

The Story that Broke My Heart

• From Cary Cheshire, Texas Scorecard:

Cruz to Trump: Don’t Put American Taxpayers on Hook for Blue State Bailouts

• From Carole Haynes, PhD., The Haynes Report

Texas Is Open for Business…Kinda…For Now

Day 47 of the Shutdown – parting thoughts…

Before I close this laptop and turn off the phone (the one that I dream of sailing off my back deck like a Frisbee), here’s one last sobering thought for the week sent to me by a thoughtful patriot:

Our State Legislative Branch defines a crime in statute.
The Executive Branch enforces the statute.
The Judicial Branch ensures it is applied and interpreted fairly.
If Gov. Abbott can define a crime and also enforce it,
we have violated the Constitution.

Think about it… 
If the governor can define a crime and then also
send his troopers to arrest you, that is called a banana republic.

 
Texans, we must stay in this fight.  Have a peaceful Sunday.

Freedom is murdered – not in one fatal blow – but by a thousand disloyal cuts.

Dangers of Big Government | Lessons Learned

Apr 10, 2020 | GAWTP Blog

DAY 24 of the National Wuhan Virus Shutdown…

In Texas, what have we learned?

We have discovered yet again that there are broad and vague laws on the books that conflict with the State Constitution.  Reported methods used by some (not all) local officials to enforce powers given to them under state statutes also appear to be violations of the US Constitution.  We will address only state and local issues herein.

Governor Abbott – with the best of intentions to protect the people of Texas from a highly contagious and life-threatening disease – has suspended various laws pursuant to Tex. Gov. Code § 418.016, which says the governor may suspend “certain laws and rules” during a declared disaster.  Gov. Abbott and his advisors based their actions on a set of federal government guidelines that relied on COVID-19 models that have been very, very wrong.

Likewise, city and county officials followed, relying upon Tex. Gov. Code § 418.108 Declaration of Local Disaster and The Texas Communicable Disease Prevention and Control Act found in HEALTH AND SAFETY CODE, CHAPTER 81. COMMUNICABLE DISEASES and CHAPTER 122. POWERS AND DUTIES OF COUNTIES AND MUNICIPALITIES RELATING TO PUBLIC HEALTH

Under the powers granted by the state legislature – a city can take any action necessary to promote health and suppress disease under Texas Health & Safety Code Sections 122.005 (general law) and 122.006 (home rule). These actions could include quarantine, examining and regulating hospitals, regulating ingress and egress from the city, and fining those who do not comply with the city’s rules.

What does the State Constitution say?

Article I, Sec. 28 of the Texas Bill of RightsSuspension of laws: “No power of suspending laws in this State shall be exercised except by the Legislature.”

Article I, Sec. 29 of the Texas Bill of RightsBill of Rights Excepted from Powers of Government and Inviolate. “To guard against transgressions of the high powers herein delegated, we declare that everything in this “Bill of Rights” is excepted out of the general powers of government, and shall forever remain inviolate, and all laws contrary thereto, or to the following provisions, shall be void.”

While Article III, Sec. 62 of the Texas Constitution provides for continuity of government following an “enemy attack,” it only allows temporary suspensions of regular order, but plainly states, “Provided, however, that Article I of the Constitution of Texas, known as the “Bill of Rights” shall not be in any manner affected, amended, impaired, suspended, repealed or suspended hereby.”

Remedies & Solutions

The failure to abide by the Health and Safety Code orders is a third-degree felony.  Third-degree felonies in Texas carry a possible punishment of two to ten years in prison and a fine up to $10,000, per criminal charge.  Not an option.

Texas Scorecard’s Tony McDonald said it best, “…there is a difference between authority and power. Just because these current orders are not authorized doesn’t mean that government agents don’t have the power to fine or imprison citizens for noncompliance.”

Counselor McDonald also appropriately stated, “…appealing to the judicial branch is no sure thing, even when one is correct. There are various doctrines, such as standing—the requirement that a person have a particularized injury different than that of everyone else in the community—that regularly work as a bar to judicial relief from unauthorized government action. Moreover, the courts have traditionally been especially poor guardians of liberty in times of crisis. (One need only think of the free-speech cases in WWI, the Korematsu internment decision in WWII, or post-Katrina and post-9/11 judicial decisions as chief examples of judicial abdication of duty in crisis).”

This is not the first time we’ve seen government overreach and it won’t be the last.  This is not the only discovery of state laws that conflict with the Texas Constitution. 

So, what do we do?  As outlined in my interview with Texas Scorecard’s Brandon Waltens, it would be a great exercise in civic responsibility for liberty-loving Texas grassroots leaders to review the existing statutes – in light of what you have experienced in your own county and city – and determine where the laws should be amended and/or repealed.  Prepare to discuss specifics with your state legislators as soon as we can get businesses open and people back to work.

Now is also the time to evaluate the methods your local officials have used to enforce emergency powers.  Applaud those who have done a good job leaning toward liberty, but for those who took this crisis as an opportunity to be onerously heavy-handed, it’s time to fire them.  Start looking for candidates to replace them!

Your call to action – starting NOW:

President Trump wants to get the US open for business.  We could not agree more! 

Contact your state legislators and your local officials with this message:

1) We want you to publicly plan now to get businesses open and Texans back to work.
2) We want you to prioritize current spending based on core essential services and institute an immediate hiring and salary freeze.
3) We want you to cut spending on all items outside of core essential services. 2020 sales and hotel/motel tax collection projections are now useless – through the floor.  Cut your spending now! Texans don’t need, don’t want and don’t deserve any property tax hikes!  Period. 

We’ll be back next week with more practical ideas about how to cut spending in local government.

Until then, be safe.  Tell your family and friends how much you love them. Pray for your community, Texas, and our nation.  Be thankful. Evaluate your priorities.

Soldier on,