Budgets

I am sure you heard about this yesterday. See this from the Chron:

A federal judge has permanently blocked Texas’ longstanding policy that allows undocumented immigrants to receive in-state college tuition after Attorney General Ken Paxton effectively settled a case filed by Trump Administration lawyers within a matter of hours.

Texas lawmakers considered outlawing the practice in the legislative session that ended Monday, as they have in previous sessions, but the half a dozen proposals failed to gain traction. None passed in either chamber.

The Justice Department argued that the policy violates federal law, which prohibits undocumented immigrants from being eligible for any benefit on the basis of state residence for any post-secondary education benefit unless citizens are also eligible.

U.S. Judge Reed O’Connor, an appointee of President George W. Bush, agreed.

Paxton, who had previously expressed disapproval of the policy and whose office is charged with defending state laws in court, immediately moved to sign an agreement with the Justice Department stating that it agreed with its claims.

“Ending this discriminatory and un-American provision is a major victory for Texas,” Paxton said in a statement Wednesday.

A third party could intervene to appeal the ruling if they can show they would be harmed by the rescinding of the policy, said David Campbell, an Austin-based appellate attorney.

“What might happen in this case is certain counties, other states, or organizations might try to intervene asserting standing on behalf of themselves or their members/constituents,” Campbell said.

There is no shortage of groups angered by the decision. Texas education advocacy groups, including EdTrust, a nonprofit focused on education equity, quickly condemned the ruling Wednesday.

“Ending Texas’s in-state tuition policy is a direct attack on the educational aspirations of thousands of students who have grown up in our communities and call Texas home,” said Judith Cruz, assistant director for the Houston region for EdTrust. “This policy has been instrumental in providing access to higher education for all Texas students, regardless of immigration status, and dismantling it would not only harm these students but also undermine the economic and social fabric of our state.”

Republican Gov. Rick Perry created the first-in-the-nation policy in 2001, allowing undocumented students to receive the discount if they meet certain criteria. Students have to have lived in the state for three years before graduating high school and have been in the state for at least a year immediately before enrolling at the higher education institution, and they must sign a form saying they plan to apply for legal resident status as soon as they can. About two-dozen states now also offer the benefit.

According to the left-leaning think tank Every Texan, as of 2021, these undocumented students accounted for 1.5% of all students enrolled in Texas’ public universities, community colleges, technical and state colleges, as well as health-related institutions. That was about 20,000 people.

State Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who authored one of the unsuccessful bills aiming to nix the policy, said earlier Wednesday that he was glad to see the suit and wished for the very outcome that unraveled.

“I hope the State settles this lawsuit, and as part of the settlement, agrees to finally end subsidized in-state tuition for illegal immigrants,” Middleton wrote on X. Middleton announced in April he’s running for attorney general in the GOP primary; Paxton will be leaving the seat challenge U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

In 2012, when Paxton was a state representative, he explained his reasoning for his Trump-like “America First” position on the matter.

“I would love it if we could pay for college education for anybody in the world that wanted to come to Texas, whether they’re from Mexico or they’re from Europe or Japan,” he said in a TribCast panel interview. “But the reality is we all know we don’t print money in Texas, thank goodness, and we (only) have so many dollars. And so, in my opinion, we got to allocate those resources first to the people who live here legally.”

MAGA legislators have had the votes to do away with this policy for several legislative sessions. They always balked because folks in Texas do not have a problem with helping out our kids. I will say it again – our kids. The MAGA legislators cowardly let a federal judge handle the dirty work.

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I was having a conversation a couple of days ago about local government here in the H-Town area. The City of H-Town and Harris County are facing financial challenges. See this about City Council approving the H-Town budget in the Chron:

The City Council approved Mayor John Whitmire’s nearly $7 billion budget on Wednesday after months of strenuous efforts to cut costs and streamline services as officials contended with the largest deficit in Houston’s history.

The nearly eight-hour, high-tension meeting included a protest from members of storm recovery nonprofit Northeast Action Collective that ended with the clearing of the council chambers by City Hall security officers.

Whitmire’s budget passed with a near-unanimous vote, with only Council Members Edward Pollard, Abbie Kamin and Tiffany D. Thomas voting in opposition. Pollard voted no over his worries about the city continuously spending more than it was bringing in, and Kamin voted no due to her concerns about the budget inadequately accounting for disaster response.

“Mayor, it’s not personal,” Kamin said. “I respect you. There’s a lot of hard work that has been put into this by city staff, and I hope that your administration will not seek retribution against the district and our residents.”

Houstonians will not be hit with any additional fees or tax increases as a result of the budget.

This year, the city contended with a $330 million deficit. As costs climbed, Whitmire’s team unveiled the results of an efficiency study in February that pointed out a need for Houston to make its government more responsive to constituents and make fixes in its procurement process.

That effort served as a roadmap for the administration as it moved through the budget cycle.

“Listen, I’ve voted on many budgets in my career,” Whitmire said Wednesday before the budget vote. “It’s always easy to find fault. There is no such thing as a perfect budget, and it’s so easy to be against something than for something, particularly when you don’t have to offer up any solution.”

Well, at least we have a budget. The featured photo is the Mayor at his desk on his first day in office.

Harris County is also facing a budget deficit. Some folks are speculating that Judge Lina Hidalgo won’t be running for reelection. I would not blame her for deciding not to run. Let someone else deal with this.

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The Astros lost last night. We wrap up the series at PNC Park this evening.