Local advocacy forum challenges billionaire policies ahead of state capitol protest

AUSTIN, Texas — Ahead of a protest at the state capitol Thursday, the low-income advocacy nonprofit VOCAL-TX hosted a forum to push back against billionaire policies being instituted both nationally and right here in Austin.

VOCAL-TX may have only formally formed in 2022, but their advocacy for the poorest among us goes back years.

“We knew that in order to really tackle the issues that we were working on, we needed to build political power and change policies,” Co-Director Paulette Soltani said. “building power with people who are low income, impacted by homelessness, the war on drugs, mass incarceration and AIDS.”

They partnered with the Austin Justice Coalition Wednesday to host the “Fight Back Against Billionaires” forum.

“When you have the richest people in our country pushing for policies that privatize our education system or privatize our housing so people can’t even afford to live, there’s a problem,” Soltani said.

While billionaires like Elon Musk on the national stage may come to mind…

“We have a majority of the public vote – voting for President Trump,” Musk, speaking at the White House earlier this week, said. “We won the House, we won the Senate. The people voted for major government reform. There should be no doubt about that.”

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Chas Moore with the A.J.C. says what’s scarier are the influences being seen here in Austin at the state and local level.

“There are many institutions that are also in step with this oligarchy that’s forming in the country,” Moore said. “We all need to be made aware and fight back.”

VOCAL-TX criticized the Austin-based Cicero Institute for pushing legislation that would criminalize public camping outdoors, something the United States Supreme Court affirmed last summer.

“We simply aren’t putting the right policies towards tackling these issues in our state,” Soltani said. “Instead, we see a lot of our leaders using policies of criminalizing people, ticketing, arresting people, who simply can’t afford to pay their rent in our state.”

The Cicero Institute calls itself a nonpartisan public policy organization. Its chairman is entrepreneur and venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale.

We reached out to the Cicero Institute for comment, who in a statement told CBS Austin:

“We work on a variety of issues important to Texans, including homelessness. Unfortunately, over the last couple of decades, government funding in this area has focused on drawn-out housing projects that deprioritize immediate services for vulnerable people who find themselves in dangerous circumstances. As my colleague Devon Kurtz remarked, this has turned into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. We all know someone who is struggling that we could name right now. It’s a painful reality and a stark reminder that we need compassionate solutions. Leaving people to suffer while waiting years for housing that may never come is not compassionate, and voters across thenation agree.

VOCAL-TX panelists say the legislation the Cicero Institute is proposing isn’t compassionate either.

“They’re lobbying in our state house right now during the legislative session, and that’s what we hope people walk away from our town hall tonight, kind of being a little bit more educated about what’s happening at the state capitol,” Soltani said.

VOCAL-TX will be gathering on the steps of the Texas State Capitol Thursday from noon until 3:30 to push for housing reform and compassionate service.