Texas
Texas border effort gets $495 million boost after GOP leaders tap federal COVID-19 aid, shift funds
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/J53WXCMEBZF6ZNUHN7FSDHLBOM.jpg "Texas border effort gets 5 million boost after GOP leaders tap federal COVID-19 aid, shift funds")
AUSTIN — Texas is scrambling to give you almost a half-billion {dollars} to pay the rising tab for its determination to submit Nationwide Guard troopers on the southern border.
As foreshadowed by a prime aide to Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this month, Texas will liberate general-purpose state income that lawmakers beforehand budgeted for salaries of state staff by tapping federal coronavirus aid cash.
That may enable GOP state leaders to hurry $465.3 million to the Texas Army Division, whose prime chief has stated he’ll run out of cash on the finish of this month for the ten,000 troops who’re supporting Abbott’s Operation Lone Star. Different state businesses concerned with the border effort will share within the switch of one other $30 million.
On Friday, Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Speaker Dade Phelan, Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Joan Huffman and Home Appropriations Committee Chairman Greg Bonnen signed a letter to the heads of six state businesses approving the fund shifts. The letter didn’t acknowledge use of federal pandemic-relief funds, as an alternative focusing solely on the simultaneous reassignment of state general-purpose income {dollars}.
“These transfers are supposed to assist the deployment of the Nationwide Guard with $465.3 million and to assist border safety surge operations in different state businesses with $30 million,” the leaders wrote. “We perceive the Fiscal Years 2020-2021 appropriations would in any other case lapse and be unavailable to your businesses, and that the Fiscal 12 months 2022 appropriations have been absolutely funded with different sources, thus this switch is not going to have an effect on any company or program perform.”
In a joint information launch, the state GOP leaders blasted President Joe Biden for what Phelan referred to as “irresponsible” dealing with of immigration coverage.
The six businesses will fork over $248.8 million of state basic income from the fiscal 12 months that ended Aug. 31, and simply over $246.5 million from the present 12 months’s funds.
The cash goes to Abbott’s catastrophe fund, from which he’s been repeatedly transmitting cash for the Texas Nationwide Guard and Texas State Guard’s assist of the Republican governor’s immigration dragnet on the border with Mexico, in keeping with information obtained by The Dallas Morning Information utilizing the state’s open-records legislation.
Whereas some Democrats have fretted that Texas could also be misusing federal COVID-19 aid assist to assist finance Operation Lone Star, Abbott and prime GOP lawmakers have denied that. The Biden administration hasn’t objected, nor has anybody taken Texas to courtroom over its cash maneuvers.
The sequence of payments Congress handed through the pandemic, signed by each Biden and former President Donald Trump, allowed states to make use of their federal funds for salaries of state public well being and public security workers.
In early April, Sarah Hicks, director of coverage and funds in Abbott’s workplace, advised the Senate Committee on Border Safety the state may make up for shortfalls within the border safety effort through the use of as much as $600 million of the federal {dollars} to backfill salaries at well being, legislation enforcement and jail businesses, after which switch the freed-up state discretionary {dollars} to the border effort.
Federal ‘clawback’ worries
It’s a transfer that strikes some as misuse and one they fear may put the cash vulnerable to being clawed again by the federal authorities.
On April 8, although, Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who’s the Home’s presiding officer, stated his chamber “will take an extended, exhausting, deep dive in how we’re spending {dollars} and we’ll … make sure the federal clawback is [in the] entrance of our thoughts.”
The issue arose as a result of final 12 months, at the same time as they had been greater than quadrupling the state’s stage of spending on border safety, lawmakers gave the Texas Army Division solely $412 million for the present two-year cycle. In simply the primary 12 months of the cycle alone, it’s costing no less than $1.3 billion to maintain a number of thousand troopers on the border and hundreds of others in assist roles elsewhere.
If that’s repeated within the fiscal 12 months that begins Sept. 1, the state’s tab for border safety will soar previous $5 billion, from $800 million final cycle.
Of their letter Friday, Abbott and the 4 prime GOP legislative leaders stated the state general-purpose income that the six businesses had been providing has “been absolutely funded with different sources.” They didn’t elaborate.
Of their previous letters providing to yield the cash, company heads appointed by Abbott used variations of a theme acknowledged this week by Division of Public Security director Col. Steve McCraw, in his newest request to surrender cash.
“It’s vital that the Catastrophe Fund [in Abbott’s office] have enough monies out there to reply shortly and make sure the security of Texans,” McCraw wrote. “I can verify the company and its applications is not going to be negatively affected by this switch.”
After a January switch of $480.5 million from businesses that run state prisons and carry out legislation enforcement capabilities, to pay for the Nationwide Guard deployment, the brand new head of the Guard, Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, advised senators earlier this month that cash would run out on the finish of April. He wanted $531 million extra to fund the Guard’s a part of Operation Lone Star via Aug. 31, Suelzer testified.
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Since then, apparently, the Guard’s shortfall has shrunk barely.
Yielding the cash had been the Well being and Human Providers Fee, $210.7 million; Division of Public Security, $159.3 million; Texas Division of Felony Justice, $53.6 million; Division of State Well being Providers, $36.1 million; Texas Juvenile Justice Division, $31.3 million; and Texas Alcoholic Beverage Fee, $4.3 million.
Within the first few months of the Guard’s border mission, experiences emerged of issues with pay, a scarcity of kit and a string of suicides inside the ranks. In response, the army division issued a morale survey and pledged to deal with the problems.
This week, Abbott downplayed the issues.
“The criticisms had been overblown,” he advised Man Benson of Fox Information Radio. “Had been there some pay points? Sure, however they had been extraordinarily small in quantity.”
Abbott attributed Guard glitches to a surge of 14,000 Haitian migrants to Del Rio in September – a circumstance he says he couldn’t enable to be repeated.
“I stated that we can not have one other Haitian disaster like that ever happen,” he stated. “And so there needed to be an awfully fast deployment that led to, let’s say, a much less environment friendly rollout than what you’ll usually see.”
A common theme for No. 22 TCU has been their complete dominance on their home floor this season. The Horned Frogs finished the year 14-1 at Schollmaier Arena. On Friday night, in front of over 3,000 fans, TCU swept Texas Tech (25-14, 26-24, 25-11).
The four seniors honored by TCU were Melanie Parra, Cecily Bramschreiber, Stephanie Young and Ashlyn Bourland. All four players found ways to contribute as Parra finished with 14 kills and seven digs. Bramschreiber filled up the stat sheet with four kills, four aces and seven digs. Both Young and Bourland got an ace.
Both teams traded points in the early going, but Bramschreiber sparked a 7-2 run to give the Frogs a 16-9 lead. TCU hit .417 in the first set and dominated the first set capped off by a Becca Kelley ace.
In set two, Texas Tech made things much closer jumping out to a 8-5 lead. A 4-0 run from TCU put them back in front. This set included multiple runs and it was Tech that got it to set point leading 24-22. TCU was able to end the set on a 4-0 run courtesy of kills from Jalyn Gibson and Parra paired with aces from Bramschreiber.
Trying to keeps things alive, TCU wasn’t met with much resistance from the Red Raiders in the third set. The Frogs kept up the pressure with multiple runs to build a massive 17-8 lead. Bourland picked up her first career ace and an attack error ended things.
It was a fun night for the seniors that played in front of the TCU crowd for the last time. The 14 wins at home tied the school record for most wins at home in a single season. They also picked up the most wins in a season since 2015. What Jason Williams has done for this program in such a short time has been remarkable to watch.
The Frogs move to 19-7 overall 11-5 in conference. They still are fifth in the Big 12 standings with two games to go. They will travel to Morgantown on Wednesday to take on West Virginia at 6 p.m. and then to Cincinnati on Friday at 1 p.m.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a lawsuit Thursday targeting the blue city of Dallas over a ballot measure that decriminalizes marijuana.
Paxton alleges that Proposition R, which “prohibits the Dallas Police Department from making arrests or issuing citations for marijuana possession or considering the odor of marijuana as probable cause for search or seizure,” violates state law.
The attorney general argues in the lawsuit that the ballot measure is preempted by Texas law, which criminalizes the possession and distribution of marijuana. Paxton also claims the Texas Constitution prohibits municipalities from adopting an ordinance that conflicts with laws enacted by the state legislature.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks outside the U.S. Supreme Court on November 01, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow,” Paxton said in a statement. “The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them.”
Paxton called the ballot measure “a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution” and threatened to sue any other city that “tries to constrain police in this fashion.”
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A flower bud of marijuana. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
The lawsuit comes after interim Dallas Police Department Chief Michael Igo directed Dallas police officers not to enforce marijuana laws against those found to be in possession of less than 4 ounces.
Ground Game Texas, a progressive nonprofit group that campaigned in favor of the ballot measure, argued it would help “keep people out of jail for marijuana possession,” “reduce racially biased policing” and “save millions in public funding.”
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A mature marijuana plant begins to bloom under artificial lights at Loving Kindness Farms in Gardena, Calif., May 20, 2019. Paxton has sued the city of Dallas over a ballot measure that decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel)
“It’s unfortunate but not surprising that Attorney General Ken Paxton has apparently chosen to waste everyone’s time and money by filing yet another baseless lawsuit against marijuana decriminalization,” said Catina Voellinger, executive director for Ground Game Texas.
“Judges in Travis and Hays counties have already dismissed identical lawsuits filed there. The Dallas Freedom Act was overwhelmingly approved by 67% of voters — this is democracy in action.”
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Since January 2024, Paxton has filed lawsuits against five Texas cities that decriminalized marijuana possession, arguing these policies promote crime, drug abuse and violence.
The Texas Longhorns are heading back to Austin with some early-season tournament hardware in hand.
Tre Johnson battled through another poor shooting night but closed the game out for Texas once again, scoring a game-high 17 points to lead the Longhorns to a 67-58 win over Saint Joseph’s at the Legends Classic championship round in Brooklyn Friday night.
Transfer guard Julian Larry sparked the Longhorns late, scoring all 12 of his points in the second half. Arthur Kaluma added 14 points, four rebounds and four assists while Kadin Shedrick had 10 points and six rebounds.
The Hawks were led by Rasheer Fleming, who stuffed the stat sheet with 16 points, 20 rebounds, three assists, two blocks and three steals. Xzayvier Brown added 15 points on 4 of 7 shooting.
The Longhorns jumped out to an 11-6 lead after seven early points from Kaluma. St. Joe’s started out cold from the field but controlled the game with hard-nosed defense and the occasional press while dominating the offensive glass. This was highlighted by a possession where the Hawks got four consecutive offensive rebounds but only scored one point as a result.
Johnson stayed aggressive on offense for Texas but was off on his shot and was impacted by the on-ball defense of St. Joe’s.
Mark, Pope and Johnson all hit a triple for Texas in about a two-minute span ahead of halftime to give the Longhorns their biggest lead at 32-26 but the Hawks responded with a free throw from Haskins 3-pointer from Brown before halftime to cut the lead to 32-30.
The defense from the Hawks ramped up even more, as the Longhorns were stuck in the mud on offense and had little to no ball movement. St. Joe’s was hardly much better, but its defense continued to set the tone and eventually swung the momentum.
Larry then hit back-to-back triples as the two teams traded buckets on five straight possessions. Consecutive dunks from Ajogbor and Fleming but the Hawks in front 50-46 with 8:25 to play, but Larry continued to take over. He hit 1,000 career points with a driving layup before finding Kaluma for a corner triple to put Texas back in front at 51-50.
It didn’t stop there for Larry, who found a cutting Shedrick for a dunk before diving on a loose ball down at the other end to secure possession for Texas, which had built a 55-52 lead with 3:13 left. The Longhorns used the momentum to put together an 8-0 run, which essentially sealed the win in a game where scoring felt hard to come by.
Johnson then closed the game out with six points in the final 4:11 of action, including a pullup jumper at the foul line to put Texas up 63-55 with 1:19 left.
Texas will host Delaware State on Nov. 29.
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