Governor Escalates Shock Value Show
with Veto of Legislative Branch Budget

Capitol Inside
June 18, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott sought to raise his own high bar on sensational on Friday when he announced that he'd vetoed the Texas Legislature's entire budget as revenge for the Democrats' derailing of a controversial election restrictions bill on the final weekend of the regular session last month.

Abbott retaliated in unprecedented fashion - using his red pen to punish Democrats and Republicans alike on both sides of the rotunda with the line-item elimination of funding that lawmakers had approved for themselves in the biennial appropriations bill that takes effect on September 1.

“Texans don’t run from a legislative fight, and they don’t walk away from unfinished business,” Abbott declared in a statement early Friday evening. “Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early, leaving their state with unfinished business and exposing taxpayers to higher costs for an additional legislative session.”

The governor had vowed to veto the Legislature's share of the spending plan after House Democrats walked out before a final vote on Senate Bill 7 in a move that deprived the ruling Republicans of the quorum they needed to pass the voting measure before a final deadline.

But the Legislature top two leaders - Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dade Phelan - defended the Democrats' disappearing act as a perfectly legitimate maneuver. Patrick pointed the finger of blame at GOP leaders in the lower chamber for procrastination on the elections bill that made it possible for the minority party's members to kill it with the clock. Phelan made no excuses - arguing that the Democrats were simply representing their districts as faithfully as they saw fit like he'd encouraged colleagues to do when he was elected as speaker in January.

Abbott would be saving the state more than $410 million if the veto had been a serious move. But the legislative budget deleting will be widely viewed inside the statehouse beltway as epic gamesmanship as the governor's second major publicity stunt this week.

Abbott wiped out the salaries for lawmakers, staffs and professionals on whom they depend at agencies like the Legislative Budget Board and the Texas Legislative Council where legislation is drafted. The governor vetoed state spending on the Legislature just two days after he'd staged a press conference that unfolded like an off-Broadway production with almost three dozen GOP lawmakers lined up in throw rows behind him and applauding his remarks on cue.

Abbott can try to use the veto pen as a prod in a summer special session where lawmakers would have an opportunity to resurrect Article 10. Or the governor could show that he means business by refusing to add spending on the Legislature to a call for a special session that he's promised to call for the revival of the voting bill and a bail reform plan that perished in the meltdown on SB 7 as well.

The Republican-controlled Legislature would be forced under such a scenario to undertake redistricting in a special session this fall without any paid help or the luxury that legal expertise would be if the governor wants to make the ultimate splash for a politician at his particular level. That would probably have the effect of punting the map-making task to the federal courts that wouldn't be as generous to the Republicans here.

The prevailing sentiment at the Capitol is that Abbott is attempting to remake himself as a younger version of Donald Trump - seizing with a vengeance on fears about immigration as a fundraising weapon for the state border wall that the governor has promised to build with an unspecific amount of public subsidies.

The GOP lawmakers who turned out in a show of unity for Abbott's border initiatives at the Capitol news event this week might not see the killing of their office budgets as a demonstration of gratitude.