Case Explained: Abbott vows to ‘keep Texas Texas’ in El Paso rally, touting laws on crime and elections – Legal Perspective

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14/CBS4) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told supporters at a campaign rally in El Paso on Thursday his “top job” as governor is “to keep Texas Texas,” arguing that his administration and Republican lawmakers have pushed back against what he repeatedly called “socialistic ideas” in Texas’ largest cities.

“My top job this campaign, my top job as your governor, is to keep Texas Texas,” Abbott said.

Abbott claimed that during the most recent legislative session, “socialists judges in big cities across the state” refused to keep “dangerous criminals behind bars,” and he said “more than 200 Texans were murdered by someone who had been previously arrested for murder.” Abbott said he signed a law he described as keeping “those dangerous murderers where they belong and that is behind our bars.”

Abbott also pointed to the “defund the police movement,” saying he would not allow police departments to be defunded in Texas. “I signed the law to ensure that we would defund any city that defunds their police,” he said. Abbott added, “Texas is not Minnesota,” and said, “In Texas, we support our law enforcement officers, period.”

In the same remarks, Abbott said he declared the Muslim Brotherhood and “care” as foreign terrorist organizations that “will not be allowed to operate in the state of Texas.” He also said he signed “a law banning a Sharia law city in the state of Texas,” and said, “We’re gonna pass a law banning Sharia law in the entire state of Texas.”

Abbott highlighted election-related legislation, saying Texas enacted laws stating that “only United States citizens can vote in our elections in the state of Texas,” and that the state has “the strongest voter ID law, including voter ID on mail-in ballots.” He said Texas also made it a crime for “professional ballot harvesters,” adding, “You will go to jail if you are a professional ballot harvester in our state.”

Turning to border security, Abbott criticized “Joe Biden open border policies” and said Texas is “the only state in the history of America to build our own border wall to secure our state.” He also said Texas deployed the National Guard and that “more than 3,000 National Guard” members were on the border “tonight.”

Abbott also touted the Texas economy, saying “more Texans have a job today than ever before in the history of our state,” and that Texas “ranks number one for new jobs.”

On education, Abbott said he wants Texas to “rank number one for educating our children,” and pointed to school choice as well as increased public school funding. He said he signed a law “providing eight billion dollars more to fully fund public education in the state of Texas,” and said the state provided teachers with “a four billion dollar pay raise,” which he called “the largest teacher pay raise ever in the history of our great state.”

Abbott said lawmakers also moved to change classroom instruction, saying Texas is “returning to teaching our kids with reading, writing, math and science and phonics learning phonics and cursive writing in the classroom again.” He said he signed what he called “the toughest law in America banning DEI in our public schools,” and also signed a law he described as “eliminating pornographic books for our school library for our kids.” He also referenced “a law that bans boys and girls sports in our schools.”

Abbott addressed costs facing homeowners and small businesses, noting that he said 98% of Texas businesses are small businesses. He said the state increased a property tax exemption for small businesses from $2,500 to $125,000.

He said small business owners across Texas have told him “the skyrocketing cost of insurance” is forcing some to close, and said insurance costs are rising far faster than inflation. Abbott said, “This session, we’re going to tackle the skyrocketing insurance costs and slash that insurance cost in half.”

On property taxes, Abbott said lawmakers increased the homestead exemption to $140,000, up from $15,000 when he became governor. He said for seniors, the exemption would be $200,000. Still, Abbott said residents are not satisfied with their property tax bills and laid out proposals he said would provide “lasting enduring relief.”

Abbott called for limiting government spending, requiring votes on property tax increases with a two-thirds threshold, and reducing the annual appraisal cap from 10% to 3%. He also proposed changing appraisals so property owners would be “subject to appraisal only once every five years.”

Abbott said the biggest change would come from shifting school funding away from local property taxes. “The time has come for the state to fully pay for 100% of our public education,” he said. “Your homestead should not pay for our public schools. The state of Texas should pay for our public schools.”

He said that under his plan, homeowners would “pay zero dollars in the future on that line item that would be going to public schools,” and claimed, “Your property tax bill will get cut in half overnight.”

RELATED: Texas governor to campaign in El Paso with comptroller, AG commissioner candidate

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