Day 56: The Most Corrupt Legislative Session Yet?

Texas Republicans' true constituents are billionaires and corporations.

How does a society create an environment where corruption thrives? I thought about this question several times yesterday as I watched countless pro-business bills in the Texas Senate. It’s not a secret that the Texas government is profoundly corrupt, and many are in cahoots with big business, big oil, big agriculture, and big insurance. And in Texas, corruption goes unchecked.

We don’t have any checks and balances in Texas. Republicans control everything. Countless of our elected officials are absurdly wealthy. Yet:

• The bottom 20% of households in Texas have a negative net wealth.

• The top 66 billionaires in Texas have more wealth than the bottom 70% of Texans.

• Texas households in the bottom 20% pay more in taxes as a proportion of their income than households in the top 1%.

The one-party state has created conditions where power is absolute and unchecked.

And look at Dan Patrick in the Paxton impeachment trial. Look at Governor Abbott’s money from Jeff Yaas for vouchers. Corruption in Texas is socially acceptable… for Republicans, anyway.

Bribery, fraud, and favoritism are all widespread occurrences among Republicans. Big businesses influence policies, ensuring that laws are written to benefit the rich.

In each legislative cycle, Texas Republicans take a sledgehammer to ethical rules, accountability, transparency, and fairness. All in the name of “business-friendly policies.” If there’s a regulation protecting workers, consumers, or the environment, you can bet the Texas Legislature will gut it, stall it, or bury it under layers of bureaucratic nonsense to protect their donors.

Every session, Republicans claim these bills will “boost the economy” and “cut red tape,” but the reality is far simpler: They’re stripping away every safeguard that stands between Texans and corporate exploitation.

Want proof? Just watch these bills in action:

Take SB14, for example. It’s a classic example of how Texas Republicans twist the narrative, using “efficiency” as a smokescreen for deregulation that serves corporate interests at the expense of ordinary Texans.

The bill, presented by Senator Phil King (R-SD10), aims to establish a “Regulatory Efficiency Office” under the governor’s control. Its mission? To review state regulations and identify rules that should be “modernized,” “less restrictive,” or outright repealed. Sounds harmless, right? Until you realize what this means: another Republican power grab disguised as “reform.”

For years, Texas agencies have conducted regular rule reviews every four years to determine whether regulations should be kept, amended, or scrapped. But that’s not enough for Republicans. Why let independent agencies handle their own rulemaking when you can create a handpicked panel stacked with business interests to tell them what to do?

Under SB14, unelected bureaucrats handpicked by Greg Abbott would directly review and recommend changes to state regulations. And just in case that wasn’t enough, the bill explicitly states that these recommendations should include eliminating fees, reducing training hours for licensed professions, and “streamlining” regulatory processes. Why have any protections when you can let the industry write its own rules?

Did you know?

• Workplace injuries in Texas were much higher than the national average.

• Texas ranks 12th in worker misery among US states, with factors such as average hours worked, wages, and injury rates influencing this ranking.

If SB14 was a handout to big business at the expense of Texans, SB29 is its corporate-friendly cousin.

SB29 was designed to shield executives from accountability while making Texas the new Delaware for corporate loopholes. During the committee’s layout, Bryan Hughes (R-SD01) said this bill concerns “legal domestication.” That’s a fancy way of saying Texas Republicans want to lure corporations from Delaware with promises of minimal oversight, rubber-stamp approvals, and immunity from pesky lawsuits.

Under SB29, corporate executives would get even more legal cover for their decisions, making it harder for shareholders to hold them accountable for incompetence or corruption. As long as fraud or “intentional misconduct” can’t be explicitly proven (which is an extremely high bar), executives can dodge responsibility for reckless decision-making that tanks a company, wipes out investments, or even leads to mass layoffs.

The bill also raises the threshold for derivative suits, meaning it will be more challenging for shareholders, especially smaller investors, to sue corporate boards for misconduct. It effectively blocks these lawsuits unless shareholders own at least 3% of the company, which might not sound like much. However, that translates to millions or even billions of dollars in stock in large corporations. In other words, ordinary investors get screwed, while billionaires keep their power.

Did you know?

• Texas had a Gini coefficient of approximately 0.49. The Gini coefficient is a standard measure of income inequality, where a higher number indicates greater disparity. Texas’ income inequality is higher than most other states.

• A report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the top 5% of earners in Texas earn more than 25 times the median worker’s income.

There were lots of bad bills being peddled yesterday.

SB875 is a muzzle on educators, ensuring school officials can’t encourage civic engagement.

SB875 is about silencing teachers, principals, and school administrators from even discussing voting in ways Republicans don’t like.

Ken Paxton’s office sued Denton Independent School District in February 2024 after two elementary school principals allegedly encouraged their staff to vote in the March primary. They offered to adjust schedules so employees could vote, a perfectly normal and responsible action for a school leader. But because some staff might have been nudged toward voting in a way Paxton’s office didn’t like, Republicans saw an opportunity to criminalize this kind of workplace encouragement.

Under SB875, if a school board member, superintendent, or principal uses school resources, including email, a phone, or even a district mailing list, to encourage voting in a way Republicans dislike, they could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor. While Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick’s donors funnel millions into buying elections, a school principal who reminds teachers to vote could face jail time.

This bill isn’t about ethics. It’s about power. Republicans already gerrymander districts, restrict voting rights, and control campaign financing. Now, they’re moving to punish school officials for engaging in democracy in ways they can’t control.

This isn’t about fairness. It’s about silencing voices that could disrupt Republican control. If they can’t win on ideas, they’ll legislate their opposition into submission.

While millions of Texans struggle to afford basic necessities, the state’s GOP is laser-focused on establishing a Texas trade office in Israel.

This isn’t about Texas’ economy. It’s about ideological posturing, plain and simple.

Senator Phil King (R-SD10) claims this office would strengthen trade ties with Israel, a country he describes as an “innovation powerhouse.” But the reality is that Israel is not even one of Texas’ top ten trading partners. Texas does more business with South Korea, Japan, and Brazil than it does with Israel, yet Republicans aren’t rushing to open trade offices in those countries.

This is about backing Israel at all costs, even as Netanyahu and Trump push forward with their plans to level Palestine. Texas Republicans know exactly what they’re doing: using taxpayer money to stake out their position in the America-first-except-for-Israel crowd.

Texas Republicans are bending over backward for Israel, while Democratic voters are checked out.

This past election, how many Texans skipped voting in state races because they were more concerned about which presidential candidate would keep funding Israel? How many people sat out of the presidential election based on foreign policy while ignoring the fact that Texas is robbing them blind with unchecked corporate welfare and tax policies that disproportionately harm the working class?

This bill is about signaling loyalty to the global right-wing agenda.

While Texans are drowning in high property taxes and skyrocketing utility bills, Republicans are pushing bills to ensure Elon Musk gets another tax break.

SCR12 is the next corporate handout the Senate Committee discussed yesterday. It aims to make spaceports eligible for tax-exempt private activity bonds. This isn’t about “economic growth” or “keeping Texas competitive in the space industry.” It’s about giving billionaires another free ride while Texans continue to pick up the tab.

Our teachers are underpaid, our schools are chronically underfunded, but the Texas Legislature is worried about whether SpaceX can get a bigger tax break.

Texas Republicans have spent years railing against government interference in the free market. But suddenly, when it’s spaceports and private rocket companies, they’re more than happy to rig the system with tax exemptions and handouts.

You’re out of luck if you need affordable housing, healthcare, or education. But if you’re a billionaire looking for free land, tax incentives, and corporate subsidies, Texas has a deal for you.

Was yesterday all about corporate handouts?

Nope. The Senate did take some time to hear a bill layout from Mayes Middleton (R-SD11) about policing people’s genitals.

Middleton’s bill, SB406, bans Texans from amending their birth certificates to reflect their gender identity, locking them into their sex assigned at birth for life. The justification? A word salad of “biological reality,” “fairness,” and, of course, “women’s sports.” Because naturally, the Texas GOP believes the biggest threat to fairness in athletics isn’t underfunded women’s programs, pay inequality, or abusive coaching systems, but trans people existing.

Texas Republicans believe that letting a trans person update their birth certificate is a more pressing issue than the state’s failing power grid or its crumbling rural hospitals.

But the most egregious bill of the day?

That honor goes to SB1362, a grotesque expansion of Texas’ already lax gun laws that removes any remaining guardrails between armed vigilantes and state-sanctioned murder.

And who showed up to testify in support of this dystopian fantasy? None other than Kyle Rottenhouse. Yes, the Wisconsin killer who dodged prison after fatally shooting two people during protests in Kenosha. Now a Texas resident (because, of course, he is), Rottenhouse took the stand to champion the bill as a necessary protection for “good guys with guns.”

This bill will ban red flag laws, ensuring that criminals, the mentally ill, and domestic abusers have the “right” to keep their firearms, no matter the consequences. Of course, Rottenhouse was the perfect mouthpiece for this bill disaster. Who better to advocate for an expansion of “self-defense” than a man who crossed state lines with a rifle, shot two people dead, and walked free?

His testimony, drenched in self-righteous victimhood, framed himself as a tragic hero who had “no choice” but to kill, as if he hadn’t deliberately inserted himself into a volatile situation, armed to the teeth. Texas Republicans lapped it up.

Today in the Texas Legislature.

The voucher scheme is being heard in the Texas House today. Hundreds of Texans showed up to express their opinions. I expect this hearing to last all day, and I’ll have a full update for you tomorrow.

What we saw in the Texas Senate yesterday wasn’t governance. It was a masterclass in corporate servitude.

Texas Republicans aren’t even pretending anymore. They aren’t passing bills to help working families, fix the grid, or fund public schools. They aren’t debating policies that improve the lives of ordinary Texans. Instead, they’re laser-focused on protecting billionaires, gutting regulations, silencing educators, criminalizing trans people, and making sure the next Kyle Rottenhouse gets a free pass to kill.

If you’re rich, if you’re powerful, if you’re aligned with their ideology, Texas is yours to plunder. If you’re not? Good luck.

Remember, apathy is their greatest weapon because they win when you stop paying attention, when you believe nothing can change, and when you let exhaustion replace outrage.

• March 14: The last day Legislators can file bills.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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