Texas House RINOs Vote to Illegally Impeach Paxton

 

Texas House RINOs Vote to Illegally Impeach Paxton

By

James Scott Trimm

 

Saturday was a sad day for Texas Conservatives as the Texas House voted illegally to override the results of a Texas election and impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.  

Under Texas Law a Texas official may not be impeached and removed from office for any act alleged to have been committed prior to his or her most recent election.  The Statute (Government Code, Title 6; Subtitle B Chapter 665  Subchapter D Sec. 665.081)  shown below states, under the heading "NO REMOVAL FOR ACTS COMMITTED BEFORE ELECTION TO OFFICE" as follows: "An officer in this state may not be removed from office for an act the officer may have committed before the officer's election to office."

Those supporting the impeachment have argued that the Statute is invalid because the power to impeach is granted to the Legislature in the Texas State Constitution, can can only be limited by a Constitutional Amendment, not merely by a Statute.  However the Texas State Constitution (Art. III, Sec. 11) under "RULES OF PROCEDURE" that "Each House may determine the rules of its own proceedings." And since the Statute in question was passed by both Houses, it certainly constitutes "rules of its own proceedings" which it has "determined" for itself.  In other words, the Legislature must follow its own rules, and the laws that it has passed governing its own operations are binding upon itself according to the Texas State Constitution.

 

The allegations made against Ken Paxton were all made prior to his most recent election last November.  These allegations were used by his Primary opponents and his General Election opponent in their campaigns against him in both the Texas Primary and in the General Election. Millions of dollars were spent by his opponents putting these allegations before the public  

Here are some initial findings (from my friend Tom Glass) about what the Texas Supreme Court has said about the anti-disenfranchisement provision. This is from In re Brown, 512 S.W.2d 317, 320-21 (Tex. 1974)

"Judge Brown raises several objections to the proceedings as a whole which require discussion. First, petitioner says that his re-election to his office after the commission of the things for which he was charged operates as a complete defense to any disciplinary action. He relies upon Article 5986, Vernon's Ann.T.C.S., which says: 

No officer in this State shall be removed from office for any act he may have committed prior to his election to office. 

 Article XV, Section 7, of the Texas Constitution authorizes the Legislature to provide for the removal of officers for whom the modes of removal are not provided in the Constitution. This proceeding is authorized by the Constitution, and for that reason Article 5986 is not applicable. However, the spirit of that statute was applied to a proceeding to remove a judge pursuant to Article XV, Section 6, of the Texas Constitution in the case of In re Laughlin, 153 Tex. 183, 265 S.W.2d 805, 808 (1954). The rule was there stated:

 'Neither may removal (of judges) be predicated upon acts antedating election, not in themselves disqualifying under the Constitution and laws of this State, when such acts were a matter of public record or otherwise known to the electors and were sanctioned and approved or forgiven by them at the election. This holding is in harmony with the public policy declared by the Legislature with respect to other public officials. Article 5986, R.C.S.' 

 The rationale for the doctrine is the sound reason that the public, as the ultimate judge and jury in a democratic society, can choose to forgive the misconduct of an elected official. Reeves v. State, 114 Tex. 296, 267 S.W. 666 (1924). The underlying basis for the principle is that the public can knowingly return one to office in spite of charges of misconduct. Public access to full information was the basis for this court's approval of the rule in Laughlin, supra, as appears from the portion quoted above. Matters of public record or matters which are otherwise known to the electors may be forgiven, says the opinion. Brown, In re, 512 S.W.2d 317 (Tex. 1974)"

 

Texas voters chose to reelect Ken Paxton, being fully aware of these allegations, and this is an illegal conspiracy of RINOS and Democrats to undo the results of a Texas election! 

 Moreover the Impeachment was done, in the words of Matt Rinaldi the Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, 

...without considering any direct evidence, without allowing legislators to to interview or cross-examine witnesses, without placing witnesses under oath, without allowing members to talk to investigators, without making witness transcripts available to legislators, without subpoenaing witnesses with direct knowledge of allegations, and without allowing the Attorney General to present evidence or argument.  The result of this indefensible process was to impeach based solely on accusations, hearsay, rumor, innuendo, ans speculation.

This sham process involved secret meetings by a committee of just five House members, who simply delivered a report on Wednesday and held a vote on Saturday on Memorial Day weekend.  Neither the public, nor the vast majority of House members were even aware that such secret hearings were being held to impeach our Attorney General until this last Wednesday.  And rather than conduct hearings before the entire House, the House was simply asked to accept and ratify a report from just five members!

The following are the RINOS that voted with Democrats to illegally impeach Ken Paxton and take away your right to vote for Attorney General.  An "A" means they voted illegally to impeach, an "N" means they voted against this illegal impeachment:

It is time to clean "House" in Texas!

Its Time to End Property Tax in Texas!

 

 

For years our Texas Legislature has promised us tax relief, but they never seem to deliver.  After every session they take a victory lap, claiming to have delivered tax relief, and yet every year our property taxes seem to go up, and not down.  This last session they are claiming to have delivered the biggest tax break in Texas history, but once again they have used fuzzy math, included past compression and have not adjusted their numbers for inflation.  

In fact this last year the State had a 33 billion dollar surplus.  That means Texans were over taxed by 33 billion dollars.  But did our legislature return this money to the taxpayers? No.  They voted to keep it, and find more places to spend it.  

Ronald Reagan said that spending is the leading cause of taxation, and that if you want to lower taxes, you must reduce spending.  He illustrated this point by comparing government to a child who spends too much money.  The solution, he said, was that you quit giving them so much money, and they will quit spending it.  

But our RINO State Legislature has lost sight of these conservative principles, and knowing they have overtaxed Texans, look for even more things on which to spend taxpayer dollars.  

And even when our legislature creates the illusion that they have provided tax relief (when have your taxes ever actually gone down?)  it is usually based on the homestead exemption.  Sadly this kind of alleged tax relief shifts the tax burden from home owners to renters.  Landlords do not enjoy homestead exemptions, and pass their tax burden to their renters, who pay hidden property tax in their rent.  This means we are robbing renters to benefit homeowners. 

So the time has come to end property tax in Texas!  Yes, this can be done.  It would need to be phased out over ten years.  But first, let me explain why this must be done.

Under the property tax system, property owners, in effect, rent their property,  Their property tax, is effectively rent. and if they fail to pay their rent, the state will foreclose and evict them.  This means that the government is landlord over every property owner in Texas (short of Churches and other tax exempt property).  And what do we call it when the government owns all the property?  When the government owns all property, that is called "Communism".  That's right, the Texas property tax system is back door Communism.  And because of this, Texans are never secure in their homes.  A Texan can spend a lifetime of work paying off a home,  and never feel confident that in their old age, after their working years, that the government will not tax them out of their homes, or even worse yet, leave behind a widow who is taxed out of her home!

Yes we can end property tax in Texas.  We will need to phase it out over ten years.  For the first five years we will pay down the next years tax with the annual surplus (the amount by which Texans are already being overtaxed each year) and we will need to phase in a voluntary tax.  By this I mean a very slight increase in sales tax, perhaps a quarter percent.  

Property tax is an involuntary tax, it is a tax on not being homeless (as explained above, even renters pay property tax built into their rent).  We do not charge sales tax on basic groceries in Texas, because we do not want to tax people for simple being survival (eating), so why should we tax them for shelter?  Taxation is theft, and if we must be taxed, let that tax be voluntary, on things you choose to buy (not, for example, groceries).  Whatever your property tax is, imagine that spread out among everything you buy in a year, so to replace the property tax revenue would be a very slight increase in sales tax.  

This will take an amendment to the Texas State constitution, so that once we kill this monster, it will stay dead and never be resurrected.

Imagine the economic prosperity Texas would experience from eliminating property tax.  Property tax is a hidden tax built into every product and service you buy.  Most products you buy have been stored in a warehouse and then brought to a retail location on which property tax is paid, and built into the price of that product.  Moreover all the employees that were involved must be paid enough to pay their property taxes (even if they rent) and that is built into the price of products and services as well.  Property tax is a viscous cycle of hidden taxes!

If the Texas Legislature wants to truly deliver meaningful tax relief to Texans, they can do so by simply proposing a Constitutional amendment before the voters and give Texans the opportunity to vote on this!

Lets end property tax now!

James Scott Trimm