A couple of posts today have got me thinking about what would it take to fix the shit show that is Texas politics. Nothing is going to change until we figure out a way to remove the GQP's influence from the capitol so what are things that would actually move the needle? That said, I thought I would make a list of things I would do if I were king of Texas. I'm interested to hear what others thoughts are on these issues. These are in no particular order.
Legislative Session
-Institute an annual legislative session. Texas is one of four states with a biennial session, the others being MT, ND and NV. It seems nuts to me that a state as large, complex and important as Texas thinks we can effectively govern meeting once every two years for 140 days.
Marijuana
-Legalize it and tax it. Use tax proceeds to fund mental health and addiction services for homeless and un/under-insured Texans.
-Pardon all inmates that are serving a sentence for only simple possession. I would listen to ideas of how far that should go. As a bonus, it would be great if this would help Texas get out of the private prison business. I would include expunging the records of those who have already served sentences under the same terms.
Healthcare
-Expand Medicaid. It blows my mind that we as a state leave federal dollars on the table. That means we all pay federal taxes and we're leaving money on the table to be sent to other states that could be coming our way.
-Repeal the anti-abortion law. Allow women and their healthcare provider to make decisions about an individual woman's health.
-Stop the attacks on LGBTQ+ community.
Guns
-Institute a red flag law. We need to make sure that Texans suffering a mental health crisis don't have access to guns. We need to protect our own.
-Institute a 21 year age minimum to purchase an assault weapon (and, no fatty, I'm not going to get into one of your dumb bullet debates with you - these are all 10k foot ideas).
-Get rid of constitutional carry. You want to carry a gun legally, you're going to need a permit for that.
-Waiting period on the purchase of guns. 7 days for shotguns, sporting rifles, 14 days for handguns, 28 days for assault weapons (again, fatty, don't muck this up with your bullet talk).
Education
-Reevaluate Robin Hood. I admit that I'm not an expert in how to equitably fund education in this state, but I'm smart enough to know our current system is broken. We have bright people in this state, let's get them together and figure out a fix.
-Improve funding for higher education. California kicks our ass up and down the field on this one. We are woeful for a state of our stature.
-Get God out of the public schools. End the book ban BS. Return sanity to the classroom so that kids can learn. Listen to our best and brightest educators and fix standardized testing.
Gambling
-Why do we let so many dollars cross state lines into LA and OK? Lots of other states have figured out to regulate and tax casino gambling. Let's quit donating money to LA and OK.
-Legalize sports gambling. See above.
TABC
-Burn it to the ground and start over. It's an oversized agency with oversized power in this state. It needs to be overhauled.
Taxes
-This is probably the biggest bogeyman. Our hands are tied w/r/t an income tax in this state so we have got to figure out how we fix the regressive propert tax burden placed on Texans. I'm not the guy to figure it out, but I'd love to brainstorm with some smart economists.
What am I missing? Transportation? Other agencies that need to be completely overhauled? I'm really interested in hearing people's thoughts. I'm hoping this turns into a thread of healthy discussion on ideas how to change the current course of our state, but it will probably turn into monkeys flinging shit at each other by the fourth post.