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Texas wildfire hearings, border and the solar eclipse: This Week in Texas Politics

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Published  April 5, 2024 2:13pm CDT
Texas Politics
FOX 7 Austin

Eclipse, wildfire hearings: Texas Politics

Wildfire hearings, immigration court fights and the GOP Civil War were some of the topics that made headlines This Week in Texas Politics. Our political panel reviews.

AUSTIN, Texas - This Week in Texas Politics started off on April Fool's Day, which should have been a warning to us all. 

FOX 7 Austin’s Chief Political Reporter Rudy Koski, and our panel of analysts, took a look at the top stories happening in Texas, and other hot topics, this week.

RUDY KOSKI: Let's get the headlines for our panel, and we'll start first with Annie Spilman of Main Street Relations. Annie, what's your headline? 

ANNIE SPILMAN: Local business leaders examine the impact of child care needs. 

RUDY KOSKI: Brian Smith of St. Edward's University. What's your headline for the week? 

BRIAN SMITH: Federal courts play ping pong with SB four immigration law. 

RUDY KOSKI: And political analyst Mark Wiggins. What's your headline? 

MARK WIGGINS: Can money from out of state PACs eclipse the truth? RELATE

Texas wildfires hearing: Preventing fires

How to prevent another wildfire outbreak was the focus of a state House hearing that continued on Wednesday in Pampa, Texas. Last month's Panhandle fires were the largest in state history.

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RUDY KOSKI: The state House Hearings on the Panhandle wildfires began this week. The emergency management director for Texas kicking things off by suggesting state lawmakers create our own firefighting air force. I don't know if lawmakers are going to bankroll that one, guys, but the hearings surely did bring a lot of calls for some reforms. 

BRIAN SMITH: Yeah, setting up an Air Force. We don't have that kind of money because you have to buy all the equipment and then maintain it. And although wildfires are dangerous and costly, they're just simply too rare. So what we'll likely see is spending money where we can immediately help and improve. But like the phrase, just praying that it doesn't happen again. 

MARK WIGGINS: The political issues always take precedence. And the only way that changes is if the disasters become the political issues. 

ANNIE SPILMAN: The committee had the Texas Department of Insurance there as well, invited, and they were pressed on potential insurance rate hikes on premiums, potentially see some insurance rate hikes for businesses and individuals there as they try to come out of this, which is going to make it really, really difficult.

Border crisis: SB 4 back in court

Attorneys are back in court arguing over SB 4, the state law allowing state and local police to arrest any person they suspect of entering the country unlawfully.

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RUDY KOSKI: The GOP run off involving House Speaker Dade Phelan is sounding a whole lot like an April Fool's joke. The speaker is being portrayed as soft on border enforcement by his opposition, and on top of that, the Nazi sympathizing PAC story came back up late this week. Former Speaker Joe Straus, who, by the way, is Jewish, confirmed in an interview that a megadonor linked to some of the Phelan attacks allegedly told him only Christians should hold leadership positions in the House. Mark, what kind of reaction are you hearing to that? 

MARK WIGGINS: I mean, the talk around the Capitol is what is truth anymore. If you have enough money, you can just stuff mailboxes full of out and out lies and there's nothing anybody can do about it. I mean, every voter in Texas who's seeing their mailbox or their phone blow up with these attack ads against their incumbent representative ought to be asking themselves, how much does all this cost and who is paying for it? 

RUDY KOSKI: The Texas immigration law, SB four was back in another federal court again for another federal hearing. Brian, more smoke and mirrors or is there a real smoke to this one? 

BRIAN SMITH: There's actually real smoke here because you just can't leave this law in judicial limbo. One of the federal courts, maybe the Supreme Court's going to have to make a final ruling on this. And the closer we get to Election Day, the greater the political fallout. 

Border crisis: Surge of migrants in El Paso

The El Paso sector continues to see a large number of migrants illegally crossing into the U.S. National Guard troops have been deployed to Texas to help with the surge. FOX's Casey Stegall reports.

RUDY KOSKI: Governor Abbott was up in New York doing a speaking engagement at an event. Was this about a VP ticket, Mark? 

MARK WIGGINS: You know, there was a short list that was being bandied about earlier this week, which the governor was not on. But that doesn't mean that he's not necessarily being considered, if not for a VP role, then for another role in the administration. And I think that's, the assumption that a lot of folks here are operating under. 

RUDY KOSKI: Turning local. The Austin City Council has finally hired a new city manager. They hired the guy that the city of Dallas let go. Annie, how is the business community reacting to this. 

RELATED: Austin's new city manager to begin role on May 6

ANNIE SPILMAN: It's, obviously eyebrow-raising when you see that his salary is going to be $470,000, including a $5,000 housing allowance. You know, there's a lot of talk, especially when we're down 500 police officers and small businesses are still worried about retail theft and among other things. It's just it's almost a bit insulting when they're spending a whole bunch of money for somebody we're not really certain about and didn't really play well in his previous role in Dallas.

RUDY KOSKI: One of his first to do orders is to create a citizen's patrol on the bike lanes. The neighbor ticket neighbor. Right. Mark. 

MARK WIGGINS: And Austin is a very different city, very different problems, very different politics. I think we all hope that he is successful here, but he's definitely going to have his work cut out for him. 

BRIAN SMITH: Well, we'll see how he does. And like Mark said, I'm really hoping he does a great job and we don't have an ice storm. And that if he does have, citizens out giving tickets. They remember that they're not professional police. 

City of Austin ready for solar eclipse

Austin city leaders want people to be prepared and get where you want to go early so you don't miss any of the action.

RUDY KOSKI: Central Texas spent the week gearing up for the great solar eclipse that's supposed to happen. Is this going to be nothing? Or does the tourism industry still win regardless of the cloud cover? 

ANNIE SPILMAN: I think the real task for local businesses and tourism boards lie in converting these one-time visitors into returning visitors. 

MARK WIGGINS: Well, I certainly wouldn't want to be in ABIA this weekend. 

BRIAN SMITH: My students are really excited because we're going to do virtual learning that day. 

RUDY KOSKI: All right. Let's wrap things up with the word. Mark, we'll begin with you. What's your word for the week? 

MARK WIGGINS: SYSYGY (a celestial alignment). 

BRIAN SMITH: Immigration. 

ANNIE SPILMAN: Pollen. 

RUDY KOSKI: Boy, that's right. And that wraps up this week in Texas politics.