Bayliss Wagner

4 days ago | statesman.com | Bayliss Wagner

Texas judges are set to see a long-anticipated pay raise under a last-minute deal that House and Senate lawmakers struck Monday, resolving hours of tense negotiations that pit both chambers against each other and sent the state’s judiciary into a panic. Passed hours before the session’s end, the legislation would kick base pay for district court judges up from $140,000 to $175,000, a 25% increase.

5 days ago | statesman.com | Bayliss Wagner

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a conservative activist’s lawsuit challenging the Texas Ethics Commission’s enforcement powers, effectively ending a decade-long effort to weaken the watchdog agency. Michael Quinn Sullivan and Empower Texans, a now-disbanded powerful political advocacy group largely funded by West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, filed the lawsuit in 2014 after the ethics agency fined Sullivan $10,000 for failing to register as a lobbyist.

5 days ago | statesman.com | John C. Moritz |Bayliss Wagner

Sunday was the second to the last day of the 2025 legislative session, and more importantly, the final day to push legislation over the finish line and onto the desk of Gov. Greg Abbott. Much of the action in both chambers focused on measures not identified as priorities of either Abbott or legislative leaders. But a few pieces of significant legislation were debated and a couple of priorities of top state leaders fell by the wayside.

5 days ago | statesman.com | Bayliss Wagner

Texas House Democrats rebuked their Republican colleagues in unusually personal terms Saturday over a bill that would ban Texas schools from authorizing clubs on “sexuality or gender identity,” with Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu of Houston labeling it the work of "monsters.”The proposal, Senate Bill 12, passed from the House last week without the Senate version’s ban on school-sponsored LGBTQ pride clubs and other sexuality-based groups.

1 week ago | yahoo.com | Bayliss Wagner

A sweeping GOP-led proposal to crack down on abortion pills in Texas died without a House vote Tuesday, angering anti-abortion Republicans, relieving Democrats and potentially setting the stage for future electoral and legislative battles.