Robert Pratt, a radio talk show host and commentator on Texas politics, addressed the Pecan Valley Republican Women’s Club last Thursday, June 15th at the Brownwood Country Club. Pratt is head of the “Pratt on Texas” radio and podcast airing out of Lubbock, Texas where he dives into the issues of Texas politics.
Pratt has been a self-employed man all his life and says it allows him to say what he thinks and believes. “I’m not unique, I’m just you. The difference is I never worked for anybody else. I come from a family that’s all self-employed. I just don’t believe in this not saying what you believe and saying it directly. A lot of people just can’t do that. That’s the way a lot of people who are involved are. You know what’s wrong and you’re willing to say it,” said Pratt.
He is a former chairman of the Lubbock County Republican Party and administered two primary county elections. Pratt was the regional director of the Texas GOP County Chairman’s Association, also serving for a decade as their finance chairman. He was president of the Young Republicans Club. Pratt also has a history in the computer systems business starting at 15.
At 16 he moved to Lubbock and was a partner in building the largest computer maintenance business in the region. After establishing a successful company that branched out into El Paso, Texas and Chihuahua, Mexico, Pratt developed an advertising and consulting firm that won numerous political campaigns.
Robert Pratt is now devoted to the on-air radio and commentary show “Pratt on Texas.” Pratt understands Texas politics and has done so for decades. He is well-read and experienced in the workings of Texas politics, the Texas legislature, and issues that matter to the public.
Pratt addressed the crowd on several key issues including appraisal increases, his opinion on the House’s and Senate’s property tax bills, the Ken Paxton impeachment, and how the Texas House Speaker is abusing power. “I’ve covered the legislature my whole life and I know how it works.”
Pratt laid out several issues with the Texas House of Representatives. He argues that they are not in touch with the real political and cultural battles that matter to people and that many representatives do not have a voice due to the leadership in the Legislature.
Pratt voiced to the crowd how the Speaker’s position in the Texas Legislature has too much power right now and there needs to be a reform. Pratt states that right now there is a short-circuiting of the republican and democratic processes in the Texas House. The Speaker appoints everybody with every bit of control. There is no way to get anything to the floor without the approval of the Speaker.
“The fundamental thing we need to do is some kind of reform that forces the body to have some sort of discharge petition. It is insane that you can have half the body, you can have a majority of the majority caucus, all for something, and never even be able to get a bill in a committee hearing,” said Pratt. A discharge petition would allow a majority of representatives to bring a bill to the floor. This would give the members their voices back.
Something specific that Pratt stated was that the House was not making tough votes throughout the session, and had waited till the end to vote on many things. Pratt stated that was an issue with the school choice topic. But why? Pratt argues it was so the House members did not have to make tough and controversial votes. He explained to the crowd that it is the Speaker’s job to protect the members and that even means protecting them from voting on controversial issues, so they stay in office. “The Speaker’s job is to protect the members. That does not mean their party. Who does he get elected by? The body. His job is to protect the incumbents of the institution no matter who they are, no matter which party,” said Pratt.
Pratt brought up issues of the Texas House when talking about the Ken Paxton impeachment. One thing he pointed out was there were state representatives who were not informed of Paxton’s political and legal troubles, yet were voting on impeaching him. Pratt’s take on the impeachment is that the methods and how the House went about it were wrong and it reveals how the House Speaker has too much power.
There’s already an investigation into Paxton and it’s a separate issue if he is guilty or not, stated Pratt. That should go to a criminal court, not the Texas House of Representatives. If Paxton is convicted then there still has to be a criminal trial in a criminal court.
Pratt says that impeachments are political decisions. “Whether Paxton is guilty of everything in the world or not guilty of everything in the world, it’s irrespective because what he’s charged with is criminal stuff and we have a criminal justice system to handle that and they already were handling it,” said Pratt.
Pratt believes that the Texas House of Representatives just set a dangerous precedent. The House had a secret investigation into Paxton and revealed that the House Speaker can have secret investigations into anybody in the Texas government. There were both conservatives and liberals in the House against this impeachment because it set a dangerous precedent. The people speaking against impeachment did not even have 24 hours to think of arguments.
Another topic Pratt discussed extensively was property taxes and gave his opinion about which property tax plan he thought was better. The House wants to take care of commercial property and businesses are having higher property taxes. However, Pratt states that Dan Patrick’s plan to increase the Homestead Exemption Act is right politically for the next election. This is why Patrick is confident to stand up to the Governor on this. “We need something that’s going to win at the ballot box,” said Pratt. Pratt says through the Senate’s plan Texas can get more money put into people’s pockets quicker and more will come off of people’s mortgages.
A key thing about the special session over property taxes that Pratt pointed out was that Governor Abbott got involved and that ruined a property tax plan between the House and Senate. Pratt believes Abbott has no idea how to work with the legislature and does not tell them what his position is until there is a national spotlight. Pratt emphasized that Governor Abbott is looking for the national spotlight to be president. “Every decision is made based on what looks good on national media,” Pratt said.
One of Pratt’s biggest points of the night was that appraisal raises do not mean tax increases. He says that when local officials say that, they are either ignorant or lying. Pratt stated that local officials hide behind appraisal caps for higher taxes and it is the local officials who decide to raise taxes or not.
Pratt stated he had the Texas Comptroller, Glenn Hagar, on his show and say that appraisals do not raise taxes. An article that Pratt wrote stated, “The appraised value doesn’t decide whether, in aggregate, local government property taxes go up or down. That is decided by the tax rate set by local officials such as county commissioners, school board members, and city council members,” wrote Pratt. “…state law requires appraisals for property tax purposes to be near 100 percent of market value and an audit found local appraisals to be well under such. The reason behind this requirement is to ensure that local officials do not under-appraise so that they get more from the state for school districts.”
Property cannot be under-appraised. It is illegal because most property taxes go to schools. If the property is under-appraised, that allows schools to get more money from the state and it cheats all of Texas. So it’s illegal to be undervalued.
When appraisals go up, “on an individual basis, some property owners…might see a property tax increase but only if their property tax valuation increase is higher than the average increase across the county,” wrote Pratt.
Pratt also echoed that tax rates last year have nothing to do with the tax rate setting. He says it has nothing mathematically to do with property taxes. The “No New Revenue rate only covers property that was taxed in the previous year,” said Pratt, although he did say that does not include new development.
If no budget is adopted, the budget defaults to the No New Revenue rate. “Even if appraisals were to rise 100 percent, a doubling, in your city, county, school district, or other taxing district, property taxes would not rise, in general, if your local officials adopt the No New Revenue Rate,” wrote Pratt. A new tax rate has nothing to do with the old tax rate.
Pratt finishes his article by saying, “Taxes go up when local officials decide they want more money from each taxable property’s owner than they got the year before. In other words, property taxes go up when local officials choose to spend more.”
Pratt advised that something citizens can do is organize to have political pressure on politicians. If you send letters and get enough people to show up to city council meetings you can make a change. Something Robert Pratt stated was that there are so few people that contact their government, that 12 people can make a difference.
Pratt on Texas can be heard on 96.1, online, and via podcast.