Highland Lakes Republican Women

Congratulations to Gail Teegarden, SD24 District Director, and Mary Jane Avery, SD24 SREC Representative.
Their March 12th President’s Networking Luncheon in Kerrville was a fabulous, informative, fun event where
new and seasoned president’s enjoyed sharing ideas and getting to know one another. Relationships
were built and all participants took something away to help them grow their club and be successful.

AUSTIN — Texas Deputy Secretary of State Joe Esparza today drew the ballot order for the two proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution that will appear on the ballot for the May 7, 2022 Election. In order to appear on the ballot, the proposed amendments must be approved by at least two-thirds of the members of both the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives.

Texans will have the opportunity to approve the following amendments with a majority vote:

Proposition 1 (SJR 2 – 87th Legislature, 2nd Special Session)

“The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the reduction of the amount of a limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for general elementary and secondary public school purposes on the residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled to reflect any statutory reduction from the preceding tax year in the maximum compressed rate of the maintenance and operations taxes imposed for those purposes on the homestead.”

Proposition 2 (SJR 2 – 87th Legislature, 3rd Special Session)

“The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $25,000 to $40,000.”

The explanatory statements for each proposed amendment are below:

Proposition Number 1

SJR 2 (87th Legislature, 2nd Special Session) proposes a constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for the reduction of the amount of a limitation on the total amount of property taxes that may be imposed for general elementary and secondary public school purposes on the residence homestead of a person who is elderly or disabled in order to reflect any statutory reduction in the maximum compressed rate of the maintenance and operations taxes imposed for those purposes on the person’s homestead from the preceding tax year.

Proposition Number 2

SJR 2 (87th Legislature, 3rd Special Session) proposes a constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from property taxes for public school purposes from $25,000 to $40,000.

For more information and resources for voting in Texas, please visit VoteTexas.gov.

Keep Nine Amendment

April 2022

TFRW has formally announced its support for the Keep Nine Amendment to the United States Constitution. This
proposed amendment states, “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be composed of nine Justices.” TFRW joins
the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW) and the Republican National Committee (RNC), among others, in
supporting this endeavor.
Our Founding Fathers crafted a magnificent document, our Constitution, that ensures certain unalienable rights to all
Americans. These rights are protected, at least in part, by the independence of the Judiciary but are being threatened by
progressive lawmakers pushing to pack our Supreme Court. While the Supreme Court has not always consisted of nine
justices, it has been that way for more than 150 years.
The impetus for an amendment to prohibit court packing began in 2019 when Senator Rubio, joined by Senator Cornyn
and 20 other Republican senators, filed S.J. Res. 14 which provides “The Supreme Court of the United States shall be
composed of not more than nine justices.”(1) Then, in the summer of 2020, a bipartisan group dominated by former state attorneys general formed the Coalition to Preserve the Independence of the Supreme Court, which calls itself “Keep Nine” for short. Subsequently, in February 2021, Senator Cruz introduced the “Keep Nine” amendment in the Senate. See S.J. Res. 9. The goal of both resolutions is to prevent either party from using the Supreme Court as a political tool for its own advantage, and the good news is that Texas Republican leaders are united when it comes to maintaining our Supreme Court at nine justices. This is the perfect time for our members to approach their Congressional Representatives and Congressional candidates and ask them to go on the record in support of the Keep Nine amendment. This will not be an easy effort, because amending the U.S. Constitution typically requires the vote of 2/3 of the members of both the House and the Senate and then ratification by 3/4 of state legislatures. (2)
For more information about Keep Nine, go to keepnine.org. If you are interested in working on this initiative with TFRW,
contact me at vplegislation@tfrw.org to join our Keep Nine committee.

Run Offs

Republican Runoff Election: May 24, 2022
Llano County : Precinct 4 J.P- Lisa Simpson vs William Koch
District 24 State Senate: Pete Flores vs Raul Reyes
Texas Attorney General: Ken Paxton vs George P. Bush
Texas Land Commissioner: Dawn Buckingham vs Tim Westley

Property Taxes

State lawmakers will tell you they hate property taxes as much as anyone. But the state itself doesn’t levy the tax — local governments do. And lowering it in a meaningful way would require state officials to raise taxes or cut programs. For them, talking about it is easier than doing something.

TransGender Issues

Texas appeals court (3 rd Court of Appeals) on Monday reinstated a temporary injunction blocking Texas from investigating parents for child abuse if they allow their transgender children to receive gender-affirming care. They issued the order as part of a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal on behalf of the parents of a transgender teenager who were being investigated by child welfare workers.
“Having reviewed the record, we conclude that reinstating the temporary injunction is necessary to maintain the status quo and preserve the rights of all parties,” said the unsigned order by Chief Justice Darlene Byrne and Justices Chari Kelly and Edward Smith. (all 3 are Democrats elected in 2018).
Last month, Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a nonbinding legal opinion arguing that some gender-affirming care for minors could be considered child abuse. Four days after the opinion published, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents facilitating gender-affirming care for their kids.
District Judge Amy Clark Meachum issued the temporary injunction March 11 after the ACLU and Lambda Legal sued.
The same night Meachum’s injunction was issued, Paxton filed an appeal and claimed he froze the injunction, allowing the state to continue investigations. However, experts said the appeal fell into a complicated legal area, and lawyers had challenged such automatic stays before, claiming the state should not be able to overturn an injunction simply by filing an appeal.
With Monday’s order, the injunction for now will continue to block the ongoing — and any new — investigations into Texans accused of child abuse based only on the allegation that they provided gender-affirming medical care.

Submitted by Mary Cunningham

September 14, 2021

Stephen Peter Munesteri, Senior adviser and Policy Director will speak to Llano on September 14, 2021 at the meeting of the Highland Lakes Republican Women.  Meeting will begin at noon at the Uplift Church Meeting Room, 301 TX Hwy 71, Llano, TX.  Public is invited to attend and reservations are required.

Munesteri (born December 25, 1957) is an American attorney who served as the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas from 2010 to 2015.  In 2017, he was appointed to the White House staff as Deputy Assistant to the President and Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Public Liaison.

Munesteri was elected chairman at the state convention held in Dallas on June 13, 2010, when he unseated Cathie Adams, the wife of a Dallas chiropractor, who had held the position for only eight months.  He is the first challenger in modern Texas Republican history to defeat a sitting incumbent for the position of state chairman. Early in his political career, Munesteri served as state chairman of the Texas Chapter of Young Americans for Freedom and founded the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) in 1980.

Munesteri stepped down as party chairman to join U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky as a senior advisor to Paul’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Beginning in 2017 Munesteri served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Director for the Office of Public Liaison in Trump Administration.  He left the Trump Administration in 2019 to help run the 2020 re-election campaign of Texas Senator John Cornyn.

In December 2020 he joined the office of Texas Governor Abbott as Senior Adviser and Policy Director.

Seating is limited so please email to reserve a seat.  Attendance is free.  A meal will be catered by Gio’s.  Lunch is optional at a cost of $15 and must be reserved in advance.  If you want lunch, choose from Lasagna, Calzone or Ziti Dante.  Email reservations for seating to hlrttx@outlook.com.  If you desire a meal, state that in your email and include your choice of main dish.  Meal will be served at 11:45am and meeting will start promptly at 12 noon.

HLRW November 2020 Meeting November 10, 2020 12 noon to 1pm

Uplift Church Meeting Room, 301 TX Hwy 71, Llano, TX

$10 Box lunch from Millers.

Speaker—AJ Ares Plus a Representative from Turning Point USA

Come and hear an amazing story of how A.J. tried to start a local High School Republican Club of Texas at Llano High School. A. J. is a Junior and a fellow Republican that personally experiences political bullying daily at our public school by teachers and peers for supporting President Trump.

Turning Point USA, (TPUSA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote freedom.  Founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk, the organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets, and limited government. Turning Point USA believes that every young person can be enlightened to true free market values.  Since its founding, Turning Point USA has embarked on a mission to build the most organized, active, and powerful conservative grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses across the country. With a presence on over 2,000 campuses, Turning Point USA is the largest and fastest-growing youth organization in America

Jonathan M. Saenz is President of Texas Values, a non profit group dedicated to preserving and advancing a culture of family values in the state of Texas.

The Texas Values mission is to preserve and advance a culture of family values in the state of Texas.

The Texas Values vision is to stand for biblical, Judaeo-Christian values by ensuring Texas is a state in which religious liberty flourishes, families prosper, and every human life is valued.

Texas Values promotes the core values of faith, family, and freedom in Texas through:

• Policy research
• Public education and standing for truth in the media
• Grassroots mobilization
• Voter education
• Reviewing legislation and providing legal analysis
• Testifying at the Texas Legislature, State Board of Education, and other governmental entities

Meeting is on October 13, 2020 starting at noon.  We are back in our regular meeting location at  Uplift Church, 301 E. St Hwy 71, Llano. Masks are encouraged.

Boxed lunches are available for $10 each but MUST be reserved in advance.  You have choice of meat+cheese+veggies for your sandwich.  Call  Tiffany at (903) 372-1819 to place your order.

We are accepting 2021 membership dues at this time.  If you want to renew your membership or join for the first time, you can download and print a 2021 membership application here on this site.  Just print, fill out and bring to the meeting.  2021 dues are $40 for Full Memberships and $15 for Associate Membership.