Never is good to see you too, Jason.
You have served two terms in office.
You've scored major conservative wins.
What in the world do you
want to do in a third term?
Four more years in office if elected?
Most important thing is to keep Texas the
number one state for economic opportunity.
We also want to keep Texas
advancing educationally.
Remember this important fact?
When I first became governor,
I was shocked to learn that other
states were leading Texas as a concern.
Tier 1 research universities.
I promise to double that. And now?
Texas has more Tier 1 research universities
than any other state in the United States.
Same thing applies to our K through 12
schools and that is today Texas has more
blue ribbon K through 12 schools than
any other state in the United States.
So we want to continue
advancing educationally,
economically,
but also with individual liberties.
So to make sure that the the freedoms
that Texans have always enjoyed,
which candidly are different than the
way they are in some other states,
that those freedoms are going
to be protected.
Governor, let me ask you
about abortion speaking,
which many women say it's it's
it's freedoms as well too.
Republican state Senator Bob
Nichols announced late last month,
which I'm sure you saw,
that he will support an exception under
the state's abortion law for rape.
If the legislature passed that,
is that something you would
sign into law? Well, listen,
we'll say that there's going to be a lot
of different proposals that will come up
over the course of the upcoming session.
And I'm going to tell you
what I'm going to focus on.
And that is one making sure that
nothing that Beto supports like.
Abortion to the very last second before
a child is born would be allowed,
even denying health care to a
child who survives an abortion.
But second, something that really does
need to be done and that is clarify what
it means to protect the life of the mother.
There have been some comments and
even maybe some actions by some
doctors that are are not taking
care of women who have an ectopic
pregnancy or who have a miscarriage.
And that is wrong because
neither of those two.
Or abortions.
But that said,
I've even seen some other situations
that some women are going through where
they're not getting the healthcare
they need to protect their life.
Jason,
the point is this.
Our goal is to make sure we protect the
lives of both the mother and the baby.
And there's been too many
allegations that have been made
about ways in which the lives of
the mother are not being protected.
And so that must be clarified.
But just generally speaking is a
carve out for abortion for rape or
incest in the states. Portion laws,
is that something you could generally
support or would you oppose that?
Well, the the the goal, Jason,
is to protect the lives and the lives
of both the mother and the baby,
even for rape or incest.
Well again, we we wanted,
we want to see if there are
ways that we can make sure that
the lives of both the mother
and the baby can be protected.
That's our focus.
Property taxes, sure,
the the biggest property tax bill that
that any tax and pays is for the school
districts which we all know we're
all getting our our taxes right now.
We looked at Fort Worth ISD for an example.
In Tarrant County in 2015 the
state contributed 45% of the money
the district needs to operate.
In 2020, the state gave 30%.
These are the districts numbers and then
this school year the state contribution
is 27% that the less the state pays.
Governor you know that means the more
that property owners pay and renters pay.
I'm curious.
Why this has dropped so much under
your watch over the last eight years?
Yeah,
the the reality.
And I'd like to dig into those numbers
because I can tell you the reality.
And that is when you look at what we did
in 2019 that we followed up with in 2021,
we provided well over $10
billion in additional funding
for schools across the state.
I can tell you this,
no governors provided more
funding for education than I have.
No governors provided more funding
for teacher pay raises than I have.
And importantly, per pupil funding
is at an all time high right now.
And when you go back and and look
at the funding that we provided
in those last two sessions,
we did it intentionally to buy down the
property tax rates of the school districts.
And if you look at most school
districts across the state of Texas,
those property tax rates on average
are at least 10% lower than they
were before 2019 then on top
of that what I'm talking about.
With my property tax reduction,
by using at least $13.5 billion that
have been generated because of our
economic success in the state next year.
Surplus.
Yeah, surplus,
yeah.
So use that to further buy
down those property tax rates.
Do you see it ever getting back to parity
where the state contributes half and
local property owners contribute the
other half because it's been out of whack
to to be a while. To be clear,
my goal is to eliminate the maintenance
and operation component of this.
School district property tax
and So what I want to do we,
we already have a property tax reduction
fund that exists in the state of Texas.
Anytime we have any session
where we have any surplus,
I want to continue to put money into
that fund to reduce property taxes on
an ongoing basis until that maintenance
and operation component of school
property taxes is completely eliminated.
How long will that take?
Well, when we have surpluses
like we have this year,
it won't take very long.
Let's talk about accountability after Uvalde.
You know, Governor,
91 state troopers were there
on the scene that day in May.
More than a half dozen are
under investigation.
Have you stated multiple times
the DPS director Steve Mccraw said
he wishes the state took more
control that day at Rob Elementary?
Is Steve Mccraw's position
safe under your watch?
What he wanted to see is the standard
that applies in the state of Texas,
and it's called the Columbine Protocol.
And what that means is that if
what happened in Valley happens.
You're supposed to run immediately toward
the shooter and take the shooter out.
And so he's frustrated about the
fact that any officer what they're
DPS officer or some other type of
officer did not follow that protocol.
He wants to make sure there
is accountability for that.
I want to make sure there
is accountability for that.
As you probably know,
there are ongoing investigations by the FBI,
by the Department of Justice,
by the Texas Rangers,
and by the District Attorney.
And all of these investigations will
lead to all of the evidence and.
When we get all of the information
that we need,
then ultimate decisions will be made
about everyone who will be held accountable.
Just to emphasize what you said,
there are about a dozen DPS officers
who are under investigation.
I think there are two who are
already suspended.
And so we want to make sure,
whether it be DPS or local police or
the school police or federal officials,
anyone who stood around for more
than an hour in that school,
not following the Columbine protocol,
there needs to be some measure
of accountability.
But governor, this wasn't a
lone state trooper who did this.
As you know, it wasn't a half dozen.
There were 91 state troopers
there who did not go in.
Would you, based on the outcome
of the investigations that that
that are out there right now,
would you consider firing Steve
Mccraw for what happened that day?
You know, any
hiring and firing decision will
be based upon the evidence.
And we got to get to the evidence,
get to the bottom of exactly
what happened to see who is
accountable and why they did wrong.
Let's talk about the border for a moment.
Bussing migrants, I believe the
latest number I saw reportedly cost
about $12 million so far to date.
I want to ask about the cost to
keep them here because that's what
really hasn't been reported a lot.
Governor, we were in McAllen for the
debate between you and Beto O'Rourke and
we were asking the the mayor of McAllen,
Javier Villalobos, about the cost.
I said is there a line item budget
that you actually have a line item
in your budget that pays for this?
He said our cost locally is 0.
The the feds pay for it.
So I'm curious what is the
financial cost that Texas?
Has in this that you want other
northern cities to to start,
you know carrying.
Well I, I think the mayor of New York
made clear, the Mayor of New York,
who has only part of the
number of people that we bust,
he's saying that he needs a
billion dollars to pay for that.
When you look at education cost,
healthcare, healthcare costs,
housing costs, all the other details,
he says it's going to cost a billion dollars.
For them to be able to deal with a
minor fraction of what Texas is having
to deal with you, you would have to.
Look in each subcomponent,
whether it be healthcare, education,
welfare, all different types of subsectors.
And so that's why there's there's no one
location you go to to find that number.
You have one election ahead of you here,
not not too much longer before the election,
but people have mentioned your
name as possibly running for the
White House if Texas reelection.
Is that something you would
consider in a couple of years?
I have one job I'm focused on and
that's governor of Texas, period. Do
you have aspirations for
higher office, governor?
My only goal is Governor of Texas.
Governor, thank you for the time.
Thank you, Jason.