Texas Governor Greg Abbott has released the 2022 Report to the People of Texas highlighting the legislative efforts executed over the last year to improve the lives of Texans. Consisting of fifty-eight pages, it chronicles laws and decisions regarding the economy, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and border security, among other subjects.
“The Lone Star State continues to lead as a top state for population growth, for job creation, and for attracting job-creating capital investments, thanks to our unwavering commitment to economic freedom and our young, educated, skilled, and diverse workforce,” Governor Abbott wrote in the introductory letter.
Legislative efforts to enact “business-friendly incentives” throughout the state are credited in the report with attracting more than 230 business headquarters since 2015.
The document indicates that Texas leads the nation in year-over-year and decade-long population growth while also pointing out that labor indicators are at an all-time high, with more than 13 million Texans employed.
In a tweet announcing the report’s release, Abbott wrote, “we are building a state that is safer, freer, healthier, & more prosperous!”
NEW: The 2022 Report to the People of Texas, looking back at all that was accomplished by & for the people of Texas over the past year. Working together, we are building a state that is safer, freer, healthier, & more prosperous! #txlegehttps://t.co/SxRz4mV5Lq pic.twitter.com/lrPqcOev22
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) February 8, 2022
Some Twitter users did not seem to share the report’s — or the tweet’s — sentiment.
One user, zeroing in on the word “prosperous,” cited an infographic from a Bloomberg article illustrating a 41.1% surge in prices of Austin homes, the largest increase in the U.S.
“We cannot agree more,” they snarked. “Prosperity is the key of pushing more and more people outside of their homes. What is the year end Target? [1 million? 2 million] additional homeless?”
Another seemed to hone in on the words “safer” and “healthier,” linking an article from the Guardian that says Texas’ maternal mortality rate is higher than the U.S. average, and that “Black women are ‘disproportionately’ affected.”
Indeed, a significant portion of the 2022 Report to the People of Texas was dedicated to discussing Texas’ approach to health, in particular to detailing the many ways that state agencies sought to address pandemic-related problems.
“I’ve seen firsthand the pain and personal hardships that families endured. I have also witnessed the stoic heroism of so many as they selflessly cared for their neighbors. Our hearts are with those who have suffered from COVID-19, and we will mourn for every single Texan who lost their life to the virus,” Governor Abbott memorialized.
Also regarding safety was the document’s mention of the Texas National Guard. Per the document, Operation Lone Star deployed more than 10,000 law enforcement officers into the border region to combat drug trafficking and human smuggling efforts.
The report also provides information about various tactics and programs used to disrupt the criminally organized sex trafficking of children, especially unlawful migrant children who are the victims of sexual abuse.
These state border-security strategies have been the subject of much criticism raising questions of their constitutionality. A group of twenty-six Congressional Democrats wrote a letter to the U.S. attorney general last October calling for an investigation into the methods, saying “these operations have continued to militarize Texas’ border communities and interfered with the federal immigration system, likely violating the supremacy clause of the constitution.”
In regards to an October ruling that one of Abbott’s executive orders violated the supremacy clause, the governor responded, “I will continue to act. However, but it just goes to show the level of pushback by the Biden administration even trying to deny me to protect the health and safety of my fellow Texans.”
Governor Abbott concludes the report almost poetically: “The story of Texas has long been written by men and women who look to the horizon and see the possible beyond all obstacles near and far. Texas is still the new frontier, a place where opportunity is abundant, where free enterprise flourishes, and where dreams, and families, and jobs grow.”
