Gina Hinojosa Challenges Abbott on Taxes, Musk Ties at Plano Stop

By R.J. Morales | TX3DNews

PLANO, Texas — “Who does Texas belong to?”

Speaking at Haggard Library on Oct. 29, Gina Hinojosa challenged Gov. Greg Abbott over his ties to Elon Musk and defended her tax record.

“Is Texas going to be a state by and for the people? Or is this the billionaires’ world, and we just live here?” she asked.

The Democratic nominee for governor appeared with state Rep. Mihaela Plesa ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

“There is deep disappointment, frankly, in both parties,” she said.

An Appeal Across Party Lines in Collin County

“You all are being talked about in this election, because something is happening here,” Hinojosa told attendees.

She said her supporters include independents and Republicans, pointing to public schools and opposition to data centers as issues bringing people together.

“In this fight, fighting for public schools, fighting against the data centers, right?” she said.

Hinojosa asked supporters to speak with non-Democratic friends and relatives.

“I’m going to ask you, approach your non Democratic friends and family members,” she said.

The American Dream and Neighborhood Schools

Hinojosa called for getting “back to the basics” and “back to securing the American dream,” describing a time when hard work paid.

“Where one job was enough,” she said. “Where you could send your kid to a good school, just in the neighborhood, down the street.”

“We need to get back to that time.”

She argued that Texas should offer prosperity to anyone willing to put in the work, but that too many young and working people can no longer reach that promise.

Hinojosa said she has met teachers across Texas who donate plasma to pay their bills. She described their willingness to do so as an example of how far Texans will go to provide for their families.

“But it shouldn’t take that, right?” she said.

She argued that culture wars have divided Texans, including members of the same families, while technology billionaires accumulated money, power and personal data.

“The only winners have been, like, 15 billionaire tech dudes,” she said.

“They try to keep us divided because they know that together, we are powerful.”

Hinojosa Defends Her Tax Record

Hinojosa rejected Abbott’s campaign attacks on her tax positions.

“Tell your friends. I have never once supported an income tax,” she said.

She also said she has never voted to increase property taxes and pointed to her time on the Austin school board, where she said she voted to cut property taxes.

“That is my record. That is the truth,” she said.

She accused Abbott of lying about her positions and said he would not debate her because she would challenge those claims directly.

“If Greg Abbott is not man enough to debate me, then he doesn’t deserve to be the governor.”

Abbott’s campaign has cited her 2019 vote against a constitutional income-tax ban and earlier comments discussing income taxes as another component of Texas’ tax structure. That vote was against prohibiting an income tax, rather than for legislation imposing one. Hinojosa says she opposes a state income tax.

Hinojosa Questions Abbott’s Ties to Musk

Hinojosa also discussed her lawsuit seeking access to communications between Abbott’s office and Elon Musk’s companies, which she filed the previous week.

She criticized the governor’s office for invoking a privacy exception for information it described as “intimate and embarrassing,” arguing that the withheld communications could reveal whose interests Abbott was serving.

Hinojosa accused Abbott of intervening in broadband funding to benefit Musk’s business and pointed to what she described as $1.7 billion in property-tax breaks for Musk.

“The last time I checked, the rest of us paid full price,” she said.

Her broadband criticism follows scrutiny by state lawmakers. At a June hearing, the head of the Texas Broadband Development Office testified that Abbott’s office had urged a review of funding arrangements for satellite providers. Lawmakers questioned whether changes favored Musk’s Starlink.

Abbott’s office has called the records lawsuit politically motivated and accused Hinojosa of using her legislative position for campaign purposes. A district judge ordered access, but an appeals court put that order on hold. The dispute remained unresolved Oct. 29.

A Closing Turnout Appeal

Hinojosa ended by asking supporters to make voting plans and help relatives reach the polls.

“I need y’all to make sure if you haven’t voted, you have a plan to vote,” she said.

Early voting ends Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3.

“And take them to the polls, no excuses,” she said.