AUSTIN — Lawmakers ended a 140-day session Monday that answered the questions they asked at the start: Would they work on Texans’ kitchen-table concerns or focus on bigger issues?
Answer: They did both.
But it wasn’t enough to satisfy Gov. Greg Abbott, who at 9 p.m. Monday night promptly went back into session in the Legislature only to lower school property tax rates and tighten penalties for human trafficking and the operation of a storage house.
Abbott acted after spending the Memorial Day weekend trying to quell bickering between the other two top Republicans on Capitol Hill, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan over Phelan’s demand to tighten the assessment limits .
Political points
Saying the rate cut is all lawmakers can pass on a bill, Abbott denied his assessment cap idea in the House, while denying Patrick, Senate and House Democrats both chambers their preference that a mandatory family property exemption on school taxes also be increased.
“Several special sessions will be required,” Abbott said in a press release, more than two hours after both chambers adjourned this year’s regular session following a 24-hour round of jabs and taunts from Patrick and the leadership of the House on Twitter and public posts. statements
Flush with money, the Legislature deadlocked on the school property tax cut.
Congressmen in the Texas House have signed the conference committee report and are waiting for their counterparts in the Senate to sign off on the biggest property tax cut in the history of the United States. #txlege pic.twitter.com/HlNAYbtDT8
— Cait Wittman (@caitwittman) May 29, 2023
Several lawmakers said they hope, and expect, to be called back to Austin to continue working. Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said lawmakers have “unfinished business.”
“We’ve had a lot of victories, but we still have work to do,” he said, citing property tax relief, border security and public education. “We have to know the moment and do our job.”
loudspeaker @DadePhelan left a meeting in a huff with @GovAbbott and me last night, killing the biggest property tax cut in history by requiring an assessment cap on business commercial properties that most business associations don’t even want.
When asked what this new lid would look like…
— Office of Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) May 30, 2023
The session was memorable for its combination of bland but substantial legislation, a series of winks to the state’s most staunchly conservative GOP voters and aggressive probes of the Republican-controlled House that led to the impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and the expulsion of Hunt County GOP Rep. Bryan Slaton.
The House Investigative Committee, which conducted both investigations, has become a force on Capitol Hill this year. Used primarily last session as a cudgel to pursue conservative priorities, such as investigating the contents of school library books, this year it has acted more like the police department’s internal affairs division.
Rep. Tom Oliverson, vice chairman of the House Republican Caucus, said the GOP-led chamber showed it has the fortitude not to look past bad behavior among its own.
“We have shown that the House has the courage to take on corruption within its own ranks and deal with it properly,” said Oliverson, R-Cypress.
In the traditional final-day recognition of the speaker, members of the House showed emotion about the risks taken in police ethics.
“You stood your ground,” veteran Corpus Christi GOP Rep. Todd Hunter told Phelan. “We have reached the last day.”
Phelan responded, alluding to Paxton’s firing, though not the attorney general by name: “What happened this week is nothing I’m proud of. It’s nothing I was proud of. But it was necessary, and it was fair. And the Texas House spoke. We sent a strong message for the future of Texas.”
Playing catch up
Paxton’s drama and collisions over social issues clouded movements that, when the dust of history settles, can be great.
Lawmakers approved a two-year budget of $321.3 billion and sent to voters spending proposals that would increase infrastructure construction for a booming population and spur the development of more top-notch research universities.
The list of “investments” and “recovery payments” goes on and on: $10 billion to build natural gas-fired power plants, $5 billion for retired teachers, $3 billion for a the University of Texas, $2.2 billion for a state mental hospital construction, more than $2 billion for a Semiconductor Innovation Fund, $1.5 billion for broadband, $1.4 billion for security school, $1 billion for state parks, $1 billion for a Texas Water Fund, $900 million to buy future liabilities of the state workers’ pension fund, and $625 million for control of floods
State employees can expect consecutive raises of 5% per year.
A battle over education savings accounts that would help families pay for private schools stymied teacher pay raises and increases in school funding. Even with all the proposed spending, lawmakers left $10.7 billion in the general fund and $27.1 billion in the rainy day fund.
Culture war problems
The Legislature, which last session passed some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, mostly hit the pause button on the issue. The United States Supreme Court’s lifting of Roe vs. Wade gave strength to the 2021 Texas measures as a near-total ban.
Although health care providers wanted more clarity on medically necessary abortions, lawmakers rejected them. Alternatives to Abortion, a state program that currently has $50 million a year to disburse to crisis pregnancy centers that discourage abortion, would get $82.5 million a year under the proposed appropriations and get a new name : Prosperous Families of Texas.
The quiet on the abortion front doesn’t mean lawmakers haven’t been busy on other culture war issues.
They passed and sent to Abbott bills that would allow public schools to hire chaplains, restore illegal voting as a crime, and ban “diversity, equity and inclusion” offices and programs at state colleges and universities.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson (R), D-Houston, was applauded as she was recognized for 50 continuous years of service in the Texas House on the last day of this year’s regular session on Monday. Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland (center) turned 54, and Rep. Harold Dutton (left), D-Houston, turned 38.(Mikala Compton / ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Republican leadership, with Patrick at the helm, also passed measures that would restrict the participation of transgender athletes in intercollegiate sports and ban gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors.
The day before sine die, lawmakers sent a measure to Abbott’s desk that broadly expands the state’s penal code and prohibits minors from attending drag shows, Patrick said.
Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, said the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus was able to defeat dozens of bills that would negatively impact the community, but those that passed “have devastating consequences.”
He called it “frustrating” that GOP leadership “is targeting the LGBT community instead of focusing on meaningful policy that can benefit all Texans.”
No teacher poses
The biggest elephant hanging at the end of the session is the lack of consensus on a voucher-like effort that Abbott made a priority. The Republican threw his political weight behind sending families public money to pay for private education. But an 11th-hour push to put the policy controversy over the line by tying it to teacher pay raises failed, leaving public education advocates angry.
At an early morning press conference, they decry the lack of funding for public education at a time when the state is strapped for cash and schools are struggling to keep teachers.
“These are times of record abundance, and yet we’re withholding funds and holding our schools hostage so we can have a private school voucher,” said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Association of School Administrators School of Texas.
Emotional coda
For many Texans, Memorial Day was just another beautiful late spring day. Families move around the Capitol, taking photos inside the rotunda and on the sprawling grounds.
Inside the chambers, families of lawmakers were welcomed to the floor to mark what could be the last day of the session. Children sank into what would normally be lawmakers’ big brown leather chairs, and spouses in bright summer dresses took group photos. Lawmakers excitedly moved around the floor, making post-session plans, exchanging gifts and autographing pictures of the state Capitol building.
Rep. Salman Bhojani, a freshman Democrat from Euless, walked the House chamber with a sign proclaiming “Happy sine die!”
The House honored 50 years in the Legislature for Houston Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the longest-serving black lawmaker who joined the chamber when women couldn’t even open a credit card. Members circled the dais and Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the head of the House Democratic Caucus, bowed to Thompson several times. The two embraced.
“Fifty years is a short period of time,” said former Speaker Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican who came to the House in 1969, four years ahead of Thompson.
“It’s all about friendship and respect for each other,” he said.
Thompson, 84, a lawyer, replied: “We know how to put aside partisanship and work on the issues.”
He then announced that he was running for re-election.
Related: Will Property Tax Cuts, School Funding, ESAs Lead to Special Session?
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