From budget surplus to gun rights to legalizing gambling, Texas lawmakers are tackling a variety of state issues and drafting potential new laws. The biannual session started Jan. 10 and
The 88th Texas Legislature is in session, and lawmakers, lobbyists and advocacy groups are swirling in the Texas Capitol to compete for a voice in making future laws.
Since the session started Jan. 10, the Texas Legislature — composed of the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives — has discussed issues ranging from gun control to property taxes to the legalization of casinos.
Republicans hold the majority in the Legislature, possessing 86 of the 150 House seats and 19 of the 31 Senate seats. For the rest of the 140-day regular session, legislatures will continue attempting to write new laws and tackle various state issues.
Here are a few highlights of interest.
The budget surplus and housing
This year, the Texas Legislature is working with a $32.7 billion surplus in its budget, which Gov. Greg Abbott said in his 2023 inauguration speech is the largest the state has ever seen.
This sort of surplus isn’t common, and it’s the number one issue in this year’s session, said Marcus Hendershot, political science assistant professor of instruction.
“One of the nice things about budgets, when you have surpluses, is everybody gets along a little bit better,” Hendershot said.
A primary cause of the surplus is money from the state’s rapidly increasing housing costs, which has resulted from demographic shifts and from large corporate investments into the state. As those costs have risen, so has property tax revenue.
Texas has some of the country’s highest property taxes in the nation, according to Tax-Rates.org.
Legislatures are looking to return some of the surplus to the people by putting limits on increasing property tax assessments. Whatever happens, how the session handles property costs directly affects renters, as renting costs follow housing price trends, Hendershot said.
In his inauguration speech, Abbott promised to use the budget surplus to provide the largest property tax cut in the state’s history.
“Make no mistake, that surplus does not belong to government. It belongs to the taxpayers,” he said.
Both the House and the Senate budget estimates recommend allocating $15 billion toward property tax relief over the next two years.
Political science junior Lance Bokinskie said he believes using the surplus for property tax relief would have immediate short-term consequences for students who will soon graduate and enter the workforce. Texas has seen several generations of young workers not having access to homeownership and early wealth building.
“The Texas economy is doing well. That’s why that surplus exists,” Bokinskie said. “There’s jobs and, if you combine that with a measure of property tax relief, right when you have a whole generation in the state entering the workforce, that can be huge.”
Investments in education
The surplus is also important to students and to the university, as it directly relates to funding and tuition, Hendershot said. Last December, six of the state’s largest public university systems, including the UT system, asked lawmakers to allocate nearly $1 billion toward higher education, according to The Texas Tribune.
In exchange for the funding, university chancellors pledged not to raise tuition for all undergraduate students in the next two academic years.
The universities also asked the state to fund higher education employee health insurance at the same rate as other state employees. Currently, the state covers less than 80% of the rate for state employees, according to the letter obtained by The Texas Tribune .
In primary and secondary public education, Republicans and Democrats may agree on devoting more of the state budget to increasing K-12 teacher pay as teachers are becoming a “scarce commodity” within the state, Hendershot said.
Haley Velasquez, social work and political science senior, said she’d like to see the surplus used for education. Because school budgets are affected by local taxes, low-income communities often have less funding for their schools, leading to students having fewer opportunities than their high-income counterparts, she said.
“Children are the most important aspect,” Velasquez said. “They’re going to be the next generation, so why not put that funding into education so that the next generation could promote growth in our economy and our policy?”
Legislatures have filed several bills advocating for teacher pay raises. One is House Bill 1548, which pushes to give public schools an additional $15,000 per full-time staff to be allocated toward teachers’ wages.
Rodrigo Lizaola, history and political science junior, said the best thing that’s looking to come out of the session is increasing pay for teachers, which both Republicans and Democrats seem to be open to. He said he thinks they’ll probably increase security and give teachers guns, but he hopes teachers will benefit directly from the session.
“Public school teachers, specifically middle school and elementary school because I could never be in those jobs, they deserve something,” Lizaola said. “Especially with like, you know, the way that economies has been for like the past year.”
Abortion
Since the last legislative session, the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, the federal right to an abortion, and gave states the power to prohibit or allow abortions. In August 2022, Texas enacted a trigger law that automatically banned all abortions unless the mother faces death or a “substantial impairment of a major bodily function,” according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
In 2021’s session, the legislature passed Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, banning abortions once a fetal heartbeat could be detected around six weeks and allowing a person to use civil action against anyone involved in an abortion.
This year, some legislatures have filed bills to expand the exception to abortion. SB 122 would allow abortion if the pregnancy resulted from sexual assault but would not require the prosecution of the offense or the patient to file a police or investigative report or forensic evidence.
On the other hand, some legislatures, like the proponents of HB 61, seek to tighten the state’s abortion laws. The bill would prohibit Texas government entities from helping pay for out-of-state abortions.
Hendershot said there might be some hesitancy to push abortion policy in this session. In last year’s midterm elections, the topic mobilized liberal voters and bumped up turnout in elections, which Republicans would want to avoid.
However, legislatures may move to address contraceptives like the morning-after pill by introducing new rules and regulations, he said.
For Velasquez, abortion laws are one of the main issues currently facing the state, she said. She said she thinks abortion is health care, and it’s important for women to be able to make their own choices.
LGBTQ+ rights
Laws surrounding the LGBTQ+ community have stayed at the forefront of the Texas political discussion.
In the last year, Abbott has associated gender-affirming health care for transgender youth with child abuse, and in Arlington, the city council has repeatedly heard discussions about LGBTQ+ books and displays in public libraries, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
Before the session began, lawmakers had filed around three dozen bills targeting LGBTQ+ people, according to The Texas Tribune. Top priority among these are bills that mirror Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which limits classroom discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in schools.
One of these, HB 631, aims to prohibit classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through fifth grade or in a manner that is inappropriate for students by state standards. HB 1155 would extend that threshold to eighth grade.
Uvalde response
Another conversation topic in this session stems from last year’s Uvalde school shooting, which took the lives of 19 elementary schoolers and two teachers.
In response to school shootings, SB 574 seeks to establish a School Violence Victims’ Compensation Fund, which would be fueled by a new tax on the retail sale of firearms and ammunition sold in Texas and allow victims of school gun violence to claim compensation from the state.
Also proposed is SB 145, which would raise the minimum age for renting or buying a firearm from 18 to 21.
Beyond talk of restricting access to guns, legislatures might look at using the budget surplus to improve security and safety at elementary, middle and high schools, Hendershot said.
Aiming to promote school safety, HB 801 would require schools to have only one main public entrance with more secure doors that only specialized personnel can unlock.
Velasquez said she isn’t against guns, but she thinks the current laws could be better. “If we’re gonna have guns, you should teach people more about gun safety or how to train properly.”
In 2021’s session, Abbott signed HB 1927 into law, allowing Texans to open carry without a background check or previously required training, according to previous Shorthorn reporting.
Casino legalization
For over 50 years, most gambling has been illegal in Texas, with exceptions including the state lottery and placing bets on some animal races. However, this session, gambling industry lobbyists are expected to be active, Hendershot said.
“They pushed for movement on legalized gambling and gaming last time through, and they’ll be back,” he said.
House Joint Resolution 97 calls for a state constitutional amendment to the state’s constitution which would allow the legalization of casinos and sports wagering. If passed by the legislature, the decision would go to voters in November’s election.
Gambling is legal in 36 states and Washington D.C., according to the American Gambling Association. The legalization of gambling sees mixed support from both Republicans and Democrats.
Hendershot said this session might not have many big policies regarding some of the “red meat” issues that exist between Democrats and Republicans.
“It’s going to be a more of a budget orientation because of this big pile of money that they’re going to try to distribute,” he said.
@Shawlings601