AUSTIN, Texas — State lawmakers are working on plans for what Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calls a conservative approach to budgeting.
In a statement, Patrick announced the filing of the Senate budget proposal, saying, “Our conservative approach to budgeting has allowed Texas to maintain a pristine balance sheet going into the next biennium. This will keep our state’s economy the envy of the nation and the world.”
Along with the Senate, the House also filed its budget proposal. Both include more than $150 billion in spending driven by Republican priorities such as increased border security and school vouchers.
Rep. Mary González, D-El Paso, is the vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee. She describes the first draft of the chamber’s budget proposal as a work in progress.
“Our budget is a moral document of how we think we need to plan for the future of this state that is bigger than a lot of countries,” said González.
Lawmakers have a $24 billion surplus to allocate, which is $10 billion less than the last budgeting cycle. Chamber leadership describes their budgets as fiscally conservative, with the House proposal totaling $335 billion and the Senate $332 billion.
“They’re leaving room, for themselves on, in terms of, like, additional priorities that will come through during the legislative session,” said Rahul Sreenivasan with Texas 2036.
Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, says how lawmakers allocate the money “will determine the financial boundaries under which we operate when considering all other major legislation, including school choice, water infrastructure, and more.”
The priorities for the upper and lower chambers are similar, signaling a reset from previous tension that stemmed from the failure of educational savings account legislation in the House. Now it’s back on the table.
“We have the means to provide not only public education with the money it needs to go forth and do good work, but also to establish a new ESA program,” said James Quintero with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Both chambers allocated $1 billion to school vouchers. This is double the allocated funding from the last legislative session.
“I do foresee us having deeper conversations on guardrails and protection of taxpayer dollars,” said González.
There is nearly $5 billion set aside for public education that includes teacher pay raises, and $6.5 billion is currently assigned to border security, which Patrick says is to “continue Texas’ strong presence at the border and maintain current border security operations.”
“I hope that the national government will become more willing to do what it needs to do on the border and take less pressure off the Texas budget,” said Quintero.
And decreasing property tax is another large ticket item for both chambers.
“The House version of the bill basically says we set aside this $3 billion contingent upon the passage of some legislation,” said Shannon Halbrook with Every Texan. “The Senate version of the bill, on the other hand, does specify that they want to increase the homestead exemption once again.”
While the House committees are not yet set, the Senate finance committee will start budget hearings early next week. The last budget is expected to be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature in May.
