(The Center Square) – On the same day the Texas Senate filed its 2026-2027 biennium budget proposal, the Texas House filed a similar budget.
The proposals are nearly identical, allocating more than $330 billion in spending, including $1 billion for school choice.
“Substantially identical to the Senate’s base budget proposal, this initial step in the budgetary process signals a strong commitment to collaboration between the two chambers to pass the fiscally conservative budget that addresses the priority of Texans,” House Speaker Dustin Burrows said in a statement.
The budget was proposed by the House Appropriations Committee led by Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood.
“Debating and passing the budget will be one of the most important undertakings of the session, as it will determine the financial boundaries under which we operate when considering all other major legislation including school choice, water infrastructure, and more,” Burrows said. “Accordingly, the budget will be considered on the House floor as soon as practical, and during this process, I would urge my colleagues in the House to identify additional resources within the budget to deliver even greater property tax relief and additional funding for classroom and teachers. I have full confidence the House will invest in these opportunities while simultaneously managing taxpayer dollars wisely, eliminating unnecessary spending and maximizing efficiency to ensure every dollar benefits Texans.”
The House’s base budget proposal includes $335.7 billion in total spending and $154.1 billion in general revenue spending.
It prioritizes property tax relief by allocating $26.3 billion for the ongoing cost of the current $100,000 homestead exemption and $3 billion for 6.8 cents of additional rate compression through existing mechanisms by fiscal 2027. It provides $3.5 billion for new property tax relief, contingent on legislation, for a total of $6.5 billion in new relief.
It allocates a similar amount as the Senate’s budget proposal to fully fund public education. This includes $4.85 billion in new funding, contingent on school finance legislation. It allocates $63 billion to fully fund student enrollment, representing a $3.4 billion increase.
Like the Senate, it allocates $1 billion to establish a new school choice program creating Education Savings Accounts for a bill Gov. Greg Abbott has said is a legislative priority.
The bill also dedicates $400 million for school safety improvements and $450 million to the Teacher Retirement System to minimize premium increases.
It also allocates $6.5 billion for Texas border security efforts, $402 million to hire 600 new Texas Department of Public Safety troopers and $363 million to implement raises for correctional officers.
It also allocates $1.1 billion to address high-risk cyber security threats, $1.7 billion to expand rural broadband access, $36 billion for highway projects, $2.5 billion for water infrastructure, and $34 million for flood control dam projects.
The bill also prioritizes health care funding, including appropriating $139 million to operationalize new state hospital beds, raising personal attendant wages to $12 an hour, add $174 million to the early childhood intervention program and $73 million to expand youth crisis outreach teams. It also includes $20 million for three additional women’s preventative health mobile units in the rural areas of the Panhandle, West Texas and Deep East Texas.
The legislature will again be dealing with a surplus of nearly $24 billion, higher than originally projected, The Center Square reported. Many Texans argue the legislature should return the majority, if not all of it, back to the taxpayers, rather than spend it.
A recent poll shows that the majority of Texans want the legislature to prioritize and increase funding on the state’s border security efforts, The Center Square reported.
