Governor Greg Abbott declared seven emergency items during his biennial State of the State address, including many repeats from previous sessions like property tax relief, school vouchers, and bail reform. Also sprinkled throughout his speech were lines expressing strong anti-DEI and anti-immigration sentiments.
In his Sunday address, which was held at a private business in Austin called Arnold Oil Company, Abbott praised Texas’ economy and pointed to the state as the “blueprint of the future of America.” And yet, the governor—who’s reigned over Texas for the past decade—outlined several problems still plaguing the state, including many that he and his party claimed to have tackled in prior years.
“Clearly, God has blessed Texas, and the state of our state has never been better,” Abbott said. “But we know that more must be done to ensure that prosperity reaches every Texas family and every Texas business.”
Abbott’s emergency items include property tax relief, improving water infrastructure, creating a universal school voucher program, increasing teacher pay, expanding career training, improving cyber security, and continuing bail reform—some of which had been priorities for Abbott in previous legislative sessions.
Lawmakers can only pass legislation related to Abbott’s emergency items during the first 60 days of the session, according to the Texas Constitution.
At the top of his agenda is property tax relief—which has become a perennial issue as homeowners are hit with ever-increasing bills while the Republican-led Legislature passes stopgap measures that critics say fail to address the core problems. Last session, at Abbott’s urging, lawmakers passed a $18 billion cut in property taxes using the state’s surplus revenue. And now, Abbott is calling for $10 billion more this session.
Abbott said local authorities “wiped out” last session’s cuts, so he proposed requiring all local bond issues and tax rate elections to be approved by a two-thirds supermajority of voters during November elections.
Three of Abbott’s emergency items—school vouchers, teacher pay raises, and expanded career training—focused on education. He said he hopes to make Texas “number one in educating our children.”
Abbott pushed for school vouchers last session, which ultimately died in the Texas House at the end of four special sessions. After ousting anti-voucher House Republicans in the 2024 elections, Abbott said he has the votes to pass a voucher bill this session and once again made the policy an emergency item.
“Schools must respond to parents’ concerns, and parents should be empowered to choose the school that’s best for their child,” the governor said.
The Texas Senate has already started moving on the issue. Last week, the Senate Education Committee passed Senate Bill 2, which would give Texas parents $10,000 annually to put towards private school tuition. The bill could go up to the Senate floor for a vote as early as this week. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, announced vouchers as his priority before the session.
Last session, Abbott set aside $4.5 billion for public education funding, but held it hostage in his failed voucher bill. This session, he declared increasing teacher pay as another emergency item—though he didn’t say by how much. He also would like to work with legislators to add a $750 million investment into a “teacher incentive allotment” which would “put teachers on a path to earn a six-figure salary.”
The Teacher Incentive Allotment was first passed as part of House Bill 3 in 2019. The Texas State Teacher’s Association said as of 2022, less than 1 percent of teachers in Texas made six figures. The average teacher salary in Texas is $60,716, according to the National Education Association, which puts Texas as 30th in the nation in terms of teacher salaries.
His final education-related emergency item was expanding career training by adding more funding to programs like the Jobs and Education for Texas grants.
As he often does, Abbott weaved in plenty of red-meat rhetoric into his address.
To truly achieve academic excellence, Abbott said, curriculum should not be influenced by “woke agendas.” He said he wants to purge any sign of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in K-12 schools.
“We must purge DEI from every corner of our schools and return the focus to merit,” Abbott said.
He also advocated for a law banning DEI from any entity that receives taxpayer dollars. This follows his January 31 executive order directing Texas state agencies to eliminate DEI policies.
Abbott also declared a “Texas-sized” investment in water. According to the State Water Plan, Texas will experience a water shortage by 2070. Abbott proposes legislators should make a one-time investment in water, along with putting aside $1 billion per year for the next ten years for both new water supplies and repairing existing pipes.
While he said the Legislature passed legislation to add 10,000 megawatts to the state’s electric grid last session, he said Texas should continue to fortify the power supply, though he didn’t make this an emergency item. Texans have lost power in over 200 weather-related incidents since 2000. During Hurricane Beryl in July, over two million Houstonians lost power.
He also suggested Texas should lead a “nuclear power renaissance” in the United States.
Abbott declared bail reform an emergency item, as he has for the previous three sessions. He urged legislators to require “activist judges” to deny bail for violent offenders and to deny bail if an offender is accused of capital murder or sexual offense of a child.
He also praised the work of Operation Lone Star, which deployed the National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety to the border. He said his state agencies will help the Trump Administration arrest, jail, and deport immigrants. “Today, we have a President who will partner with Texas to deny illegal entry,” Abbott said.
Finally, he declared the creation of Texas Cyber Command, which will partner with the University of Texas in San Antonio, to prevent foreign cyber attacks.
The post Abbott’s Familiar Priorities Include Property Taxes, Vouchers, Cracking Down on Bail appeared first on The Texas Observer.
