BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – The 89th Texas legislative session continues, with the deadline for filing new bills coming up next Friday. Rep. Paul Dyson joined First News at Four on Monday to speak on the budget, which is the top priority of the legislative session.
“Appropriations has been broken up into their subcommittees, which deals with different articles on their constitution, and how the funding is allocated. The budget- still looking to be a conservative budget at $26.3 billion going back into property tax relief this time. We’re looking at doing a mix of a homestead exemption and also tax compression,” he explained.
School vouchers are an emergency item this session, after failing to pass last year.
“HB2 starting right there. That is your public school funding bills, which is going to offer about another $9 billion in new funding to public schools. I think all in total, it would be a little over a $100 billion dollars if everything is funded through the appropriations process,” said Rep. Dyson.
In regards to House Bill 3144, which would remove polling places from public school and university campuses (unless the campuses are closed during voting), Rep. Dyson said he had not seen that bill yet, but he has read about it.
“But my views always been we have to provide as much access to polling places as possible. We want to encourage, not discourage, voter turnout, and I know that A&M’s campus is a unique voting place. I voted there many times when I was an undergrad. It’s very convenient for students on campus,” Rep. Dyson added. “I‘d like to look at the language of the bill and see what all that it’s saying, and why it’s excluding public schools, and also higher education.”
Copyright 2025 KBTX. All rights reserved.
