AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As Governor Greg Abbott officially sets his agenda for lawmakers with Sunday’s State of the State Address, border security will remain a focus.
Less than two weeks into the second Trump Administration, Gov. Abbott officially called on state agencies to work with the federal government. He issued five new executive orders this past week.
These include:
- Directing state agencies to assist federal immigration officers.
- Directing the Texas Military Department to cooperate with U.S. Armed Forces on the Mexican Border.
- Directing state agencies will also assist the feds in deploying additional border barriers such as buoys in the Rio Grande.
- Directing stage agencies to share intelligence on foreign terrorist organizations such as Mexican cartels.
- Directing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Texas Facilities Commission to identify detention space for anyone caught in the country illegally.
At the same time the senate finance committee heard from the Governor’s office regarding his letters to Congressional members asking for the federal government to reimburse Texas for the cost of Operation Lone Star. The Governor launched that in March 2021 under former President Joe Biden.
Chief of Staff Robert Black told the committee that Gov. Abbott has had “positive conversations” with the Trump administration about getting $11 billion.
“I would probably have better luck predicting the weather next month than to predicting what Congress is actually going to do,” said Black. “But I can assure you that the governor is putting forth every effort possible to get those funds back to Texas.”
But the start date of OLS could throw a wrench into the plan. As Senate Finance Committee Chair, Republican State Sen. Joan Huffman noted.
“Currently they’re there under the under the orders of Gov. Abbott and therefore we’re paying for it,” said Huffman. “Just a simple change of who’s ordering them down there.”
State Sen. Huffman also noted Texas pays $200 million per month for Texas National Guard Troops at the border. Huffman did show some optimism that having the feds help going forward would mean that money could be put to better use elsewhere.
But not everyone wants to throw more money at OLS with the federal government now planning to take a more direct role than under the previous administration.
State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, said that she wants an audit.
“It’s not enough to look good, you have to actually do good. We don’t know, yet, what good we’ve done with the expenditures we’ve made so far, and we also don’t know what kind of damage we’ve done,” said Eckhardt.
At same time, the new Department of Public Safety Director, Freeman Martin, testified to the Senate finance committee that his agency needs more staffing. He revealed DPS spends $2.5 million a week on travel and overtime payments related to OLS. Col. Martin also acknowledged the border work ends up pulling troopers away from other duties such as patrolling state highways.
“Between here (Austin) and Houston, you’ll have two troopers out. One is at the jail with the drunk driver and the other one’s working a crash, so that’s how you can go back and forth from Austin to Houston, Texas for months and never see a trooper,” explained Martin.
DPS also told senators that the agency identified nearly 5,400 people in the country illegally who have active warrants from local jurisdictions in Texas. DPS strike teams will work with federal partners to locate and arrest them.
Crime Victim’s Fund
After State of Texas Investigators have tried for over a year to speak to him, Attorney General Ken Paxton finally addressed concerns to lawmakers regarding the Texas Crime Victims’ Compensation Fund.
Before a Texas Senate budget hearing, Paxton laid out what he says his agency needs to keep up.
“The Office of Attorney General is committed to performing its duties with excellence,” Paxton told the Senate Committee on Finance.
Lawmakers want to inject the division with around $40 million in federal funds lost, the agency said, when the Federal Communications Commission capped fees collected from prison phone calls in 2024 — a “major source of revenue,” according to the Legislative Budget Board. Paxton is also asking for a 6% salary increase for staff to keep “competitive in the market.”
“We want to give you what you need,” said Senate Finance Chair Joan Huffman, R-Houston. “We want the victims to have what they need. We want to fully fund it.”
“It definitely needs to be updated as far as cost,” Paxton added. “Inflation has been significant over just the last four years and it’s affecting people’s ability to deal with these issues. And, as you know, they’re not expecting to have to deal with a crime.”
The Senate committee’s presentation is the first step in the legislative session’s budget process. The House must still hear the AG’s proposal before the two sides come to a compromise on a final budget by the end of May. Their decision will have a direct impact on the amount of funding for crime victims and how that division operates for the next two years.
Check out more on the proposal with Investigator Matt Grant’s story.
Thirsty For Water Infrastructure Funds
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick recently announced 25 top priority bills for the 89th Regular Legislative Session, including more investments in the state’s water supply.
The last week in January, Texas Water Development Board gathered experts in Austin at the “Water for Texas 2025 Conference.”
The TWDB projects that approximately one-quarter of the state’s population could face municipal water shortages by 2070. With population growth and issues of drought, lawmakers see the need to figure out something sooner rather than later.
“I cannot in good conscience leave this place without doing whatever i was supposed to do to secure water supply,” said Republican State Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock at the conference.
Last session, State Sen. Perry led the charge for a constitutional amendment to create the Texas Water Fund. Voters overwhelmingly gave approval to fund it with $1 billion dollars in November 2023. The TWDB oversees the fund. Leaders are excited about the investment. But say demands already show more will be needed.
“Many of our programs are eight, ten times oversubscribed. And so, any additional funding that the legislators see fit and the voters approve will certainly help our communities,” explained L’Oreal Stepney, the TWDB Chairwoman.
State. Sen. Perry is envisioning a joint resolution to ensure $1 billion flows each year into the water fund.
“This is just like roads. We don’t even think about roads. It just happens. It’s on autopilot. This will be an autopilot,” explained Perry.
That joint resolution could be issued in the coming weeks. Lt. Gov. Patrick has already listed it as one of his Senate priorities in this session.
You can read more with Eric Henrikson’s original story here.
TxTag Troubles
After years of investigating issues with how TxTag collects tolls from some users, State of Texas Investigator Matt Grant has learned some problems persist.
A total of 1.4 million accounts, or 60% of TxTag account holders, were not transferred over to Harris County Toll Road Authority because they were inactive for a year prior or had a negative balance, according to TxDOT.
In addition, there is a total of $6.8 million in positive balances the agency will be trying to return to customers, TxDOT said.
The agency said it will issue a refund to the primary card on file for the account if one exists. For accounts without a card, the agency will be mailing checks in the coming months. If the checks aren’t deposited within 180 days, the money will be transferred to the Texas Comptroller’s unclaimed property fund, according to TxDOT.
The TxTag transition to HCTRA follows years of effort by TxDOT and hundreds of millions of dollars spent on a system and vendors that fell short of both agency and customer expectations multiple times.
The latest move to HCTRA is substantially different from past vendor changes. TxDOT said the TxTag brand “is not going away,” but it doesn’t appear there will be much left of it going forward.
Moving to HCTRA “will bring significant savings and efficiency gain for the state of Texas. Customers could see less fees and it’ll help keep tolls low going forward,” TxDOT Executive Director Marc Williams said in a news release.
About 945,000 TxTag accounts – or 40% – were transitioned to HCTRA, according to TxDOT.
Those customers’ TxTag transponder stickers will continue working, with no expiration date or timeframe for phasing them out, according to HCTRA.
Let’s All Go To The Lobby
Lone Star State celebrities have joined forces to bolster the entertainment industry in Texas. A new ad campaign entitled ‘True to Texas,’ features Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton and Renée Zellweger.
The new four-minute ad from Stray Vista Studios released this month features the actors directly calling on lawmakers to bring the dream of silver screen spending back to Texas.
“I’m talking about a whole new hub for film and television a Renaissance a rebirth,” drawls McConaughey in the ad reminiscent of his role with opposite of Harrelson in ‘True Detective.’
“Yeah, small fraction of Texas budget surplus let’s turn this state into the new Hollywood, ” adds Harrelson.
The Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program expires this year. Lt. Gov. Patrick included the issue among his top 25 priorities this session.
Houston State Senator Joan Huffman plans to file the legislation soon.
“It will start a franchise tax credit, still overseen by the Governor’s office. There’ll be about $450 million for that,”
The Texas Film Commission has overseen several projects, from major motion pictures to television series, to commercial work, and even video game projects in the past under TMIIP.
Early details of this new bill will include Texas residency requirements for workers. The Lt. Gov. has said Texas would get $4 back for every $1 invested. His priority announcement included the goal of “establishing Texas as America’s film capital.”
The ad campaign echoes this call, with a straight-forward challenge from McConaughey, breaking the fourth wall to lawmakers at the end.
“So what do you say Texas Legislature? You don’t like what Hollywood’s been dishing? Let’s take over the kitchen, yeah,” said McConaughey.
