AUSTIN, Texas — After years of intra-party acrimony in the Legislature, the state’s top Republican leaders all seemed to work in unison this time around to pass a slew of conservative priorities like school vouchers, further property tax cuts and bills to increase the role of religion in public life.
And while Republican Party of Texas Chairman Abraham George praised some of that work, he was hesitant to give effusive praise.
“It’s been a reasonable session,” he said.
On property taxes, for which lawmakers allocated $51 billion to buy down taxes for Texas homeowners, George said he was unsatisfied with the Legislature’s work. George said the party’s platform calls for the abolition of property taxes over time and lawmakers did not advance that goal.
“Both chambers failed on that,” he said, adding he hoped Gov. Greg Abbott would put more pressure on lawmakers to provide further property tax relief. “There’s a lot of work to be done on this one issue.”
And although George said the party worked with the state’s Big 3 leaders — Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows — the chairman was reluctant to give the first-term Lubbock speaker too much praise.
George said Burrows went around House Republican Caucus rules that call for the speaker to be elected by a majority of the caucus and therefore was not supported by the party. But he said Burrows did a better job pushing for conservative priorities than prior speakers.
“Compared to [former speakers] Dade Phelan or Dennis Bonnen or [Joe] Straus, those speakers were absolutely against almost every priority there was by the Republican priority,” he said. “I don’t think I saw that with Dustin Burrows.”
“It was better than what we had in the past,” he said.
George also dodged a question on a controversial ban on THC consumable products that was passed by the Legislature. Business groups and veterans, who use the substance for pain relief, have called on Abbott to veto the legislation. George said he wanted to stay out of that conversation.
“We are letting our chambers and governor handle this,” he said. “I have my personal opinion about it, but since the party has not taken a position on one way or the other, I’m just going to stay out of it.”
The Texas GOP leader said he would like to see lawmakers back in Austin for a special session to stiffen the state’s bail laws further and to bar cities and counties from being able to hire lobbyists to advocate for them in the Texas Capitol with taxpayer money.
