Texas lawmakers target property taxes, abortion in bills filed ahead …

Republican lawmakers for years have been pushing to bring down the state’s property taxes, which are among the highest in the nation. Last year, legislators approved a $12.7 billion package that included tax breaks for homeowners and money for school districts to lower how much they collect in property taxes. A Texas Tribune analysis showed many residents have seen significant tax reductions as a result of the last several years of property tax cuts. The amount of taxes school districts collected from property owners fell by nearly 10% between 2022 and 2023, according to figures provided by the Texas Comptroller’s office.

Lawmakers filed dozens of bills Tuesday seeking to further lower Texans’ property taxes. Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, filed a bill that would eliminate property taxes altogether and create a committee to study “alternative methods of taxation” to replace them. Eliminating all local property taxes would cost the state an estimated $81.5 billion, based on figures presented by the Legislative Budget Board. Spending that much on tax cuts would likely require a significant increase in the sales tax, lawmakers have said.

Several proposed bills would use the state’s surplus revenue to offset property taxes. For example, House Bill 264, filed by Rep. Keith Bell, R-Forney, would dedicate half of any budget surplus every two years to tax relief. House Bill 275, filed by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, would use the surplus to further reduce the amount of money that school districts collect in property taxes. House Bill 378, filed by Rep. Christina Morales, D-Houston, would increase the homestead exemption — the portion of a home’s value that is exempted from taxation — from $100,000 to $200,000. The state would make up the school district’s loss in revenue.

Several lawmakers filed bills that would limit increases in a property’s appraised value. Such caps could create inequities between taxpayers, experts have warned. New homeowners could end up paying significantly more than those who have owned homes for a long time. And the cap could also disrupt the housing market by enticing people to stay in their homes for longer in order to obtain the tax benefit, thus reducing the number of homes that become available each year.

— Pooja Salhotra

State Rep. Donna Howard, an Austin Democrat and one of the chamber’s loudest voices in support of abortion access, filed two bills that would expand when a health care provider can legally perform an abortion.

The current law allows doctors to terminate a pregnancy when, in their “reasonable medical judgment,” it is necessary to save the life of the patient. While Republican lawmakers and anti-abortion activists say the law is clear, dozens of women have come forward with stories of delayed or denied medical care. At least two women died after doctors hesitated to treat them because of worries about the law’s strict penalties. Last week, more than 100 Texas OB/GYNs signed a letter saying the near-total ban has restricted them from providing high-quality, evidence-based care to their patients.

Under HB 257, physicians would be able to rely on their “best medical judgment,” which could not be overruled by an external review process. It would additionally allow abortions to preserve a patient’s mental health or future fertility, and in cases where the fetus is either not going to survive after birth or is “incompatible with life without extraordinary medical interventions.” HB 395, also filed by Howard, would allow abortions in cases of rape or incest. Six Democrats filed a companion bill for each of these proposals in the Senate.

Howard and other Democratic lawmakers filed a slew of similar bills last session. None received a hearing.

On the other side of the issue, state Rep. Steve Toth filed HB 1004, which would empower the Texas Attorney General to unilaterally prosecute certain crimes, including election and abortion-related offenses. A similar measure did not pass last session.

— Eleanor Klibanoff

Some Republicans and conservative groups have long advocated for “school choice,” or the idea that the state should support families that decide not to send their children to public schools. Last year, Republican lawmakers attempted to pass a bill that would have created “education savings accounts,” a type of school voucher program that would provide public funds directly to families to help them pay for their children’s private schooling and other educational expenses.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the leader of the Senate, said last week that establishing a voucher program in Texas would be his top legislative priority, while Gov. Greg Abbott said the House has enough votes to get it approved. At least one bill proposing a voucher program was filed Tuesday, and more are likely to come.

House Bill 212, proposed by Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park, would establish a process for parents or legal guardians to get reimbursed by the state for enrolling their children into private schools. Any school-aged child would be eligible for the program.

Several Republicans also filed legislation that would guide or limit what learning materials children are exposed to in school. House Bill 183, introduced by Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco, would give the GOP-dominated State Board of Education the power to prohibit school districts from using library materials it considers “inappropriate” or “sexually explicit.” Local school districts typically make those decisions.

House Bill 196, from Rep. Cody Thane Vasut, R-Angleton, would require schools to teach “that human life begins at conception and has inherent dignity and immeasurable worth from the moment of conception.”

Senate Bill 86, a proposal by Sen. Bob Hall, an Edgewood Republican, would prohibit classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. Hall also filed legislation that would make school board elections partisan and require that they occur on the same day as midterms or the general election.

Houston Democratic Rep. Christina Morales filed House Bill 178, reviving legislation that seeks to include ethnic studies as part of the required social studies curriculum. Public education advocates have sought to ensure students are learning about historically underserved groups — like Black and Indigenous communities — different from their own.

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Two bills, one from a Republican and the other from a Democrat, were filed to change the way Texas schools are funded. The current attendance-based funding system has resulted in schools losing out on money if kids aren’t showing up to class. Advocates of changing the system say basing it on enrollment would offer schools more financial stability.

—Jaden Edison

Last legislative session, some of the most contentious higher education bills were Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority legislation to end diversity, equity and inclusion offices, which went into effect at the start of the year, and a bill that initially intended to eliminate faculty tenure, which was approved but watered down.

At a Senate Higher Education subcommittee meeting Monday, Republican senators signaled a broad openness to further curtailing faculty’s powers, reinforcing the authority of the boards of regents over public universities and continuing to eliminate DEI programs. Legislation surrounding those issues has not yet been filed.

On Tuesday, multiple Republican House members filed identical versions of a bill to stop providing in-state tuition to certain undocumented students who live in Texas.

In 2001, lawmakers passed the Texas Dream Act, which extends in-state tuition to undocumented students who graduated from a Texas high school, lived in Texas for three years before graduating and lived in the state for a year before enrolling at a Texas public college or university. Students who qualify must sign an affidavit declaring their intent to apply for permanent resident status as soon as they are able. The Texas Dream Act also applies to students who are not U.S. citizens but are authorized to be in the country.

Lawmakers have tried to eliminate the Texas Dream Act in the past without success. But as the Texas House shifts further to the right, it may find renewed support.

Another bill, House Bill 281 would require the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to eliminate or sanction degree programs when graduates would generally have trouble paying for their student loan debt with their expected earnings. Graduates in high-earning fields like medicine and law often have higher student loans but find it easier to pay for them because of their earning potential, while graduates in lower-paying degrees like education and social work may struggle to manage their debt even if they took out fewer loans.

Texas Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, filed the bill at a time when Republicans are playing offense on higher education. Public perception of the value of a college degree has also been declining, as people become increasingly skeptical of student loan debt.

Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a bill requiring all public college and university students to take an economics course to graduate.

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—Kate McGee

Almost two dozen border and immigration-related bills filed Tuesday suggest some Republican lawmakers will remain bullish on those issues.

House Bill 354, filed by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, would create a Texas Border Protection Unit whose officers would have the authority to arrest people who cross the Texas-Mexico border illegally — mirroring U.S. Border Patrol’s job. The unit would also oversee construction and maintenance of physical barriers, including the state’s border wall.

A similar measure failed last year but has vocal support from immigration hardliners like Texans for Strong Borders.

Senate Bill 81, filed by Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, would give the Department of Public Safety “during a state of invasion or imminent danger on the Texas-Mexico border” the authority to return to Mexico people seen entering Texas illegally or who are arrested near the border. Gov. Greg Abbott invoked the invasion clause of the U.S. and Texas constitutions in 2022 to justify the state’s ongoing border operations. The bill would also let DPS use force to “detect, repel, apprehend, detain, and arrest known transnational cartel operatives in the border region.” The bill does not give a definition of who would be considered a cartel operative.

Another bill filed by Hall — SB 134 — would require counties and cities to request and enter partnerships with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to authorize officers and employees of the municipality or county to enforce federal immigration law. The attorney general’s office could seek injunctive relief against counties and cities that do not make such requests. The partnerships — known as 287(g) agreements — could help with extra staffing to carry out the Trump administration’s ambitious immigration crackdown.

A pair of companion bills — filed in the House by Rep. Ryan Guillen, R-Rio Grande City, and in the Senate by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas — would offer student loan repayment help for lawyers who work at least one year for the state’s border prosecution unit. The unit — created by the Legislature in 2009 — is a coalition of border district attorney’s offices. The number of cases filed and prosecuted in those offices has exploded in recent years since Texas launched its multi-billion dollar border initiative, Operation Lone Star, which has resulted in thousands of criminal trespass and human smuggling arrests.

Another bill filed Tuesday calls for DPS to fingerprint undocumented children for a database to be used “to investigate the frequency with which a child … has entered the United States unlawfully through the international border with Mexico.”

It is unclear if the Department of Justice under Trump’s administration would contest Texas’ authority to create and enforce immigration-related state laws. President-elect Trump has said he wants to help border states like Texas.

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Last year’s Senate Bill 4, which gives police the authority to arrest people suspected of having entered the country illegally, has yet to go into effect after the U.S. Justice Department sued to stop it; the legal dispute remains unresolved. The federal government argued that Texas’ law encroached on the authority of the federal government, who has been solely responsible for immigration enforcement. It is unclear whether the Trump administration will continue the lawsuit.

—Alejandro Serrano

Earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott said the state had removed more than 6,500 potential noncitizens from its voter rolls. An investigation by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and Votebeat found that number was likely inflated and, in some cases, wrong.

Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park and Sen. Bryan Hughes of Mineola, filed bills that would require Texans applying to register to vote to provide proof of citizenship. Arizona is the only state in the country with such a requirement in place. Hughes proposed similar legislation last year but it did not move forward.

Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, proposed a bill that would designate certain licensed peace officers to serve as election marshals. Election marshals would have the powers and duties of state inspectors, including investigating alleged election code violations. A similar piece of legislation passed the Senate last year but was not approved by the House.

Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, also filed a slate of bills clamping down on election security. House Bill 1001 would require poll workers to provide paper ballots to voters who request one, a measure aimed at addressing concerns that voting machines are rigged (those claims have been broadly debunked). House Bill 999 mandates that the custodian of election records shares ballots people used to cast their votes or their images with anyone who requests them for inspection within 60 days of an election.

Austin Democratic Rep. John Bucy, meanwhile, filed several pieces of legislation that would expand voter access and education. House Bill 374 would designate certain election days as state holidays, and House Bill 665 specifies information the secretary of state’s website must contain about upcoming elections.

A group of Democratic Texas senators also filed legislation directing county commissioners’ courts to designate at least one polling place on college campuses with at least 5,000 students, and at least two polling stations on college campuses with 10,000 students. One more polling place must be added to each campus for every additional 10,000 students enrolled at that college or university. The legislation comes after multiple counties across the state removed early voting locations from college campuses during the most recent election despite pushback from students.

—Pooja Salhotra

Last session, Texas Republicans passed some of the most aggressive anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the country, outlawing gender-affirming care for minors and severely limiting drag performances.

Bills filed Tuesday show that Republicans plan to go even further this session. HB 847 would ban the use of any taxpayer resources for “gender reassignment” — including the funding of health benefits that cover gender reassignment for adults. The bill, filed by Rep. Brian Harrison, provides exceptions for those defined as “intersex.”

Another bill would make it a felony for public schools or universities to conduct or permit any study of children’s sexual behavior. The author of that bill, Edgewood Republican Sen. Bob Hall, also filed legislation that’d require school districts to inform parents if their child’s perception of their biological sex is “inconsistent” with their “sex organs, chromosomes and endogenous hormone profiles.” The bill would also allow parents to sue districts that fail to inform them about curriculum involving sexual orientation or gender.

Hall also filed a bill that would prohibit government health insurance programs from covering gender-affirming care, and increase civil liabilities for doctors who offer transition-related medical procedures.

Another bill, filed by Rep. Steve Toth, a Republican from The Woodlands, would allow drag performers to be sued by children who attended their performances — even if the child was brought to the performance by their parents.

HB 778, filed by Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican from McKinney, would require health insurance plans that pay for gender-affirming care to also cover the costs of any adverse consequences related to the treatment, as well as any treatments to reverse the patient’s transition.

Some Republicans seem to also want to resurrect the idea of a “bathroom bill,” legislation that would prohibit people from using a bathroom that doesn’t align with the sex they were assigned at birth. A previous attempt in 2017 died after months of controversy, but Toth and Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Republican from Galveston, have both filed bills that aim to reignite the issue.

— Eleanor Klibanoff and Robert Downen

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Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, filed a bill that would require the Criminal Court of Appeals to issue a written response in cases where it denies a writ of habeus corpus. The bill also revises the junk science law, a 2013 law that allows defendants to obtain new trials in cases that rely on flawed scientific evidence. No one on death row has successfully used the law to obtain a new trial.

Moody’s bill would change the standard of proof required to merit a new trial. Currently, a defendant must prove that the likelihood of them being found innocent would have been higher had accurate scientific evidence been presented at trial. The proposed bill only requires a “reasonable likelihood” that the scientific evidence could have affected the person’s conviction or punishment.

Moody’s proposal comes after he and other state lawmakers on the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence launched an extraordinary effort to halt the execution of death row inmate Robert Roberson, who was convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter. Lawmakers have argued that new medical evidence that emerged after Roberson’s 2003 conviction point to Roberson’s innocence.

Rep. John Bucy, an Austin Democrat, also filed a bill seeking to abolish the death penalty. Texas is one of just a handful of states that impose death sentences. Democratic lawmakers have previously put forth bills seeking to abolish the death penalty, but they have never garnered bipartisan support.

— Pooja Salhotra

Lawmakers from both parties filed bills that seek to ensure a faster response to power outages after storms and to strengthen utility infrastructure.

The bills came after Hurricane Beryl, a Category 1 hurricane, swept through southeast Texas this summer. The damaging winds wreaked havoc on trees and power lines, leaving millions of Texans without electricity for days.

Following the hurricane, a major controversy arose because Houston area’s electric utility, CenterPoint Energy, didn’t use mobile generators. The utility had leased 20 massive power generators for more than $800 million to help in extended power outages, something it was able to do under a law passed after the deadly 2021 winter storm. The Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates the state’s power grid, allowed CenterPoint to increase customers’ electricity bills to pay for the generators, but it deployed only a few of them after Beryl struck because they were massive and difficult to transport. Lawmakers questioned the large expenditure in the storm’s aftermath, saying the devices weren’t used when they were needed most.

A bill by Sen. Phil King, R-Weatherford, seeks to address that grievance. It would require electric utilities to have mobile, emergency power generators that can be quickly deployed after a storm to areas impacted by power outages. The bill also would require the PUC to review generators that were previously leased to CenterPoint and other utilities to ensure that the equipment is really mobile.

“These costs should never have been passed on to consumers,” King said in a press release.

Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, proposed a bill calling for a study of the costs and benefits of burying distribution power lines.

Some electricity experts have proposed burying power lines because it protects them from fire and tree limbs that might fall during storms. Others say putting power lines underground is costly and might not be appropriate for flood-prone places like Houston.

—Alejandra Martínez

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Vaccinations and how they are administered were once again the subject of several bills — even though no state requires students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of school admission or that private employers in Texas can’t require them as a condition of employment.

Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, and Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, filed bills requiring medical providers to secure informed consent before vaccinating a child. Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, filed a measure that would keep employers from requiring a COVID-19 vaccine for any reason.

Several bills targeted the inner workings of the state’s foster care system, with Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, filing legislation that sets a maximum caseload requirement for caseworkers. Hall and Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, filed a measure that would set time limits on how long the state can keep the names of people in the child abuse registry. Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, wants a state grant program for religious foster care providers.

A handful of bills would direct the state to study certain health policy problems or plan for better care of its residents. Rep. Ray Lopez, D-San Antonio, wants a task force to evaluate the housing needs of an aging LGBTQ+ population. Toth filed a bill urging a study on whether individuals who committed suicide were using psychotropic drugs. Rep. Sulemon Lalani, D-Sugar Land, a physician who specializes in elder care, wants independent senior living facilities to file health and safety plans that first responders can access in case of an emergency, like assisted living and nursing homes are required to do.

Several bills were filed to expand Medicaid health insurance coverage in Texas, an issue that is considered unlikely to gain traction despite how much federal funding it would unlock. GOP leadership has been steadfastly opposed to any expansion of Medicaid, which currently covers mostly children, disabled individuals and older adults. The state’s uninsured population, which now sits at about 16%, is considered the largest in the nation.

— Terri Langford

Texas lawmakers filed competing gun laws, with Republicans seeking to expand gun owners’ rights and Democrats trying to limit them.

State Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, filed a bill that would allow licensed handgun holders to carry a concealed handgun while on school district campuses, including at open-enrollment charter schools. Texas law generally bars people from carrying firearms on K-12 campuses.

State Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia, also filed a bill that would limit the civil liability of businesses that allow concealed handguns on their premises. Under House Bill 644, a person with control of a business would not be liable for any damages related to someone else lawfully carrying a concealed handgun.

San Antonio Democratic Rep. Diego Bernal, meanwhile, filed House Bill 834, which limits where a person may carry a firearm. The bill would make it a crime for people to carry a firearm, other than a handgun, in counties with a population of more than 1 million, unless the person is on their own premises, en route to their own vehicle or had express authorization to carry the firearm in someone else’s premises.

Democratic lawmakers also filed several bills regulating the sale of firearms at gun shows. Those laws would make a person criminally liable if they sell a firearm without complying with the National Instant Criminal Background Check. It is unlikely for proposed restrictions on gun owners to pass in the Republican-controlled Legislature, which has historically blocked any attempt to curtail gun rights.

— Pooja Salhotra

Several Democratic lawmakers filed bills related to workers’ wages.

Rep. Armando Walle, D-Houston, filed a bill that calls for increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour. Rep. Terry Meza, D-Irving, proposed a more targeted bill to increase the minimum wage to $15 per hour for Texas’ school bus drivers.

Texas uses the national minimum wage rate, which is $7.25 an hour and has been since 2009 — the longest time workers have gone without an increase since the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938. Other states have approved minimum salaries above the federal threshold, like the Republican-dominated Florida in 2020.

Rep. Mary E. González, D-Clint, proposed creating a public online database of employers that have been penalized for wage theft. A similar bill was filed during the last session by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, but failed to receive a hearing.

Rep. Vikki Goodwin, D-Austin, filed a bill that would increase longevity pay for state employees from $20 to $50 a month. Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, filed a bill proposing paid sick leave. It would allow employers to carry over unused paid time off for their employees to the next calendar year or pay them out if they choose not to roll it over. Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, proposed a bill allowing workers to sue for back pay and damages for discrimination in compensation.

State Democrats have tried to raise Texas’ minimum wage above the federal minimum for years. Their attempts have gained virtually no traction at the Legislature.

— Juan Salinas II

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Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, filed a bill that would prohibit counties, school districts, state agencies and any other governmental entity from establishing diversity, equity and inclusion offices. It also would bar them from giving preferential treatment to applicants based on their race, sex, color or ethnicity, and it would allow employees to bring legal action against government entities that violate the law.

Rep. Terri Wilson, R-Galveston, filed House Bill 436, which prohibits governmental entities from requiring job applicants to provide a diversity, equity and inclusion statement. It would also forbid governmental agencies from requiring employees to participate in DEI training.

These proposals come after the Legislature passed Senate Bill 17 last year, which dissolved DEI programs at public universities.

— Pooja Salhotra