Texas Legislature wraps up one session, only to plunge into first overtime period

AUSTIN — Lawmakers wrapped up a 140-day session Monday that answered questions asked at the outset — would they work on Texans’ kitchen-table concerns or focus on hot-button issues?

Answer: They did both.

But it wasn’t enough to satisfy Gov. Greg Abbott, who at 9 p.m. Monday night called the Legislature instantly back into session solely to cut school property tax rates and stiffen penalties for human smuggling and operating a stash house.

Abbott acted after spending Memorial Day weekend trying to quell infighting between the two other top Republicans at the Capitol, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Speaker Dade Phelan over Phelan’s demand to tighten caps on appraisal creep.

By saying cutting rates is all lawmakers can pass a bill on, Abbott denied the House its appraisal cap idea while denying Patrick, the Senate and Democrats in both chambers their preference that a mandatory homestead exemption on school taxes also be increased.

“Several special sessions will be required,” Abbott said in a news release, more than two hours after the two chambers adjourned this year’s regular session after a 24-hour round of jabs and taunts by both Patrick and House leadership in Twitter posts and public utterances.

Awash in money, the Legislature gridlocked over school property tax reduction.

Multiple lawmakers said they expect — and hope — they are called back to Austin to continue working. Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Allen, said lawmakers have “unfinished business.”

“We’ve had a lot of victories, but we still have work to do,” he said, mentioning property tax relief, border security and public education. “We ought to meet the moment and get our work done.”

The session was memorable for its mix of bland but substantial legislation, a series of nods to the state GOP’s most staunchly conservative voters and the Republican-controlled House’s aggressive probes that led to impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton and expulsion of Hunt County GOP Rep. Bryan Slaton.

The House General Investigating Committee, which pursued both probes, has become a force in the Capitol this year. Primarily used last session as a cudgel for pursuing conservative priorities, such as investigating school library book content, this year it has acted more like a police department’s internal affairs division.

Rep. Tom Oliverson, vice chairman of the House Republican Caucus, said the GOP-led chamber showed it has the fortitude not to look past bad behavior among its own.

“We’ve proven that the House has the courage to take on corruption in its own ranks and deal with it appropriately,” said Oliverson, R-Cypress.

In traditional, final-day accolades to the speaker, House members flashed with emotion over the risks taken in policing ethics.

“You held firm,” veteran Corpus Christi GOP member Todd Hunter told Phelan. “We made it to the last day.”

Phelan responded, alluding to Paxton’s impeachment, though not to the attorney general by name: “What happened this week is nothing I take pride in. It is not anything that I was proud of. But it was necessary, and it was just. And the Texas House spoke. We sent a strong message for the future of Texas.”

Playing catch up

The Paxton drama and collisions over social issues obscured moves that, when history’s dust settles, may loom large.

Lawmakers passed a $321.3 billion, two-year budget and sent to voters spending proposals that would ramp up construction of infrastructure for a booming population and spur development of more top-tier research universities.

The list of “investments” and “catch-up payments” goes on and on: $10 billion for construction of natural gas-fired power plants, $5 billion for retired teachers, $3 billion for a Texas University Fund, $2.2 billion for state mental hospital construction, more than $2 billion for a Semiconductor Innovation Fund, $1.5 billion for broadband, $1.4 billion for school safety, $1 billion for state parks, $1 billion for a Texas Water Fund, $900 million to buy down the state workers pension fund’s future liabilities and $625 million for flood control.

State employees can expect back-to-back, 5% per year raises.

A battle over education savings accounts that would help families afford private schools stymied teacher pay raises and boosts to school funding. Even with all the proposed spending, lawmakers left $10.7 billion in the general fund and $27.1 billion in the rainy day fund.

Culture war issues

The Legislature, which last session passed some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, mostly hit the pause button on the issue. The U.S. Supreme Court’s lifting of Roe vs. Wade gave Texas’ 2021 measures full force as an almost total prohibition.

Even though health care providers wanted more clarity on medically necessary abortions, lawmakers rebuffed them. Alternatives to Abortion, a state program that currently has $50 million a year to disburse to pregnancy crisis centers that discourage abortions, would receive $82.5 million annually under the proposed appropriations and get a new name: Thriving Texas Families.

Tranquility on the abortion front doesn’t mean lawmakers weren’t busy on other culture war issues.

They passed and sent to Abbott bills allowing public schools to hire chaplains, restoring illegal voting to a felony and banning “diversity, equity and inclusion” offices and programs at state colleges and universities.

Republican leadership, with Patrick in the lead, also passed measures that would restrict the participation of transgender athletes in intercollegiate sports and ban gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors.

The day before sine die, lawmakers sent a measure to Abbott’s desk that broadly expands the state’s criminal code and bans minors from attending drag shows, Patrick said.

Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, said the Texas House LGBTQ Caucus was able to defeat dozens of bills that would negatively affect the community, but those that passed “have devastating consequences.”

She called it “frustrating” that GOP leadership “are targeting the LGBT community as opposed to focusing on meaningful policy that can benefit all Texans.”

No teacher raises

The biggest elephant hanging over the end of the session is a lack of consensus on a voucher-like effort that Abbott made a top priority. The Republican threw his political weight behind sending families public dollars to pay for private education. But an 11th-hour push to get the controversial policy over the line by tying it to teacher pay raises failed, leaving public education advocates angry.

At an early morning news conference, they decried the lack of funding for public education at a time when the state is flush with cash and schools are struggling to keep teachers.

“These are times of record abundance, and yet we’re withholding funds and holding our schools hostage so that we can have a private school voucher,” said Kevin Brown, executive director of the Texas Association of School Administrators.

Emotional coda

For many Texans, Memorial Day was just another beautiful end-of-spring day. Families milled around the Capitol, snapping photos inside the rotunda and on the sprawling grounds.

Inside the chambers, lawmakers’ families were welcomed onto the floor to mark what could be the last day of the session. Children sank into what would normally be lawmakers’ large brown-leather chairs and spouses in bright summer outfits took group photos. Lawmakers milled excitedly around the floor, making post-session plans, exchanging gifts and autographing pictures of the state Capitol building.

Rep. Salman Bhojani, a freshman Democrat from Euless, walked around the House chamber with a sign that proclaimed “Happy sine die!”

The House honored 50 years in the Legislature by Houston Rep. Senfronia Thompson, the longest-serving Black lawmaker who joined the chamber when women couldn’t even open a credit card. Members encircled the dais, and Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, the head of the House Democratic Caucus, bowed before Thompson several times. The two hugged.

“Fifty years is a short period of time,” said former Speaker Tom Craddick, a Midland Republican who arrived in the House in 1969, four years ahead of Thompson.

“It’s all about friendship and respect for each other,” he said.

Thompson, 84, a lawyer, responded, “We know how to put partisanship aside and work on the issues.”

She then announced she’s running for reelection.