AUSTIN (Nexstar) — In simply over every week, lawmakers will return to the Texas Capitol for a brand new legislative session. One factor that makes this session totally different is the state’s monetary scenario: Lawmakers will begin price range talks with a document surplus.
Back in the summer season, State Comptroller Glenn Hegar predicted lawmakers would have a document $27 billion surplus. Then in November, he hinted the quantity may really be a lot bigger. He referred to as it a “once-in-a-lifetime” alternative.
“We will never again have an annual tax total collection, compared to the prior year of 25%. We will not still have some federal money that can be utilized instead of state money for general revenue,” Hegar mentioned at an occasion held by the Austin Chamber of Commerce. “So it is going to be a remarkable opportunity.”
Hegar will situation his official income projection proper earlier than the begin of the session.
Governor Greg Abbott has referred to as for a big a part of the surplus to go towards property tax cuts.
He campaigned on spending half of the surplus to minimize property taxes. It’s additionally the high precedence for Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. But he factors out that state legislation really limits how a lot of the surplus the state can spend.
“If we have a $27 billion surplus, and I think again, it’s gonna be more than that, but half of that half of 27 is 13. Right? Well, that’s more than we can spend on the constitutional cap. So that would split that would take everything we have,” Patrick defined.
“I agree with the governor in this respect, we need to make property tax our number one priority,” Patrick mentioned.
The points driving the debate underneath the dome
From price range battles to fights over hot-button points like weapons and the border, the upcoming legislative session is sure to convey rigidity to the State Capitol. For perception into the points that can body the debates underneath the dome, Monica Madden spoke with politics reporters James Barragán from the Texas Tribune and Niki Griswold of the Austin American-Statesman. What follows is a partial transcript of that interview.
Monica Madden: The state’s huge price range surplus goes to be a driver of conversations all through the complete laws. James, I’ll begin with you. What fights and conversations are you anticipating to play out this session over how to spend that surplus?
James Barragán: We’ve already seen it kind of begin to play out with the governor saying he needs to use half of that price range surplus for property tax aid. We’ve seen the Lieutenant Governor come out and say, maintain on, wait a minute, there’s no means constitutionally that we are able to try this. We can get inventive with constitutional amendments. And we may do different issues. But let’s additionally take into consideration not spending the complete factor as a result of we now have to be financially prudent. And we wish to have some cash left over for instances of emergency add to that House Speaker Dade Phelan saying we’d need to use a few of this for infrastructure. And it’s beginning to set the tone and tenor of what the debate goes to appear like throughout the legislative session.
Niki Griswold: Building off of what James mentioned that price range surplus isn’t essentially a sustainable supply of funding. And so the speaker’s argument is that it’s extra prudent to make investments that in a one-time funding when it comes to infrastructure, reasonably than giving property homeowners perhaps a one-time property tax aid, however the governor has campaigned fairly closely on that. So, it’ll be fascinating to see how that performs out the session.
Monica Madden: Last session, a variety of purple meat points drove the headlines, fights over abortion, transgender rights, the election legal guidelines. I imply, do you assume that Republicans have an urge for food to go additional on a few of these points or do you assume it’s going to be extra of a policy-focused session reasonably than a few of these red-meat matters?
James Barragán: Looking at the make-up of each chambers, Republicans have grown their majorities in each chambers. So in the event that they felt like they’d a mandate in 2020, to pursue these cultural conflict, socially conservative points. I don’t see how they might change their thoughts this time round since they’ve grown their numbers.
Niki Griswold: And if we’re simply going off of a variety of these Republicans, campaigns stump speeches, I’ve seen a variety of them deal with LGBTQ points and tackling that this session, you realize, defining childhood, together with the definition of kid abuse to embody offering gender-affirming care to transgender college students, limiting how academics can speak about race and sexism and gender identification in the classroom. I feel these are cultural points that shall be high of thoughts for Republicans this session.
Monica Madden: I do know Niki, you and I each reported closely on the mass capturing in Uvalde. How a lot do you anticipate the dialog to be extra on weapons versus psychological well being primarily based on what Texas has completed in the previous following different mass shootings?
Niki Griswold: Democrats have already adopted up on their promise to these Uvalde households to file laws that will elevate a elevate the minimal age required to buy a semi-automatic rifle like the one utilized in the capturing from 18 to 21. Governor Abbott has already mentioned he thinks that’s unconstitutional, although the Supreme Court hasn’t definitively dominated on that but. I feel it’s fairly clear that Republicans don’t have a lot urge for food to sort out the gun portion of that situation and have centered way more on psychological well being and college safety. So it’ll be fascinating to see how a lot monetary funding they put into these two areas.
Monica Madden: We know Republicans campaigned very closely on border safety and immigration, touting Governor Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which James, you’ve reported on. Do you see this as one thing that they’re going to proceed to fund? I imply, what’s the way forward for Operation Lone Star as we stand right this moment?
James Barragán: Well, the numbers haven’t gotten any higher. So I feel it’s very, very clear that they’re going to proceed this Operation Lone Star, this border safety effort. The query is, how can we pay for it? And what does it appear like? You know, in some unspecified time in the future, the governor bragged about having 10,000 troops down there. That has gone down to 5000, making it just a little bit extra possible to do economically. But that’s nonetheless a long-term invoice that you just’re gonna have to pay, in case your argument is that the federal authorities isn’t doing its job. So sure, I anticipate to see extra border safety efforts going ahead. But the massive struggle goes to be how can we pay for it?
Poll reveals how Texans really feel about state leaders, points heading into session
A new poll is giving us a greater thought of what Texans are serious about the points dealing with the state as we head into the legislative session. For perception, we spoke with Jim Henson, the govt director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. What follows is a partial transcript of our interview.
Monica Madden: Jim, your ballot requested Texans what they consider state authorities particularly, whether or not it’s addressing the wants of the folks proper now. And the numbers weren’t nice. What is your takeaway on that?
Jim Henson: You know, it was very fascinating. We gave folks a pair of units of oppositions the place he mentioned, Do you agree with this assertion or that assertion? And the key discovering there was that solely 37% of Texans said that they thought that state government met the needs of Texans, 46% the plurality mentioned they didn’t. This tracks with a few of our long-standing form of proper monitor, flawed monitor numbers, issues we’ve seen. But there’s positively a skepticism about responsiveness on the market proper now.
Ryan Chandler: To put it mildly, these numbers present that folks might not have a excessive regard for his or her state governments. But what about the folks answerable for that authorities? Lieutenant Governor Patrick, Governor Abbott, they’ve totally different opinions about the folks?
Jim Henson: Well, curiously sufficient, the management in the state obtained just a little little bit of a bump now that we’re out of marketing campaign season, not as a lot damaging promoting. And in spite of everything the folks had been pulling on are the winners and folks have a tendency to be just a little extra constructive about winners. So all people went up just a little bit, notably Governor Abbott, he had most likely the best ratings that we’ve seen him get in, in over a year. Same with Lieutenant Governor Patrick versus and identical with just about all of the statewide officers. So none of them are over 50%. So we don’t need to like exaggerate the hole. But they’re doing higher.
Monica Madden: And as we head into the upcoming legislative session, what would you say are a few of the standouts from this ballot?
Jim Henson: Well, one in every of the issues that we requested a variety of questions on was enterprise and coverage in the state. And there have been a variety of fascinating leads to that one in every of the issues we did was requested Texans whether or not they thought enterprise was doing too little or an excessive amount of on a spread of hot-button points that the legislature is paying so much consideration to enterprise coverage on it certainly sufficient. The high response by which Texans mentioned that enterprise was doing too little was local weather change, nearly half mentioned the enterprise was doing too little on local weather change. I feel that’s going to be a really lively situation going into the session, how the how the state goes to reply to issues like ESG insurance policies, we’ve heard so much about, quote-unquote, woke enterprise. It looks like it’s one other space the place the Republican majority is just a little additional to the proper than the place most Texans are.
The subsequent Texas House will embody the most girls ever
When the state legislature convenes next month for the 88th common legislative session, the composition of the Texas House of Representatives will embody the most girls ever.
The November election resulted in the variety of feminine House members rising to 45, so that they’ll quickly make up 30% of the 150 seats in the decrease chamber. The most development is going on in the Republican caucus. The variety of GOP ladies in the Texas House will double to 13, as seven feminine candidates emerged victorious from their respective elections.
Ellen Troxclair, the former Austin City Council member, will function the new consultant for House District 19, which stretches into a number of Hill Country counties. Ahead of her taking workplace, the Republican already filed three payments, together with one that will ban other Texas cities from copying Austin in creating a guaranteed income program.
“Young Republican women are ready to step up and do our part to protect our families and our communities,” Troxclair mentioned, “and I’m just really thrilled to be a part of this class who I think are going to bring unique perspectives and experiences to the table and do good things for our state.”
The Democratic ranks in the Texas House will develop to 32 ladies, together with the latest addition, Lulu Flores of Austin. She’ll characterize House District 51.
“That is music to my ears,” Flores mentioned throughout an interview with KXAN.
She beforehand served as president of the National Women’s Political Caucus, a corporation that seeks to improve ladies’s political participation. She finds it becoming now to begin her time in workplace alongside a document variety of different ladies, however she’d like to see extra progress made.
“The more inclusive a body can be, I think, the better results you have because you have more voices at the table,” Flores mentioned. “I’m hopeful that having more women in the legislature will add our perspectives and will bring those issues that we’ve had to deal with, and our experiences will come to bear on finding solutions — real practical solutions to things and equitable solutions.”
This excessive mark for feminine illustration in the state legislature comes 100 years after voters elected the first girl to a seat in the Texas House. Edith Eunice Wilmans served just one time period representing Dallas from 1923-1925, in accordance to the Legislative Reference Library of Texas.
Sherri Greenberg, a former state lawmaker who’s now a professor of follow at the University of Texas at Austin, mentioned analysis reveals extra ladies serving in a legislative physique assist to construct higher consensus and lift particular points to the forefront. According to an analysis published in the American Journal of Political Science, for instance, two researchers discovered that congresswomen safe roughly 9% extra spending from federal discretionary packages than congressmen. They additionally mentioned ladies sponsor and cosponsor considerably extra payments than their male colleagues.
“When you look at policies, of course, it varies according to the philosophies and parties of women — you can’t stereotype women, right?” Greenberg mentioned. “However, there are some policies that you see that gain traction: for instance, maternal health, early childhood, health insurance. Some policies like that seem to gain traction, and in a bipartisan way, when more women are elected.”
She mentioned she’d now like to see illustration in elected places of work statewide mirror the variety of ladies collaborating as voters and residing in Texas.
“I hope that by increasing the number of women who are elected to the Texas legislature that you will continue to see more progress on many of those issues that are nonpartisan and bipartisan,” Greenberg mentioned, “particularly in workforce and health care and childcare, and some of those issues that are fundamental to everyone in our society.”
Republicans
Democrats
The 88th Legislative Session begins Jan. 10.
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