The Texas Report 10/23

The Texas Report 10/23

What’s happening in Texas:

• Texas House unveils voucher legislation and House Republicans push $1.5 billion in new funding for Texas Border Wall

• Early Voting Preview and Major Ballot Propositions to Watch

Today, House Speaker Dade Phelan formally called for the resignation of Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi.

Phelan’s X post is seemingly in response to a statement about an hour earlier today by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick that called on “Every Republican group in the state, no matter how small or how large, including our State Party, needs to root out this cancer. Before anyone is hired or appointed to a position of leadership, in addition to their resume and work record, their social media needs to be reviewed. Those who are anti-Semitic are not welcome in our party.”

Patrick also “announced his campaign is purchasing $3 million in bonds for Israel.” Patrick received $3 million from Defend Texas Liberty, the far-right political organization that met with known antisemite and neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.

Texas House unveils voucher legislation and House Republicans push $1.5 billion in new funding for Texas Border Wall

Last Thursday, the Texas House unveiled its priority voucher legislation and other potential substantive changes to public education.

H.B. 1, authored by Public Education Chairman Brad Buckley (R-), is 184 pages and incorporates Governor Abbott's school choice priorities, increases per-student spending by $340, and would give teachers a pay raise.

This bill is at least the initial plan by Texas House leadership to address Abbott's call for universal education savings accounts (also known as school vouchers.)

House Republicans and voucher proponents like Governor Abbott face an uphill battle in passing any legislation shifting taxpayer money away from public schools. Many Rural Republicans are holdouts, and Texas Democrats seem almost completely unified in standing against the proposals. Voucher proponents will have to flip some Rural Republicans, many of whom have long served as the barrier to voucher legislation.

Speaker Phelan and House leadership have had constant meetings related to vouchers to try and find some compromise. This legislation by Buckley is an attempt to add vouchers and throw other very bipartisan policy proposals to try and build compromise. H.B. 1 would increase fine arts and pre-K funding, include teacher retention programs, improve data collection by the Texas Education Agency, and much more.

H.B. 1 has yet to be scheduled for a committee hearing. In his special session agenda, Abbott clarified that lawmakers must pass proposals dealing with school choice before other education issues are added to the call.

Abbott's office has reinforced the governor's position to media groups like the Austin American Statesman and insisted that increasing education funding will only happen after voucher legislation passes.

"The Governor looks forward to reaching an agreement on school choice, at which point he will gladly expand the call," a spokesman told the Statesman.

Abbott's office added that the Buckley bill is different from what the governor has been working on with House lawmakers. Instead, Abbott spoke with House Speaker Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, on Friday in a "productive conversation."

"Speaker Phelan agreed to continue to work with Governor Abbott on the agreed-upon principles of school choice until a deal is reached," the spokesman said in a statement.

The bill proposes a broad school choice program that begins with 25,000 students and expands to all students over several years. Students in the program could get 75% of what the state spends on average per student in public school to pay for private tuition and other costs.

The bill also includes a $340 raise to per-student spending — from $6,160 to $6,500 — and pay raises for teachers and other school staff.

The Senate has already passed a $500 million school choice bill, and most Senate staffers feel they need more confidence that legislation will make it across the finish line during the current special session.

Some other areas of Buckley's bill:

• Up to $200,000 per campus for security funding, compared to the $15,000 the Legislature allocated during the 88th Regular Session.

• $10 million for the McDonald Observatory for educational programs

• $3 increase in per-student funds to support efforts by schools and libraries to comply with H.B. 900, which seeks to limit pornographic and sexually explicit materials in school libraries.

The Texas Senate passed a $5.2 billion school funding bill that would deliver a $75 increase to per-student spending and offer teachers a $3,000 bonus. And it would also double security spending from $10 per student to $20 and $15,000 per campus to $30,000.

Also, today, the Texas House Appropriations Committee is meeting on H.B. 6 by Representative Jacey Jetton (R-Fort Bend). H.B. 6 by Representative Jetton is a major priority of the governor and, if passed, would appropriate $1.5 billion specifically for border wall construction.

The Office of the Governor would control the funds and likely grant the money to the Texas Facilities Commission to construct, operate, and maintain the border wall.

Video of the committee hearing can be found here:

Early Voting Preview

Today, starts the first day of early voting and we wanted to give a quick rundown on some of the ballot initiatives voters will decide on this Fall.

Some other major elections to watch include the race to succeed, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. Texas’s most populous city has eighteen candidates vying for the top job, including long time Houston politicians like State Senator John Whitmire and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Whitmire and Lee are seen as the heavy favorites for an election most likely going to a runoff.

Texas voters have fourteen constitutional ballot propositions to decide on this election cycle.

Proposition 4 is the culmination of efforts by all Texas legislators, specifically leadership, to allow the state to spend $13 billion of taxpayer money on tax cuts.

• Proposition 4 would increase the homestead exemption from $40,000 to $100,000, establishing a three-year 20 percent appraisal cap on non-homestead commercial and residential properties valued under $5 million, and institute four-year terms for the board of directors in county appraisal districts with populations of 75,000 or more. The proposition also includes a measure allowing the state to exceed the constitutional spending limit.

Proposition 6 would create the Texas Water Fund and allocate $1 billion to help fund water projects as part of the state water plan.

Proposition 7 would create the Texas Energy Fund to subsidize low-interest loans for the “construction, maintenance, modernization, and operation” of new power plants.

• This fund, administered by the Public Utilities Commission, would set aside $7.2 billion of taxpayer money for power generators to apply for 3 percent interest loans. These loans could fund up to 60 percent of the construction for new “dispatchable generation” – most likely natural gas – of at least 100 megawatts.

Proposition 8 would establish the Broadband Infrastructure Fund and allow the Texas Comptroller to use $1.5 billion to, in part, draw down $3.3 billion in federal broadband money. These funds will expand broadband connectivity across the state, specifically focusing on ( when possible) fiber projects.

Proposition 13 would raise the retirement age for Texas judges from 75 to 79.

Proposition 14 would authorize the state to use $1 billion to acquire new parkland.

The vast majority of these ballot propositions will likely pass easily. The propositions experiencing the most resistance are dealing with taxpayer funds. Former State Senator and Gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines has outwardly opposed six propositions and is spending somewhat heavily trying to defeat them.

Huffines's concerns are that these equate to either corporate handouts or are a terrible use of public funds. For each of these items to be presented to voters, it took overwhelming legislative support and the okay of Governor Abbott.