The Texas Report 6/14

The Texas Report 6/14

What’s Happening:

• Speaker Phelan creates a new committee focused on school funding

• Recent Update on bills signed by Governor Abbott

• Warring Campaign texts on Property Taxes between the House & Senate & some House Republicans Divided on policy

• New Anti-Ted Cruz Super PAC (More here)

Some Republican infighting, a new PAC to take on Senator Ted Cruz, and an update on some of the biggest bills signed by Governor Greg Abbott.

Texas House Speaker Establishes a New Committee Focused on School Funding

Earlier this week, House Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) announced the creation of a new Select Committee on Education Opportunity and Enrichment. In his announcement, Phelan acknowledges the likely hood of a special session related to education which coincides with promises by the governor to call a future special session to try and pass some form of voucher legislation. The goal of this new committee is to begin working now to develop recommendations for:

• Ensuring all Texas youths enjoy education opportunities and freedom to a quality education.

• Improving outcomes for students and meaningfully supporting educators and schools.

• Modernizing assessment and accountability measures for Texas schools education K-12 students.

• The committee is intended to submit an

The committee is required to submit an initial report on these issues by August 11, 2023. The report shall include, but is not limited to:

• Identification of the current choices available for K-12 students.

• Highlight options for additional educational opportunities for K-12 students.

Voucher legislation has been one of if not the biggest fights of the recent 88th legislative session, and this signals that the House/Speaker will be doing what it can to try and find some middle ground between the voucher and anti-voucher crowd. Based on my count, eight members of the fifteen-person committee are hard no's on vouchers.

Many rumors persist that the governor will wait to call the special session on school choice till September, so the outcomes of this report may make it clear what action, if any, the House plans to address the above issues.

As many readers remember, school choice and educator pay raises were tied together in legislation towards the end of the 88th session, effectively killing teacher salary increases. This report will, at minimum, include recommendations for improving teacher pay. Still, it remains to be seen what legislative strategy voucher supporters will take to try and get their bill across the finish line.

What are vouchers?

• Vouchers are, at a basic level, public funds given to parents to support them in sending kids to private schools. A lot more goes into it than that, but the primary proposal last session would have given families $8,000 to put into their child's private school tuition.

• This has been an extremely contentious fight pitting many Republicans against one another and will, ultimately, have drastic implications for the Texas public school system.

Recent Bills Signed by The Governor

The deadline for the governor to sign or veto bills from the 88th Regular Session is June 18. If action is not taken, the bill becomes law without his signature.

Recent bills signed by the governor related to education:

• H.B. 900 by Representative Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), which is intended to regulate library materials in public schools to "prevent sexually explicit or other inappropriate content." Library material vendors will be required to issue ratings on sexually explicit and sexually relevant material (which are two different things). This legislation changes the procedure' for which material libraries can purchase and adds requirements for parental consent.

• H.B. 1605 by Representative Brad Buckley (R-Killeen) changes the procedures for parental review of public school curricula. It requires the creation of instructional materials for teachers by the Texas Education Agency and State Board of Education to help lessen the burden of curriculum creation.

Other bills of note:

H.B. 567 by Representative Rhetta Bowers (D-Dallas), is intended to provide protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles in schools, the workplace, housing, and more.

H.B. 18 by Representative Shelby Slawson (R-Stephenville), intended to provide online safeguards for children accessing the internet by requiring consent from a minor's parents or guardian before the minor is allowed on a website, for instance. Additionally, the bill requires certain disclosures regarding advertising and how algorithms are used.

H.B. 718 by Representative Craig Goldman (R-Arlington) which will eliminate temporary paper license plates in 2025.

Interesting legislative stats:

• Legislators filed 8,046 bills, more than any session in the past twenty years. As of early June, 1,246 bills have been sent to the governor, who has up to twenty days to sign, veto, or allow legislation to become law without his signature.

• Three bills have been vetoed, one at the author's request.

• Several hundred bills still await his decision on whether they will be allowed to become law or not.

Warring Campaign Messages & A House Divided

Yesterday afternoon, I started receiving messages from readers about conflicting texts they were receiving on behalf of the Lt. Governor and House Speaker regarding each chamber's property tax proposals.

The Lt. Governor's message says, "Speaker Phelan claims the House plan gives you more tax savings. He's wrong! The Senate Plan saves average homeowners $1,250 - $1,450 each year. The House Plan is only $740. Two weeks ago, the House walked off the job. Tell your St Rep to get back to work and vote for the Senate Plan." Then it includes a number to call for the respective legislator.

Speaker Phelan's messaging includes a picture of Governor Greg Abbott lauding the House plan as the one that delivers the most significant property tax cut and consists of the below text.

• Republican Rep. just voted for the largest property tax cut in Texas History. The measure passed the Republican Texas House unanimously, and Governor Greg Abbott is eager to sign the bill into law. However, the Texas Senate has not passed the $17.6 Billion relief measure. Republican Rep. is on the job and will not stop until we deliver significant property tax relief.

Here's why this matters:

• The Lt. Governor is spending campaign funds to put pressure on House members while the Speaker is spending to alleviate pressure. This type of messaging only adds tension between the House & Senate.

• The House & Senate still haven't been able to compromise on a property tax plan, and despite some recently reported optimism from the governor, we're still a ways off from finding a middle ground.

• $17.6 billion hangs in the balance for property tax relief.

For any proposal to make it across the finish line, it has to go through both chambers, and as of right now, it appears like there's still a significant rift between the House and Senate that may be growing with the latest maneuvers.

There has been some public division between House Republicans recently regarding the property tax fight.

Members of the conservative Texas House Freedom Caucus signaled support for the Senate property tax plan on Monday, showing some of the first public signs of dissension between House Republicans.

In a tweet the caucus said:

Other Republican House members quickly took to social media to question the caucus, including powerful chairman Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), who said," Guess y'all have abandoned appraisal caps. Disappointing." Appraisal caps of 5% were a major part of the House plan during the 88th Regular Session.

Soon after the Freedom Caucus posted, sixteen freshman Republican representatives (including five members of the Freedom Caucus) published a letter supporting the House plan and doubling down on their support for compression and a cap on appraised values over homestead exemptions. (More here) The House is almost wholly united on its plan. However, a potential schism by the Freedom caucus certainly impacts the narrative.

“Lose Cruz” Super PAC plans to go after the Texas Senator in the upcoming election

A group of strategists have launched the "Lose Cruz" super PAC. Backed by seven-figure funding, the super PAC will try to drive anti-Cruz messaging through rapid response, with ads online and on television. The first ad is expected next week. (More here)

"Ted Cruz has never been more vulnerable than he is this cycle," said Sawyer Hackett, a Democratic strategist working as a senior adviser for the super PAC.

Since Cruz's 2.6-percentage-point win over Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke in 2018, Hackett said, "he has become infamous for a number of things" that the group plans to target, including his trip to Cancún, Mexico, during the winter storm that wiped out Texas' power grid in 2021, his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021, his attendance record in the Senate and his podcasting gig.

Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, from Dallas, and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez is expected to enter the race, from San Antonio, are both running for the Democratic nomination to take on Cruz next year.

Let's go back in time and remember that O'Rourke outspent Cruz by over 2-1, outraising the Senator by a margin of $80.3 million to $38.9 million. Despite their being a likely injection of significant money against Cruz, Democrats will still have to overcome a margin in Texas that has only gotten worse in state-wide elections since 2018.

Senator John Cornyn beat MJ Hegar by 8 percentage points in 2020, and Governor Greg Abbott beat O'Rourke by nearly 11 points in 2022.