How does the 86th Texas Legislature size up?
As any Texas eighth-grader can tell you, our state’s Legislature is “biennial,” meaning that our representatives and senators hash things out in Austin for only a few frenzied months every two years. The latest such brawl/demonstration of democracy — the 86th Texas Legislature — shuddered to an end Monday night.
Did our elected representatives cover themselves in glory? Make us embarrassed to be Texans? Set up our state for future failure? Ensure a safe, fair and prosperous future? We asked around.
Kim Ogg, Harris County district attorney
While Texas homeowners finally got a tax break, not much will change for those of us working for true reform of the criminal justice system. That’s because to affect incarceration rates while still protecting the public’s safety, Texas legislators are going to have to change Texas law.
They missed that opportunity when it came to marijuana, cash bail, juveniles, and mental health. They needed to look no further than Houston to count the money saved by sending marijuana offenders to class instead of jail. Or they could have funded mental health diversion centers modeled after ours in Harris County.
It’s not that some didn’t try. Senator Whitmire led a valiant effort to eliminate cash bail for low-risk offenders while giving judges the ability to hold high-risk offenders without bail, regardless of wealth. Unfortunately, the public will have to wait two more years for another shot at keeping money out of the formula for what does and doesn’t keep you safe.
There were noteworthy victories, including increased school support for at-risk children of incarcerated parents and expansion of Amber alert to include adult victims. But Texans deserve more for the $125 billion spent per year to make them safe.
Lina Hidalgo,
Harris County judge
I’m encouraged disaster relief was a priority during this session. It has been almost two years since Hurricane Harvey, and our region is not only still rebuilding, we are also planning in anticipation of the next major rain event. Every dollar spent on flood infrastructure makes our region safer and more resilient.
Even before the start of the 2019 hurricane season, our county has experienced significant rain events that flooded homes. We expect this pattern to become the norm, not the exception. As such, we cannot afford any missed opportunity to ensure our communities are safe. I’m grateful to the state for stepping up to partner with us.
I was disheartened to see the passage of SB 2. It is disingenuous to say this bill will lower taxes. It will not. What SB 2 will do is limit local government’s ability to secure funds we need for vital services such as health care and public safety. At the end of the day, SB 2 is another attempt by the state to stymie local governments’ ability to take care of local problems. It
is anti-democratic and truly disappointing.
H.D. Chambers, superintendent, Alief ISD
The 86th Legislature made the most significant changes in education funding in many years — changes that will benefit students, educators and taxpayers.
Some of the most important and positive elements of HB 3, the school-finance bill, are: $4.5 billion in new money for schools, focused on our neediest children; increased compensation for teachers; funding for full-day Pre-K for low-income children; funding for summer programs for elementary schools at local option; funding for new teacher mentoring programs; funding for college/career/military readiness; reduced recapture of local property taxes; and increased equity of the system.
I would have liked more to change the STAAR testing process; HB 3906 was a good start. It requires the Texas Education Agency to appoint a committee to help develop more valid and reliable standardized tests, and transitions us from a single STAAR test to shorter/less burdensome tests.
Jim Blackburn, co-director of Rice University’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center
My focus was flooding, and the results are encouraging. SB7 allocated $1.7 billion from the state’s “rainy day” fund to new funds that will pay for floodcontrol infrastructure. Arguably, $1.7 billion is not enough, but it is an important start.
More important for our region, SB 8 gave authority to the Texas Water Development Board to create a Texas State Flood Plan. Often the water development board’s planning has been too conventional. They have not addressed our changing climate, and their processes can be bureaucratic and cumbersome. We must be creative and take climate change into account or we will fail with flooding, and the state must not interfere with local flood planning.
Kevin Roberts, executive director, Texas Public Policy Foundation
While the Legislature undertook significant property tax reforms that will ultimately benefit Texas homeowners, the budget exceeded responsible spending limits. Before the Session began, 18 conservative groups came together to call for a Conservative Texas Budget, which would have limited the growth to population increase plus inflation. We would have preferred to see the Legislature stay within that limit.
Still, the Legislature achieved property tax relief that cuts Texans’ property taxes by $5 billion and caps future growth of school taxes at 2.5 percent per year. And most of the other local tax jurisdictions will now be under an automatic election for property tax revenue increases above 3.5 percent.
Caoilin Krathaus and Lila Mankad, Bag-Free Bayous
We are aghast at the outcome of this year’s legislative session. As 13-year-olds, we are deeply disappointed our government failed to take action for the future of Texans. Last year it became illegal for a city to ban plastic bags in Texas.
When we were nine years old, it became our mission to ban plastic bags. Plastic bags were the monsters under our bed. They harm the environment, clog waterways and recycling plants, and make our flooding worse. Our favorite park and childhood playground is teeming with plastic bags instead of the wildlife that should be there.
Now that bag legislation is illegal, we won’t be able to take vital steps to reverse the damage. Although in April, we lobbied for bills that would restore local government’s power to ban or limit bags and packaging, and received encouragement and verbal support from staff and representatives, the bills did not even get a hearing in the House or Senate. Texas legislators are leaving it up to us to clean up their mess and our own plasticinfested parks.
Carol Ellinger Haddock, director, Houston Public Works
Action by the Legislature this year, now in the hands of the governor, undermines and discourages prudent water planning statewide. Houston acquired water rights to Allens Creek Reservoir in the ’90s, allowing for the city’s future growth. HB 2846 would require Houston to contract away its ownership of the project to the Brazos River Authority.
The bill sends a message that no water rights investments are safe, even when made under the state specified planning rules. HB 2846 also tells every citizen that the Legislature can not only take your water rights away, but can also specify the payment with no regard to market value.
Mayor Turner summed it up best: “HB 2846 sends the message that planning for the future, investing wisely and following the rules are no longer valued in the State of Texas.”
Renu Khator, University of Houston System chancellor and UH president
The support provided to our institutions of higher learning this session will result in a better educated workforce, improved health and welfare and a flourishing economy across the state.
We appreciate the increased funding for general operations and hurricane recovery at all four UH System universities, as well as financial assistance for new facilities for the UH Law Center and Hobby School of Public Affairs. We are particularly thankful that our lawmakers funded the UH College of Medicine, recognizing the need to build Houston’s first medical school in nearly 50 years. A great state requires great public universities, and our legislators clearly understand that.
Bob Jackson, state director, AARP, Texas
Lawmakers took a hard look at problems like the high cost of prescription drugs, surprise medical bills, the need for rural access to broadband, and price gouging by bad actors in the freestanding emergency room industry. Then they not only listened to older Texans, they took meaningful steps.
The Legislature also acted to protect some of society’s most vulnerable by ensuring that nursing home residents or their designees be informed of risks and alternatives in writing before powerful antipsychotic drugs are administered. They gave courts tools to ensure that guardians live up to their responsibilities. They put resources into Adult Protective Services. And they funded the Texas Lifespan Respite Care Program that unpaid family caregivers rely on
Evelyn L. Merz, conservation chair, Lone Star Chapter Sierra Club and Houston Regional Group
The most welcome news in several sessions was that a constitutional amendment will be placed before the voters that would automatically appropriate the estimated sporting goods sales tax net revenues to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas Historical Commission. That automatic appropriation will introduce greater predictability into the budgets of state parks, which have a backlog of needed repairs. On Nov. 5, the voters will decide.
A strong negative was the politically engineered transfer of the 1,200-acre San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site from the parks and wildlife department to the Texas Historical Commission. San Jacinto is brimming with restored marsh, coastal prairie, and bottomland forest — the fruit of more than 25 years of work by the parks and wildlife department. Yet San Jacinto is being transferred to an agency with neither experience nor interest in natural resources.
Also, requests to allow any appropriation to acquire parkland failed again. Even $2 million for all of Texas was too much.
Samantha Smoot, interim executive director, Equality Texas
The 2018 election losses for “bathroom bill” leaders set the table for this session, which pitted Dan Patrick’s anti-LGBTQ agenda against a growing consensus that discrimination is bad for Texas. In the end, 19 discriminatory bills died, including the dangerous and sweeping SB 17. But the anti-LGBTQ agenda is backed by well-funded activists, who celebrated passage of SB 1978, the so-called Chick-fil-A bill — whose actual policy implications are nil but whose origins and message validate those who do not believe in the equal rights of LGBTQ people.
Still, Equality Texas saw progress this session. Lawmakers protected nondiscrimination ordinances and rejected real discrimination. We saw gamechangers: the launch of the House LGBTQ Caucus; the engagement of LGBTQ Texans and the business community; the new willingness of some House and Senate Republicans to oppose discrimination against LGBTQ people; and public opinion data showing that a growing majority of Texans of every political and religious stripe support nondiscrimination.
We believe we will look back on this session as a turning point for LGBTQ Texans.
Scott McClelland, chair, Greater Houston Partnership
The Greater Houston Partnership and Houston business community applaud the bold steps to reform the school finance system. Legislators increased the state’s share of education spending and directed new funding to proven transformational programs. Importantly, the reformed system significantly reduces HISD’s recapture obligations, ensuring local dollars are used to educate Houston’s kids.
Thanks to strong leadership in Austin and across the Houston delegation, for the first time the state will play a role in funding flood mitigation infrastructure. The Legislature also worked to help local communities meet federal matching requirements to maximize federal funding for Hurricane Harvey recovery and resiliency projects. In total, the Legislature invested $2 billion in recovery and flood mitigation — a significant sum making Texas more resilient.
Finally, the Legislature took an important step by creating the Commission on Texas Workforce of the Future. It gives business a seat at the table to ensure we have a strong, skilled talent pipeline that creates opportunity for all Texans.
Rodney Ellis, Harris County Commissioner and former Texas state senator
Unlike past sessions, this ones took aim at tackling priorities that matter to Texans.
Our struggling public education system received a one-time down payment, but without a long-term sustainable plan, there is still work to do to fix school funding and ensure every child receives a quality education.
The proposed funds for flood control and infrastructure are steps toward a resilient Texas. But property tax revenue caps further chip away at local control, undermining the county’s ability to make its own investments in infrastructure, flood control and essential services.
Instead of closing commercial property tax loopholes to make everyone pay their fair share, the Legislature did not deliver long-promised property tax relief for working families. That’s a shame, especially when yacht buyers were thrown a tax break.
Marie Miglin and Larry Howe, Citizen’s Climate Change Lobby
The greatest challenges facing Texas involve our changing environment. The good news was that lawmakers filed more than 13 bills and/or resolutions related to climate risks and solutions, up from fewer than five last session. The bad news was that only one of them had a committee hearing and was left pending in the committee.
Robin Paoli, Houston Women March On
The 86th Texas Legislature did more to hurt women than help women, continuing a decadeslong trend.
The 2020 Census will determine crucial representation and funding for Texas, yet legislators shrugged off citizens’ calls for fair maps and accurate counts, limply defaulting to the current gerrymandered system.
Sensible gun safety bills championed by women were discarded, while legislation opposed by law enforcement will allow more people to carry guns after natural disasters.
Bipartisan bills for the health and well-being of women and children were abandoned and outright killed. As a result, we can expect more Texas women to suffer ill health and early death, including pregnant and nursing mothers.
In response to yet another session that disregards and hurts women, I expect more Texas women to register new voters, run for office, and surge to the polls in 2019 and 2020. The only way the Texas Legislature will prioritize the lives of women is if we’re leading it.