Deal reached on state budget
But Abbott signals his dissatisfaction with ‘bathroom bill’
AUSTIN — The threat of a special session remains over the so-called “bathroom bill” and property tax reform legislation, but work on the only must-pass item of the year is now all but done after lawmakers announced Thursday they’ve reached final agreement on the $216.7 billion spending plan.
Senate and House conferees said they expect final approval to come in both chambers on Saturday.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said the budget will draw $990 million from the so-called Rainy Day Fund, the state’s savings account, for a variety of one-time projects. The new budget is $352 million more than the current budget. State funds account for $107.8 billion of the total amount.
Passing a budget is the only bill lawmakers are mandated to approve in their 140-day biennial sessions under the Texas Constitution.
With time running out in the session that ends Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott suggested Thursday he is not yet satisfied with the bills lawmakers have passed so far on public school restroom policies and property tax reform.
Regarding the hotly debated “bathroom bill,” Abbott said there is “plenty of time”
left in the coming days to work out a compromise between the stricter Senate version that covers public restrooms in government buildings and schools and a scaled-back House version that covers schools.
He declined to speculate on details of the compromise. And he deflected reporters’ questions about the likelihood of a special 30-day legislative session.
House and Senate leaders have been at loggerheads on the two issues for months and, as late as Thursday morning, neither side had shown significant interest publicly in moderating its position.
“I think it is highly inappropriate for a football player playing in the fourth quarter to start talking to going into overtime,” Abbott said. “We have enough time to resolve these issues in a regular session.”
But Thursday evening the Senate voted to reject House amendments to the so-called bathroom bill and a property-tax reform measure. Instead, the Senate asked for conference committees with the House to try to reach agreements on both bills so they can be sent to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said the Senate objected to the House stripping out provisions requiring property tax rollback elections that would enable taxpayers to weigh proposed tax increases.
“There’s no property tax relief at all,” he said of the House version.
Bettencourt also said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has shown strong leadership on the bill requiring transgender people to use bathrooms that conform to their “biological sex” instead of their gender identity in public schools, government buildings and other publicly-owned facilities.
‘Coming together’
Abbott’s comment came at a Capitol ceremony where he signed into law Senate Bill 7, the so-called “pass the trash” bill that will increase penalties for teachers who have romantic relations or sex with their students. It will also ramp up penalties for school administrators who cover up those illicit relationships or transfer problem teachers from one school to another to sidestep disciplinary action.
Asked what he wanted to see on a bathroom bill, Abbott said, “The main thing I want to see is the House and Senate coming together. This is going to require compromise and efforts by both sides.”
He said both schools and women’s privacy must be protected in whatever final bill emerges.
“We must see especially students in schools having their having their privacy, safety and security maintained,” Abbott said, “but we also want to do all we can to help women have privacy, safety and security to the fullest extent possible.”
On property taxes, Abbott said, “There’s still work that needs to be done, and the good news is we still have time to get it done.”
Asked for details, the governor said he wants “constraints on the rise in property taxes on our fellow Texans.
“One thing we know for a fact and that is Texans are fed up with the rising property taxes, and they are demanding and expecting the members in the Texas Legislature to do something about it,” he said.
Regarding a rollback election provision that the Senate wants but the House left out of the bill it approved, Abbott said: “What’s essential is we achieve real property tax reform that will reduce this incredible rise in property taxes our fellow Texans are facing.
“The real rollback is one way to do it. The specific number is something that we are working out, but Texans need to know with a level of certainty that they will no longer be facing the extraordinary rise in property taxes in Texas.”
Tarnished image
For his part, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who attended the ceremony, said he has not changed his position that the two issues must be addressed this year by the Legislature. He has said the Senate will hold out for rollback elections to allow taxpayers a chance to decide if proposed tax increases should take effect.
Local governments, including cities, counties, school districts and other taxing entities, have opposed that. They insist it will limit their ability to deal with growth that requires higher taxes to pay for more programs and services.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican who authored the Senate’s property-tax reform plan, said he read Abbott’s comments as an indication that “if a bill doesn’t happen in the next few days, then the chances are good we shouldn’t be making any summer plans.”
“I think the governor was clear,” said Bettencourt, who also attended the Capitol signing as the author of SB 7.
Members of the Texas House Freedom Caucus, a coalition of staunch conservatives, said it agrees with the need for an immediate special session if the bathroom and property tax bills fail to pass.
In signing the new state law into effect, Abbott said while Texas has an enviable list of top teachers and high schools, increasing reports of inappropriate teacherstudent relationships “are tarnishing the image.”
Those reports in Texas have skyrocketed in the past five years.
“Unbelievably, some of the teachers have faced no consequences and have been able to keep their job, or they have been shuffled off to some other school,” Abbott said. “By signing this law, we’re saying, ‘Are we going to let that happen?’ Texas is going to impose real and stiff consequences on any teachers to have any inappropriate relationship between his or her students.”
“They will face losing their job, losing their license, losing their pension as well as the prospect of going to jail.”
After final votes by the House Thursday, the Legislature sent Abbott two of his priority items Thursday: a bill calling for a convention of the states and a fix to the state’s beleaguered child protective services.
Following a conference committee on Senate Bill 21, the House voted to go along with a compromise that ironed out minor differences between the two chambers. It allows the Legislature to appoint delegates to a convention of the states to open up Article V of the U.S. Constitution, writing rules to support one of the governor’s four emergency items. Texas is the 11th state to support a convention.
The House also concurred with Senate changes to House Bill 4, which would increase state assistance to providers who care for abused or neglected children. The measure, which passed both chambers overwhelmingly, is one of Legislature’s key bills this session aimed at reforming the state’s troubled Child Protective Services agency. The House vote sends HB 4 to Abbott, who is expected to sign the measure.