AUSTIN, Texas — With the 89th Texas Legislative Session underway, lawmakers are already crafting the state’s budget for the next two years.
On Wednesday, both the House and Senate filed their versions of the budget bill.
Top priorities for Republican leaders still include cutting property taxes and funding private school vouchers. In a statement sent out Wednesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Senate Bill 1 ensures that the state is on a conservative path.
“I have worked alongside Chair Huffman and the Senate Finance Committee to ensure the Senate’s state budget reflects the conservative priorities of Texans,” Patrick said.
Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows also put out a statement Wednesday, saying that the House’s budget bill is “substantially identical” to the Senate’s version.
Will school vouchers get funded this session?
Unlike last session, the House and Senate finally appear to agree on how much the state should spend on vouchers. Both have proposed $1 billion to be allocated toward school vouchers in the state budget.
School vouchers would allow Texas families to use public tax dollars to pay for private education. But many opponents of vouchers are worried that they would take away funding that Texas public schools currently need.
“It keeps looking like our public schools are being attacked by our governor and elected officials because they’re not prioritizing us,” said Ovidia Molina, the president of the Texas State Teachers Association.
Gov. Greg Abbott has long said that passing school vouchers, also called school choice, is a top priority for him again this legislative session.
What about public education?
Senate Bill 1 would allocate about $5.3 billion in funding toward public education. That money would help increase teacher pay by $4,000 for all teachers and an additional $6,000 for rural teachers.
The House’s budget bill allocates about $4.85 billion for public education that is contingent on school finance legislation.
Even though there is new funding going toward public schools, Molina says it’s still not enough with districts across the state dealing with budget deficits and teacher shortages.
“The underfunding of our public schools is one of the biggest issues that just sort of snowballs into other issues,” Molina said.
Property Tax Relief
Another major headline of both chambers’ budgets includes increased funding for cutting property taxes. The House has included $26.3 billion to continue to fund the cost of the $100,000 homestead exemption, which passed last session.
The Senate is setting aside $32.2 billion for property tax relief, hoping to increase the homestead exemption to $140,000 for regular homeowners and $150,000 for seniors.
Even though there’s back and forth regarding other parts of the budget, Sen. Carol Alvarado (D-Houston) says putting more money toward property tax relief is something a majority of lawmakers agree on.
“That’s something that’s got a lot of bipartisan support, and we gave taxpayers the largest break in quite a while, so hopefully we will be able to continue that for everyday Texans,” Sen. Alvarado said.
What else do both chambers agree on?
There are some other areas that both the House and Senate have set aside identical funding amounts for.
Both chambers included $6.5 billion to secure the Texas-Mexico border, $2.5 billion for water infrastructure and $400 million for school safety improvements.
Other standout budget items for the Senate include $5 billion to strengthen the Texas electric grid, $509 million for emergency preparedness and $498 million to revamp the Texas Film Incentive to try and make Texas the movie capital of the world.
More standout budget items in the House include $1.1 billion to address cybersecurity threats, $1.7 billion to expand rural broadband access and $36 billion for highway projects.
Budget next steps?
A balanced state budget is the only bill that lawmakers are constitutionally required to pass during the legislative session. Over the next few months, both chambers will reconcile the differences between the two versions and send the final product to the governor.
Gov. Abbott has the power to veto line-items from the budget. Lawmakers have until June to get the budget to the governor’s desk.