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Seven Days To Go!
Today is day 133 in the Legislative Session.
We started this session of the Texas Legislature with a new Speaker of the House and a promise from the Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker that they would all be "on the same page" and things would go smoothly. For the first several weeks, all seemed well. Of course, not much happens in the early part of a legislative session in Texas. The session ends next Monday. So far, only about 6% of the bills that will be passed have been. Historically 20-25% of bills filed pass. That's why this week is lovingly called "Hell Week".
The major priorities of the state leaders were property tax reform and restructuring the K-12 school finance system. Neither has reached the Governor's desk. Both are stuck in conference committees where the differences between the House vision and the Senate vision are being ironed out. They really have 6 days to get back "on the same page" because the last day only corrections are allowed.
Ross Ramsey wrote a great explanation of the situation for the Texas Tribune.
CLICK HERE to read it.
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What About Other
Chamber
Priorities
?
Protecting Economic Development Tools
The only serious issue with economic development tools in this session is the need to extend the authorization for cities and counties to abate property taxes to attract major new capital investment. That authorization is contained in Chapter 312 of the tax code which is set to expire September 1
st
if not extended by the legislature. HB3143, which extends the authorization for an additional 10 years, is in the Senate for final passage. Several amendments have been offered that will make the bill unusable. It is likely that the bill will get through the Senate and back to the House in acceptable form.
Keeping Property Tax Caps Unchanged
Both the Senate and House passed property tax cap bills lowering the amount of increase in revenue that a city or county may get to 2.5% without going to the voters for approval. It appears those levels have been raised to 3.5% in conference committee. The property tax situation of school districts is more complicated because the school finance reform legislation has a property tax element as well and it is in a second conference committee. It is not likely that a cap above 4% will emerge from the committee.
School Finance Reform
The House and Senate started the session with a joint press conference announcing they would work on the same set of goals that emerged from the Interim Committee on School Finance Reform. The House produced HB3 which followed the recommendations of the Interim Committee but acceded to the "suggestions" of the teachers unions and stopped short of including pay for performance for teachers. They also did not include district incentives for achieving goals for student performance.
The Senate approached the issue from two starting points. Before the Education Committee had begun debating the Interim Committee approach, the Lt. Governor and Senator Jane Nelson proposed a $5,000 across the board increase for teachers. Librarians were later included. This bill, SB3, passed the Senate 31-0. With $9 billion of new money allocated for education finance reform, the pay increases ate up $4 billion. $3 billion were dedicated to property tax relief. That left only $2 billion for finance reform. Short of funds, the Senate Education Committee left intact provisions for teacher pay for performance and district incentives but tied funding the plan to a 1% increase in the state sales tax.
The big three (Governor, Lt. Governor and Speaker) proposed the tax swap and planned to use the $5 billion generated for school property tax reductions. The plan fizzled from lack of support by either party. The Senate passed an Education Finance Bill without a way to pay for it, and shipped it to conference committee.
Don't worry, though, as we wrote earlier there are still 6 days to work this out.
Get Chambers Exempted from SB29
Senate Bill 29 makes it illegal for government entities and agencies funded with public money, to hire paid lobbyists or belong to organizations that have paid lobbyists who attempt to influence state legislative actions on taxation or ethics. Although not the target of the legislation, the wording of the bill would prohibit government bodies from contracting, paying dues to or paying fees to a chamber of commerce. This bill has had trouble getting its language right. It has several amendments filed on the House Floor, one of which would exempt school districts and chambers of commerce. By the time you read this, the bill may have had its House hearing. We are cautiously optimistic chambers will be excluded.
Kill Any Legislation T
hat is Discriminatory
SB1978 on the surface seeks to protect religious freedom. It was deemed by the LGBTQ community to be discriminatory. It passed the Senate. The bill came to the House for second reading yesterday and passed with 79 yes votes. It takes 76 to pass legislation in the House. It must be read for a third time and, if passed will go to the Governor for signature. This bill was carried in the House by Representative Matt Krause, who sincerely believes it not to be discriminatory. Time will tell how the convention and tourism industry and economic development recruiting efforts are impacted, if at all.
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Save the Date
For the Coalition of East Tarrant Chambers Breakfast
On July 12
th
we plan to hold a breakfast with all the members of the Coalition of East Tarrant Chambers. The topic will be "The Legislative Session is Over! Now What?"
We hope to have a top tier representative from Higher Education, PreK-12 Education, Economic Development, Cities and Counties. Our panel will delve into the impact of the legislative session on their peers and discuss next steps. There will be moderated Q&A for the panel.
Please mark your calendars and look for an official announcement in the next few days.
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The Chamber's Board has five goal teams. One of these teams is Business Advocacy, and it is chaired by
Howard Shotwell. The team's responsibilities include government relations, issues identification, identifying collaboration opportunities and ensuring Chamber members always have a "seat at the table."
We welcome your support! If you would like to get involved in the Chamber's business advocacy work, contact Mary Frazior, 817-283-1521,
maryfrazior@heb.org.
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| We thank our business advocacy sponsors:
Sponsorship does not necessarily imply endorsement of the Chamber's policy positions. |
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The Chamber is 4-Star accredited by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. |
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