Monday, May 27 was the last day of the Texas Legislative Session. More than 10,800 bills and resolutions were filed, and 4581 (42%) were passed. TLA was active on many fronts - advocating for the state library budget and reauthorization, including school librarians in proposed pay raises, funding for an Open Educational Resource repository and grant program at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, including a library representative in new Governor's Broadband Council, adoption of the Uniform Electronic Legal Materials Act, and expanding access to the state's Skills Development Fund to include public libraries.
THANK YOU to everyone who testified, called, Tweeted, emailed and visited their Texas legislators to support our advocacy efforts!
HB 1 Appropriations
Lawmakers passed a $250.7 billion two-year budget, an increase of almost 16% over the last biennial budget. The final budget includes the state library's request for $68 million to fund current services plus a few exceptional item requests
(see below for details). It also includes funding for an Open Educational Resources (OER) repository and grant program at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
SB 2 Property Tax Reform
Property tax reform was a priority for leadership and many members of the Texas Legislature. SB 2 seeks to slow rising property taxes and make it easier for people to understand their tax bills. The bill requires cities, counties and other taxing units to receive voter approval before raising 3.5% more property tax revenue than the previous year. Originally, this percentage was 2.5%. Local governments argued that this requirement would stifle their ability to fund essential public services, including public libraries. TLA opposed this bill for that reason.
Sent to the Governor.
HB 3 School Finance & Pay Raises
Increasing public education funding and reducing school district taxes was another key priority for the state's leadership, and Texas legislators this session. The Senate and House had different priorities and plans which were negotiated by a conference committee. The final version of HB 3 includes money for free, full-day pre-K for eligible 4-year-olds, creates a more complex method of funding the cost of educating low-income students, pays school districts that want to offer merit pay programs for teachers, and creates a permanent state fund to lower school district tax rates.
Base funding per student increases from $5,140 to $6,160. The compromise on raises mandates that a portion of the additional per student funding districts receive must be spent on raises and benefits for teachers, librarians, nurses and counselors.
Sent to the Governor.
SB 3 Pay Raises for Classroom Teachers & School Librarians
This bill, one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's priorities, gave classroom teachers a direct $5,000 raise. TLA initially opposed the bill because it did not include school librarians, teachers in the largest classroom on campus. Thanks to an outstanding strategic advocacy plan carried out by school librarians across the state, the bill was amended to add school librarians, and passed unanimously by the full Senate. However, the House took a different approach, providing funds to districts to offer raises to all employees and the conference committee on HB 3 followed that approach. SB 3 still is a tremendous victory for school librarians as the Texas Senate officially recognized that school librarians are teachers.
Texas State Library & Archives Commission
HB 1 includes the state library's request for $68 million to fund current services plus a few exceptional item requests. The budget conference committee adopted TSLAC exceptional item requests for targeted salary increases for staff ($400,000) and a new agency general counsel ($240,294). The TSLAC request for $4,400,000 to retrofit space in a state-owned building in Austin for a short-term solution for records storage was approved in the Supplemental Appropriations Bill. The TSLAC request for $26.4 million to expand the State Records Center was not approved. The Senate adopted a rider “requiring the agency to study alternative records storage sites outside the downtown Austin area.” That study is due to the Legislature by December 1, 2019.
The General Appropriations Act also did not include funding for the exceptional item requests for cybersecurity upgrades, TexShare/TexQuest ebooks, or a proposed outreach project. The final version of the budget did, however, contain riders appropriating a total of $2,650,000 for library construction projects in Arlington and the Rio Grande Valley which had not been requested by TSLAC.
Sent to the Governor.
HB 1962 by Rep. Stan Lambert
(Abilene), the TSLAC sunset bill, reauthorizes the agency for another 12 years. It gives the agency authority to advertise it's programs and services; and the ability to sell reproductions of historical artifacts in its collection.
The bill was amended in the House and Senate to carve out Legislative records and establish that ownership and legal custody of those records remains with the legislative entity. It also states that the Legislative Reference Library is the depository for records created by members of the legislature and the lieutenant governor. The Legislative Reference Library is also responsible for the preservation legislative records placed in other approved depositories.
TLA strongly objected to the new section relating to Legislative records, however, we supported passage of HB 1962 because reauthorization of the state library is essential to Texas libraries. The bill passed the House and Senate as amended.
Sent to the Governor.
