Sine Die

Hello All,

To those who are remembering someone who was lost while service in the military, I am thinking and praying about you and your families.

Happy Sine Die to all who celebrate - which after this very difficult session I'm sure is both everyone and no one at the same time.

Here is what happened since my last email update:

• The conference committee report for House Bill 3 - the school safety bill - by Chairman Burrows was approved by the both the House and the Senate. Here are some of the changes the bill makes:

• Increases the school safety allotment to $10 per student and gives every campus $15,000.
• Requires every campus to have an armed guard present, and while the author's of the bill claim to give a "good cause" exemption, in actuality that exemption only allows you to satisfy that requirement with a school marshal or a district employee who can carry a weapon.
• Allows the agency to assign a conservator for noncompliance (for every part of the bill but the armed guard provision)
• Requires all personnel that regularly interact with students to be mental health first aid trained
• Mandates a student's discipline records travel with the student when they transfer to a new school

• House Bill 5 - the new "313s" - or economic development partnership bill's conference committee report was also approved late last night. The bill eliminated direct payments to school districts and moved the application approval of tax abatements to the Governor's office and the school district's board of trustees. There are significantly more requirements of the applicant in the bill, MoakCasey will be doing a more detailed review this week.

A note on special session :

Here is what we are hearing (nothing is confirmed) - The Governor wants call a special session in the near future on property taxes. The "largest property tax cut" in Texas history failed to reach a compromise late last night missing the deadline for session.

Unfortunately, so far, we are hearing school finance is not going to be a part of that initial call. Instead, Governor Abbott is rumored to want to hold a special session in September on Vouchers.

In the new week or so MoakCasey will be sending out a robust review of all bills that survived the 88th Legislative Session and as well as robust review on some that did not survive.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions!!