Legislative Update
Friday, March 12 was the last day to file bills for this session. There are some exceptions that would allow a bill to be introduced later but it is rarely done. As a result we are seeing 300 bills a day filed in the House this week. Bills are being assigned to committees by the House and Senate now and we have identified 54 of assigned bills we are tracking.  

Bills that impact our critical priorities are not plentiful at this time.

Economic Development Tools:
HB1556 by Murphy makes some needed revisions to make Chapter 313 more effective and it is the favored bill by the Texas Association of Manufacturers and the Texas Taxpayer and Research Association. There are two other bills that just extend Chapter 313 for 10 more years with no changes, SB144 by Powell and HB1502 by Deshotel. 

Maintaining the school funding and programs from HB3 from last session:
There are no bills filed seeking to dismantle either the funding or the programs from HB3. The issues for HB3 will come in the Senate Finance Committee or House Appropriations Committee. Both have adequate funding for HB3 now, but their proposed budgets are $7 billion each over the Comptroller’s estimate of revenue available. Some think we will get federal funds to apply to the budget and that the Comptroller will increase the estimate due to better than expected economic activity. This budget does not start until September 1, 2021.

Transportation Infrastructure Funding:
  • Propositions 1 and 7 are going to be funded less that we would have expected because the funds are dedicated from the sales tax and oil depletion taxes, both of which are going to be lower than historic levels. There is no movement to draw back half the dedicated funds which the legislature left itself room to do with a 2/3’s majority in each Chamber.

  • No bills have been filed to make it easier for TxDot to use public private partnerships or tolling to leverage the state funds available. We continue to look for movement, but it looks like transportation infrastructure is not a high priority this session.

Maximize federal funds available to the state to extend healthcare insurance coverage and pay for required indigent care: 
  • Expansion of Medicaid is getting more conversation but there is still not enough Republican momentum to take it seriously. There are 14 bills related to Medicaid that have been filed and they are all on our watch list for now. 

  • The Covid relief bill (the $1.9 Trillion bill to be signed today) has a sweetener for the 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid. It increases the basic federal match for the current Medicaid by 5% for the next two years. It will be interesting to see if this is enough to get some interest stirring in Austin.

  • A bill to allow hospitals to pool their funds and draw down a federal match is expected, but it has not been seen yet. 

Workforce: 
There are four bills on our watch list dealing with workforce, five if you count a bill that increases access to training and education for inmates in the state corrections system. The Texas Association of Community Colleges is pushing a program they have called TRU (Texas reskilling and upskilling). The bill authorizing the program is SB1102 and it is on our alert list. It is a $50 million initiative to get 30,000 displaced Texas workers into good paying jobs.

Other Priorities:
  • Liability Protection for Texas Businesses: The Lt. Governor has made this a priority slotting it as SB6 and it was just filed yesterday. A companion House bill HB3659 by Leach was also filed. 

  • Unemployment Insurance Rate Calculation: HB7 by Chin-Button would modify the way the unemployment insurance rate is calculated to reduce the impact on businesses for the next two years. The rate is based on a company’s individual experience with the amount of unemployment compensation. With hundreds of thousands of Texans on unemployment, the rate is going to take a huge jump without some modification. This bill appears to be on a fast track.