Welcome to the mid-week edition of Fran’s Friday Message.  As promised last week, here is my 89^th Legislature wrap up analysis.  Click the button below to see the spreadsheet with 73 bills and their final status.

But first – a few definitions.  The subject categories for this report came from Texas Scorecard’s Priority Consensus Tracker.  The Scorecard list compared priorities from several sources:

• Texas GOP (TxGOP)
• The Governor’s Office
• The Lt. Governor’s Office
• The Speaker of the House
• Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (TFR)
• Texans for Vaccine Choice (TFVC)
• Texas Right to Life (TRTL)
• Protecting Texas Children (PTC)
• Texas Family Project (TFP)
• Texas Gun Rights (TxGR)
• True Texas Project (TTP)

They then examined the issues that these groups had in common and came up with the following categories:

• Ban Taxpayer-Funded Lobbying
• Property Tax Relief
• Border Security
• Stop Sexualizing Texas’ Kids
• Energy Infrastructure
• Secure Texas Elections
• Ban Sales to Hostile Foreign Governments
• Bail Reform
• Education Freedom/School Choice
• Anti-Squatting Measures
• Higher Education Reform

I added a category for 2^nd Amendment issues because we worked closely this session with TXGR and GOA on their priority bills.  I also expanded the “Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids” to include right to life issues, and protection of children in general.  The issues are listed in order of the frequency that they appeared on multiple groups’ priority lists.

This must not be seen as all inclusive.  I’m sure I’ve missed some issues and bills important to some, and listed some that people don’t care about.  I compiled the list of bills based on my own knowledge and observation, plus input from trusted sources like the RPT priorities committee, and the leaders of the various groups we work with (TFVC, TFR, TXGR, TFP, Ed 911, etc.) 

Also please do not interpret this list as TTP endorsed bills.  Some are and some are not.  I’m hoping this analysis is a good, objective summary of what actually happened in the 89^th Legislature.  It’s meant to be “just the facts”.

One last thing – I’ll beg mercy for typos and mistakes!  It took a lot of time, research and editing to put this together, and this sort of thing is not my forte, so I beg forgiveness for whatever minor mistakes that might be in here. 

If a bill failed – I included the reason for its failure.  I think it’s important to consider this when evaluating the overall success or lack thereof for the 89^th.  If the reason is “missed deadline” it means that the bill got scheduled on a calendar, but they didn’t get to it before the deadline to consider that type of bill.  (YES – they ran out of time!!).  Most of the good bills that didn’t make it were killed in committee somewhere.  It’s good to know that and to know who the chairman of that committee was that killed the bill!

Other things happening in the 89^th that were not on the priority list:

BUDGET:  They passed a budget that is bigger than ever before at $338 billion, an increase of 8.3% over last biennium which was $237 billion.  Texans for Fiscal Responsibility has written an excellent article on the budget if you’re interested in diving into details.  I’ll just say that this session seems to be the era of big spending.

PROPERTY TAX RELIEF:  On this subject, I’ll just say there basically isn’t any.  Although Lt Gov Patrick and most of the Reps and Senators will tell you it’s a HUGE deal for taxpayers.  Out of the $24 Billion surplus, they have gifted back $6.5 Billion in property tax reductions.  The bills included increases in homestead exemptions and school M&O tax rate compression.  Your tax bill might go down the first year, but that’s about as optimistic as we can get.  Still waiting on that “path to eliminating property taxes.”

PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING: HB2 passed with a whole laundry list of goodies to the tune of $8.5 Billion ADDITIONAL funding for public education.  They are bragging about it being the "largest single increase in public education funding in Texas history".  Not sure that's something to be bragging about, but whatever.  It breaks down like this:

• $4.2 billion for permanent teacher and staff pay raises
• $1.3 billion for increases in Basic Allotment 
  
• $2 billion to update special education formulas and fund full-day pre-K, early learning interventions, and Career & Technical Education
• $430 million for school safety.

HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY WENT TO: 

• Hollywood Subsidies, SB22
• Dementia Institute, SB5
• Loan repayment to mental health counseling students, SB46
• Pay raises for Judges and legislators’ pensions, SB293

OTHER INTERESTING STUFF

• SB11 – Allows prayer/study time in school
• HB21 – Restrictions on HFC’s
• SB10 – Requires 10 Commandments be posted in school classrooms
• HB229 – Finally answers the question, “What is a Woman”?  (or a man)
• HB1056 – Transactional Gold
• SB3070 – Lottery Commission dissolved, moved to TDLR but employees get to keep their jobs. (the corruption just moves over to a new department)
• HB2963 – Right to repair (your own car)

NOT SO GOOD STUFF

·     HB5138 – Restore power to AG to prosecute FAILED! (Conf Committee could not agree)

·    SB975 – Allows Teachers to serve on Appraisal Boards PASSED (current law does not allow government employees to serve on CADs.  This law carves out exception for teachers.  A number of people including 42 lawmakers urging Governor to Veto)

CONCLUSIONS

When all is said and done, I think the best thing I can say about the 89^th Session is that it was “interesting”.  We did get some wins, and we’re grateful for that.  But many of our priorities ended up in the trash heap of the 89^th Session, as some usually do.  The same old tricks and gimmicks were employed this session, with even greater emphasis on the “shut up and sit down” factor that we saw from leadership (both House and Senate).  In that respect, very little has changed, it's just gotten worse.

MAY I BRAG FOR A MINUTE?

My friend, Brett Rogers, the computer genius who analyzes and compiles legislative data, says that TTP people interacted with Committees, either registering or testifying, 359 times during this session.  That’s AMAZING!! 

Congrats to all the activists who came to the Capitol each week, and registered at the kiosks with those endless lists of bills.  I’ve never had the ability to track that kind of information before, so many thanks to Brett.

That’s all for now, folks!  I’ll continue to do Friday Messages, whenever there’s something to report, but for now I’m signing off, and wishing you all Happy Trails!

Fran Rhodes, President